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Classic FM article: And a tweet by the LSO: I guess that officially makes JW a Jedi Knight (I can't believe nobody made that lame joke in this thread before…)

But more JW music is better to have. ESB did it right, have him score it all, then figure out where it's actually needed!

Jwfans:. Why aren't JW scores mixed loud enough?? Jwfans: Why is this JW score mixed so loud??

John Crowner Williams

Today we've got the next part of the Ministry break-in, Cue No. 13: Umbridge's Office. There's some colorful comedic orchestration for the Detonators and some throwbacks to OOTP (which were fun to work on with some better sound). Thanks for listening! MS

The Durin & Elrond Comedy Hour? Meteor Man and the Little People?

The Lord of the Rings of Power... problem solved.

On the surface the discourse may look similar but having seen both I know it's coming from very very different places. The shows themselves are pretty much polar opposites

Yea, it was silly. The thing is, even without the bizarre expression on her face totally killing the scene, even before that, the slow motion was already pointless and out of place to begin with. It should have just taken a few seconds to cover their travel out of the city across the nice landscape, but focusing on the ride, with slow motion (something the show hasn't done elsewhere that I recall), was an odd idea that I don't really get. Bayona didn't have werid stuff like this in his two episodes.

"Is this the full list, Ma'am?" - "No, there is another…"

Yes! So those were rustling leaves I thought I heard. I’ll be performing the score live to projection this Autumn as I do my yardwork.

Dude.

If I were directing a composer, my gut tells me I'd go in the opposite direction becuase I think basically everything is overscored. I'd start with a movie having no music at all, then deciding on places where the lack of music was harming it. I definitely believe in the power of music transforming a scene but that doesn't apply to every scene.

What about TROS and TLJ? 1 Luke 2 Rebels Fanfare 3 We Go Together theme 1 4 Theme 2 5 Anthem of Evil 6 Imperial March 7 Rey's Theme 8 Throne Room (9 if you include Rolling Thunder as a theme, even more if you break certain themes up by sections)

Lincoln - 5 themes Freedom's Call With Malice Towards None The People's House The American Process Soldier Boy War Horse - 6 themes Narracotts Playful Horse Nature Dartmoor Bonding Friendship The BFG - 6 themes Sophie's Theme Family Theme Giants Giant Country Bad Dreams Friendship Theme

Just remember this IS a spinoff of The Lord of the Rings and nothing else. Again, here I have highlighted the works upon which this show is based:

The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit (Howard Shore, Bear McCreary) Sorry for this giant dump, but I've been sitting a bit more on my LotR and Hobbits covers, changing lots and lots of details. These are as accurate as I can make them and I consider them to be final. Alternate colours will come later. Hope you like em! CD versions: Vinyl versions:

A lot of actors don't like when the music does the heavy lifting in a movie, as to their eyes it takes a lot of attention from them. It's nothing new

I agree the title is awkward, but given the necessities of marketing, I get it. Not crazy about it, but I get it. In any event, the title is the least of this show's problems.

Am I the only one here who actually loves the first two movies? They're not perfect, but they were a huge part of my childhood. I saw both in theaters (with CoS actually being one of the best theatrical experiences of my life) and then countless times on DVD, no matter how long they were. I know it's hip and cool to take a shit on them these days, but I still mantain fond memories of my childhood. That said, not even my nostalgia can make me like the Yates-directed flicks.

Well let's hope he'll return one day. "And you, young Spielberg, we will watch your career with great interest."

That is the cue as originally composed and recorded by JW. He later wrote and recorded two inserts to replace the trumpet solo bit and the appearance of the Emperor descending the ramp. For some reason, those two inserts were presented on the RCA Victor/Sony Classical 2-CD expansion literally "as recorded" at the beginning of the track "The Lightsaber/Ewok Battle" (track 21). The edit "as heard in the film" has never been officially released, but there are some fan-made edits around. Ep4 is certainly the one with less issues on that side of things and the one that imho stands up better musically speaking (despite some long stretches without score). Both TESB and ROTJ retain a lot of the looping and tracking of cues, and the situation is aggravated because they use the 1997 SE versions for the LTP performances, so it was decided to conform the score to those edits as heard in the films. Imho, it's a missed opportunity to restore some of JW's original intentions or at least smooth some of those awkward transitions, but it seems that the general attitude is always to have the LTP score as close as possible to the known versions of the films instead of creating a "composer's cut" version of the film.

