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An attractive woman in a tight outfit and my mind naturally gravitates to how good JW looks.

I think there's some truth to this, but I also think Tolkien's dislike of Dune comes from much more basic level. Tolkien's characters are largely mythological archetypes. He's interested in morality, grace, and virtue, and thought his stories should reflect those things. He wanted to tell heroic tales, and if he has characters with shades of grey (mostly in The Silmarillion), it's typically because they were on their way to falling from grace. Tolkien didn't have "anti-heroes" as we'd think of them today, at most he had heroes who were flawed and Tolkien made clear they were flawed in ways one shouldn't aspire to. In short, Tolkien hated everything about what we'd now call "postmodernism". It shouldn't surprise anyone that Tolkien wanted to tell epic, mythological stories inspired by the Icelandic sagas he loved so much. Dune is much more morally relativistic, and this is reflected in almost all the characters. It's psychologically complex in an arguably Jungian way, that Tolkien would have found to be devoid of meaning. There's also a strain of nihilism and existentialism that Tolkien would have abhorred. Herbert doesn't have heroes as such, and none of his characters are on a hero's journey. Dune is also full of allegory, which Tolkien famously despised. If Tolkien was inspired by the Sagas of the Icelanders, Herbert was inspired by Lawrence of Arabia (a film he loved). I don't want to get into more specifics out of respect to people like Jay and Chen G. who haven't read it or seen the Lynch film, but basically, more or less everything Tolkien hated was in Dune. BTW, none of this is a criticism of Dune on my part. It's a great book in my opinion, and a masterpiece of science fiction that I'd recommend anyone read. But from Tolkien's POV, I get why he hates it.

Anne Sophie said in a recent interview that she wants to record the concerto. Not sure if live or studio. There will be encores from the Across the stars album and arte will stream the full concert https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/104491-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-john-williams-mit-einer-urauffuehrung/

With DG providing a post-live stream for the concert, I wouldn't be surprised if we get an official release by them before long (in 20 different versions and formats). Might be they make a separate studio recordings, but that's expensive, and it also can't be sold on video, so I would imagine there's a good chance they'll release a Blu-ray of the actual premiere concert.

I love Williams' eloquence with the written word--it does surely makes you want to read more thoughts about music in general from him! From his description, it seems another work very much in the vein of his more recent concert pieces. Wistful and contemplative, with the occasional virtuosic outbursts. I very much envy all the people who will experience this live on Saturday

From Doug Adams's Twitter

Roger says http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8759

Elliot Goldenthal would've been such a perfect fit for this

I'm fine with discussing the work on this more conceptual level. I don't mind getting a general feel for what the work is: that's probably helpful. I think there's a difference between a tragic hero who has flaws and psychological complexity, but exists within a clear, moralistic framework where his flaws have to be payed-for by a reversal of fortunes (Peripeteia), and an antihero where his would-be "flaws" aren't being judged by the narrative, or are even meant to have the audience sympathize with them in an anti-institutional "sticking it to the man" type of scenario. Tolkien writes many tragic heroes. In fact, he probably writes more tragedy than comedy (here in the Aristotelian sense). The very impetus for his writing his legendarium was to rework a classic tragedy, the Kallavela, and the resulting character of Turin Turamabar has a very complicated psyche indeed. But I really think a better example of how you can write extremly complex people into a story with a clear moralistic framework is in Der Ring Des Nibelungen: Wotan is an extremlly complex character, but he's in no way an anti-hero: he's a good person who is reduced through compromises into all manner of questionable deeds, and ends up paying the price. Really, all the heroes of the cycle - not just Wotan but also Siegmund, Sieglinde, Siegfried and Brunhilde are patently "the good guys" and yet they have a great deal of psychological complexity. Anyway, we'll see how much of this "moral relativism" is retained in the film: the marketing seems to positiong Timothee Chalamet's character as a young hero, and I bet that's how they wrote him for the scren, too. I don't really want to watch a very morally relativistic work: I abhor that kind of stuff just as much as Tolkien did.

I don't find it an easy read (which is certainly why I remember little from when I first read it some 20 years ago), but I do find it fascinating. And Herbert could write a suspense-packed scene, like the political banquet in part 1.

