Leaderboard

That's actually tolerable! Now, can the AI separate the vocals from my brain, because I still hear Sy Snootles and Jo Yowza in my head while it plays. Truly, well done.

Did this for @Holko the other day, used lalal.ai to remove the vocals, but needed vocalremover.org for the very ending (sorry Holko couldn't get the timpani from the film audio) - Jedi Rocks (Instrumental).mp3

What I think is so great about the career she's had is that every generation thinks of a different character when they talk about her. Just phenomenal!!!

And I was surprised how well enough it still works without the main melody to carry it!

I know… It’s just so exciting. @Maestro this is going to be so awesome to own. Thank you so much in advance. I never imagined getting such a thorough tome on the life and works of the Maestro featuring interviews with so many people, including the man himself. I can’t wait until you reveal the release date!

Yeah, I was just asking, because I just got an email this morning (5:34 AM) announcing it's "release"

So yes, Nolwa is now an Elvisih hero theme or Elvish action theme. I like it!

That's actually not bad at all in comparison to the original file. This could probably be used well for a lot of music that's only ever surfaced in the shittiest of quality. My only concern is some folks will start using it on, say, MP3 session leaks, and claiming that they're "lossless". People are already doing that of course, but I think this'll potentially make the issue much worse.

My first memory of her, as Thetis in 'Clash of the Titans'.

Thomas Newman once defined well the habit of listening to Thomas Newman's music, as well as any other film music

The statement from Battle For Eregion in episode 7 is when --- In general, Bear's music has to jump all over the place in the episode - it's not like the battle starts and just goes on continuously for half an hour. It goes back to Celebrimbor/Sauron, Adar, Khazad-dum, so even the episode album is very heavily curated to join the related bits. I think the only bit missing from the album that I spotted was the brief bit when Celebrimbor is escaping the cuffs. Light of Celebrimbor has some nice bits that didn't make it to the OST track - maybe this was an opportunity to make another 20-minuter like the Southlands siege, but tbh the existing suite is a work of art. I thought the episode in general was very good (I'd say visually it improves on the Minas Tirith siege - I mean vfx are better now) and it doesn't surprise me therefore that Bear came up with some superb material and dedicated a lot of OST runtime to this material.

Franglen has a unique canvas to explore. The fact that Cameron is exploring all across Pandora now, going between strikingly different settings and peoples and ways of life, he has such a fresh new angle to take the scores each time. I'm so damn excited for his dark ideas for the upcoming 'enemy Na'vi' and the feeling he can create with such fire related imagery. I envision a heavy brass and pounding choir chanting flavour for the new clan.

Here's a less overt but still noticeable difference between S204 and S208 that I've always appreciated: S204 (Film Take): 10m1 - The Force Field (S204 Film Take 2).mp3 S208 (Alternate Take): 10m1 - The Force Field (S208 Alt. Take 2).mp3 The Blaster Beam line is performed slightly differently in S208; In both this and a moment in the album version of The Cloud it seems like Huxley missed his cue for the Beam but the way this score was written always makes it feel like an intentional choice rather than a performance error.

Balfing indeed!

I've been a male in this society for 40 years, and never once experienced this. It's a poisoned phantom of your mind. I was speaking for myself, and my relationship to women in my life. There is no "they." Learn that, and you might be a happier person. I'm sure you'd prefer it to stay this way, but it's no surprise to me there aren't more women on this forum. You and your pal are almost enough to keep me away. Now, before this gets out of hand, I think I'll refrain from responding to either of you for the rest of my natural life.

It wasn't lies, Jenny. It was acting.

FYI, Tim Greiving aka @Maestro has written a great piece on Richard Dyer for The Legacy of John Williams, elaborating further on his post above: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2024/09/23/richard-dyer-obituary/

Thank you for the notice and personal obituary of sorts. Yes, his name and articles was a big part of my early days of self-conscious JW fandom. Very cool that he was so engaged with your project. He was always such a breath of fresh air relative to the "snobbish" critics. Like an accomplished relative during your formative years going against everyone else by telling you that you are not crazy for thinking such and such.

