Rebuilding the filmographies section of the main page - Week 2: War Of The Worlds

[Jay 37,355]

Supposedly a complete cue list is out there now! Who has it?

Who has other reviews/interviews/articles/etc to post?

[Faleel 5,347]

Two week 2's!?

[Demondm810 399]

I want it

[fommes 153]

I can offer you my editing guide of the score (without SFX), which dates back to this thread:

PROLOGUE

OST 1: insert the instrumental DVD material into the album track (and edit out the bird sfx)

THE STORM

OST 13 (0:00 – 2:57): I also included 0:00-1:10, which is probably unused and in the right place. Because the flow is better than if you fade out, from here you can mix immediately into:

THE INTERSECTION SCENE

OST 4

ASHES / ESCAPE FROM THE CITY

OST 13 (3:03 – 6:25) + OST 6 (mix in DVD-rip & end credits material): I decided to have the crescendo at the beginning of "Escape from the Basket" and kept the crescendo already present in track 6.

At two points you can insert material from the end credits to expand the track.

Also, the first action part of "Escape from the City" on the CD is tracked (and shortened) from the identical part later on in the track. Use a DVD-rip to substitute that part (there's no SFX).

FLOATING CORPSES

OST 11 (0:00 – 0:40)

REFUGEES

OST 5

THE ATTACK ON THE CAR

OST 8

REFUGEE STATUS

OST 9

THE FERRY SCENE

OST 2

THE SEPARATION OF THE FAMILY

OST 3

PROBING THE BASEMENT

OST 7

THE ALIENS

Take this from the DVD menus; it needs to be edited together.

THE TRIPOD SCENE

OST 11 (0:40 – end)

ESCAPE FROM THE BASKET

OST 13 (6:25 – end)

BOSTON

OST 12

FALLEN ALIEN

OST 10 (0:00-0:40)

THE REUNION / EPILOGUE

OST 14: this is not the track "Epilogue" from the album. Insert the instrumental DVD material instead of the narration.

END TITLE

OST 15

Bonus tracks:

PROLOGUE (with Narration)

OST 1

THE REUNION (Alternate) / Epilogue (with Narration)

OST 10 (0:40-end) + OST 14 part

If you want to align the alternate "Reunion" (Track 10: 0:40-end) with Morgan Freeman's "Epilogue": lower the pitch of the alternate "Reunion": with 1 semitone (affect tone+speed) - in Audacity that's -5,613 if I'm not mistaken.

Notes:

- The film version of the Reunion seems to be comprised of a mix of an original and an alternate version, in my opinion. (I don't know which is the original, and which the alternate.) So I wouldn't bother making a real 'film version', as that seems to be a hack job.

- To make the 'bonus track' section a bit more interesting listening-experience-wise, you can always insert some rerecordings between the two bonus tracks of course: there are recordings from Kunzel, Prague Philharmonic, and the RPO.

[SF1_freeze 131]

Master class

Williams earns himself a spot in pantheon of composers

By JON BURLINGAME

Posted: Tue., Nov. 29, 2005, 9:00pm PT

If John Williams asks to score your movie, do you turn him down?

Probably not. In the case of "Memoirs of a Geisha," Rob Marshall wasn't about to say no to the multi-Oscar- and multi-Grammy-winning composer of 10 of the top 25 grossing movies of all time.

Williams loved the Arthur Golden novel, and when Steven Spielberg first planned to direct the film version, the composer -- who has worked with the helmer since 1974 -- began mulling musical possibilities. When Spielberg passed on directing the adaptation, he introduced Williams to Marshall, and earlier this year the composer offered his services for "Geisha."

Williams has had a busier than average year, with four scores potentially in contention this award season: "Star Wars: Episode III --Revenge of the Sith"; the highly anticipated "Geisha"; and two Spielberg films, blockbuster "War of the Worlds" and the still-under-wraps "Munich."

Although he is 73 and has been writing music for films since 1958, the overwhelming consensus among film music observers and even those in the classical world is that Williams is at the top of his game. And, most add, alone at the top.

"He makes film music into an art," says violinist Itzhak Perlman, who played the solos in Williams' Oscar-winning score for "Schindler's List" and joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the score of "Geisha."

"My experience on 'Schindler's List' was so exceptional that any time he calls me and says, 'I hear something specific,' I basically trust him and I'm never disappointed."

Asked to assess Williams' place in 20th-century American music, Boston Globe classical music critic Richard Dyer replies, "He's certainly going to rank with Bernard Herrmann and Erich Wolfgang Korngold as a sort of triumvirate of really great film composers. He changed the whole public awareness of the role that music plays in films.

"The fact is," he adds, "that everybody in the Western world carries around some of John's melodies in his head." Music historian Roger Hickman whose book "Reel Music" surveys film music over the past century, is impressed by Williams' versatility of styles, from the avant-garde soundscapes of "Images" (1972) to the jazz-inflected "Catch Me if You Can" (2002).