I spent the Sunday night with classic romantic comedy scores from the 90s: My Best Friend's Wedding (JNH) - Pretty good! Father of the Bride (Alan Silvestri) - Charming! Father of the Bride: Part II (Alan Silvestri) - Even better than the first one! Now, if you excuse me, I'll go listen to Goldsmith's First Blood and Silvestri's The Predator scores in order to get my masculinity back

Vertigo

I just finished episode 2. The music does it's job. There was one moment where I thought I might want this outside of the show. But I can't remember it now. And I'm OK with it. Really I want something that I love as much as Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. I'd be thrilled with something as good as Rogue One or Solo or Return of the Jedi. But that's not in the cards. And wishing it doesn't make it so.

In that way, it’s like a very long delayed forum post

Here are some covers for Avatar: The Way of Water:

Yesterday Alan Menken finally received his Max Steiner award in what was originally going to be the 2020 Hollywood in Vienna gala concert, until it got postponed twice by one year each due to the pandemic. Once again, the entire programme was dedicated exclusively to Menken compositions, with the exception of Broughton's opening fanfare and the traditional final Gone With the Wind encore. The programme consisted of: Overture & Be Our Guest (from Beauty and the Beast, but with "funny" modified lyrics to fit the evening) Bless Our Show (from Sister Act - the musical; I keep forgetting Menken was involved with that) Enchanted - Suite Suite & I See the Light (Tangled) Home on the Range - Suite* Go the Distance & Gospel Medley (Hercules) Intro & Friend Like Me A Whole New World Prince Ali Proud of Your Boy(all from Aladddin) Pocahontas - Suite* The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Suite The Little Mermaid - Suite* Under the Sea (same) Something There Suite* (Beauty and the Beast) Encores: How Does a Moment Last Forever (Beauty and the Beast) Suddenly Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors) Some of the suites included songs (I've marked those with an asterisk). Most importantly, this meant that Pocahontas included Colors of the Wind, and The Little Mermaid included Poor Unfortunate Soulds (brilliantly performed by Drew Sarich) and Part of Your World. Sadly, some were purely instrumental; I usually find Menken's underscore nice enough, but mostly secondary to the songs, so I'd usually rather have just the songs instead. Tangled is the one where I find the actual score more interesting than usually, but sadly they didn't include the standout piece (Kingdom Dance) in the suite. Hunchback's dramatic Orff-Requiem finale I always found good but overrated, and it's long… I would have preferred the dramatic opening song/score, or Heaven's Light & Hellfire. The Beauty and the Beast suite ended with the titular song - but sadly with an arrangement of the pop version that started out as a duet and ended up involving the entire ensemble. The only bits I didn't know were Sister Act and Home on the Range, and at least without context it was rather grotesquely eccentric. How Does a Moment Last Forever was performed by Menken himself at the piano, after receiving the Steiner award. The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester (as usual) was conducted by Michael Kosarin (co-composer, arranger, and conductor for many Menken projects since Hercules - the programme booklet claims that their first collaboration was when he allegedly conducted Pocahontas, but neither the CD booklet nor IMDb corroborate that he was involved with that at all). The cast was made up of Broadway and West End singers, many of whom originated the stage versions of the songs the performed - much better than my initial fear that they would cast Austrian/German musical singers (or even perform the German versions of the songs). Sounds great so far? It probably could have been, but Hollywood in Vienna has been persistent in making each concert bigger and more EPIC! than the previous one. What started out with a first rate concert conducted by John Mauceri (with music by Korngold, Williams, and Goldsmith, among others) has long since become a big spectacle with a click-tracked, amplified orchestra and choir that puts more emphasis on the projections, light show, "funny" moderators, and overall EPICness than the actual music. Even then this year's programme could have fared reasonably well, but for most of it, the mix was a mess. Even when the orchestra wasn't mixed so loudly as to drown out the singers, the balance was off (because the voice came from the overhead speakers, while the massive orchestra came, when not over-mixed, primarily from the stage). But mostly, everything was turned up to 11 (orchestra, soloists, choir), and when the percussion kicked in, all you could really hear was drums and a massive wall of sound. I was very much looking forward to the gospel stuff from Hercules (possibly the most ingenious thing Menken has done), but for much of it I could only make out the drums and the lower alto (?) muse. In retrospect, I Won't Say (I'm In Love) would probably have worked much better. There was a relatively brief stretch - from Pocahontas to The Little Mermaid - where the mix (or perhaps the arrangements) was more tempered, and that part of the concert was really quite good (although as I mentioned earlier, not my favourite selection for Hunchback). Sadly, everything was turned up to 11 for an EPIC version of Under the Sea. Ending the official part of the programme with an overproduced, full cast arrangement of the pop version of Beauty and the Beast kind of sums up everything that's wrong (as far as I'm concerned, or from what I expect from a *music* concert as opposed to an epic entertainment spectacle) with the format. Ultimately, the cast was probably first rate, and the performances mostly very fine (I See the Light felt somehow lacking in emotion to me, which may well be attributable to the strict click track), but the overall result was a rather sad, if loud, mess. It'll probably fare much better in a recorded version (I assume a Blu-ray release will be coming), and those who only experience it in that form will probably not even understand much of my criticism. During her speech at the end of the concert, producer Sandra Tomek mentioned that the future is unclear and they don't yet know if there will be another Hollywood in Vienna. I don't know if that is because of lack of funding or for artistic reasons, but we (the traditional group of friends who usually meet up at this (and other film music) concerts) speculated before the concert what they might come up with next, and couldn't think of anything, because after Zimmer and Menken, it seems like they've almost exhausted the big crowd pleasers that can work in this extravagant format (and I can't see them return to a more settled concert setting). My only idea was an all-Marvel programme, which would probably be the first time I decide to skip the concert.

