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AND IT'S HERE!!! https://www.disneymusicemporium.com/product/XVCD52/legacy-collection-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame?cp=null IMO Menken's greatest work aside from Pocahontas. Can't wait! Yavar

I drop these little inconsistencies just to test your attention.

Two recent Varése's came in. LOVE FIELD: After the strains of 'Total Recall' and the less than ample rewards, Goldsmith attempted a 'genre purge', refusing from then on action and horror pictures, looking for the blessings of character dramas (Oscar bait, for the more cynical-minded). The results were decidedly mixed, with JG doing a string of chick flicks that he graced with sweet puppy-dog tunes that weren't always to the best advantage of the films they accompanied. Be that as it may, 'Love Field', written around early 1991, has the advantage of being a solid drama about race relations, so the rampant cuteness is bracketed with more somber material for the movie's stoic black character and the problems he and JFK-mad housewife Michelle Pfeiffer (the movie's set in 1963) encounter. The southern settings also beget us a blues/gospel vibe, a rare occurence in Goldsmith's work and a real shot in the arm for the score. It was released as very short album in 1993, so naturally a lot of Goldsmith's motivic work fell under the table or appeared like random musical ideas. It's by nature not the most exciting music to listen to, but a noticeable asset is the elaborate woodwind writing that recalls Goldsmith's 60's work and is a few notches above other scores of that time (especially in tandem with the deep reverb blues piano). Least pleasant are the typical jagged action moments (The Motel) that fall back on familiar clichés and feel a bit cheap in context, but thankfully they are kept to a minimum. All in all a welcome addition, with a few of Bill Payne's replacement cues, that sound like source music but are a nice bonus (Goldsmith's score got rejected halfway, which happened much more frequently from the late 80's onward). THE EIGER SANCTION: John Williams lone score for Clint Eastwood, and one wishes it were for a better picture. Part campy Bond movie, part tense mountain-climbing thriller, its elements never come together and apart from the breathtaking photography (Utah and the Swiss Alps), it's a rather unpleasant affair, with Eastwood hitting about everything offensive he could find (queers, women, toxic masculinity, and not in a charming kind of way). Williams was hired because he was a hot commodity at Universal back then and had a talent for jazz, a Eastwood favourite, even if the movie wasn't an especially 'jazzy' one. The main theme, a vaguely melancholic baroque affair with a distinctly european flavour, has at best a tangential relation to the movie. Like in the disaster movie's of that era, it was kinda hard to come up with anything fitting, so composers resorted to either locale or some other superficial element to grace them with something memorable (see also 'Cassandra Crossing' for a very similar example). The new Intrada fleshes out the other motivic elements, like the 'Family Plot'-like harpsichord idea that turns up much more often here, as well as the many suspense moments from later in the story, which unfortunately aren't nearly as exciting as i remembered them (resembling Jaws 2, surprisingly). So what we have here is a pop score with a lot o groovy variations on the main theme as a selling point, and single pieces from the fist half of the score - Friends and Enemies, the baroque montage, the fierce car chase, one of the best action cues from that time in Williams' career - as well as the Straussian alpine cues, mainly for the beguiling establishing shots of the Eiger north wall (The Eiger, First Sunset). It's all not particularly deep or insightful, but once you've seen the movie you wonder why Williams took it at all. It's very entertaining, though, once you got rid of the fat and the repetitions. My perfect 70's Williams collection is complete now.

