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+++Concert will be broadcast live on Radio 3, Monday 12 December at 8 pm++++[Edit: TBC] Rai Radio 3 Classica | Canale | RaiPlay Sound Rai Radio 3 | Palinsesto | Canale | RaiPlay Sound +++Italian program notes by Audissino+++ Imperia-Hollywood: il musicologo imperiese Emilio Audissino autore del "libretto" per il concerto di John Williams alla Scala - Riviera24 di Stefania Orengo, 06 Dicembre 2022 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Automatic translation! INTERNATIONAL Imperia-Hollywood: the musicologist from Imperia Emilio Audissino, author of the "libretto" for John Williams' concert at La Scala Williams has won 5 Oscars for the soundtracks of the most famous films, including Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Harry Potter Imperia-Hollywood. Imperia meets Oscar-winning music and flies to La Scala in Milan thanks to Emilio Audissino, from Imperia, film historian, musicologist and associate professor at Linnaeus University in Sweden is currently the world's greatest expert on composer John Williams. Who is John Williams? The composer, 5 times Oscar winner is the "father" of the soundtracks of all StevenSpielberg's films, including Indiana Jones, of the Star Wars saga of the "Edwige Theme" of Harry Potter. At the age of 90, the American composer will make his debut in Italy and for the first time will perform in Milan next Monday, December 12th. Emilio Audissino was commissioned to write the program or the "libretto" that will be distributed at the theater with the explanation of all the pieces that Williams will propose in his first Italian performance. «It is a great satisfaction for me to participate in this epochal event for music and even more so that I have been asked to write the Italian libretto, since usually my works are almost exclusively in English» comments the musicologist. Audissino has written two books about Williams, who is in effect one of the most famous composers in the world and who is currently taking care of the soundtrack of the latest episode of Indiana Jones, out next June 2023 in theaters. An exceptional concert in Milan, where tickets were sold out after just five minutes and where Imperia will also be there not only thanks to the work of Professor Audissino but also to his presence, requested, the day before Williams' performance. Audissino will introduce the open rehearsal to be held at the Teatro alla Scala on Sunday 11 December for the public under 30. The concert will be broadcast live on Radio 3 on Monday 12 December at 8 pm In the picture Maestro Williams and Emilio Audissino in their debut in Vienna. The musicologist and professor from Imperia is the author of the books "Film/Music Analysis: A Film Studies Approach" and "The Film Music of John Williams: Reviving Hollywood's Classical Style" (2014, republished in 2021). Automatic translation!

Made it home safe after a perilous snowy drive home. Now to dig in!

Unfortunately because I accidentally leaked my friend's music for the upcoming Trailer #2, he was forced to rewrite it using the Raiders Nazi march instead. indy_v_trailer_music_new.mp3

I don’t know, 112 sounds nice. So does 113 and 114 and 115…

I think the prominent statements of Surrender (e.g. White Knight, Backseat Driver, Kowloon Bay) are the most thrilling statements of a Bond theme in the whole series.

Perfection.

Irina should have "killed" Mac in the opening scene in order to gain Indy's compliance, after which she taunts Indy saying he was a double agent. It would've set her up as an actual threat to the audience and given Indy a more compelling motivation to go after the Soviets later in the movie (searching for answers about Mac, in an effort to clear his name). Mac doesn't actually have to be dead, a later scene could establish it was all was staged by himself and Irina, and then again a reveal that it was a triple-cross and he was on the USA's side all along. We'd get more interesting scenes for Harrison Ford, an appropriately Cold War-esque tangle of deceptions, plus it establishes an actual relationship with dramatic tension between Indy and Irina. Overall it works much better (even if it's basically the same as the opening of Goldeneye). Hell, I'd even go one step further and merge Mac and Oxley into one character, most of the plot points would've worked the same and it would've made for some interesting conflict between Mutt and Indy.

