zhao1701

Homage to Alexander Nevsky or not... it's a theme. An 8 bar theme in Cm (4 bars consisting of an antecedent and a consequent phrase--a call and response--transposed almost identically down a tone in Bbm for the remaining 4 bars) , followed by a modulating 4 bar bridge, in turn followed by a restatement of theme up a whole tone in Dm, concluding with a 4 bar coda climaxing on Fm. I totally agree that it's perfectly fine. But it's a parallel everything, which my professors hate. Chinatown would fit, so would Patton, Final Conflict, Patch of Blue. Don't know the the theme from Islands or Capricorn. Basic Instinct and Alien would. Just to be clear I'm not saying each downbeat needs to have a new note. But I am saying that my preferences lead me to be less impressed with melodies that sit on the same note for too many downbeats in a row (the string line after the fanfare in Clear and Present Danger, the theme for Total Recall). I've also not made any reference to a melodies' memorability, as that's a separate aspect from the lyricism that I look for. I do mention, though, that "catchiness" is a crowd favorite in terms of what people consider important in a melody - it just happens to not be my top priority, which is why I'm drawn to something else in melodies. Finally, I'm not addressing the question what makes a great theme because you're right, harmony is a HUGE factor, along with orchestration, structure, rhythmic motifs, and so on. I'm just looking at one aspect (downbeat pitches) of one component (melody) of a theme. And because lyricism is important to me in melody, I discovered that I'm less drawn to a melody that sits on the same down beat note for too long. This doesn't preclude the possibility that if other aspects of the theme are amazing, I'll still like the theme (Total Recall again, "This is Berk" from How to Train Your Dragon). I'll just like it without being super impressed by the lyricism of the melody.

Randy Newman and Jeff Rona are also great melodists. Haha, Randy's a great songwriter, and Jeff is a great sound designer. But wait, does no one else think Bear has a gift for melody? Yeah, there definitely is so much more to melody and so many different ways to look at and analyze them. It's very subjective, but for the melodies I'm naturally drawn to this was an element I considered important without really knowing that I did. It's been especially helpful for me as I look back at my own melodies I've written and realized I was struggling with them because they were too static.

Confession, I don't actually know his music that well because I don't think I've ever watched a film he's scored other than Mission to Mars, and I vaguely recall not liking that score too much. Gabriel's Oboe from the Mission is nice, but never compelled me to go explore more. I probably should, but just no spaghetti westerns please. I think his spaghetti western music is actually a big reason I don't know more about his thematic style.

Perhaps a poor choice of words then. I don't mean less than impressive as a euphemism for not good, therefore poor. I literally mean that they don't impress me. There are a lot of good themes that I like that don't impress me, but there are only a handful of themes that really make me stop what I'm doing and think "Wow, I wish I could do that but have no earthly idea how."

That's a very interesting thing I've not thought about before. I'll definitely listen for it and reflect on that. Re: your thoughts on predictability and inevitability, I think Star Wars is a very excellent example of a leap that combines both predictability and unpredictability. C------G-------FED*C----G-------. The F, E, and D begin a step-wise motion downwards that makes the next stepwise pitch down, C, seem inevitable. But instead the melody leaps UP to a high C which is surprising to the ear. This leap is then repeated 3 times so that we get used and adjusted to the unpredictable movement. But as everything in art is a balance, what you give up with that repetition is that flow/lyricism that I prioritize in my own melodic preference.

Well, yes I'd agree that it's not a theory that objectively says what themes are better than others (I doubt there is one), which necessarily means that it is just a personal preference. But I can at least better articulate why that is rather than just saying "not my cup of tea." The "flow" that I'm looking for in melodies is actually separate from their catchiness. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but there are a lot of catchy melodies that don't appeal to me. So just to be clear, I'm not supposing that the Williams melodies are less catchy. As for a theme's recognizability in our musical culture as validation of its quality, I would just suggest that that's probably more correlated with the success of the films they've been written for. Any theme that passes a certain threshold of quality would be well-remembered if the film was an enormous success. Granted, the threshold is high, but plenty of composers can clear it. And I'm not saying the Williams melodies are holistically inferior, even if I don't like them very much. A melody has a lot of aspects, contour, rhythmic diversity, rhythmic cohesion, motivic unity, its harmonization potential, and we all weigh each aspect differently according to our personal preferences. I place a lot of weight in this "flow" (it's a clumsy word, and I'm open to any suggestions for a better one), and I finally figured out what it is, and that Superman and Star Wars are less than impressive in this one very limited aspect.

I've been wondering for a long time why a Goldsmith theme is just able to magically soar and emote in ways that I don't hear from most melodies, and what I can learn from them for writing my own music. I'm sure a lot of different ingredients go into making almost every Goldsmith theme special, but I recently stumbled upon something basic that I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't even know about for this long, so I wrote a post about it on my blog. http://paralleleverything.com/2015/01/28/what-makes-a-great-melody/ I'll probably get some or a lot of flack for the themes that I choose to compare unfavorably, and I'll be the first to admit that it's not a perfect metric by any means, but I still think it's an interesting thing to be aware of when you're listening to or trying to write melodies. Thoughts?

I'd have to agree that VI is a pretty decent score and that IV does sound way too...happy/comical/cartoony for Star Trek. The reboot scores I don't care too much for mainly because I hear music that conveys emotion rather than music that IS the emotion.