I think I'm basically in the same camp as you in terms of what I need out of headphones. I looked up the site and clicked the first one on the list by accident and that was a scary number...but I was thinking more in the range of what the 99 Classics cost.

I dunno, Sauron is the lord of the rings, and the show is about what he got up to in the second age, so it seems fine to me

Another small nitpick. Am I the only one who absolutely hates that it's being called: The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. The only thing that you can call Lord Of The Rings are those books and those 3 films. All the other stories aren't that. They should've either called is just The Rings Of Power or something with Middle Earth in it. In my library I've changed the names of the albums as well. They all just begin with The Rings Of Power. I just can't put The Lord Of The Rings in front of it. It doesn't fit

I listened to a reportedly hideous score while filling out the 12534th job application.

Yo, Johnny! All congrats on your honourary knighthood, dude! As you haven't given a single public performance of your own music in the UK, since July 4th, 1998, perhaps you could use getting done by Charlie boy, to plan a concert, with the L.S.O., at, either, Barbican, or the Royal Albert Hall? Wha' d'ya say? Signed, A patient fan

Episode 1x6 The Princess And The Queen Another very strong episode. This really is the best show on tv right now. The writing is truly brilliant. There were so many discussion and lines that were just so well written. Incredible! Allicent and Viserys First off, Olivia Cooke is very good. I was actually surprised how not weird it felt seeing another actress in the role. I really believed she was the same person that Emily Carey portrayed. And I got a few Cersei vibes from her. Great to see. Allicent is playing the game with full force. But 2 of her pieces are having their own fun. Ser Cole is now her personal guard and trains all the children. But he is actually only training Viserys & Allicen't boys. And that's the moment Harwin Strong intervenes and shit goes bonkers. Cole is straight up 'Fatal Attraction'. He is a bit of an prick now and the way he treated the boys from Rhaenyra I thought was despicable. Than Larys Strong. Wow, this is a character the series was sort of missing, a very good conspirator. He reminds me very much of Littlefinger, but I feel he's even more dangerous. He is quite scary and is very dangerous. The final scene between him and Allicent, showed that Allicent should not try to stab him in the back, because he will do it to her before she'll get the chance. The way he implied that she'll reward him when the time is right is threat that I wouldn't take lightly. I was surprised to see Viserys is alive. And credit goes to Considine for letting the show make him look like that. He looked truly awful. It's sad how happy he got when Rhaenyra proposed the marriage to their children. I also got some Tywin Lannister vibes from him, in the way he is completely oblivious to the factwhat their children are doing. Rhaenyra & Laenor Emma D'arcy took a bit longer to get used to, but that opening scene of her giving birth was incredible. The 2 long takes were amazingly done and her acting was very good. But Rhaenyra and Laenor have been very careless. I know Laenor is gay, but to have 3 children with Harwin Strong is really stupid. All 3 have dark hair so everyone (well except Viserys) knows that it's not from Laenor. If I were them I would at least have produced one child together, so people wouldn't suspect so much. I also thought it was great to she Aemma's