New Silva Compilation features newly recorded Williams music: 100 Greatest Science Fiction Themes *

[1977 1,743]

https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bqio75fukgeix3oqt2hg7ayv57m

 

Includes new recordings of "Finale" from The Last Jedi and "Rey's Theme" , "March of the Resistance" and "Farewell and the Trip" from The Force Awakens

 

Also non-Williams Star Wars music from Solo and Rogue One

 

 

* apologies if this has already been posted

[Thor 7,452]

Pretty cool compilation, although Huppertz' METROPOLIS is conspicously missing. I'd be all over this in my early film music days; and of course that's just what this is -- a fine gateway into film music and science fiction scores for the film music "noob".

[Quintus 5,399]

Is it known if all of the Prague tracks are new recordings? Also, who is 'London Music Works?

 

Edit: they're the original performances recorded by the Prague years ago. Damn! Could have been the ultimate car CD

[bollemanneke 3,334]

Leave re-recording to Keith Lockhart and the LSO please.

[Thor 7,452]

37 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Is it known if all of the Prague tracks are new recordings? Also, who is 'London Music Works?

 

From Spotify:

 

Quote

London Music Works is a group of London's finest musicians who specialize in performing film music. They have garnered a huge fan-base over the years performing music by Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri and many more. The production is lead by Silva Screen Records acclaimed music producer, Rick Clark, who works with long-term collaborators Evan Jolly, Steve Mazzaro, Scott Buckley, Alex Temple and others.

 

[Quintus 5,399]

Interesting. I wonder what albums they've done.

[Thor 7,452]

Mazzaro is probably the most high-profile of those, since he's co-composed scores with Zimmer -- like the brilliant CHAPPIE.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

Great, another mediocre Silva Screen compilation...

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Some compilations are just that: compiled music.

[Thor 7,452]

I'd rather not enter into another "Silva/Prague sucks!" discussion, as that is so 90s.

 

I don't understand how this compilation can be the subject of so much scorn or cynicism, given what its intention is. It's not for us. It's for the casual listener or the film music 'noob'. And they are good recordings, both the City of Prague (one of the best film music orchestras today) and London Music Works -- which has always been a notch above other such non-orchestral rerecording ensembles, like the one they use at BuySoundtrax (San Fernando Assembly or some such thing).

[Nick Parker 3,040]

In the John Powell Solo thread, some selections of this were posted. The Last Jedi performance was pretty wonky, but the Solo track sounded pretty good.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

I might actually buy some of these compilations if they didn't use the occational crappy arrangent, and not least if they were given sufficient time for rehearsing prior to recording. There's a reason top orchestras such as the LSO adhere to union rules limiting the amount of recorded music per session.

[Quintus 5,399]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

I'd rather not enter into another "Silva/Prague sucks!" discussion, as that is so 90s...

...It's not for us. It's for the casual listener or the film music 'noob'.

 

Here here. We've been over that many times before.

 

3 hours ago, Thor said:

the City of Prague (one of the best film music orchestras today)

 

Fuck's sake Thor. 

[Drew 590]

1. Didn't they already have an album with this title?

2. They better clean up their act and make their recordings sound real in the future. There is so much reverb and no other orchestra sounds like them (in a bad way). Their brass instruments tend to lack the precision timbre that makes brass sound real. Listening to the TLJ track right now and the performance reminds me of sampled orchestras used in fan-made SW soundtracks.

3. The beginning of their "Finale" TLJ recording is the film version instead of the album version. It's shorter and the statement of Luke's Theme is in A-flat instead of A.

4. Kind of random, but I will never understand why they released "Music From The Twilight Saga" months before the final score came out. What was the point? Don't get me started on how they represented the last three Harry Potter scores from only one cue from each of those (conveniently repurposed from their "Best of 20XX" albums).

 

11 hours ago, Quintus said:

Also, who is 'London Music Works?

 

 

I think it is a production of high-quality synths performing film music. Goes well when compiled with Prague, because they sound the same...

 

4 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

In the John Powell Solo thread, some selections of this were posted. The Last Jedi performance was pretty wonky, but the Solo track sounded pretty good.

 

I think "Corellia Chase" sounds alright because we are already used to the reverb-heavy mix on Solo. Prague's recordings sound weirder the more they deviate from the original recording's mix.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

@Drew, have you heard Prague's recordings for the Tadlow label? There they show they can deliver quality recordings when given better conditions.

[Quintus 5,399]

1 hour ago, Drew said:

I think it is a production of high-quality synths performing film music. Goes well when compiled with Prague, because they sound the same...

 

This is what I originally suspected. In which case I couldn't think of anything worse.

[Drew 590]

Can't decide what it's called? 👏

 

[1977 1,743]

I love London Music Works' rendition of Tintin, for what it's worth. 