Says Hickman, "How many composers can you really say have kept coming up with things that are fresh and different for an extended period of time, not just one era? He's in a class by himself."

Each of this year's four Williams efforts showcases a different side of the composer. "Revenge of the Sith," the sixth and final "Star Wars" film, "was fun to do," says the composer, "because I was able to work backwards to put the musical pieces together," tying old themes from earlier in the series to new material that built to a satisfying conclusion.

"War of the Worlds," he says, "was for me a very serious piece," a dark orchestral score that combined the necessary frightening atmosphere with propulsively rhythmic drive for the action scenes.

The challenge of "Geisha," which occupied Williams for much of the summer, was "to incorporate the grammar of Japanese music with what we recognize as Western harmonic and melodic idioms -- to bring those two things together to create a third element that would seem at home in the film."

Throughout, the score is flavored with traditional Japanese instruments: the 13-stringed koto, or Japanese zither; the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute; the shamisen, a three-stringed plucked lute; taiko drums; plus other wind and percussion instruments appropriate to the setting.

He recorded half of the 90-minute score at UCLA's Royce Hall, including the elements with Perlman (whose violin solos adorn Williams' waltz for the Chairman, played by Ken Watanabe) and Ma (whose cello characterizes the geisha Sayuri, played by Ziyi Zhang). He recorded the other half at Sony, "a more clinical studio environment," he notes, providing greater control over individual sections of the orchestra.

Tackling Spielberg's "Munich" forced Williams to do a musical 180, he says. "It couldn't be more different from 'Geisha' in ambiance and texture."

For it, he created "a kind of prayer for peace, a lyrical composition associated with Avner (Eric Bana) and the home he leaves behind in Israel," and another theme for solo voice and orchestra "that accompanies one of several flashbacks to the tarmac at Munich, and also one of several scenes that recall the abduction of the Olympic athletes from their rooms at the Olympic Village" in 1972. Lisbeth Scott, the vocalist on "The Passion of the Christ," is the soloist.

Searching for an authentic Palestinian sound, Williams employed the oud, a Middle Eastern lute, and added the cimbalom, a Hungarian zither, as well as clarinet and strings for "an almost fantastically Oriental quality," he says.

Williams currently has 43 Oscar nominations, and has won five statuettes. If he is, as expected, nominated for "Geisha" and one of his other scores he will tie composer Alfred Newman's all-time record of 45 noms.

Should that occur, he says, modestly, "It's purely a result of great good fortune."

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

What did Erich Kunzel record from this score?

[fommes 153]

"Escape from the City".

[Jilal 569]

We will get the cue list soon... I know someone who has it, it's only a matter of time before he sends it to me.

[Jilal 569]

I can offer you my editing guide of the score (without SFX), which dates back to this thread:

PROLOGUE

OST 1: insert the instrumental DVD material into the album track (and edit out the bird sfx)

THE STORM

OST 13 (0:00 – 2:57): I also included 0:00-1:10, which is probably unused and in the right place. Because the flow is better than if you fade out, from here you can mix immediately into:

THE INTERSECTION SCENE

OST 4

ASHES / ESCAPE FROM THE CITY

OST 13 (3:03 – 6:25) + OST 6 (mix in DVD-rip & end credits material): I decided to have the crescendo at the beginning of "Escape from the Basket" and kept the crescendo already present in track 6.

At two points you can insert material from the end credits to expand the track.

Also, the first action part of "Escape from the City" on the CD is tracked (and shortened) from the identical part later on in the track. Use a DVD-rip to substitute that part (there's no SFX).

FLOATING CORPSES

OST 11 (0:00 – 0:40)

REFUGEES

OST 5

THE ATTACK ON THE CAR

OST 8

REFUGEE STATUS

OST 9

THE FERRY SCENE

OST 2

THE SEPARATION OF THE FAMILY

OST 3

PROBING THE BASEMENT

OST 7

THE ALIENS

Take this from the DVD menus; it needs to be edited together.

THE TRIPOD SCENE

OST 11 (0:40 – end)

ESCAPE FROM THE BASKET

OST 13 (6:25 – end)

BOSTON

OST 12

FALLEN ALIEN

OST 10 (0:00-0:40)

THE REUNION / EPILOGUE

OST 14: this is not the track "Epilogue" from the album. Insert the instrumental DVD material instead of the narration.

END TITLE

OST 15

Bonus tracks:

PROLOGUE (with Narration)

OST 1

THE REUNION (Alternate) / Epilogue (with Narration)

OST 10 (0:40-end) + OST 14 part

If you want to align the alternate "Reunion" (Track 10: 0:40-end) with Morgan Freeman's "Epilogue": lower the pitch of the alternate "Reunion": with 1 semitone (affect tone+speed) - in Audacity that's -5,613 if I'm not mistaken.

