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It wasn't Blumenkohl who turned the thread, it was the people who attacked him for stating his honest thoughts.

As most of you have seen on the other thread regarding this subject, some of us are attempting to take the initiative in building the foundational elements of a new website—a wiki encyclopedia devoted entirely to the subject of film music, called Scorepedia (click to head over there). In a sense, JWFan has the opportunity to become the “sponsor” of the website, the group of people most directly involved in its inception. A lot of people have expressed interest in helping out, but there hasn’t been much action on the site itself yet. There are probably a couple of reasons for this. First, Scorepedia’s very nearly a blank page at this point. It’s always hard to take the first couple of steps, to chart unexplored territory, to know whether what you’re posting is approved, whether it helps the website, whether it’s too much, not enough, whatever. Second, a lot of people probably have the wrong idea about what a wiki is. (I know I did at first.) They may think the only acceptable submission is a complete, polished, and referenced article. But that’s not the case at all. A wiki is a community built on shared information—any information that’s made available by any participant at any time. All it takes is someone posting a few lines about a specific score, or a composer, or an industry term, or a technique. Once that page exists, anyone can add their own knowledge, information, or experience to it. In other words, it’s a process that grows by many small steps, not by a few great, galumphing gobs of information all at once. So feel free to start small. In the beginning, the more pages we have, the better. New people who come across the site will begin to add more material themselves—if they have some good examples to follow. The key to the website’s success at this stage is for us to take the lead and provide those examples. This may be your first time working with a wiki, or maybe your first time dealing with one centered around a specific topic like this one. No problem. Here are some basic parameters, ideas, and guidelines you can follow: If you’ve never posted on Wikipedia before, do yourself a favor and take 30 minutes of time to read through the editing and formatting tutorial on Wikipedia. It’s really very simple—much easier than HTML—and it won’t take you long to get a grasp of things.You’ll need to sign up at Scorepedia in order to be able to post, and so others can see and follow the contributions and changes you make. (I would recommend that the folks from JWFan use a screen name there similar to the one they have here, so we can easily spot one another—but that’s entirely up to you.) NOTE: Because of early problems with spambots, there is no open registration at this time. If you want to become a contributor, contact the site's administrator, Marcus Stohr, either on this thread or directly at contact@scorepedia.org.Each time you check in at Scorepedia, click on the “Recent Changes” link in the left column. That’ll show you everything that’s been added or changed since you were last on the site. (In the beginning, that list should be fairly short and easy for everyone to follow.) Look over any newly-posted pages. If you have anything to add . . . do so! Make any necessary changes, edit passages for smoother reading, whatever catches your eye. When it comes to wiki, you don’t need permission, you don’t have to wait your turn, and you certainly don’t need to fret over how much or how little you have. Any input you can offer enhances the entire project—especially in the beginning.Please don’t let potential inexperience as a writer, or perhaps questionable command of the English language, discourage you either. Just make your writing as clear as you can. If there are any mistakes or grammatical errors in what you post, others will take care of them for you. That’s the beauty of a wiki: everyone works together to smooth out the wrinkles.We’re going to be directly importing the Wikipedia pages for the most prominent composers (Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Horner, Zimmer, and so on) very soon. This should save us loads of time in the long run. So if you’re interested in starting a page about a specific individual in the industry, check Wikipedia first. If they’ve got a sizable page there, chances are it’ll be popping up at Scorepedia soon. (If you have someone in mind who has a Wikipedia page, but hasn’t made an appearance at Scorepedia yet, then post a request in this thread. We’ll make sure it gets transferred.) Once the composer pages do get moved in, we can edit them in any way we please to fit the milieu of our website; it won’t change the article’s appearance on Wikipedia, only on Scorepedia. So if