Lovely post, Marian, wonderful insights

Part 1 is basically the story of the Atreides on Arrakis. It ends when they're over, so Part 2 deals with Paul among the Fremen and the various remaining "side" characters. And there the problem also is mainly that it's a "mess", because they couldn't manage to handle the various separate strands of the story post-Breaking. I like much of the bulk of what's there, but the problem is what isn't there, or what's there only in traces - Frodo and Sam can't have more than handful of minutes of screen time during the entire TTT part of the film. Might also be related to chronology issues, which PJ got around by often very liberally stretching and compressing time when jumping between the plot strands. I would like to see someone do an "authentic" film version following Tolkien's own structure someday, because so many of his original twists and cliffhangers are based on his asynchronous way of telling the story. I know it's difficult to do that in a film (or probably considered "wrong" by many), but if a book can choose between telling the story chronologically or in interleaved separate chunks, I don't see why a film must not. It was just a single line - plus that (perhaps cheesy but very effective) animation of seasonal transitions, and Rosenman's score - a snippet of music that made a strong subconscious impression on me even at a time when I wasn't aware that music was specifically written for films. I like Jackson's prologue and stuff, and obviously the early parts of the book aren't easy to turn into a "consistent" film, with Tolkien believing for pretty much the entire first book (of six) that he was writing an episodic adventure sequel to The Hobbit. But there is a certain something about the concept of The Shadow of the Past, with much of the plot-specific prologue information framed by the highly atmospheric setting of Gandalf telling it to Frodo, that conveys an enormous depth, at least some of which is simply lost by taking the exposition out of the narrative. Just the title itself with the thought of Gandalf and Frodo smoking at the fireplace in Bag End gives me chills the film can't replicate.

https://www.facebook.com/annesophiemutter/posts/370089164481746

The 2010 LLL was made with all they could find at the time, which was the album master, the film's music stem, and I think a few things from some other (later generation) source. A couple things ended up with the wrong names on them, like the film cue "The Truth" accidentally being called "Joker's Muzak" and shuffled off to disc 2. Then, the 2010 E/B box had some of that same music now in better quality, plus a longer version of "Joker Flies To Gotham" which had been shortened considerable on the 2010 LLL. It also had 9 "worktape" demo tracks we never would have heard if not for the box (plus the new music box track made directly for the box, if you count that) Then, when working on volume 2 of the Animated Series releases in 2012, LLL found a recording of the original demo made for Tim Burton and the producers of the '89 film to approve Danny's theme for the score, played on solo piano by Shirley Walker. It was included as an Easter Egg on that set (even though it was made for the original film and not the show) Then, Neil finally found the proper, first gen master of the score, including cues that Burton had dropped from the final theatrical release (so weren't on the music stem used for the 2010 naturally). That was the primary source of the two Batman discs in the 2014 Danny Elfman Batman Collection. However, due to some stupid legal thing, he couldn't start over and design a new program from the ground up using this new source; Instead he had to release an "rebuild" of their 2010 program; All the exact same track titles on both discs, containing the same content as before, just now taken from this new, proper, good sounding source whenever possible. A little bit extra snuck in there, like now "Joker Flies To Gotham" was even longer than the E/B box version... but those cues he found on the source that weren't in the film couldn't actually be included here because of the stupid stipulation! Then, in 2018 Mondo got vinyl rights to release the score in expanded form, and somehow this time Neil was able to design a new main program from scratch and not be stuck with the 2010 program. In addition to including the previously unreleased and unused cues ("Board Meeting" and "Vicki Hides The Film"), he made other choices when building this main program, like no longer crossfading "Batwing II" and "Batwing III" together (and therefore debuting the full ending of Batwing II and the full opening of Batwing III), and other little changes like that. Oh, and "The Truth" is now under its proper name and chronological placement in the main program. However, this Mondo edition was only the main program from main title to end title, no bonus tracks (and, it sold out in 20 minutes!) So, a proper, definitive edition would have: The full complete main program containing every cue recorded, currently only available on the OOP Mondo vinyl All the alternates, different mixes, and other bonus tracks currently only available on the 2010/2014 editions The worktape demos and music box track currently only available in the E/B box The Shirley Walker piano demo currently only available on the BTAS Vol 2 set Additionally, there could be additional material Neil found on that proper element that couldn't be included on the Mondo set (because it had no bonus tracks), potentially... I have no idea. The sheet music (released officially by Omni) lists some stuff, like a cue called "Morning After" and one called "... Or Their Sons", plus there are supposedly alts for "Stair Kiss" and "Batwing I", etc.

Might check this one out in the theater One more week till the OST album!

Overall I'm very happy with the situation: Ludwig Göransson was able to work with Nolan and created this incredibly aggressive and relentless sample and e-guitar based score to Tenet, while Zimmer is able to mature his relationshsip with one of his futurely very important collaborators.