Notes:

- The film version of the Reunion seems to be comprised of a mix of an original and an alternate version, in my opinion. (I don't know which is the original, and which the alternate.) So I wouldn't bother making a real 'film version', as that seems to be a hack job.

- To make the 'bonus track' section a bit more interesting listening-experience-wise, you can always insert some rerecordings between the two bonus tracks of course: there are recordings from Kunzel, Prague Philharmonic, and the RPO.

Thanks fommes!

[Jilal 569]

I HATE YOUTUBE!

[SF1_freeze 131]

We will get the cue list soon... I know someone who has it, it's only a matter of time before he sends it to me.

Did you get the cue list?

[Jilal 569]

Will contact my source soon.

EDIT: Mail sent.

[Jay 37,355]

Does anybody else have anything else to add about War Of The Worlds?

Any reviews, articles, interviews, anything?

[GoodMusician 56]

Here are some interesting notes:

1) The 'whoomps!' choir glissando's are a women's choir singing up as a sort of 'shreik' to help humanize the vaporizing deaths

2) The bass vocalists during some of the basement sequences are singing nearly as low as the human voice can produce.

3) The editing for the final film is unlike most William's edits in that certain cues are heavily modified or actually pitch-shifted to produce a different 'version.'

4) A perhaps unintentional Bernard Herman reference (cutting string glissando's) is made in the cue "Captured By the Tripods" but is omitted in the final film and album.

5) The tune to 'Hushaby Mountain' is sung by Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning with the name of the song mentioned as well.

6) Extra brass and bass were utilized to add density and heavyness to the score

7) The Strings take a back-seat to brass in the mixing

8) One scene had music that was created in editing but was a decision made by Williams and Spielberg (Crash Site)

These aren't official track listings, but its what we KNOW exists...so if he doesn't answer or DOES answer, we should compare to this...

Track list:

01) Prologue - [02:53] * On the Album

# Aphasia - Flatline (Robby Source) - [3:00]

02) After the Storm - [02:09] *All but the opening sustained note is on the album

03) The Intersection Scene - [04:26] *On the album but lacks the choir glissandos

04) Ashes - Intro To (Film) - [03:35] *On the Album

05) Ashes (Alternate) - [01:12] *On the Album

06) Intro To (Alternate) - [00:32] *On The Album

07) Escape from the City - [03:39] *Presented on Album with micro edits and the opening omited

# Crash Site (Planned Tracked Music) - [01:28] *Contains unreleased music from an alternate to "Floating Corpses" and the "Epilogue"

08) Tripod Footage - [00:50] (Unreleased)

09) Floating Corpses (Film) - [00:43] *On the Album

10) Floating Corpses (Alt) - ???? at least [00:44] Unreleased/ Unused

11) Refugee Status (Film) - [01:38] *Additional material not on album

12) Refugee Status (Album) - [03:49] *On Album

13) Refugees (Alternate) - [02:41] *On Album

14) Attack on the Car (Unused) - [02:48] *On the album excluding some micro edits

15) Taking Shelter in the Diner - [01:05] (Unreleased)

# If I Ruled the World - Tony Bennett - [02:59]

16) The Ferry Scene - [05:50] *On the Album

17) Climbing Up Hill - [01:53] (Unreleased)

18) Separation of the Family - [03:22] *On the Album

19) Comforting Rachel - [01:58] (Unreleased)

20) Ogilvy's Advice - [02:05] (Unreleased)

21) Probing the Basement - [04:19] *On the Album except small micro edit

22) Aliens Search the Basement - [03:00] (Unreleased)

23) The Death of Ogilvy - [01:41] (Unreleased)

24) Caught - [00:43] *On the Album

25) Captured by the Tripods - [03:14] *On the Album except small microedits

26) Escape in the Basket - [3:13] *On the album

27) Return to Boston - [01:18] *On the Album

28) Taking Down the Tripod (Film Fanfare) - [03:20] *On the album excepting fanfare and small insert

29) Taking Down the Tripod (Album Fanfare) - [03:18] *On the album except small insert

30) The Alien Emerges - [00:38] *On Album

31) Reunion - [02:10] *On Album (Only opening used in Film)

32) Reunion (Alternate) - [01:56] *On Album (pitch shifted and partially used in film)

33) Reunion (Alternate #2) - [01:54] (Unreleased/Unused)

34) Finale (Film Synth) - [01:16] *On Album with monologue

35) Finale (Instrumental) - [01:26] (Unreleased/Unused)

Two Concert Suites are available

Escape from the City - [03:50]

War of the Worlds (Concert Suite) - [07:28]

[fommes 153]

33) Reunion (Alternate #2) - [01:54] (Unreleased/Unused)

Unless you know more in some way, there are only two known versions of The Reunion, an original and an alternate. The film version consists of fragments from both.