After having read about Cameron's next non avatar film and thinking about who will score it, I listened to the deluxe edition of Avatar 2 again for the first time in about a year! It was one of my favorite scores of 2022 and after having listen to it again, it's as great as ever. I was originally a bit annoyed that Franglen got the scoring job on the Avatar sequels as I thought a new voice would be better but I was completely wrong. The score uses themes in a great way, while also setting up thematic material for future films and the new themes are all amazing, especially the family theme Kiri's theme, payakan, the way of water theme etc. What's extra impressive is that Franglen, together with Cameron have taken Horner's score which was full of thematic ideas which were not really anchored to specific locations, characters or storylines and utilized and adapted them for the full 5 movie Avatar franchise. For instance the rising brass harmonies, heard in Destruction of Hometree has become a theme for Quaritch, who also got a B theme by Franglen himself. The score is both emotional and exiting and cues like Navi Attack really show the power of the music together with the visuals. Like the cheeky major trumpet statement before Payakan crashes the RDA ship and it goes up into the air, accompanied by Franglen's brilliant music! I can't wait to hear what Franglen does with the next scores but based on how good the second one is, I have no doubt that he'll deliver! Wish the wait wasn't this long between the Avatar movies though...

Daniel Radcliffe pays tribute to late "Harry Potter" co-star Maggie Smith. They worked together for 10 years on the franchise. “She was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny. I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.” https://variety.com/2024/film/news/maggie-smith-tributes-daniel-radcliffe-harry-potter-cast-1236157869/

This season's album would be the perfect subject for a Williams-style rant about how he could possibly leave off this or that cue, given the astounding amount of omitted material... but the key differentiator is that the music is available so I don't particularly mind that this one is pretty unrepresentative. I'm thinking it's all about thematic and contributor representation - concert pieces for Eregion and Estrid given that those themes barely appear in the episode cues in their full form, Durin's Bane so that Durin/Khazad-dum are represented, Great Eagle so Numenor is on there, then 4 episode tracks (i.e. we know they're in the show) contain vocalists (and I reckon Bear feels compelled to put on featured vocalists, like when he puts on Raya's performances) and then a bunch of Bombadil stuff that's actually got little to do with how his character appears in the show. Plus Stranger/Harfoot/Sauron material early on, and then of course half an hour given to the battle, and you've got your album.

When I hear her name, all I can think of is: "Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb."

I haven't seen episode 7 yet either, but I'm pretty sure its a Celebrimbor theme, maybe one specifically representing his eventual death by Sauron. It's introduced when Celebrimbor and Halbrand meet in episode 2, seems to play in scenes he's involved in in this episode, and the statement in "The Staff" is probably his final scene in episode 8.

19,500 people in Madison Square Garden. That is a lot of nerds without friends attending Zimmer's concert. They all must brought single seats.

Must be all the soy

Ambush is the only track where it really feels like Kamen threw in the towel, all the other electronics range from functional to brilliant (Mutant School).

And he provides no guarantees either.

Why are men always under so much pressure to hide what they like in order to appease the female industrial complex?

Thor's "review" gave me a good laugh. "I was disappointed. I'll have to rewatch it until I like it."

How many times will I have to rewatch it in order to force myself into liking it?

I don't know, 9/11 looked pretty bad on my screen.

Gandalf Riding to Space Mountain (1990) Ted Nasmith

Of the Tolkien triumvirate - Lee, Howe and Nasmith - the latter is perhaps the most gifted for landscapes. They're sensational.

You just have to own it. “Yeah I like it, now listen to this and tell me I’m wrong” and play something indisputably rad like Pemberton’s King Arthur or Goldsmith’s Last Run.

Paper, Pencils, Perished Composers.

Mírdain is Jewel-smith in Sindarin Mîr is Jewel Mìrë is Quenya for Jewel

He was very nice about it in his note for the Signature Edition

Something I've never done before: Custom Covers for Audiobooks. These for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King - all done in the style of the books' dust jackets using Tolkien's original illustrations. Particularly fond of The Hobbit; the Cirth writing in the border took a little while to get right.