you feel a composer’s ariticle doesn’t make prominent enough mention of your favorite score, then by golly, get in there and make that mention more prominent!Anecdotal information is often the best and most useful, especially for a place like Scorepedia. Posting that a certain score exists is fine; but if you have access to a story about how that score was composed, or recorded, or edited (or rejected!), that makes an article even better. This is the kind of thing that makes and excellent starting point for new articles. (Take a look under the heading "The Score" on the Alien page for several examples of appropriate anecdotes.)Here’s a line of thinking that might prevent some people from contributing right away: a) Important and/or popular scores should be posted before “minor” ones; b) Major scores deserve full treatment (i.e., complete and polished articles) from the start; c) I don’t have time to do a full article on a major score; d) so I’ll just wait for other folks to lay the foundation before I add my two cents. But this is not an accurate perspective at all. As an example, check out the article on this “minor” score that’s already been put up. It’s a long way from being finished—there are plenty of anecdotal details to fill in, and I’d like to tie it to an article about John Barry’s score to Raise the Titanic, the other film from ITC Entertainment that sunk the production company but led to career expansion for Barry. I just didn’t have time to finish the whole thing during my first sitting. So what? It doesn’t have to be complete to be posted. And it doesn't have to be a game-changer of a score. This is the time to be planting seeds, not erecting whole forests of prefabricated information. Toss up some articles on a few of your favorite scores. Whittle away at them when you have time. They’ll be there when you come back.Filmusic terminology can be even simpler. If you have a definition for something you can sum up in a sentence or two, get it in there. (Look here for an example.) Others will expand on what you start.This is important: whenever you do start a new article, make sure you interlink any word or reference that would make a good page in itself. All you have to do is type the word or phrase in double brackets [[like this]]. That automatically creates a link to a new page on that subject. Don’t worry—you don’t have to fuss about going over and starting that new page yourself if you don’t want to. The term will appear in the text as a red link, which means a page exists but nothing’s been written on it yet. The idea of the red links is to inspire others who might know something about that subject to go start the article themselves. All they have to do is click on the link and start writing. (Take a look at that page on Clicks again. Follow one of those red links. You'll get the idea.)Use the Talk pages! Every article has a “Discuss” tab at the top. Clicking on it opens the article’s Talk page, which is a place for contributors to chat about changes, ideas, or plans for the article. Many of them will also include a To-Do list at the top, where the article’s initial author (and others) can suggest elements to round out the page. (If you’re curious about how Talk pages work, check out a few on Wikipedia.) This is an especially important step at this point; everyone should be communicating about new pages, material, and templates as we go, so we can establish some continuity as the site evolves.Remember that a wiki is designed to feature facts about specific subjects, not opinions. If we want to argue the merits or drawbacks of John's various works, we can come back here to do it. The information at Scorepedia should be just that: information. Be careful that you don't let your own high (or low) regard for any score or composer color the articles you write.That’ll do to start with. We’ll add more suggestions and guidelines as the process evolves. (We’re also working on Manual of Style specific to Scorepedia that’ll help people better understand the formatting and parameters for the site.) You can consider this sticky thread a place for questions and queries, ideas, brainstorming, encouragement . . . anything you need to help you get the ball rolling. Ultimately, though, what Scorepedia needs most right now is freelance contributors, folks willing to take the initiative and forge the first links in the chain. If you’re interested in helping build this project, you don’t have to post a resume and tell us you’re interested. Just go to the site and start posting articles. That’ll let everyone know you’re on board. I sincerely hope this will become a growing endeavor that JWFan can proudly put its stamp on. Eventually we’ll be opening the door to other internet chat groups and message boards . . . but for now, this one’s ours. Let’s see if we can make it something special. - Uni