I've told this story before, but back in the Summer of 2010 my wife and I spent several weeks in the US. We started of in San Francisco, went to LA, Vegas, the Grand Canyon and we drove as much as we could of the historic Route 66 to Chicago. From there we flew to Florida and after a week or so took a plane to New York. Just before heading out to Washington DC, we -on August 3- drove to Tanglewood for my first -and only- John Williams concert. Now I knew it is quite rare to get an autograph at Tanglewood, let alone have the chance to share a few words with John Williams, so therefore I was very content with the prospect of 'just' seeing the maestro conduct. Upon arrival, I got my first chance to see the program of the evening. To my slight disappointment, I saw that Williams would only conduct the second half of the concert and that Keith Lockhart would conduct until intermission. Just before the concert started, my wife whispered: 'Isn't that John Williams?' I wanted to respond with something like: 'No, that is Keith Lockhart...', but I noticed she was pointing at someone in the audience. And there he was, sitting about 20 meters away from where we were seated: John Williams (can you spot him?) He wasn't backstage waiting for his moment to shine, no: he was sitting enjoying the concert like anyone else attending that day. At the start of intermission, I expected Williams to make his way to the dressing room or whatever, but I noticed he stood up and amicably talked to some people around him. With my heart pounding I slowly approached John Williams and from there things start to get blurry. I know I got to shake his hand and he signed the program booklet I got at the entry point. I know John Williams was the one who suggested signing it on the upper left corner since there is would be most visible. And I know I said I came all the way from The Netherlands and he said: 'Oh, that's wonderful! Enjoy the rest of the concert my friend!' 'My friend.' Wow. Williams conducted the rest of the program, but I was in a completely different world at that time. In a way, I still am. It was a true highlight in my life and a memory I will cherish forever.

Phew. This is a big question. Beauty and the Beast: Yes, undoubtedly. The new songs are gorgeous and written in 1993/1994, so during the height of Menken's powers. "If I Can't Love Her" is an incredible song for the Beast. It does have Tim Rice as a lyricist for the new songs, and he's no Howard Ashman, but they hold up alright. Better than Aladdin even, which necessitated the same Rice/Ashman pairing but with more of an obvious difference between who did what. The Lion King you have so you know. It is very necessary. The Little Mermaid has its moments, don't get me wrong. There are some fun new numbers but overall, they made a lot of mistakes. Ending changes, bad lyrics, it's a mess. "She's in Love" is a bop though, I don't care. Aladdin is a travesty of travesties. I don't even know where to begin. Tarzan is better than you'd expect or people give it credit for. Mary Poppins is another great one. Really great new songs and really interesting new arrangements of old songs. I own this one on disc. The marriage between the old and new material is practically perfect in every way. And then the big one, Der Glockner von Notre Dame. The best it's ever gonna get for Disney on stage. Avoid the American version. If it had Tony Jay, it would be the single greatest Disney disc I own, no contest.

He helped me craft the LOVE FIELD suite. We had a nice chat about the score and what tracks I should feature that WEREN'T on the original release. -Erik-

BRAND NEW EPISODE OF THE CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST VARESE SARABANDE CD CLUB - PART ONE http://www.cinematicsound.net/the-flag-ship-show-varese-sarabande-cd-club-part-1/ In today’s episode of THE FLAGSHIP SHOW on the CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST, Jason Drury joins Erik Woods to talk about and listen to music from Varese Sarabande Records latest three batches of CD club releases. Varese Sarabande CD Club began in the late ’80s which was a mail-order CD club of great film scores not otherwise available on compact disc. It wasn’t until 1989 did we get to see the first release. In the first batch of releases, which came out between 1989 and 1992, we got to finally hear on CD for the first time such scores as CHERRY 2000, FEDORA, VIBES, RED SONJA, RAGGEDY MAN, STAR N BARS, THE BURBS, WE’RE NO ANGELS, JAGGED EDGE and others for the first time on CD. In part one of this two-part show, you’ll hear selections from THE MATRIX by Don Davis, KNOWING by Marco Beltrami and LOVE FIELD by Jerry Goldsmith. You’ll also hear a surprise end credit suite at the end of the program. We want to thank Yavar Moradi from the Goldsmith Odyssey Podcast for his assistance with the program today. Enjoy! ----- LISTEN: http://www.cinematicsound.net/links-page/ PATREON: https://bit.ly/2QWDGeO MERCH STORE https://www.teepublic.com/stores/cinematic-sound-radio

The Wachowskis (I know only one of them is on this new movie) have this crazy contradictory mix of creative impulses/tones that really appeals to me personally. A mix of experimentalism and traditionalism, cynicism and optimism. Maybe I wouldn't put Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas in the great pantheon of classic films but who cares? They're super fun and interesting to watch.