Sorry to hear this. Like others here, I - too - loved to read those Dyer interviews, that revealed information that wasn't available anywhere else (both about the lesser known parts of his career, as well as his personal life). In fact, liner notes often used statements Williams had made in Dyer interviews. I wish I had collected and organized them the way Miguel has done, for easy access.

So sorry to read about Richard Dyer's passing. I collected everything he wrote on Williams and continue to this day to rely on that material for my own researches. Back in 1980/1981 he wrote two large pieces on Williams that are a must for anyone really interested in the composer's career. Thank you @Maestrofor sharing those tidbits regarding Williams and Dyer relationship.

That was very beautifully written, @Maestro. I'm sad to hear about Dyer's passing, I've enjoyed so much of his writings throughout the years!

On a sad note, the great Boston Globe critic and reporter Richard Dyer died on Friday at age 82. https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/09/22/richard-dyer-music-critic-boston-globe-died/ Many of you will recognize his name; he was the key reporter on all things John Williams in the 1980s and ’90s. Since he was the critic for the Globe, he covered JW's new role in Boston from the very beginning—he even went to London and gave an incredible fly-on-the-wall report of the Empire Strikes Back sessions. He was one of the very first (vocal) champions of JW from the classical critic world, not just as a music director of the Pops but as a fantastic composer and musician. Dyer gave many glowing reviews of JW's film music and concert music, and he interviewed him consistently throughout those years. Dyer did one of the first truly comprehensive interviews / profiles with JW, and he had the best—and often only—interviews about so many specific scores from those important decades. He gave richly detailed reports on Pops concerts and rehearsals, as well as the scoring sessions for Saving Private Ryan, The Phantom Menace, and Sorcerer's Stone. In other words, I couldn't have written my book without him and his priceless volume of work. And because of that, he was one of the first people I reached out to when I started my project, and he was so kind and supportive and helpful. He had become very friendly with JW, and would track down old recordings by Barbara Ruick (and other treasures) and gift them to JW. He had a lot of insight, which he freely shared over the phone during the pandemic and also one afternoon on his front porch when I went to Boston for research. "For some reason John Williams liked me and I worked very hard to keep up with him," Dyer wrote in his first email to me, "collecting lots of LPs of his film scores before the first big interview in the GLOBE magazine - I was able to ask him about just about every film he worked on. He hosted me once in Los Angeles and I got to see his office/studio as well as his house; he came to my 50th and 60th birthday parties; we had lunch once during the first Harry Potter recording session, also one of the later Star Wars films. He is at once extremely modest about his work, although never dismissive of it ... I am honored that he was invariably very friendly and gives me a big hug every time I see him, although I would never claim that we were friends." When I brought Dyer up to JW, he said: "I love him. I have the most wonderful films of Richard Dyer, because every once in a while, somebody would have a birthday—Governor Dukakis or something like that, so we’d wheel out a birthday cake. And Dyer loves to dress up as a chef, and I think he's coming out of the cake at one point. He was such a hoot. Quite a good critic, actually." Anyway, I just wanted to pay my respects to a great critic and writer who promoted John Williams from the very start, and who JW fans owe an enormous debt. I certainly do. Here's a fabulous quote from an appreciation article Dyer wrote when JW was leaving his post at the Pops in 1993: “Williams certainly knows every trick of orchestration in the book, and he invented a few himself, but the most important observation to make about his music is that he believes in it and it is honest. You can't write heroic music if you don't believe in heroism; it would ring hollow. You can't write patriotic music if you don't have patriotic feelings. In a way, a mass-media composer like Williams is a truer successor to populist composers like Verdi than most operatic composers today.”

I learned some of the most profound insights from his daughter, Jenny. My other favorite interviews would include Anthony McGill (who played "Air and Simple Gifts" at Obama's inauguration), Tommy Morgan (the session harmonica player), several folks in Boston who worked really closely with JW and know him well, and several of the composers I talked to (Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, David Shire, John Powell) who are such genuine admirers with a deep knowledge of his work. I have to stop there, but the list could keep going and going!

