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The Christopher Young Appreciation Thread


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So, a friend gave me a copy of an old Intrada CD "Hider in the House" for my birthday... and it's breathtaking.  After listening to it and doing a little forum-digging, I came to the realization that Young isn't really discussed much here.  Anyway, without further ado, I'll do what I can to alleviate this deficiency.  

A clip from Hider in the House:

"Birth of Sandman" from Spider-Man 3:

"Concerto to Hell" from Drag Me to Hell:

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Christopher Young is indeed a rather unsung composer although he has a very extensive and diverse body of work. He has been typecast as a horror movie composer for a long time thanks to his early successes with the films like Hellraiser but he has done so much more than mere horror music (at which he is a master not only of orchestra but also music concrete sounds as well). And of course he is a swell guy all around supporting new young composers, speaking on behalf of film music and participating in events and meeting fans with open arms.

His music for dramas is often nothing short of beautiful, insightful and affecting.

Three good examples that pop to mind are

Creation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63T29QwjwE

The Shipping News:

The Gift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1-A-p-aYS4

Sadly both Creation and The Gift are either unavailable or rather pricey at the moment, going for more than 30 $ at e.g. Amazon

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Drag Me To Hell was what got me into this composer. I'll never forget watching the film for the first time (which I also enjoyed, for the goofiness that it is) and being just blown away by how great and effective the music was in the film. The album didn't quite have the same effect (doesn't it use alternates anyway?), but it's still a fantastic album to have just for the "Concerto To Hell" alone. And the fact that I was able to get one of the limited signed copies from BSX. ;)

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I haven't listened to that many Christopher Young scores, but the Best I've ever heard which i consider a masterpiece, and haven't seen mentioned often (probably because few have seen the film) is Murder in the First.

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Don't forget his gothic horrors scores:

 

he also excels in the "birth of the monster" cues.

plus his underrated scores too!

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I agree heartily. His modern stuff like Priest show that he can use the conventions and demands of the times without resorting entirely to aping temp tracks or surrendering his own style to the ostinati-driven drivel that seems to be in vogue these days. And there is that sense of architecture you mentioned. His music can be uncompromising to the ears at times as he can generate a lot of ruckus but usually you find a very strong logic and foundation even in these furious parts of his music.

Hard Rain and Haunted Summer are two good ones.

Indeed they are. Also I would add The Tower to the list.

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I'm not very familiar with Young. Listening to what's posted here, it's well composed, well orchestrated, with a good sense of architecture as Karol says. But his harmonies leave me pretty disinterested. The selection from Creation is my favorite.

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That's certainly a step up. But there's still some of that standing on functional minor chords for too long without any interesting enough gestures to justify it. Maybe it's just that that has been aped so much lately.

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That's certainly a step up. But there's still some of that standing on functional minor chords for too long without any interesting enough gestures to justify it.

Timestamps please. Most of the chords there are major/minor, polytonal, quartal/quintal or mixed, not simple triads - which is why I chose the cue. There's even that Neptune chord you were raving about in the other thread at 2:12.

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0:19-0:45 is pretty standard tonal vamping, though some of those nice flourishes weren't coming through on my phone speaker. It's a very satisfying cue.

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I really like Young's output. It's not just his tendency to stay structured for every score he does, but there's a pleasing command of the orchestra and weaving in neat textures. Those eerie flutes in Species' main title, or the glass harmonica and female voices here:

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Sweet. I haven't seen the movie in ages though; is Brazz the guy cousin Stanley played?


And wow, check out that CONDUCTED BY credit for Pete Anthony on the front cover of the Intrada release!

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I've been re-discovering The Shipping News, such a beautiful score.

Apart from the fantastic main theme, one track that has really stayed with me is track 5, Deep Water Down , heard mostly in the film's very melancholic beggining. It's sublime

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I'm rather a fan of Young's intimate, chamber style. The Tower, A Child's Game, Hush. I'm certainly interested in any new dramatic/character-based films he does.

The Core is interesting in that it's more a collection of concert pieces than a score. That's good in that most of it is interesting, but it also means that it doesn't quite gel as a work.

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The Core is interesting in that it's more a collection of concert pieces than a score. That's good in that most of it is interesting, but it also means that it doesn't quite gel as a work.

Repeated listens do wonder to this one, trust me.

Karol

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The Core is interesting in that it's more a collection of concert pieces than a score. That's good in that most of it is interesting, but it also means that it doesn't quite gel as a work.

That's a good point that I never really considered before. It's entirely down to the way the album is arranged though, almost entirely out of cues from non-adjacent scenes. In that sense it's a Williams-approved soundtrack on roids.

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The Core is interesting in that it's more a collection of concert pieces than a score. That's good in that most of it is interesting, but it also means that it doesn't quite gel as a work.

