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War Horse MUSIC Discussion Thread


Jay

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I can certainly hear it too and it is just how the instruments were recorded, either being too close to the mic or mixing together so that they produce such an undertone I guess.

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What's up with the distortions on the War Horse album?

It bothers me quite a lot...

I am the only one who feels that way? You can turn the volume down, then it's not so noticeable, but it's still annoying as hell.

In comparison the brass section in "Hymn to the Fallen" for example was recorded perfectly! No "distortions" whatsoever!

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Not noticed this....played that section of track 15 over and over again and I must admit I can't hear anything wrong....all I can hear is the brass opening their throats a bit during what is obviously marked as a crescendo (since they are all doing it)....Brass players - when playing louder - tend to have to open our throats physically so that the sound does not get forced or too edgy....I think what is happening on this track is that the timbre of the note is changing as the crescendo happens, but nicely in control - that's all. You wouldn't have heard such a thing in Hymn to the Fallen because there is no passage where there is such a crescendo in such a short space of time - the timbre does change, but over 4 bars or so (especially in the brass "choir" section) - here it happens over one note.

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But you hear what I am talking about, right?

I am pretty sure that's not done by the instruments... rather it's the way that section was recorded. "An undertone," "a distortion"... it's rather distracting. And I believe I hear that in the trailer (where this music was used) as well.

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It could very well be a compression factor. The same problem I encountered during several big "tutti" moments on Tintin mp3s, but they disappeared when I listened to the actual CD, which has richer dynamic range and less severe peak limiting.

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I meant to mention this when I got my retail copy of the War Horse CD in the mail from Sony - I know what you're talking about Josh, or at least a similar one (I haven't checked out your specific time stamps).

In my experience, the actual CD sounds MUCH better than the official mp3s Sony sent out for review purposes. Listening to both in my car, the promotional mp3s would get distorted at the loud parts, while the retail CD does not. Also there was a blip between tracks 7&8 and tracks 12&13 on the promotional mp3s (since the tracks overlap) that is thankfully gone on the real CD (obviously).

Perhaps the Amazon and iTunes mp3s suffer from the same problems as the promotional Sony mp3s.

And I agree with the intent of Ricard's post - asking questions about the sound quality of illegal mp3s is completely pointless. Of course they might sound bad, who knows where the heck they were sourced from or what wacky encoder somebody used to make them. Starting a thread about the sound quality of illegal mp3s is just........ dumb. But if the official legal mp3s have sound problems, that certainly could be discussed. I don't have much experience with amazon mp3s (are they still 256kbps?), but I know the iTunes AACs are considered to generally be pretty good. A lot of European retailers sell mp3s at various bitrates I think, and I believe there are sites that sell lossless downloads as well. I just have no experience with them.

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Asking a question about a distortion in illegal mp3s certainly is useless, and I would hope people are smart enough to realize that.

But if the legal mp3s sold by Amazon or iTunes (or wherever) have distortion then that is a problem.

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Asking a question about a distortion in illegal mp3s certainly is useless, and I would hope people are smart enough to realize that.

But if the legal mp3s sold by Amazon or iTunes (or wherever) have distortion then that is a problem.

The real problem is that nobody said anything about ILLEGAL mp3's until Ricard did. I for one assumed the discussion was about PURCHASED mp3's. That seemed highly valid to me.

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Something about the artwork of the War Horse CD puts me off. The cover image is a bit dark and seems to lack some of the colors of the original poster. I don't like the "Photoshopped" darkening behind the letters 'music composed and conducted by John Williams'. Comes across as a bit amateurish.

Then the back of the CD is so simplistic that it feels like one of those cheap synth re-recording CD's. The print on the CD itself is likewise very simplistic and lacks the classy feel of - let's say - Tintin. The only redeeming thing about it seems to be the inside pages of the booklet.

Is it just me..?

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Since you bring up artwork that appears bootleg, my worst is probably the latest FSM Nightwatch. I realize they were limited with what they could work with given it's some obscure TV program that nobody cares about, but yeah. Horrendous, including the disc. Looks like a bootleg.

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I was also disappointed as it leaves very little room for the Maestro's autograph... I definitely want to get it signed in May if it wins the Oscar!

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And the opening spread lists all the performers.

I notice that Malcolm McNab is still lead trumpet. He was playing lead on film soundtracks back when 'Jaws' first came out, and even earlier. The man's a machine. Back in my trumpet-playing days, I'd have given my left nut to be able to play half as good as he does.

Williams usually acknowledges the orchestrators in the film credits.

Williams actually doesn't have much say about what goes into the credits of the film itself. People are credited or not as the union rules dictate.

If he's an assistant or an orchestrator doesn't matter. If he had seen the manuscripts and at least transcribed them then it would be only decent to mention him in the "thank you" section. I mean, different people thank their kids and pets in there. Why not someone who actually had something to do with the music?

Well said.

Am I the only one having trouble getting a decent emotional response out of this score, which sadly is the first Williams album I feel this way?

'War of the Worlds' was my first JW disappointment. To this day I just can't connect with that score at any level. I find it boring and tedious, and I had such high expectations for it. I mean, come on... alien invasion movie + Spielberg + John Williams... there was no way that was gonna be anything but stupendous and then I listened to the CD for the first time and I was like, 'What the hell?'