Ludwig Goransson will return for the sequel: http://filmmusicreporter.com/2021/09/07/ludwig-goransson-to-return-for-ryan-cooglers-black-panther-wakanda-forever/

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2021/09/08/james-newton-howard-to-compose-music-for-disney-series-willow/

Pot Luck all the way!

Great news! Bob Odenkirk Back At Work On ‘Better Call Saul’ After Heart Attack

I really enjoyed the Aladdin stage show, which I think is a lot of fun and I quite enjoy the extra songs, although I don't much like the extended version of Friend Like Me. Plus it has a couple of songs that were originally written for the movie but went unused when the main character dynamics changed. Aladdin originally had a group of friends rather than a monkey, but for the stage show they cut Abu - if I remember rightly - and reinstate the friends. Notably, Proud of Your Boy, which is lovely, and High Adventure which Menken described as writing an action cue with words that works surprisingly well. However it's a shame they couldn't find a space for Why Me which was written for Jafar and was fully recorded. It's like a weird mash-up of Broadway villain song and Bond, but absolutely brilliant. It's appeared as a bonus track a few times and I fully expect it'll appear on the eventual Legacy Edition (Proud of Your Boy was also fully recorded). The other new songs are pretty decent and much better than the weirdly inappropriate power ballad written for the live action remake which is OK, but doesn't fit with the rest of the songs at all. BATB now has essentially three versions, the original film, the stage version with some excellent additional songs (my only real complaint is that it's a shame they didn't have a bigger orchestra for the cast recording as it really does deserve a 90 piece orchestra) and the live action remake which has different new songs. As @blondheim says, the new songs for the stage show are excellent. In common with the others, a lot of the songs are based on secondary themes from the movie underscore. I'm not sure whether those themes were originally expressly written for the score and repurposed as songs or if they are melodies of unused songs that Menken liked enough to turn into songs. Either way it means that the new songs connect even more with the original material. I don't really know why people are so down on the US version of the Hunchback stage show, the album seems pretty great to me, albeit kinda dialled up to 11 a lot of the time. My only real complaint (which I've expressed before) is that almost the entire lyrics of the opening, titular song, have been changed to focus on Frollo and his brother rather than Quasimodo, which seems a very odd choice to me. Both versions are well worth getting and good to know that the German version is now more readily available. I loved the Mary Poppins stage show, which makes quite a few changes to the film in terms of story and characters, but probably for the better and found the new songs to be utterly charming. Practically Perfect is probably the best song the Sherman Brothers never wrote. It is... (boom)... practically perfect. Utterly charming and witty. Agree on Little Mermaid. It's fun, but not exactly earth shattering and yes, Tarzan is surprisingly decent. The additional Phil Collins songs (depending on your view on his music) are great. I always loved Phil Collins' songs to be fair; Son of Man, You'll be in My Heart and Strangers Like Me are especially great. I like that they didn't try to extend any of the original songs for the stage version, as so often is the case. Collins writes pop songs, they aren't meant to go on for 7 minutes. Also, another improvement is that the characters sing the songs rather than the songs being non-diegetic as in the film. There's an interesting YouTube video about how it disconnects the viewer in a way that isn't an issue when the characters are singing. Oh and a PS... some custom cover art for Hunchback Legacy Edition... Fits the style and I prefer it slightly to the actual artwork. It was from a Pinterest page which had a load of Disney (and non-Disney) animated movie album alternative artwork. The one for Prince of Egypt was especially great.

I'm pretty sure when Bruce Botnick spoke with The Goldsmith Odyssey about this, he said the two discs were absolutely packed. I'm sure they had to prioritize what to include. People who want the cast albums can buy the cast albums. I'm not sure fans of the film/film score would have necessarily been happy about having to pay for more than a 2 disc set (four, five, or maybe even six discs would be required...if including every one of the musical cast albums in full). I think it makes sense that they include the complete music written for the film, plus any demo material and such, and then it's a cool bonus for them to also fill out the rest of disc 2 with what they can...in this case some of the musical. For anyone interested, the 1999 German cast recording is pretty inexpensive secondhand: https://www.discogs.com/Alan-Menken-Stephen-Schwartz-James-Lapine-Disneys-Der-Glöckner-Von-Notre-Dame-Die-Höhepunkte-Der-W/release/5982656 The English cast album recorded in 2015 does seem rather harder to find... https://www.discogs.com/Alan-Menken-Stephen-Schwartz-Brent-Alan-Huffman-The-Hunchback-Of-Notre-Dame-Studio-Cast-Recording/release/9157797 And I'm not finding the German 2017 recording on Discogs easily, but here's a review of it with a cover image: https://www.musical1.de/news/nun-auf-cd-der-gloeckner-von-notre-dame/ Yavar

