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But that's the point: in the 50's, a Waxman score like NUN'S STORY or TARAS BULBA may have been drawn from the classical idioms, but both were fresh and new scores and not just an inferior copy. Same goes for our beloved Silver Age: scores like E. T. or FIRST BLOOD, to quote a watershed year, took inspiration from Hanson, Bartok, Stravinsky, Herrmann et al., but they still added something to the mix that wasn't there before and enriched film art by showing us how homogenous film and music can interact.
I really don't feel the urge to compare that to the way movies are scored today: again, it works on a low musical level and it's hardly worth to listen to all those 74-minute releases of scores that just don't do much that makes musical sense, or worse, subject me to uninspired TRANSFORMERS-like simple chord motions for the 1000st time.

It usually means that you at least subconsciously seek to avoid being objected to opinions, sometimes even facts, contrary to your own.
Seeing that FSM has produced the expected screaming pile of shouting on the same subject (of course with heavy german input), we mustn't duplicate that here. I still maintain that the role of film music in today's movies - with superior sound effects and so on - has reduced to a fraction of its former self. I sample a lot of tv series, and i am shocked that high-quality 'historical' programs like GAME OF THRONES, DA VINCI'S DEMONS and so on that theoretically would offer brilliant musical opportunities all feature generic RCP pop scoring that often is so facile and shallow that you wonder if they engage the composers with a mandate to destroy all the contributions made by the authors, actors and so on.
When AMERICAN HORROR STORY used some Herrmann cues in its first season, the effect was tremendous - of course it was ditched for low-key atmospheric stuff after three episodes (like WALKING DEAD etc.). Stuff like MAD MEN and BOARDWALK EMPIRE uses mostly period scoring (to good effect) and when i finally browse my Spotify account for new film music releases, be it norwegian, american or spanish, there is one interesting item for 9 snoozers. That something grabs my attention while watching the movie, like BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD or A SINGLE MAN, happens so infrequently i just have given up to expect anything from the music track, except lots of atmospheric wallpapering (GRAVITY!) or mediocre orchestral scoring (like the new STAR TREK).
Things like TRON LEGACY are already the highlights, musically, and i can't say i consider this good and healthy at all. Of course there are occasionally good cues in, say, SKYFALL or COSMOPOLIS (a far more interesting score than THE HOBBIT), but it's few and far between.

GRAVITY - Steven Price
Mixture of Cliff Martinez and RCP-pathos anthems. Some of the sound shenanigans are interesting as cosmic spheres, but the whole thing is musically depressingly thin on content and - in its worst moments - an obedient soldier saluting the most mundane beer commercial clichés common in current blockbuster movies (especially towards the end). We must presume that some genius Hollywood producer demanded at least some familiar element for Joe Schmoe - why this gruesome fate always must befall the music is a question that may be of less concern to people on a special effects messageboard, but that one of the most interesting films from the fall season again disappoints in the music department is certainly a cause for grief for our little community here.

ALAN PARTRIDGE - WELCOME TO THE PLACES OF MY LIFE
'Flying Aids'!

Tonight's titles...
The White Dawn by Henry Mancini
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8273/.f
Raging Angels by Terry Plumeri
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8227/.f

I would absolutely love to hear JW's complete original intentions regarding the whole score and the main titles in particular.

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with one of the greatest cinematographers of all time a couple of days ago. You can read it here (skip the Norwegian intro):
http://montages.no/2013/09/vi-har-mott-den-legendariske-filmfotografen-vilmos-zsigmond/
There is a strong link between Zsigmond and Williams, since he's done many of the films he has scored -- CINDERELLA LIBERTY, THE LONG GOODBYE, IMAGES, THE RIVER, WITCHES OF EASTWICK, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS. And the guitarist John Williams on THE DEER HUNTER, of course. We talk about IMAGES, SUGARLAND and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS in the interview, among other things.
So lots of John Williams in Zsigmond's works.