Just finished my first complete listen to this new set. I’d only ever listened to the Chapter III release and while I feel that edition is still a great summation of the score, this release knocks it out of the park. What a tremendous love letter to the Bond scores of the past mixed with the expectations of 90s blockbuster scoring. Arnold really attacked this as if he’d never score another Bond film again. The Monty Norman theme is flashed all over the place yet never becomes tiresome due to Arnold’s skillful adaptations and iterations. I mentioned earlier my preference for including the alternate version of “Surrender” instead of the Sheryl Crowe song. Still the best way to go in my opinion. Sometimes I find beefy action scores like this can outstay their welcome after 70mins. But this one knows just when to lay into the bombast and when to pull it back and have a breather. (The Okinawa/Halo cue is the perfect connecting tissue between “Backseat Driver” and “Underwater Discovery”. A tonal jump I always found jarring on the Chapter 3 release) There’s always something interesting occurring with the orchestration that keeps you hooked. Percussion, gorgeous woodwind solos. Even the 20 minute action packed climax beginning with “Boarding The Stealth” all the way to “All in a Days Work” is sprinkled with appropriate moments of rest before it boils over into another whirlwind of Bond Bravado. Toss out those old boots and iso score rips. Nobody does it better than Lala Land (Now onto Amistad. Talk about a tonal shift 😁)

My copy of TND arrived today. I swapped the Sheryl Crowe song for the Alternate version of “Surrender” to play after “White Knight” and “Backseat Pilot” and its *chefs kiss*. Such a great way to announce Arnold’s main theme in full after being teased with it in “white knight”. You’re really able to identify all its iterations throughout the rest of the score’s narrative. And then close the main program with the film version of “Surrender”. Nice big ole’ reprisal that sends the whole adventure off with a bang!

My jealousy knows no boundaries. I resent and hate you in this moment.

It was Kathleen Kennedy. Disney wanted John Williams to write the music for the trailer, but she said “nah, I’ll do it.” Many more great trailer music is to be expected from her in the future. I hope the op is satisfied now. I understand how hard it is to realize it wasn’t by John Williams, there are so many film composers out there who are just as talented as he. Anyway, looking forward to hearing more Kathy music in the next trailer.

When the title of ToD comes up with Willie blocking it (cause you already know the title, dummy) and the horns swell up in that eastern exotic way, I get chills every single time.

Yes. It is quite comparable with Harry Potter 1 and 2. A lot of repetition but also further development of the themes in part 2, the new themes are great, but the end to end listening experience of the sequel feels a little bit disjuncted compared to the first part.

I've heard this before, but it feels almost apocryphal to me. "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" appears literally in the first 30 seconds of the movie, which would seem to be a pretty strong indication that you were watching an Indiana Jones movie. I mean, the title card shows up before the musical number even starts.

Mike Zeroh and Doomcock are not legitimate sources if that's the "drama" you're referring to.

Ordered Amistad but from a European retailer and really looking forward to it. Such a wealth of unreleased material. I still remember some great underscore music when i watched the film for the first and only time about 8-10 years ago. And finally also the gorgeous guitar source cue gets released.

Vol. 3 OST is releasing this Friday, Dec. 9th https://twitter.com/NicholasBritell/status/1599798019012321280?s=20&t=yiarxxM-48rktIou55WSjw

I decided to settle the argument with a conclusive proof that John Williams wrote the trailer music. I simply asked ChatGPT, the world's most knowledgeable AI chat bot: UPDATE: After voicing my doubts to the chat bot regarding its last reply, it suddenly decided that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a non-existent film, and, thus, no trailer, let alone trailer music, exists for it:

I had the exact same thought about it! Actually I came here to share this gem from Jon and Al Kaplan… Yavar

At least there are others waiting with me in this miserable boat while we starve to death. Misery loves company as they say. Some of you are starting to look like chicken

YES!!!!!!!!!

Ah… but a THIRD (actually the second of the three) Conan score was written, and BEHOLD — it was recorded in London. Yavar

Lol no, you need the LLL to have a proper base of the full score and songs to build from without stupidly pre-joined stuff etc. Also it's a great score as is, better than 2.

I sort of agree that an OST that largely just has tracks from the full score programme is a bit redundant. Maybe Elfman really likes his assembly and wants people to listen to his programme as well. Some OSTs are more 'needed' than others in context of a set like this. And yes, not everyone can spend $40 on a release just when they want to. However, I think we should be careful to direct our criticism towards the right people. If Elfman's mandate for cooperating and blessing this release (and general 'Composer Approved' that people here so badly crave) was that the album be included, what were LLL supposed to do if they wanted this expansion to happen?

Ordered both Destroyer and Barbarian as I said I would 11 years ago when they were both announced. I’m an advocate for scrappy ensembles so I’m gonna fucking love this. I am also of the belief that every note of Basil’s work should be released, whether we need to re-record it or deal with an inferior ensemble.