My wife and I didn't really care much for the first Avatar and we weren't at all excited for a sequel. It was so predictable and we didn't care about any of the stock characters except maybe Neytiri (Saldana gave it her all). We only saw it in theater on a fluke, but then we unexpectedly loved Avatar: The Way of Water so much we went back and saw it twice! We very much care if there's an Avatar 3 now, and we were people who made fun of the original movie being Disney's Pocahontas with the names changed and such (and Dances With Wolves is a superior version of the story too, yes). This, 100% this. The original film we found boring and rote, and it didn't leave us hoping for more Avatar films in the slightest. The sequel film connected with us MUCH more, and made us care about the existing characters much more, and also surprisingly introduced a lot of new characters we also got very invested in emotionally. Plus all the water stuff was just magical. Yavar

I agree, but I still thought The Way of Water to be a better movie than the first one. How it sets up a sequel after the first film's happy ending was a little dumb (the humans just came back a few years later and poof! Status quo from the first act of Avatar 1 restored) but it was a much more involving and emotional film than the first one. IMHO he is the only one doing "old school" epics. Since the dawn of cinema movie goers liked to see epics in the big screen, from Gone with the Wind to Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and of course Cameron's Titanic and now his Avatar saga. Despite the cutting edge special effects, his movies still have that Epic Cinema quality that, no matter how the society evolves, they still like a good epic tale and Cameron is a master on delivering that. Titanic is a love story in the middle of a disaster, Avatar (despite being set in the future) is an epic tale of love and war. Not too different from the big scale cinema that moviegoers always loved.

🔴 NEW ARTICLE! Contributing writer Miguel Andrade reports about the European premiere of two songs from the rarely heard John Williams' cycle "Seven For Luck," performed last month by award-winning pianist (and John Williams specialist) Simone Pedroni and young soprano Maria Grazia Aschei as part of the Alagna Music Festival in Italy. READ 👉 tinyurl.com/ycxrva8p https://www.facebook.com/thelegacyofjohnwilliams/posts/pfbid0d8BLQUK286jMpUcsktqXrs36aErjtaZNr8eiMX98WGQZqQYZouDV91wti3vQk1tYl https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2024/09/03/seven-for-luck-european-premiere/

This has nothing to do with MEGALOPOLIS as such, but a moment tonight at Cannes that I found very moving -- Coppola, who was there with his film, presenting George Lucas the honorary award. Can't we just stop being cynical for a moment and just appreciate moments like these? These are ageing icons, gone in not too long a time, but can be appreciated now.

Wow, thanks everyone! Obviously, the most important question to address is how I got those italics. Simple! https://lingojam.com/FacebookFonts As for the timeframe: I have over a year to hand in the finished manuscript, but my goal is to have it completed well before that. It's a big book, and publishing is a very slow process. But everything so far is proceeding as I have forseen... It's not a guide to the scores really, but something more holistic, with each chapter looking at cues from all three trilogies from some angle: musical referentiality, thematic transformation, concert arrangements, and so on. There will be a ton of music examples (all my own annotated transcriptions as usu.), hopefully presented in an accessible way that draws in people who can't read sheet music. I know notation and music-theory jargon can be intimidating, and I'm hyper-aware of the potential gatekeeping effect it could on an already niche readership. But at the same time, I think we can all agree this music warrants deep and serious analysis! It's a balancing act for sure... Alas, I don't have special access to recordings, and can't speak to official expanded album releases, as amazing as they would be! Incidentally: I don't see it trumpeted nearly enough on these boards but Chloé Huvet came out with a book on SW music (mainly the OT and PT) a couple years ago that is absolutely brilliant and similarly synthetic in approach. The book is in French, which limits the audience, but it's worth getting your hands on if only for the fantastic music examples and charts. The amount of insight in her prose is incredible too, and it's been a major source of inspriation to me.