You'll probably only find this type of military brass band scoring nowadays in an ironic context. Pastiche.

This is a good way to look at it. The emphasis and angle should be on the scores, and not so much on the various releases (though there's obviously a place for that type of thing as well). Take some time—no more than 30 minutes, really—and go through the tutorial on Wikipedia to learn how to add new pages and edit existing ones. It's not nearly as hard or intimidating as it seems. We may have some of those guidelines for you soon . . . if LeBlanc will check his PMs, perhaps. . . ? - Uni Ok, nobody move! I'm making a HP:CoS page

I'm certainly very interested in contributing - it just may take some time for those of us who haven't edited a wiki before to get up to speed. Personally I see it as a great way to collect the kind of information that is mainly only available in scattered posts and threads around this forum. It would be fantastic to have a guide for the layperson that is score-oriented, rather than release-oriented, detailing each score as written/recorded and explaining in detail what releases contain which material. Similar to Jason's extremely helpful cue lists and writeups, but with the potential to be updated by anyone who has further information to contribute. First things first, I've got to figure out how to add a page...

I'd love to see this turn up in Tadlow's Goldsmith recording project. Though it hardly will - my idea would be to replace the synth horns with decent brass (I have a feeling that they're mostly there because the real orchestra's brass wasn't up to the task).

Okay if my participation means I'm considered to be 3.2% less miserable I shall play along.

Did the Lincoln elegy seem to be the same as the album cue, or was it an extended version? Either way, that is not the piece I would expect him to perform from the movie. I would like to think that this is evidence that he is going to have a suite of reworked pieces from the movie. Maybe not quite the reworking as with Memoirs, but I am hoping for something along those lines. The Lincoln piece was one selection from the new 3 Movement Suite. It has more elaborate cello lines. It wasn't John Williams that shoved Patrick out (really no surprise there!) It was purely political and related to unions and music recording locations. The concert was wonderful by the way. The young musicians really gave it their all and JW was as charming and musically commanding as ever. Seeing him conduct was a real thrill as it's been 15 years since I last saw him conduct live, which was with the LSO in 1998. The Gala Dinner afterwards was such a treat and it was kind of surreal having him just sit a couple of tables from me. Definitely a night to remember! I posted some photos on FB which some of you might have seen: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=pcb.10151430056447229&type=1

Leroy Anderson's famous The Typewriter, as performed by yours truly. Hope you like it!

Or you could be like me and just ghost for years...

Yeah. I gotta admit it . . . you're probably right. It's fun to hope, dammit, but we all need to face a little reality here: JW's only been in the business for what, half a century? That's hardly enough time to build up a reputation. Word is the man's barely hanging on by his fingernails. After all, he came within a hair of having his score for Indy 4 rejected (I hear Desplat had the inside track to replace him). His representatives are out there as we speak trying to land him a decent job, but he just can't seem to get his foot in the door. There's just no getting around it: you've gotta be a shark if you want to keep working in the business after fifty years, even if you are the most popular, best-selling, and widely-sought-after composer in that business. John's just not the type. You're right about the other part, too. We all know there can be multiple producers on a film, and there can even be multiple directors (especially if they're brothers!). But when it comes to composers, it's like Highlander: there can be only one! Unless, of course, you count Cloud Atlas, or The Changeling, or half the scores with Hans Zimmer's name on them, or many of the animated musicals produced by Disney—say, isn't Disney the one doing the new Star Wars movies. . . ? Forget it. Everyone would be better off saving themselves the disappointment by just accepting the realities of the industry. Hell, if I know those Disney bastards, they've probably already offered the scoring job to one of the light grips. . . . - Uni

I say we rename the John Williams subforum into bitchfest subforum.

The things I remember from 2012 (off top of my head): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=765mje8tW_E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8-R-9EtQ4o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00re4Cw9ig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa10ovtXgzI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbxdqCi_AQ Karol

There's a bunch bitchiness running wild on this board today.

somebody is on the rag today.

I love John Williams, the man. Deal with it.

People seem to be bored of some of the discussion here lately,so I thought I'd share my "Music Muse Awards", which is little more than a bunch of lists My opinions aren't going to be very popular I'm afraid, but I'll share them anyways. http://music-muse.com/2013/02/12/music-muse-awards-2012/ What were your favourites or impressions of 2012?

It's okay to have a man crush on John Williams.

All we can do at this point is hope that he will be able to do it. Each new composition these days is a blessing to cherish.