pacey988

At least in the U.S., especially on local stations, I think most of the news music heard is bland, derivative, not distinctive and overly synth-heavy. Perhaps budgetary constraints could be one reason why we don't see a lot of orchestral type packages, and there is always a need to be current with today's musical trends in terms of the theme music itself. In the case of my music, when I got a reply from one of the many companies that mass produce theme music for local TV newscasts, I was told that the music had to be more "innovative" and "current". I still have no idea what that person was trying to say at all, even when he said it had to have an underlying bass and rhythm track. No explanation at all, and even when I tried getting an explanation from a few people, it got me more confused.

I'm not even going to justify that comment with a response. Why not? Maybe that was too harsh. I just don't see why people are bashing orchestral music, it's like they are saying it is antiquated or just something that has been stretched to its limit, with no room to be had for innovation or improving on things. I mean, it has been around for centuries, and yet it is still being composed and played the world over. It still has impact. I don't know why this is happening, and when I said that I didn't want to respond, I did not want to get into an argument with anyone about this subject. I apologize if it came across as harsh, but I just don't feel that orchestral music should be bashed without any merit or evidence.

I don't really get why anyone is trashing JW or orchestral music in general, especially for a purpose like TV news broadcasts. Regarding "The Mission", it was a very pioneering work, it was original, and it was unlike anything that anyone had ever heard on a network newscast. Some might say that NBC's hiring of John Williams to compose their news theme may have blurred the lines between news and entertainment but at the very least the theme gave the network a sense of class and prestige, and it has been emulated by its competitors with mixed results. As much as I like the Horner CBS theme, it doesn't come close to "The Mission". As for the CBS theme, I've heard all kinds of things about it, including that it just has some kind of a feminine quality that may give the music a cinematic but not very newsy quality to it. It just doesn't seem very accessible, at least I don't think so, since Horner was required to produce over 100 variations on that one theme and we've barely heard any of them. Please don't be misled; I'm not taking the opportunity to bash Horner as some often do, it's just that there doesn't seem to be much depth in his theme and all it basically is is the same thing being repeated but stretched to manipulate the gamut of news theme music and its stereotypes.

Most orchestral music is also rubbish..... I'm not even going to justify that comment with a response.

As hard as it is to believe, there are some people I've met that are really into this kind of music, music for news programs, and not only that, they are interested in the graphic elements, and the on air personalities as well. I used to be like that but to be honest, some of those people are just hard to understand. Most of the music used in the US, especially for local news programs, is either a hybrid of orchestral, rock or techno instruments. I composed a news theme in my spare time which has been inspired by the network news themes, particularly CBS and NBC's themes, a theme with a lot of class and a cinematic quality. I might have heard some of the BBC's theme and I know that I get their news on BBC America and on PBS but I've never watched. They have a 24 hour news channel for the U.S., don't they?

I have a better sounding, but still compressed version of the Meet The Press theme, the closing theme, plus a new bumper with the Mission call notes from the 2004 update. I'm working on sending it as a .zip file through PM. These themes are also available as ringtones here: http://sf.goldpocketwireless.com/nbcstorefront2/

Strange...I checked and when I clicked on the Fugue For Changing Times and Scherzo it went back to the same low quality bootleg recorded versions. I certainly missed this, if anyone happened to save this to their computer I'd like to know.

Unfortunately, that is not me, I don't know how he got those in perfect quality, believe it or not I have yet to listen to them, I am trying to get some of them in higher quality, he certainly has had better luck than I ever had in acquiring these themes. I'd record them live in WAVE with a recording software (such as the one that comes with my Creative soundcard),then convert that to MP3.But the sound quality is so low bitrate i'm going to wait if I can get better MP3's out of this.

The new closing theme, plus the current open and the current Meet The Press theme have been posted here: www.geocities.com/netnewsmusic

Unfortunately, that was all I could find, but the person I got it from has a lot of Williams' soundtracks, including many unreleased, and many scores by many different composers, also some unreleased. I have a list of all the scores that this user has, if anyone wants to see it, please let me know.

I have the updated "Meet The Press" theme, recently re-recorded as part of the 20th anniversary update to the original "Mission" package. I downloaded it off a program called Soulseek, where there are lots of TV themes and soundtracks and library albums. PM me for a link.

Yes, that's what the music reminded me of...I actually should have said that this is one of the new themes that he wrote for NBC News, as part of the 20th anniversary update to the original "Mission" package. According to the web site for the company that produced the recording, Man Made Music, there is about 10 minutes of new material that was composed.

It's incredible. I'm glad I could share it with you. Actually, I think the piece runs either at or under 2 minutes, partly because they looped around part of the music in the beginning. I will try to see if I can get the rest of it, only a small portion of it is missing due to the clips with audio overlapping the theme. I think he did a slower version of this theme as heard in the Hardball interview with the same trumpet solos in it.

Yes, it is not complete, the full piece runs about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I will record the Today show for as long as I can, and I will try to get as much of it as I can. I'm glad you liked it.

I made an edited version of the theme so there is all music. PM me for the link.