This is almost the inverse of this thread, but we were watching the musical Anything Goes (a filmed recent live stage production) on BBC4 at the weekend. While this version of the famous title track is clearly closer to what Cole Porter originally wrote, it’s nothing compared to the brilliance of the Temple of Doom version which makes all others seem really quite disappointing somehow!

This starts shipping today (6th), according to MV. Karol

Looks like the Dial actually works after all.

One of my favorite things about Doom's opening is seeing grown adults talk about how when their parents took them to go see it as a kid, they thought the theater played the wrong movie or they walked into the wrong theater because of the dramatic and over the top opening

This would've been in a time when I was far more conscious about my purchasing choices (whereas I'm more Gung-ho about it now), and it wouldn't have been long after what I considered a big investment in the Superman FSM Blue Box. I was super quick to order the HP set when it was immediately available to order, yet it hadn't occurred to me that I could ask for it as a Christmas gift instead. So I sent an email asking if the order could be canceled, to which whoever responded proceeded to give me my money back. However, my sister told me that she couldn't get it for me, so I decided to then just buy it again. And yet, I don't remember how I exactly realized, but for whatever reason, whoever canceled the first order didn't tell those who were in charge of the shipping proper. So imagine my confusion when I get an email saying that the other unit I had ordered shipped out. I ended up with two copies of the collection, with one of them being the one I got refunded on. Now, this would've been the point where I should've contacted LLL about the situation and figured out what to do from there (which is possible I did do, but it's been a while). And yet, what I ended up doing instead was selling the other unit to someone I still know, with the box completely unopened (which would've made returning it very easy). And thus, I practically spent nothing on the box set. I refused to tell the story "publicly" (I did talk about it in the JWFan Discord last year) for a while, cause I figured it'd make me look like an asshole for using the situation to take advantage of a company that has struggled on occasion (plus rob someone who would've been more interested in the material than the seller I gave it to). And given this is the thread where I've pushed hard on the "support LLL in every possible way" train...... yeah, I don't think the thought has disappeared much . Guess I'm also a hypocrite for complaining about the lossy PoA tracks if I could very easily buy from the newer batch as a result of never having paid for mine in reality (though that's probably better off being in the hands of another, newer and less familiar fan).

Nope! Then again, I never got any updates on my Harry Potter boxset which was delivered almost 5 years ago.

An underknown masterpiece you all should know is this late '50s album by Angela Morley (under her birth name, Wally Stott) titled Happy Holiday. The sound of the recording is impeccable for its time and Morley's arrangements are jaw-droppingly lush and beautiful. It's one of my 5 favorite Christmas "pops" style albums easily. Below is a playlist of Youtube uploads from the album, as far as I know this album is not officially on any streaming platform or available digitally. It got one very rare CD reissue back in the 90s and that's it. Anyway, every track is wonderful, give it a listen. The arrangement of "Snowfall" on this album got a second recording finally nearly 50 years later by John Wilson on his Morley tribute album. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxKkfSlPyeRiIu0TD4RiReAxiXrl30EP1

Karol

I've heard rumours that John Williams' upcoming concert in Milan will feature the first live performance of his new work titled "Dial of Destiny Trailer Music".

I kind of love that Temple of Doom is such an outlier LOL

In honor of the 10th anniversary of La-La Land's amazing Star Trek: The Original Series Collection I'm listening to a disc every day. Day 3, Disc 3. The Big Fred Steiner Disc. There's a lot of Star Trek music that people know better. None of this music ever gets hummed in movies and comedy routines. But this is a big whack of Star Trek music right here. This is music that would be used and repurposed in all three seasons. He captured lighting in a bottle. I always think he was a little cheeky in that for his early episodes he would open and close the episode with a quote of Alexander Courage and then use his own themes and motifs. In later episodes he dispensed with the Courage quotes. I think Balance of Terror might be the only time that he used the Star Trek fanfare. This disc is Charlie X (just about the definitive Star Trek score), Mudd's Women, The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, and What are Little Girls Made Of? One hour and eight minutes of the best Star Trek TV music ever. Oh, and this is the disc with Steiner's arrangement of the Opening and Closing Credits. IMHO the best one. (Yes, it's the one without the vocals.)