line from the first episode brought back. Aemma told Rhaenerya that a woman's battlefield is the birthing bed. Rhaenyra is doing now what she has feared she would become for a long time. It's interesting to see that Rhaenyra seems to really love her children, while to me it looks like Allicent is only seeing them as pieces on the board. Lord Strong & Harwin Strong Lord Strong was a truly good Hand Of The King. He sacrificed his own place in court for the safety and name of the King. That's what a good hand is supposed to do. But because he couldn't, out loud, speak of why he wanted to resign (which Allicent really wanted him to say) Viserys dismissed his notice and kept him as Hand. Lord Strong that demands to see Hawin off the Harrenhall so he get take up his duties as heir to House Strong. I felt it was truly sad to see them both die. Lord Strong was a great character and it was sad to see Harwin struggle to get his father out. He really did get nothing out of his relationship with Rhaenyra. It did feel really like Game Of Thrones, that every character can just die. Daemon & Laena These scenes were incredible. Their flight together was cool and Vhagar is an absolute beast. She's so big and it was really cool to see her. Then the mirroring of the first episode. I felt it was difficult to watch when Daemon had to make the same choice as Viserys had. But the shocking thing was that Laena already made the choice herself. Earlier the said to Daemon that she didn't want to die as some fat lord/lady but die a dragonriders death. And that she did. This was so so well done and I shed a tear for her. This scene worked so well because of Nanna Blondell's acting, the VFX team on Vhagar and the writing and directing. I thought it was incredible that Vhagar was hesitant about burning Laena even thought Laena kept calling Dracarys. Then to see Daemon actually care about her death was a wonderful character moment. I felt it was one of the best scenes of the series so far and I'm sad to see Laena go. Especially played by Blondell, she was terrific. Small things - The whole thing with the dragon eggs is interesting. The way it works and the way dragons only listen to one person. - Djawadi had some great moments this episode. The opening scene, flight scene and death of Laena were the standouts. - I hope Otto comes back, I actually missed him and Ifans. Now that Larys has killed his father 'for Allicent' is would be a clever decision on Allicent's part to persuade Viserys to name Otto hand again. - The little dragon at the start was very well realised. It felt like a mix between an dinosaur and a bat. It was quite disturbing actually. - I feel both Aegon & Aemond are little shits. And I don't know how fast the rest of the series will go (time jump wise). But I'm dreading the moment these two grow up. - John Macmillan is wonderful as Laenor. Very good. - The moment Rhaenyra walked away from Allicent's chambers and the bloodtrail behind her on the floor was horrific. - The small moment between Rhaenyra & Viserys was nice. Lovely to see their relationship is good

Yes. I heard about that. By the way, for my taste the alien quota at the characters with talking roles is too low in Andor. Since Return of the Jedi or latest since the prequels I am expecting there a little more diversity.

Media Ventures

I can't have eyes and ears everywhere!

What is wrong with you people? It's perfect as it is. And I would say Azkaban(best score of those three) mix is annoying, music is way too low. But hey, I love Williams.

That's absolutely on the 1997 2-CD set.

She signed the papers and was like “Now I can die.”