Reneissance Masters in general, yeah, kind of! If only Hans was Verrocchio and Powell was Leonardo

Worth noting that Williams wrote both versions for the film itself: the loud version is an insert that replaces the quiet ending called 'Finale Tag', but it's not yet known if it got recorded. As for why: pops concert selections tend to go for flashy endings over subtle ones, so a lot of conductors will appreciate the option, especially for outdoor venues where a quiet ending like that can easily get swallowed up.

I really don't care about the movie or its score as Davis isn't working on it. And the Wachowskis haven't produced anything really great since, what, 1999?

Saw the film last night and loved it! Loved the CGI-heavy third act a little less than the compelling and visceral first two acts, but it was all very well done. Loved all the actors, loved the characters, was impressed by how emotionally resonant the relationships were and how compelling the villain was. The score was generally quite good and aided the film well, although I wish there'd been a more memorable main theme. The Chinese flavor was well integrated with the western orchestra. I highly recommend everyone go check out the film in theater, and maybe sample the score on Spotify before purchasing digitally. Yavar

"You know you didn't even give them a good *bang* at the end of songs, to let them know when to clap" - Salieri

I was at the Sunday concert and it was a lot of fun. Of course, since I have finished my podcast, I knew there would be no new film music for me to hear, but that was fine. The Overture to the Oscars was new, I think? I have to look it up, but it sounded like the music that opened the 2002 Oscars when he was co-musical director. I enjoyed seeing JW looking so lively at 89 years old. I spoke with a woman after the show, and after I told her John Williams was five months away from turning 90, she said, "He looked like he was in his 70s!" But the highlight of the show was meeting Eduardo Victoria, who was a cohost on my podcast for the "War of the Worlds" episode. It was the first time meeting one of my cohosts in person, and we had a wonderful pre-show conversation.

I’ve met him twice, they aren’t terribly interesting stories but here is the first time meeting him: I flew to Boston to see Williams conduct the Boston Pops in 1996, I was 20 years old. It wasn’t a film music concert or anything and he didn’t conduct any of his own music. I asked the Pops staff if it would be possible to meet him, and they let me go backstage to meet him (I can’t even remember if it was before/after the concert or during intermission). Keith Lockhart was back there too, though he wasn’t conducting that night. I said hello and shook his hand. I got to spend a few minutes with JW, I can’t even remember what I said, probably just fanboy gushing. I was nervous as hell. Williams was very nice and thanked me for coming all the way from Baltimore to see him. He signed my Star Wars Anthology disc 4, which I then got framed. I didn’t get a picture with him, but I would on my next meeting…

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19349-what-is-the-last-score-you-listened-to-older-scores/&do=findComment&comment=1832296

How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy Enola Holmes Coco Ready Player One The Incredibles 1 & 2 The Dragon Prince (3 seasons) Wonder Woman 1984

I found the Aladdin stage show to be super gimmicky and the new lyrics are dreadful. Proud of Your Boy is lovely but that version of the show is long dead. The Music Behind The Magic box set of Aladdin has some nice demos of songs Ashman himself worked on and places the material in context at least. I would much rather listen to that. Ashman's material expanded and re-recorded would be the only way to lengthen Aladdin in a way that interests me. When I found out the Broadway production was going in a different direction I started to lose interest but then I heard the thing. Even the movie was pushing it with the songs Rice added. "Nom de plume" is not a phrase that should be in a street urchin's vocabulary. "Every moment red-letter" also stands out as being anachronistic but is almost interesting enough to pass. Re-recording Aladdin and not including any of that Ashman material was a sin. I am also not fond of the Genie referencing other shows in Friend Like Me. As per my username, I like my musicals a little less Herman and a little more Sondheim. The US version of Hunchback. Michael Arden makes the same mistake Sean Penn makes in I Am Sam. That's number one. The opening is nonsensical as you mentioned. Who cares? There is a lot of over-acting, I agree. The constant reprises of numbers don't thrill me either. This isn't Sweeney Todd with the chorus, that's not what this show needs. Other than that it's passable, but mediocre in the extreme. Anyone, just listen to Esmeralda from both. I don't care if you don't understand a word of German, that performance is leagues above the other. Buy Glockner. Spin Glockner. Once you all get into Glockner, then I can turn your attention to Tanz Der Vampire...

