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Moon River won the arrangement category

I'm still amazed about the acoustics in this place...

It literally sold on eBay two days ago lol https://www.ebay.com/itm/283755800726

My brief montage of the weekend. This time last week was some of the happiest hours of my life so far.

Because the CD wouldn't be bloody 192kbps MP3s?

Despite its three hour runtime, it's very economical in its editing when you consider how much fluff and excess was ultimately axed.

If I were to recut Titanic I would remove maybe two or three minutes off it’s running time, at the most. I love that the movie is patient, confident and takes its sweet time. Filmmakers today don’t have the balls to edit like this.

Conan the Barbarian by Basil Poledouris I've come to the conclusion that there's not a single unsatisfactory note present in this entire score. Anvil of Crom, Theology/Civilization and the neo-Bolero fantasy that is (clears throat) The Orgy have all been getting some serious plays lately. The unique blend of medieval and pastoral qualities hit upon a wide range of cultural influences. An absolute treat! A View To A Kill by John Barry Probably one of my favourite Bond scores not named Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, From Russia With Love or Goldfinger. It may seem an odd preference considering A View To A Kill borrows from these here listed to some degree and otherwise wouldn't seem to have all that great an amount of captivating new music, but I've always had such an enjoyable time listening to the fairly brief album that I can't help to come back to in now and again. Snow Job and Bond Meets Stacey are where it's at! I admit that the latter is a real cliché Barry love idea (solo flute, sweeping strings), but I'm such a sucker for his romanticism that I've only ever embraced it. Star Wars: The Force Awakens by John Williams (Complete Score) I think I was most surprised by how like the War Horse leak, this score works so well in just the order it is. It was a hardly a revelation to hear previously unreleased nuggets, but something more of a modest reminder that Williams once again gave us something so special from opening fanfare to finale. Now that I've listened to the two scores hereafter I often take the themes established here for granted. This time around I had to recall just how stunning it was that Williams wrote themes for Rey, Poe, Kylo Ren, the Resistance, and Ahch-To all for the same film, essentially all of which he gets maximum usage out of in the movies to follow.

Anyone else experiencing some post Vienna depression? It's like, I was looking forward to the concerts for so long - then it happened and now...my life feels so empty 😢

Hopefully a generous JWfan won this c.d. and will share lossless files.I'm sure some people here were still checking ebay every day

I finally, a bit late perhaps, had time to sit down with The Towering Inferno. Early this Saturday morning, with a cigar in hand, the sun rising and my headphones on tight, I sat down on the balcony and pressed play. I guess this is the “crown jewel” of The Disaster Box and it doesn’t disappoint. The composition is the epitome of disaster music. Each cue paints a vivid picture of wreckage and unfortunate events. I am not an avid fan of “action music” - those kind of busy cues rarely make it into my regular rotation when I listen to John Williams or any other composer. So a lot of these tracks - though expertly crafted - I am unlikely to return to. Nonetheless, there’s an abundance of good music on here. For example, I really like the suspense build-up in “The Solution”. But it is the quieter moments that I find the most appealing and most likely will put into regular rotation. The main theme pops up frequently throughout the score giving the score a clear identity but the arrangements differ enough not to make it to monotonous. The last three cues, “Waking Up”, “Finale” and “An Architect’s Dream/End Cast” is as good as an outro to a movie as John has ever written. In the score I was particularly taken in by the cue “Harlee Dressing” that had so many “Williams-isms” in its arrangement that I almost had to double check that I wasn’t mistakenly listening to a more recent soundtrack! That track is a clear prototype of techniques that Williams would infuse in to almost every big-budget soundtrack that he would write from the late seventies and onwards. It is amazing to listen to! The source cues are all a joy to listen to. It’s Johnny Williams all the way, baby! Jazzy, melodic and breezy... to hear what a musical mind like Williams comes up when composing easy listening jazz is mind blowing and I find this part of the release to be absolutely essential. I was quite surprised buy how heavy on the jazz the OST was compared to the original film score, which makes it an interesting listen - if albeit a bit jarring. Look out for “Susan And Doug” which is a jazzy underscore piece, but isn’t in the source tracks section of this 2 CD set! On the whole, the music to The Towering Inferno is an entertaining listen and a cool album to own. Lots of gems to come back to again and again, each with its own distinct flavour. Both CDs sound great and sits nicely in the collection of JW’s earlier works.

It's a shame Hamill spent all his energy talking down Johnson's interpretation of his character, because it really was a fabulous performance. He had every right to be proud of what he did and talk himself up, but he really just threw fuel on the fire by acting so sour over the whole thing.

It obviously is.

It's a Spotify playlist, not a thesis.

How many Disney movies a man is allowed to watch before he can no longer be considered a male person? I'm afraid it's too late for me, but I want to know this for my future, still unborn son. I'll raise him on a healthy dose of Rambo, Rocky, Taxi Driver, the Saw franchise and Schwarznegger's Commando. Or better yet, I won't even allow him to watch movies, stuff like art is too sissy for him. The less time he spends watching movies, the more time he will have for his shooting and martial arts lessons!