I just found a list of some of the honors bestowed on musicians by the monarchy. https://www.heraldica.org/topics/famous/knighthd.htm Can't vouch for the validity of this site, but if accurate, a few observations I can make for it: Most leading composers of the 20th century do not have KBEs - mostly just CBE or below. Many are knights but not necessarily knights of the the British Empire. The key exception is Benjamin Britten who was made a Baron, and that ranks above KBE. Examples: William Walton, CBE Richard Bennett, CBE Malcom Arnold, CBE Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM Some KBEs in the conductor ranks: Previn (who probably counted as both conductor and composer, as Sir Johnny does.) Georg Solti Mstislav Rostropovich Yehudi Menuhin was made KBE and then a Baron So, indeed this KBE is a pretty rare honorary award and speaks to the impact of Sir Johnny's influence. Really quite cool even if he cannot fashion himself (not that he would) as a Sir. We've been all rising when he walks in or out of the room for years anyway. In terms of any kinds of honors going to composers with film or TV pedigrees, Williams joins Previn (who stopped doing scores in the 60s'), Britten (who composed scores to make ends meet in the 30s), Arnold (who did a few), Bliss (also in the 30s), Andrew Lloyd Webber (stage), Elton John (as a songwriter), Ralph Vaughan Williams (with a few compositions that started as film scores), Bennett (a fair few), and Walton (who worked in film sporadically but over multiple decades- the Olivier/Shakespeare scores being standouts that are still played in concert halls). Long Live (Sir) John Towner Williams!

I agree that Shore was doing something that was new for the movies at that time, and extremely effective. But the way he realized this new approach did not consist in *inventing* a new advanced musical language - something that is almost impossible to expect from film music after all. What he did was to use, in the vast majority of the LOTR scores, a musical language that was hyper-simplified in many aspects. For example, there are long chunks of those scores which consist of only major and minor chords (and their inversions), often realized literally as close triads in the strings or the brass, accompanying fully diatonic melodies (and sometimes, one hears just "breathing" chords and nothing else). So, the composer achieved a novel film music style by making the choice of renouncing to more advanced techniques, which are (and were) commonly used in film scoring: it was a work of subtraction. The intent is clear: in this way, the music certainly feels more naturally integrated in those particular movies, but that is due in large part (in my opinion) to the particular nature and presence of the movies, with their atmosphere of antiquity and anti-artificiality. Remove the movies, and the musical writing - not always, but in several important points - sounds simplistic. Then, of course Shore's music works perfectly in those movies, it made history and nobody denies it. On the other hand, I can fully understand if another composer, such as McCreary, decides to make a different choice and to use a more complex compositional palette, which is what he did with considerable skill, from what I've heard up to now. Considering that the series (so far) does not seem to have the same atmosphere and cultural aspects of the movies, my impression is that Shore's approach might not have worked as effectively. This is the reason why I don't think McCreary's approach is inferior, given the differences between his task and Shore's task. Compositionally speaking, what I've heard from McCreary is more "difficult to do", which does not necessarily equal "better", but might equal "more interesting" at times. I'm saying this only because McCreary has been bashed a bit above in the thread for not following the same line as Shore, and I think his choice can be explained in the terms I mentioned.

Ray, when someone asks if you're a want to see a god live in concert, you say yes!

It does not help that the movie makers found new ways to hinder people's enjoyment of the music in each part of the trilogy. From AUJ with its tracking and bajillion unreleased inserts. To DoS with all the frustrating silencing of music. To BoFA with the music being buried under soundeffects alltogether.

I mean, you’re willing to sit through these episodes without any hope that the series will get better… clearly a LOT of folks (if the sheer number of YouTube videos declaring this a failure are any indication) are. This isn’t a traditional film/series that has to earn its budget back through repeat ticket sales. Unless it’s so awful that you cancel your Prime membership, RoP doesn’t really have to play by traditional rules. I say bring it on! I hate traditional TV. I just find it so weird that people are so anxious to announce this as a failure. Maybe it will be. Maybe it’ll change the way folks consume television the way LotR changed film. Why is it SO important that the show fail? Why not just ignore it if it’s really that awful, the way you do every other crap television series?