That's a good point that I never really considered before. It's entirely down to the way the album is arranged though, almost entirely out of cues from non-adjacent scenes. In that sense it's a Williams-approved soundtrack on roids.

Young does arrange his album listening experiences quite a bit. E.g. in the case of Creation the music is all over the place chronologically but it still works as a fine album with its own dramatic outline.

I've been re-discovering The Shipping News, such a beautiful score.

Apart from the fantastic main theme, one track that has really stayed with me is track 5, Deep Water Down , heard mostly in the film's very melancholic beggining. It's sublime

I think Shipping News was the first Christopher Young score that made me really take notice of him. It is indeed a beautiful score and shows very well his ability in creating singular musical world and architecture for a film that is both intelligent and emotional. You are immediately struck by the strong "colour" of the music which really defines the whole work.

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I think the first score that got me interested in Young's music was his work for Hush, but what really made me take notice was the re-scored runaway train scene in Spider-Man 2. He nailed the pacing and excitement of the scene perfectly, even if it was lifted from the temp-track.

It would also get me interested in his Hellraiser scores too. Magnificent.

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Intrada is working on a release of a "recent" Christopher Young score

We still love the guy's music. And, in fact, we're wrapping up production on one of his recent scores as I type!
But be aware... Chris really digs into his "head" and creates his albums literally from scratch. He even bleeds over the track titles. As such, some of his recent scores will eventually be on a CD near you - just as soon as he sorts out what he wants them to include, how the tracks should be assembled and whatnot. You really need to be patient with some of these artists! :D
--Doug
Could it be The Monkey King?
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  • 6 years later...

Jurassic Shark asked me to post some highlights of Chris Young's oevre. Here they are.

 

 

 

I guess he is mainly known for writing remarkable scores for B-movies like Species or Hellraiser. He die also some Blockbuster stuff, but not always that interesting. Even though some of his pieces have often been used in trailers. My favorite score of his is Murder in the First. 

Additions? Oppinions?

 

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14 hours ago, karelm said:

I dig this thread.  He loves Herrmann, Goldsmith, and worships JW in a Zimmer way.  This is a quote from Zimmer and Chris would echo it: "He's the greatest film composer out there, without a doubt, and it happens to be one of his iconic pieces of music, so I spent three months just procrastinating and not even getting a start on the thing, because I was so intimidated: 'Oh my God, I'm following in John Williams' footsteps.'" (Zimmer was talking about Superman).  Chris said the same which I'll paraphrase "My god, any composer's dream is to create that one theme people just can't get out of their head and he did it over and over". 
 

Yes, since you mention it, there are really big similarities in the music of Chris Young and Hans Zimmer, even though Chris Young at least from time to time has themes. I don'T want to start bashing Zimmer here. I am sure that Zimmer mostly dispenses on themes on purpose. So, no issue with that. But a quote from John Powel on John Williams brought after their collaboration on Solo brought it really to the point (if I remember it correctly): "He really writes polyphonic music. Nobody does that anymore. Composers today rather work like songwriters." And in my simple words I understand it this way, that today film composers mostly start with a sequence of chords and put a melody on it. John Williams actually starts with the melody and afterwards put dozens of chords under it what ever might be required for the current scene mood or whatever. And everyone admires that. So, why does hardly anyone work like that anymore then? 

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22 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Yes, since you mention it, there are really big similarities in the music of Chris Young and Hans Zimmer, even though Chris Young at least from time to time has themes. I don'T want to start bashing Zimmer here. I am sure that Zimmer mostly dispenses on themes on purpose. So, no issue with that. But a quote from John Powel on John Williams brought after their collaboration on Solo brought it really to the point (if I remember it correctly): "He really writes polyphonic music. Nobody does that anymore. Composers today rather work like songwriters." And in my simple words I understand it this way, that today film composers mostly start with a sequence of chords and put a melody on it. John Williams actually starts with the melody and afterwards put dozens of chords under it what ever might be required for the current scene mood or whatever. And everyone admires that. So, why does hardly anyone work like that anymore then? 

The simple answer is directors don't ask for it.  I once scored a project and for the opening scene gave a theme.  They said it had too many notes, reduce the notes.  So I simplified and they wanted it simpler still.  By the end, it was just a drone and they loved it!  If directors want themes, they'll get themes.  One of the biggest reasons why directors don't want themes so much is they do a lot more drop ins...like the composer gives them quite a few options and they'll drop it in where it feels right to them rather than having the composer score to the scene (*cough* Chris Nolan *cough*).  In effect, they're getting a more generic score that lets them have more flexibility around placement and use which they'll then edit.  Second, more films are concerned with momentum (tempo and rhythm) then melody to keep you from surfing the web or flipping channels so you get faster tempos and scoring throughout (*cough* Chris Nolan *cough*) and these are what modern directors expect a good score sounds like so that's what they ask for.

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