I love the theme and hate the song go figure. But the theme is genuinely outstanding.

Whether he liked or not, surely that was Hamill’s performance of a career!

I liked how the SE's presented them like intermezzos/Ent'racte

Titanic has a proper score. Zhivago is just Lara's theme applied like ketchup. Its a very treacly theme - maudlin in the extreme. Jarre arguably had a superior main theme as heard in the main title but that is chucked to the side for the kitsch of the Lara's theme which appears nearly in every scene - or that is what it seems like.

I'm sick too, though I didn't attend the concert and am on another continent. Just that time of year, I guess. Feel better!

Oh, get well soon - we have to celebrate the Maestro's birthday later on... ...now that you mention it: I almost fell ill myself - I cured my aching throat with lots of tea, just in time. *phew* We were quite well a week ago - might have something to do with PVSD[1]. [1] Post Viennese Stress Disorder

I never thought in my wildest dreams two of my heroes from wildly different fields would work together. RIP Kobe, his daughter, and to the others on board. Game recognize game. #mambamentality #mambaout

It took me a while, but the second one, even with its very bleak tone--the darkest "big" Star Wars story?--definitely won me over the first one. The first one is a fun romp, while the second one gets much deeper with its themes, characters and settings. I promise I didn't just copy that from a Star Wars-Empire Strikes Back review. I like the music better too.

Sounded like the perfect opportunity to finally see it. The lovely JW piece oddly sadly fits the occasion.

Seems like something that should just be left alone. It was fun on DS9 for a couple episodes (if rather ludicrous in the last one), but they're supposed to operate in the shadows, like black ops. Leave them in the shadows.

How sad... I wonder if Williams will write something or perform dear basketball for the community. I imagine he is distraught as well. They seemed close.

Come on Martin, as I affectionately told you at Gmoakeller, we’ll do it all again at the Royal Albert Hall now JW has realised what he can do!

The first one is one of the greatest RPGs ever made, up there with Balders Gate and Morrowind. I never played the sequel.

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I thought it would go for more than that. Now we play the probably very long waiting game until it surfaces in lossless. It's not like the FYC sounds bad - it just prevents us doing lossless editing.

Catch Me If You Can A very fun movie, yet with a lot of depth. Spielberg directs with a sure touch, keeping a delicate balance between the sheer entertainment of Frank's exploits and their darker origins and consequences. DiCaprio does a remarkable job of making him really come across as just a kid. And the script ties all themes together very well, and subtly, like having Frank "deliver the mail" in prison, referencing his dad's last job. It just works. Kaminski's cinematography gets a little too Kaminski sometimes, however. 4/4

Data looks....off. So it really didnt work that well.

That's James Norton, you ejit

Wait, now the guy is not even allowed to do his own favourite's list?

I'm inclined to agree with the "naysayers". This is, with a few exceptions, a pedestrian, and one-dimensional list. It's what Classic F.M. listeners think is good "movie music". "Familiar"? Sorry, dude, but this man is paid a lot of money to have his "ear to the ground", when it comes to film scores. It's his job! Anyway, you'd have to be totally deaf not to work as a composer in Hollywood, and not be "familiar" with JW's music. That dog don't hunt. It's interesting to note the composers that he does not list: Horner Shore Korngold Walton Jarre Prokofiev Waxman Tiomkin Copeland Bernstein, E Bernstein, L Herrmann IMO, the man has no proper regard for, or knowledge of, the history of film music. Because of this, this list is meaningless. Any JWfaner could come with a better "basic" list, than this.

He had help from the Magnificent Six when compiling this list.

Monsignor was a year later

He took over a big Spotify playlist with many followers where sometimes a director or composer picks their favourite film music, it has since been removed, but the user I posted above saved the tracks before it got removed. https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-04-03/composer-hans-zimmer-talks-musics-starring-role-in-movies/

Of course they're complete. What do you think might be missing?

I wonder how a Williams score for Titanic would be. Perhaps like Far and Away? Also, I'm not sure it would have a song anyway. When Horner introduced the idea of an end titles song for Cameron, he yelled something like "Schindler's List didn't had a song!". So, if he could count on the Schindler's List composer himself, the last thing he would want is a song. Also, Christ, when this thread was created I was a 10 year old boy! I guess it was by the time I went to cinemas to watch Finding Nemo. I miss those simpler times .

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But muh black bars! Waaaaaaaah!

Still waiting on them to add the option to watch the good seasons in their proper 4:3 aspect ratio. "Early 2020" was the promised release window. Tick tock tick tock...

Trevorrow's story does look better than what we got. I honestly wish Rian Johnson made Episode 9. I would have loved to see what he'd have done with it.

I found out that Tibor Kovac, the VPO principal 2nd violin, who seemed to be in an especially jolly and enthusiastic mood during the concerts, is no stranger to performing JW music. He even arranged Hedwig‘s Theme himself for his chamber ensemble (Philharmonic Five, featuring other VPO members) and recorded it for Sony. Here‘s a live performance:

Hmm…