I rate on Letterboxd and kinda just gauge how I feel. I don't put that much thought into it, don't write reviews, mainly just put a star rating as a way to log and so I can filter movies together in broad preferential groups which is useful sometimes. I think if I had to reason it out it'd be 5-4 are movies that really stir up some enthusiasm or feeling in me and/or have some exceptional craft to them. The 5s I do sort of curate as the things I like to remember and associate together as favorites. Sometimes there's no big objective difference to me between a 5 and a 4. 3.5-3 are sort of my average "that was fine" with things I like and a lot of flaws I don't really care about, by far the ratings I use the most. That's my average reaction to a movie, feeling positive but in no special way, the 0.5 difference just puts it closer to good or bad. Sometimes if an okayish movie like this makes me cry or has one brilliant sequence I'll bump it to 4. 2.5 starts getting into "bad" territory (which I guess makes me a "glass half empty" person!) I can usually acknowledge there's some level of competence going on, or if it's poor all-around but endearing to me, a lot of the crap of my childhood goes in the 2.5-2 category. 2/5 is about as bad as it gets before I would actually start to say I hated something. 1.5-0.5 gets to the embarrassing levels of incompetence or if it's offensive or whatever.

I'm one of the few who love ROTJ and Star Wars more or less the same. Films and scores. I have problems with both, and love the highlights from both, but the only film and score that I personally think has little to no problems, and is nothing but highlights, is The Empire Strikes Back.

I guess he just wanted the Yavar seal of approval to flaunt.

Very little, to be honest. @Erik Woods is very nice to give me/the Odyssey a shout-out! He simply asked what previously unreleased cues should be played, given a time limit of 12 minutes or so. I immediately had to rule out "Lost Luggage" as that would have been the entire suite! So I just picked my favorites of the shorter cues to include, the most important of which was "The Map". Yavar

I like the orchestra in the American version of the Hunchback musical, but the singing is by far superior in the German version. And German really lends itself to this sort of music, doesn't it?

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There is, it would just be cool to have the whole thing in one package (plus, getting the Botnick treatment)

Hoping for The Jungle Book next.

It wasn't actually officially announced before... Bruce Botnick revealed on this Goldsmith Odyssey Soundtrack Spotlight that he had just finished work on it: https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/8360054-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-along-came-a-spider-2001 But now it IS officially announced and up for preorder! https://www.disneymusicemporium.com/product/XVCD52/legacy-collection-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame?cp=null Yavar

And is the most recognized as such.

I missed this thread the first time around. Either that or I didn't bother posting because I knew I couldn't vote, because my answer to both questions is "not ROTJ." The other two are locked in an eternal struggle in my heart. SW edges out on the basis of maximum nostalgia; ESB edges out on my subjective impression of its objective quality. That's true for the films and the scores.

Real 3D Poster All the posters look much, much better than the theatrical one-sheet

Tickets are on sale today, for the concerts at Symphony Hall. I snagged two for the Saturday night, Oct. 2 concert! https://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/113990

At least this new Matrix film has inspired a USA orchestra to book 'The Matrix' L2P concert for July '22. The last USA booking was over 8 years ago.

Davis was the voice and the soul of The Matrix. He defined the sonic world of the series, so any film of the series without him will miss something crucial, imho. Perhaps the filmmakers have gone on a completely new route, hence the composer change may make sense, who knows. It's sad that a superb talent like Don isn't getting more high profile gigs, but I guess his style and approach don't gel well with the current requirements of the blockbuster scoring. I'll be forever in awe of him for having the guts to write an unbelieveably complex piece of music for the burly brawl in the second film--too bad it was rejected in the end.