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Sorry, if this has been already discussed somewhere (I couldn't find it, if so), but what's up with the distortions on the WH album? I hear it almost every time the Bonding Theme is played by the brass section (for example Track 15, around 4:05; or in the last track).

Anybody else hear that? I don't know how you call it--maybe "distortion" is not the right word--but it's a sort of "thrrrrrraaaappppp" in the background...

The only thing I hear is in track 14 right around 2:20-2:26 in the brass ensemble there's one horn who holds over to long and it's really out of tune.

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it's better than the Angela's Ashes cover

I like that cover, actually. It's very memorable.

Karol

I think the European release cover is down right scary but captures the feel of the film pretty spot on. :P

I got the War Horse CD yesterday and I like the visual look of the album. I particularly noted the "on the set" photo of Spielberg which I thought was a nice touch.

And it is a pretty good soundtrack if we do not have anything else to complain about than the cover. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since we're discussing distortions, anyone else notice horrible scratchiness of the bases/cellos in The Homecoming (0:30 - 1:10)? I have the original CD and JBL tower speakers and there is definitely some issue issues in the lower registers. Sounds like it was miked too close.

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Hey guys, I know its been a while and the score's been discussed to death. But I recently completed my own analysis of the score:

http://musicmusekk.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/war-horse-john-williams/

Who knows? You might learn something new :P

- KK

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The only thing I hear is in track 14 right around 2:20-2:26 in the brass ensemble there's one horn who holds over to long and it's really out of tune.

lol no. nice try tho.

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The only thing I hear is in track 14 right around 2:20-2:26 in the brass ensemble there's one horn who holds over to long and it's really out of tune.

lol no. nice try tho.

Strangely it's only there when I listen with headphones. It's fine from speakers though.

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None.

Really? Wasn't there an article that said JW was incorporating a song into the score?

Articles can be wrong. The CD is 100% Williams. Don't you own it? You'll find nothing in the booklet about integrating anyone else's material

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Not sure if this has been covered yet: JW being interviewed about War Horse. Apologies if it's old news ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vj6tIVxfao&feature=relmfu

I hadn't seen it, thanks. And Williams is absolutely right about uniqueness of acoutic performance vs. synthetically constructed digital "performance". Nice to see him having a sly dig at his upstart "peers" (read: punks!)

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Not sure if this has been covered yet: JW being interviewed about War Horse. Apologies if it's old news ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vj6tIVxfao&feature=relmfu

http://www.jwfan.com/?p=1672

I hadn't seen it, thanks.

Do you ever visit the main page?

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Now that I have seen "War Horse," I can comment on the score.

Like "Tintin," John Williams missed several great opportunities here. I was expecting more thematic material for Joey that would weave through the film. Maybe I felt Spielberg and Williams remembered how successful their last theme was for an animal, and would have attempted to replicate that.

Am I expecting too much? Maybe. But the thing I enjoy most about Williams is his masterful use of letimotifs. It's what drew me to him about 20 years ago and sets him apart from others when you hear him introduce a theme and weave it through a film without making it seem repetitive.

Much of the scenes set during the war didn't have much a score that impressed me. The music for Joey running through No Man's Land was awesome, as was the plowing scene and the scene where Albert was training Joey. This was a very fine score, but nothing that made me say immediately "This is an awesome score," as I did with almost every fully original score he's written in the past 15 years.

That said, bringing Tim Morrison in for trumpet made me smile. Hearing that music at the end, I knew that could only be him playing the trumpet.

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Not sure if this has been covered yet: JW being interviewed about War Horse. Apologies if it's old news ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vj6tIVxfao&feature=relmfu

http://www.jwfan.com/?p=1672

I hadn't seen it, thanks.

Do you ever visit the main page?

GD is my main page. Honestly, I very rarely look outside of the message board.

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No really, don't! It's my understanding that I'm one of the less enthused here where new JW news is concerned. For me the main thing is the forum works properly, but again that's just me.

Nowadays, my interest in John Williams is based purely on nostalgic admiration and his future work with Spielberg.

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This may have already been posted, but Williams is nominated for a few awards for WH that I don't remember seeing on the main page:

BFCA: http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/12/hugo-and-the-artist-lead-bfca-nominees/#more-46690

Houston Films Critics Society: http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/12/houston-film-critics-society-nominees/

International Press Academy: http://www.pressacademy.com/award_cat/current-nominees/

Houston Film Critics also nominated the score for Tintin.

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I'm sure 99% of JWfans already bought it

Many Williams fans never spend a cent on his music. As with every other artist.

This may have already been posted, but Williams is nominated for a few awards for WH that I don't remember seeing on the main page:

BFCA: http://www.awardsdai...ees/#more-46690

Houston Films Critics Society: http://www.awardsdai...ciety-nominees/

International Press Academy: http://www.pressacad...rrent-nominees/

Houston Film Critics also nominated the score for Tintin.

Thanks :) The BFCA (= Critics' Choice Awards) and International Press Academy (=Satellite Awards) nominations were already announced on the main page. The Houston one didn't.

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