I absolutely hate the co-relation between the Best Picture category and the Best Score category. It is totally ludicrous that 4 of the 5 nominees come from best picture nominees. This is simply not plausible. There as an unconscionable bias towards the "films of the year" so that every branch tries to throw nominations at them. For example Moonlight is a good movie, but did it really have to be nominated for score. Brokeback Mountain? Babel? Seriously, someone listened to those things and said this is a great example of the art of film scoring compared to everything else this year? Like seriously, Three Billboards had one of the scores of the year? JNH can't get in for Fantastic Beasts and gets nominated for News of the World? My favorite nominations for Score are the ones which I know were nominated for the score and composer only and would have been nominated regardless whether the actual films were in award conversation or not. You gotta hand it to John Williams and Thomas Newman. They have consistently achieved nominations because of the work they produced or the respect they commanded from their peers. As opposed to Desplat - who I like, but is absolutely what I would think of as a "bait" composer. He gets hired or picks films that will be Oscar contenders and gets automatic nominations. Desplat's 11 nominations have come for 9 best picture nominees and 2 best animated feature nominees - both extremely friendly to best score nominations. That to be is extremely fraudulent. It tells me Desplat picks well, not that he composes well. A true mark of respect commanded by his peers would be if they nominate him even if the film itself is not in contention. Could he land a sole nomination like The Book Thief or Tintin? I think not. Micahel Danna could write the masterpiece of his life and wouldn't get long-listed. But score an oscar front-runner and the oscar is ready for you. Not to say it isn't a good score but that's how it goes. It's a mercy Gia won his oscar long ago. Because as good as Gia is, the kind of films he scores will simply never net him oscar nominations. Ditto JNH. JNH consistently writes magnificent music but it is the oscar bait movies which get him into the conversation. So note to composers who want to win their Academy Award - pick well. You don't necessarily need to score well. PS: And lest I completely throw the academy awards under the bus, it is undeniable the composers covet them and are honored by them. JNH has said that of course he is honored to receive a nomination. In the trade of film scoring, there is no bigger recognition or prize to be had than winning an academy award. There really aren't many other film score prizes worth a hat.

This sentence is beautifully crafted: "One man’s sunken cathedral might be another woman’s mist at the dawning."

Don't know if anyone's ever spotted this before, but it seems they listed John's brother Don Williams as a tubist rather a percussionist in the CD booklet

This was my most wanted Elfman expansion. I just hope it won't be too expensive. I absolutely love the score and as for the movie is probably the last Burton work I enjoyed. Just absolutely spot on for his sensibilities. Great cinematography, production design and a terrific supporting cast. But like most Burton movies, it really starts to drag by the third act This theme just perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the place and the setting. So evocative:

For the past 6-9 months my listening has more and more been dominated by jazz of the 20s-50s, so it's gratifying to see that Williams still keeps that music of his formative years in his mind. Thornhill is interesting because so much of his output is nakedly commercial but for the attentive listener (as I'm sure Williams was in his teen years) the Thornhill arrangements often have ear-tingling features of harmony and orchestration. By the end of the 40s Thornhill was also using Gil Evans as an arranger and started recording some less frivolous tunes by bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Illinois Jacquet. Clearly that specific Thornhill era was hugely influential on Williams. I like to imagine JW really vibing on something like this around age 17

You can check the full concert program notes here: https://a5974837ba.site.internapcdn.net/images/program-notes/2021-full-notes/20210724.pdf

Couldn't see any pictures of the CD so here they are: Karol

Yes Do you know where you are?

He does say neither fits. It's probably for that reason. Paul is hard to pin down because he requires reader involvement. He is used to expose your own feelings about certain issues. Every person's experience with Paul is different, at least in the books. That is understandably difficult to adapt to the screen so I've always imagined some simplification but I hope that they remain true to who Paul truly is, that thing that isn't necessarily what I want him to be or what you want him to be either. I agree with the above statements that he will probably be portrayed as a hero at first, which I can understand although it is a dangerous choice to do so imo. Without alluding to something deeper, darker, his darkness will inevitably be looked at as some kind of 'fall' if it's left til later which is exactly what we don't want. Well, it's what I don't want.

I think so. A lot happens in that finale, it definitely needs spread out for a blockbuster audience to understand. If there are loyal to the novel that is. Inevitably more time will be spent on action sequences during that final sequence, both adapted and newly-created. I also suspect some of Dune Messiah may wind up in there too. I hope not because I think the ending of the book is such a slam-dunk but it's a possibility. Fair. You haven't read the novel and my opinion comes from having read them all. I didn't mean simple as simple-minded, which isn't always the insult I think people think it is but that's beside the point. I actually think simple things can often be more complex than people realize, such as in the case of Tolkien's archetypes mentioned above. I definitely think being grey to be grey is annoying and done far too often to mimic depth. But done right, I really like a lot of what you seem to think of as morally relativist characters. Somewhere between tragic hero and anti-hero lies Paul. He is complex is my point. He's The Matrix by Don Davis, not The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore. Complex complex vs simple complex. I lean into the darker interpretation of Paul but I have more knowledge of the character. I don't begrudge you wanting a more Tolkien-esque story but the comparisons between the books are only relevant in the influence they had in their genres. They are very different books with very different agendas. I think it would be wrong to force Herbert's book into archetypes and tragic heroes. But that's just me.