Maybe I'm expecting too much. All the examples I can think of (and many, IMHO, presented here) are definitely kicking things into high gear, but nothing that seems like "Wow, I didn't know this score could do THAT!" The Last Battle from Star Wars, the whole end cycle of Wrath of Khan, heck The Miracle of the Ark... These are all next level stuff. (Am I just naming my favorite scores and movies? Possibly.) But they're also all of a thematic and stylistic piece of what has come before. (Miracle of the Ark might be nudging it's way into new territory even if the themes had been mentioned before.) Taking Henry V as an example, Non Nobis, Domine is an amazing piece. But it still builds on what has come before. (And this might be where I'm stretching the idea too far.) If anything it's St. Crispin's day that is a theme and tone that really comes out of nowhere. (Henry V isn't one of the scores where I can tell you every twist and turn of the score, so maybe it doesn't.) If I dial my expectations back a bit and going to a more recent example: Avengers: Endgame. The 1-2-3 punch of Portals, The Real Hero, and Main on End is an emotional sugar rush. Silvestri's scoring of the Avengers films has always been masterful (especially Infinity War) but never anything that I ever listen to apart from the films. Every note is perfect and delivers exactly what is needed but it's not the kind of narrative musical storytelling that I like to listen to. Then he wraps it up in a bow with those three sequences. OH! I know one! The Abyss! Although I gather that many people considered that end sequence of music and the very fact that it WASN'T foreshadowed as much as some people wanted it to have been to be a negative rather than a positive. But I was there for the ride and I adore it. Getting really Silvestri fixated, what about Back to the Future? Certainly not new themes, but the score had been quiet for so much of the story just because of the needs of the film that when they get to the clock tower Zemeckis steps aside and says "Alan! You're UP!"

Oh. Much tougher decision then. I guess I'll still give it to Mermaid. But Hercules, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are all stiff competition. For me, Hunchback is a strange mixture of the stunningly brilliant and the stunningly mundane. Neither Tangled nor Enchanted reaches such heights, but they're still fantastic.

Steve Bartek suggested Spider-Man 2, so that narrowed down the choice between the two. Both Spider-Man scores are exceptional examples of early 2000's Elfman. Either would have been solid choices. Yes, the images in the newsletter are only placeholders. Our illustrator is hard at work on bespoke art. We have no plans to use theatrical poster art or stills for our publications, though there may be an exception or two in the future. We made the choice early on to commission new art that is more in line with our branding. These are all in the proofreading phase. A few smaller publications may be interspersed, such as Les Baxter's "The Passions." After engraving 2000 pages the past few months, the proofreading and layout phases are taking a more leisurely pace than originally intended. Slow and steady...

Yes. Score in the Broadway sense of the word.

There’s no doubt that it is between Pocahontas and Hunchback and Beauty. Those are the top three guys in no particular order. Sorry to break it to all of you

Idk. I can wait. Menken’s redos of Beauty and Aladdin leave me cold. Hunchback has gotten enough love over the years. Well, not exactly enough. It should have gotten enough love to treat its legacy collection with respect but besides that, I need nothing else.

Pocahontas is a truly masterful score. And the songs are great too! It's Menken's masterpiece in my opinion. The choir singing "The Colors of the Wind" in the Finale always bring a tear to my eye.

Oh, fucking hell! This is, probably, the biggest laugh that I've had at JWfan, for six months! Well done, @Yavar Moradi! Of course, all it does is highlight not only how complete bollocks modern trailer music is, but, also, how complete bollocks (most) modern film music is.

I wrote the trailer music! It's rubbish because I'm not a composer!

Interesting that you mention quality when I've done nothing of the sort. I just said Williams didn't write it, and an orchestra didn't record it. Plenty of great music out there fits that description. And yes, if you say you can't tell if this was Williams, I'd say you're not qualified to tell whether this was Williams.

If this isn't one of the saddest things I've read I don't know what is. It's no big deal not having an ear for music, but listen to those who have. Having "worked in the film industry" doesn't give you an ear for film music. Also, since you're not coy about your thoughts, I don't have to be either: it's hard calling this trailer music "composed", since it sounds like it was most likely cooked up by someone playing MIDI directly into a DAW. John Williams WRITES music, and someone who actually writes music down - someone really skilled - couldn't come up with something this shallow and vapid if he tried. Especially not if his music has a distinct quality like JW.

Man, Poledouris has become so underappreciated. The Dude used to be a king alongside the three Js (Jerry, John, and James) - he needs to have a massive revival. This one ends up very Basil at 2:32 (and I love that he drops the Under Siege 2 theme in there)