The White Ribbon (2009)
What an absolutely fascinating film. I was enthralled by the very first shots all the way to the end, I don't think my attention dropped even for one second. I was really fascinated by how real it could become, how sincere it felt. My favorite moment probably was when the kid is talking to her sister about death, damn, this film in general made me think so much of when I was younger, my views of the adult world. Not that I experienced any abuse nearly as terrible as the kids on the movie -and at the time- had to go through, but how adults seemed to be so hypocrital. Of course, as you grow up you learn that nothing is black and white as you thought when you were a kid...
But back to the movie, I felt it was everything Days of Heaven should have been. Whereas Malick treated some of the same subjects in his more uninvolved way, here the film takes responsibilty for its topics. The cinematography was gorgeous -although some of the CGI generated stuff could put me off at times-, the acting was tremendous (those kids, damn!) and the lack of score gave the movie an eerie feeling, almost surreal. It's not a film for everyone, but if you go with an open mind you're in for a wonderful surprise. Can't wait to explore more of Haneke's philmography.
9/10

When the Whales Came by Christopher Gunning
Firelight by Christopher Gunning
After listening to these two gorgeous scores I am rather baffled why hasn't this marvellous composer worked on bigger films or more extensively outside the British Isles.

LILIAN'S HEART ATTACK alone wipes the floor with either.

I am not overly happy that a large part of the concert in Vienna will be devoted to a score like TITANIC - you can't really avoid it, though. The program seems to focus on the big, mushy recent scores (BRAVEHEART, LEGENDS OF THE FALL et al.) that somehow deny Horner's brash youthful days. But we take what we get and while we all know that Horner's best days are truly behind him, i still cherish him as a one-of-kind talent, even with all the strange idiosyncrasies.

I wish tv would have more mediocrity Sherlock-style in store. At least on the acting front.

JoAnn Kane who revealed the secret that Johnny will score The Book Thief was interviewed about her relationship with JG as well as her job:

Rydell was one of his old standby's like Robert Altman that seemed to bring out a certain kind of down-earth or experimental personality in his music that got sparse after THE RIVER. I always regretted that he parted ways with Altman after IMAGES. Williams on Altman: "I drifted away from working with him, not through any intentional decision or conscious decision. After Images and The Long Goodbye, I got busy with other directors and other projects. Bob chided me about going Hollywood and getting successful. He would chide me or tease me or censure me about pursuing overly commercial projects, probably my work with Spielberg. He saw that artistically as a kind of betrayal of some kind of bohemian artistic principles he clung to."
I for one would have liked some more of that combo.

Rydell was one of his old standby's like Robert Altman that seemed to bring out a certain kind of down-earth or experimental personality in his music that got sparse after THE RIVER. I always regretted that he parted ways with Altman after IMAGES. Williams on Altman: "I drifted away from working with him, not through any intentional decision or conscious decision. After Images and The Long Goodbye, I got busy with other directors and other projects. Bob chided me about going Hollywood and getting successful. He would chide me or tease me or censure me about pursuing overly commercial projects, probably my work with Spielberg. He saw that artistically as a kind of betrayal of some kind of bohemian artistic principles he clung to."
I for one would have liked some more of that combo.

Rydell was one of his old standby's like Robert Altman that seemed to bring out a certain kind of down-earth or experimental personality in his music that got sparse after THE RIVER. I always regretted that he parted ways with Altman after IMAGES. Williams on Altman: "I drifted away from working with him, not through any intentional decision or conscious decision. After Images and The Long Goodbye, I got busy with other directors and other projects. Bob chided me about going Hollywood and getting successful. He would chide me or tease me or censure me about pursuing overly commercial projects, probably my work with Spielberg. He saw that artistically as a kind of betrayal of some kind of bohemian artistic principles he clung to."
I for one would have liked some more of that combo.

I would have preferred if a robot scribed all those stupid pictures. Now i know that there's another human getting rich for letting others suffer.

Heavy drama stuff...depends on the strength of the theme, could also be fucking boring.

There is a slight Rózsaesque source cue called APPROACHING NABOO PALACE that is wonderful. I wish JW could have had more space to compose more of those little flourishes. It's much more interesting than the action music.

About 25 minutes are missing from GatD, but Goldsmith reportedly rescored a lot since they recut the film (note the big crescendo that closes the movie but isn't on the album). So he certainly recorded 1,5 hours. Apparently Intrada is doing it, it may come out late summer (or so the rumor mill says).

They should re-record the complete Lionheart!

Leigh Philips who did the Tadlow re-recordings of The Salamander, posted this pic in his tweeter account:
https://twitter.com/PhantasmaMusica/status/357250725505544192/photo/1
Wonder what score they are doing now?

Phrased differently it makes sense: Hans works a lot, but the result seldom is a score which normal musicians can play, a problem he addressed himself and which makes it inevitable that he has trained musicians around him to help him transfer whatever he bangs into Cubase into a playable condensed score.
Zimmer is successful business man, period. Musically, you are allowed to shake your head how many people (and money) it takes to produce a snoozer like MOS.

why?