Awe/wonder/nobility? This is a Villeneuve film man, the only fucker who has a darker outlook on life than Nolan. But yeah was hoping for something more melodic like WW84. Hopefully there are some tracks like that at least.

This is a score for a film with a lot of intellectual ideas. It will likely play better in suite form anyway. I'm fairly sure Hans composed it that way. This is a great score for Hans that really lends itself well to his methodology. I'm glad to see him get this film. Philip Glass would have knocked this out of the park too, as would John Adams but those are pipe dreams. Not even sure either would want to do it anyway. Hans has the blockbuster clout which this film needs to be successful. I'm sure soundtrack sales from the Zimmer base aren't going to hurt and I want Part 2

I agree. Tolkien was trying to build a mythology where there was a lot imagined beyond the borders of his concepts. The barely explained magic systems are one example. Frank Herbert wanted to wow us with the logic of his systems and how they all fit together to make a statement. Dune is more of a manifesto, in a vague way. Tolkien clearly wanted to write a timeless tale with timeless morals. Herbert, a novel with forward-thinking ideas that stimulated the mind. Not that Herbert didn't have an interesting story to tell but notice that it relied on multiple twists. He's clearly trying to be clever. A different kind of clever than Tolkien. That's my take.

Filming has begun! Here's 75 photos from some beach shooting in Malibu https://www.justjared.com/2021/07/23/steven-spielberg-films-a-beach-scene-for-the-fabelmans-with-newcomer-sam-rechner/ and they'll be filming in Moorpark in August https://www.mpacorn.com/articles/spielberg-film-slated-to-be-shot-on-high-street/

What people? Who are you referring to here? Emulation is still piracy and of course it makes sense there's a general desire for NIntendo to make their (amazing) back catalog of games easily accessible via some of online store like most other game developers do.

Very well put, I feel the exact same way. There's really a kind of magic in that bit, it really conveys the passage of time in such a simple, yet wondrous and almost nostalgic kind of way. I love it. Again, well said. I've seen a lot of readers complain about how long the Shire stuff takes in Lord of the Rings, but those are among my favourite parts of the book, and The Shadow of the Past may even be my favourite chapter. Tolkien once said that the primary complaint readers had of his book was that it wasn't long enough, and with this I can agree. I could have easily done with a few hundred more pages in the Shire.

This is a great reminder for me to wear bug spray tomorrow. The mosquitoes have been absolutely BRUTAL here this week, like nothing I've ever experienced in my life. I guess 3 straight weeks of rain'll do that

that's funny because i thougt the same

On first listen I'm definitely not as big of a fan of this concerto as the previous ones.

God of Outcasts should be right before Alligator Bite when he motivates the other Lokis Lokius plays after Time Looped, when he talks with Mobius Btw apparently Dangerous Variant plays at the start of episode 4 instead. Or at least most of it does. edit: also unless I misplaced this track, I feel like Pruned sounds remarkably different in the show.

It has been confirmed by Mark Petrie who did the trailer music that he used a few elements from the score when making the trailer track. Here is his post about it: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=352755436407727&id=100050198212385

I’m listening to this recording right now… it’s probably my favorite of the ones I’ve heard. I still need to check out the Detroit recording. Though to be honest, I prefer this concerto to be played by a bass trombone. Charles Vernon has recorded it with piano reduction, and former Boston Pops bass trombonist Douglas Yeo performed with John Williams himself back in the day.

Trailer was far too long. Over 3 minutes? Ridiculous. That being said. Looks cool! I'm in.

Geez those are some angry vocals. I love it.

I ordered the Blu-ray for the extra music as well. Even I can understand a little Japanese, this show is still too hard to understand. I hope the Blu-ray will include multi-subtitle, same as the Netflix version.