 

On 9/8/2018 at 9:16 PM, Drew said:

3. The beginning of their "Finale" TLJ recording is the film version instead of the album version. It's shorter and the statement of Luke's Theme is in A-flat instead of A.

 

Is that a good or a bad thing? I wasn't aware that the film version differed from the OST. Is the A-flat a mistranscription or is that how Williams wrote it?

[Thor 7,452]

1 hour ago, JTWfan77 said:

I love London Music Works' rendition of Tintin, for what it's worth. 

 

Indeed. They're some of the best out there as far as non-orchestral rerecordings are concerned.

[Quintus 5,399]

Do they have anything to sample on YouTube?

 

It's years since I've had a really good compilation album.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You didn't get The City Of Prague plays Jerry Goldsmith?

[publicist 4,643]

Ahh, the memories:

 

[karelm 2,901]

Prague can sound great.  They were very good in this release:

https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Herrmann-Essential-Music-Collection/dp/B0010WLZ5Q

[Drew 590]

2 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

Is that a good or a bad thing? I wasn't aware that the film version differed from the OST. Is the A-flat a mistranscription or is that how Williams wrote it?

 

 

Not sure. There were definitely two different recordings for the film and album.

[Quintus 5,399]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

Ahh, the memories:

 

 

I had that CD. Fuck knows what happened to it.

[Faleel 5,326]

3 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

I love London Music Works' rendition of Tintin, for what it's worth. 

 

 

Is that a good or a bad thing? I wasn't aware that the film version differed from the OST. Is the A-flat a mistranscription or is that how Williams wrote it?

The film version is an edit and pitch shift IIRC.

[Drew 590]

1 minute ago, Falafel said:

The film version is an edit and pitch shift IIRC.

 

Then why did Prague use that version? It would have had to have been written on the music sheets. I doubt that their music is transcribed.

[Faleel 5,326]

Nic Raine does alot of his compilation stuff by ear.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

Well, Prague/Silva are infamous for recording transcriptions even when the original arrangements are easily available.

[karelm 2,901]

3 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Well, Prague/Silva are infamous for recording transcriptions even when the original arrangements are easily available.

Do you mean the original arrangements are *NOT* easily available.  The full scores to most of Rozsa's scores was thrown away.  The new Ben Hur for example had to be reconstructed from various extant scores including short scores that needed to be re orchestrated/reconstructed.  Plus there was a huge volume of variant scores that didn't match the film.  Sort of like the Star Wars films (especially the The Force Awakens where in a single cue, it might have been from v1 for bars 1 to 3, v5 for bars 4-5, v3 for bars 6 to 12, etc.).  Some of Ben Hur was published so exists (such as the suite including the overture, Parade of the Charioteers, and the love theme).  The re-recording sounds great and very faithful to the original. 

 

[Faleel 5,326]

33 minutes ago, karelm said:

Do you mean the original arrangements are *NOT* easily available.  The full scores to most of Rozsa's scores was thrown away.

 

No. he meant what he said, "even when the original arrangements are available", obviously there are times where the original arrangements are not available, he is not talking about those.

[Drew 590]

5 hours ago, Drew said:

I doubt that their music is transcribed.

 

 

I meant that I doubt that their performances of modern film music had to be transcribed. Seems like a waste if it is. I know some of their recordings of older music did need to be transcribed.

[Faleel 5,326]

2 minutes ago, Drew said:

 

I meant that I doubt that their performances of modern film music had to be transcribed. Seems like a waste if it is. I know some of their recordings of older music did need to be transcribed.

Well if their recent recording of Hobbit music wasn't transcribed....
 

 

[Drew 590]

2 minutes ago, Falafel said:

Well if their recent recording of Hobbit music wasn't transcribed....

 

Were the Shore cues transcribed? I know they had some new arrangements of the credits songs. Those sound good except for some changed chords in "The Last Goodbye" that throw me off.

[aj_vader 533]

10 hours ago, Drew said:

 

Were the Shore cues transcribed? I know they had some new arrangements of the credits songs. Those sound good except for some changed chords in "The Last Goodbye" that throw me off.

They are all transcribed by ear. 

On 9/8/2018 at 8:16 PM, Drew said:

I think "Corellia Chase" sounds alright because we are already used to the reverb-heavy mix on Solo. Prague's recordings sound weirder the more they deviate from the original recording's mix.

 

The brass in the Corellia Chase is mainly sampled and programmed. 

[Drew 590]

3 hours ago, aj_vader said:

The brass in the Corellia Chase is mainly sampled and programmed. 

 

 

The Prague version?

[aj_vader 533]

1 hour ago, Drew said:

 

The Prague version?

Yeah It's a combination of the two

[Drew 590]

It doesn't say London Music Works on that one. It might be that Prague's recordings sound that obnoxious sometimes.