Oh yeah. I said "You need a better fan than I am". He replied "I know, but they are all dead".

With the exception of the Matrix sequels which I was hot and cold on at the time (and haven’t rewatched), I’ve strongly liked everything the Wachowskis have done since The Matrix.

Thanks, there were just so many tickets for Saturday up for grabs (at one point 18!) that I just had to call out to the fan community. This bout of tickets came rather unexpectedly. Also the time of day was unusual. Tickets even popped up in groups of 4. For anyone who wasn't lucky, keep checking like an utter nerd. Who knows?

A nice compilation of Morricone's piano works, both "serious" and from various soundtracks. Released 2021.

Ah, my second-favourite Joe Dante score now finally on Spotify:

I'm listening to the sketchbook right now. I have a theory about these albums: they're precisely what Zimmer writes when he's working on a movie. I mean, he writes a lot of music inspired by the movie, then asks his assistants to fit what he wrote into the movie. So, the actual film cues are arrangements done by his assistants of the material he wrote. I'm not sure if this is true and I'd love to be proven wrong, but I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of this and he actually writing the score cues (with a little help from his friends )

Would be amazing if he approached it like Williams' Star Wars suites, and wrote a handful of movements! He could even open with JW's suite: Act I - The Adventures of Han Act II - Han & Q'Ira (Love Theme Suite) Act III - Mine Mission (Concert arrangement of film cue) Act IV - Chewy & Flying Suite Mirrors the structure of the end credits, except each major idea is extrapolated into a standalone arrangement.

While I really don't want another Kelvin verse film I will still see it. What I'm really bitching about is here is another announcement of a Star Trek film. We've had Tarantino this guy some female director somebody named Nick and nothing has come to fruition. So just put me in the I will believe it when I see it category

So, especially since the time is ripe for an expansion of this score, I went digging and found the original cue titles in the GEMA database. They seem to generally be in film order, though with some of the album titles grouped at the end (maybe just the ones that are not also cue titles?). I've included the few slates that are known: 1M1 Retribution [unused?] OX4925 [Main Title?]* OX4927 Cinque's Theme OX4928 1M2 July 4th, 1839 OX4929 [source, arr. Abraham & Allen]* OX4930 Ya Weh [source, arr. Abraham & Allen] OX4932 The Capture OX4934 The Capture, Part II OX4939 Introducing Mr. Adams OX4940 Guitar Source #1 [comp. JW] OX4941 Guitar Source #2 [comp. JW] OX4942 Meeting of the Minds OX4943 6M1 Counsel Meets Client OX4944 The Ship Remembers OX4946 Visiting Adams OX4947 7M4A Learning to Count OX4948 Today We Face The Wall [source, arr. Allen, Abraham, Sow] OX5803 The Ladder Is Broken [source, arr. Abraham, Allen] OX5805 Let's Stand Together* [source, arr. Allen, Kargbo] OX5807 Tale of the Tiger’s Tooth OX5809 The Capture of Cinque OX5810 The Second Crossing OX5811 10M1 Tales of Horror OX5812 Discovering the Bible OX5813 Prisoner’s Song OX5814 Timuyandya* [source, comp. Allen, Kargbo, Okpala, Sow] OX5816 Jail Drums [source, comp. JW] OX5817 The Letter to Massachusetts OX5818 13M2 Cinque’s Legal Mind OX5819 African Violet OX5821 Adams’ Address to the Court OX5822 Adams' Summation OX5824 The Verdict OX5825 [Liberation of Lomboko?]* OX5826 Dry Your Tears, Afrika [End Credits Part I] OX5827 Going Home OX5830 15M4 End Credits Part II [The Long Road To Justice] *Title shows only as "Amistad" in database OST-only titles? OX5834 Sierra Leone 1839/The Capture of Cinque OX5835 Crossing the Atlantic OX5836 Cinque's Memories of Home OX5837 Middle Passage OX5838 The Long Road to Justice OX5839 Mr. Adams Takes the Case OX5840 La Amistad Remembered OX5841 The Liberation of Lomboko OX5842 Dry Your Tears, Afrika (Reprise)