Well I have episode 6 in my memory the most, so I can cut down your guessing list by about 10 tracks Which are these in order. 14. Time 2. Temptation 4. Wild 18. Ohio, 2018 Part 1 16. Ravonna's Mission 21. Be 19. Fibbed 18. Ohio, 2018 Part 2 20. Stop 22. Back in the TVA 23. He Who Remains This episode is also nearly complete aside from 3 or so minor tracks (one of which is in the end credits)

Yeah, the trailer wasn't exactly great. Worst of all, the movie doesn't seem to be as visually stunning as Villeneuve's previous movies, specially BR2049. Maybe he should've collaborated with Deakins again? I'm still watching it in IMAX though.

Tuba Concerto (1985) Composed to celebrate the anniversary of the Boston Pops orchestra's founding in 1885, the Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra is perhaps the most filmic of Williams's concerti. The long-lined development of themes and free flowing structure gives it an airy underscore-like quality that makes it readily listenable, even though I've generally found it to also be not quite as engaging as my taste would like. Nevertheless, it is a fine showcase for a tubist, something attested to by the large number of recordings that have been made of the work. The work has the tuba move through various moods with the orchestra, a certain stately pompousness in the first movement, mystery and song in the second, and joy and motion in the third. Leonard Slatkin's Detroit Symphony interpretation with Dennis Nulty as soloist is my preferred one, having a bit more motion in it than some others. Here it is: This audio of a 1988 live performance with the St. Louis symphony is synced to the sheet music.

The Mission (1985) As a little bonus (I'm not going to include it in the "official" list of concert works), here is The Mission. This is essentially a Suite for Orchestra in four movements, and I think it would be nice if it were published in its entirety for concert performance. It contains some very adroit writing, drawing on Williams's film sound but in a very neatly structured way. The outer movements have the most identifiable hooks and presence, but the somewhat more complex inner movements are just as interesting to me. EDIT: I'm going to include it in the main post list after all, but not in bold.

I've done a bit of digging... and think that the film is going to have really cool aesthetics: The "Wolfenstein" opener: Wolfenstein Pt. 2 Cool locations: Fancy old-fashioned interiors: Old-fashioned New York, with an All-American parade: Actors looking really good, wearing suits or uniforms in many scenes, which reminds me of that polished feel of Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill's M:I: Fallout More vehicle / action eye-candy Other things: Mangold is doing a good job, he is an energetic director like Spielberg when the latter was young. He is certainly not a couch-sitting grandpa Lucas, and after Logan's handling of de-aging and CGI and the overall competence of Ford vs. Ferrari, I have full confidence that this film is guaranteed to be enjoyable, whether it ultimately rises to the level of the original trilogy or not (I have recently rewatched The Temple of Doom and I have to say that the bar is not always that high). After TROS (how technically impressive that score was despite the mess and nonsense of a film it accompanied), and with Williams's recent ambitious plans (Vienna, Berlin, Boston, New York, Violin Concerto No. 2...), I think maestro is going to really make an effort to close another series of scores with one better than KOTCS. The only missing factor influencing the potential for a soaring scoring is the for now unknown editing style of the film. P.S. A final thought, on Indiana Jones being old: in East-Asian cultures it is completely normal to have stories of 80-year old monks, warlords or martial arts masters kicking ass. People enjoy them for their symbolic value, even if a literal reading seems hard to believe. I think a ca. 70-years-old Indy, helped by guns, wits, and younger allies, is not going to look ridiculous if the fight scene choreography is done with a brain.

Anyway, the old varese CD sounds perfect to my ears on my hi-fi system.

That depends, I suppose. The transition to samples (roughly "from 8 bit to 16 bit sound chips") was a big one and totally changed the way game music was created. It might even be comparable to the switch from analogue to digital recordings of "real" sounds. Anything before samples is basically defined by an algorithm and can be "remastered" by running the same algorithm on modern hardware, possibly with better quality or better options (e.g. stereo panning). (Although, as I mentioned before, especially on the SID, many techniques were based on leveraging hardware flaws, which aren't easy to replicate in emulators, so the original may still sound better, or some effects may be lost in translation). (One trick on the SID consisted of quickly flipping the master channel volume, which on the original chip produced an unintended clicking noise. When done well this could be used to play low quality samples on a channel that didn't even "exist" in the hardware - it basically extended the native 3 synth channels with an additional 4th sampling channel) Once the switch to samples was made, many of the original sound wizards embraced them. After all, they offered entirely new possibilities - new sounds, and also a way to put multiple sounds (e.g. chords) into a single sample. Nevertheless, the early chips (and the available memory at the time) often only allowed for rather low quality samples. So the switch to 16 bit also often meant trading crystal clear synth music for low bitrate/low frequency samples. And often these samples sound worse than I believe they would have if higher frequencies and larger sample values had been available. In these cases, the released music may well have been a compromise between the "original" composition and the available hardware. How much of that applies always depends on the specific project, of course.