Jacck

AI is still massively underrated, in my humble opinion. POA is decent... very decent, but I would say that's the overrated score. As for the Oscars... what do the academy know about music anyway? I imagine they're fairly meaningless now to someone as spiritual and enlightened as John Williams. Not that he wouldn't be at least humbled if he were to receive another, I'm sure.

That's some of the worst writing I've heard for film since... ever. Completely musically unsatisfying and poorly crafted. Extremely flimsy melodic writing, and harmonically... putrid! The harmonies do get more interesting near the end, but then it's not like we haven't heard that from Zimmer 50 times before. Zimmer should've gone into sound design and creating energetic soundscapes rather than calling himself a composer. The sounds are interesting, that's about it. Intellectually as a piece of music it scores a big fat zero from me.

13 To The Dump is a brilliant cue as well. Again, it's totally Don Davis's cue from beginning to end. It almost has a Williams-esque energy about it in places. I always wanted to hear what Don Davis could do in this sort of genre... he did some additional music for A Goofy Movie back in '95, so it's great to hear him do his thing again more fully on this score. I do wonder why Randy Newman decided to let Don Davis do so much of the music, though. It seems to me like the score is "themes by Randy Newman", and score by Don Davis in a lot of the cues. Well anyway, I'm really enjoying the score, and I'm finding it really enjoyable listening to Davis's work again after his few years out of Hollywood!

Not sure about a Williams reference in track 14, but I hear one in track 11 at around 2:15 - Jurassic Park (raptors) / Jaws. It's Don Davis doing Williams. In fact, the whole score reeks of Don Davis. It actually sounds to me like Don Davis did at least as much writing as Newman did based on the soundtrack material. I suppose Davis got the job of adapting Newman's original themes/material and expanding on it where possible. In some cases Davis even establishes new ideas and completely leaves his mark on the score.

Track 14 is definitely a lot of Don Davis' work, more than Newman's here I would say. It especially sounds like the final cue from Davis's score 'The Beast'... as well as hints of The Matrix. Very nice cue. A nice score as well! But not massively different from the first two, although I've yet to see how it works with the film. You can hear Davis' style in a lot of the other cues, as well.

Listen again, and this time use your ears!

I wouldn't say I get withdrawal symptoms, but if I don't listen to Williams' music for a long while - maybe weeks, then I do miss it. It feels like missing a friend who you haven't seen for a while or something. I guess I grew up on Williams' music, so I derive some sort of subconscious comfort from it - the familiarity of it. His music does have so much personality, so it's easy to attach human feelings towards it I suppose. As we all know, there's not quite any other composer out there whose music for film has such a clear human voice - that's why Spielberg quite rightly (imho) says that Williams is the best musical storyteller of all time. I'm not sure that there's many, if any, composers out there working in Hollywood who can so naturally transform a series of cuts into a piece that feels so deliberate and purposeful. Williams is a master of the whole craft - and that includes dealing with narrative. Having said that, I think it's a good thing to get away from familiarity - experience new composers (or friendships) and then when you return to the familiar, reliable and loved ones after a period of absence, the experience is so much richer!

http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=5724 Have a listen to this! Debney talks in a hell of a lot of detail about the world of film scoring. He talks about how Williams is his hero. He even goes as far as to address other composers saying that they're not doing well enough compared to the likes of Williams and Goldsmith. Fascinating listen. I really agree with a lot of what he's saying. Here's a YouTube clip of the Predators scoring session for those who haven't seen it yet:

http://www.soundtrac...rticle/?id=1363

As if it wasn't a bad enough idea to begin with, it doesn't even sound 'depolished'. It just sounds trebley and shit.

Ummm... What about Indy and gang jumping out of a plane and riding down mountains and waterfalls in a fecking water raft thing... That's no more or less believable than the stupid refrigerator sequence. I don't think KoTCS was as good as ToD, but not because of its unbelievable elements. That's always been a tongue in cheek part of Indiana Jones for me.

They sound nice - but EW were shaken up by the release of LA Scoring Strings and delayed release, realising that there was some clear competition there. I think it's down to a matter of personal taste now between whether you choose Hollywood Strings, or LA Scoring Strings. They both sound great, but I personally prefer LA Scoring Strings because of the individually sampled divisi sections, and because of how they're recorded. Also, once you get used to using the legato patches, with the modwheel, you can really play these strings very expressively straight from your controller. Also, as LA Scoring Strings provides so many divisi sections, you can really sculpt the entire section to suit your liking by combining different chairs/sections. I know Hollywood Strings has the ability to exaggerate mic positions from different parts of a section, but it's not quite the same for me. Here's one of the tracks I produced recently that uses LA Scoring Strings: http://www.screenedmusic.com/track.aspx?TrackID=1782 Would be interesting to hear thoughts on which library sounds better to you guys, based on these demos, and the ones on the library sites.

Hmm. interesting idea for a composition project.. or.. competition? Strictly adhering to Williams' style of that era, and perhaps making use of any themes/motifs where deemed relevant/desired?

I'm sure it'll be a marvelously conservative performance!

Well, it's easy to be picky because of the blatant re-hashes (Zam the Assasin in the Quidditch Match, Flying Keys for Cornish Pixies, Gilderoy Lockhart [iJ 'No Ticket'], etc.), but, those are only things that film score fanatics like us would notice. To say that the score ruined the film, is pretty unfair, therefore (IMHO). Apart from those rehashes, look at all the new great material that was written... and themes(!) - we don't get enough of those these days. The Spiders theme - cleverly crafted and memorable (and friggin' cool), the Flying Car theme, The Chamber of Secrets theme, Moaning Minge (or whatever her name was), etc.! 'tis a great score! Don't be so harsh on Mr. Williams He wouldn't of rehashed like that unless there was a good reason - pressure from the production house to reuse ideas as a simple method to create a sense of unity throughout the franchise? ($$$)... or simply not enough time. Kinda ties in with my last post about how it's absolutely rare now that a Hollywood production is going to be suited to Williams' approach to scoring films. That's why I honestly think we'll never get another score from him, except for Spielberg films and maybe something like Memoirs (a project which he is particularly interested in for personal reasons). I'm sure if the latter were to happen though, it would only be if Williams' agent could negotiate terms into the contract that would allow him to have enough time and creative freedom to create a nice piece of art, which is really what it should be all about.

It's a great, useful, hefty book. It has many score excerpts (incl. some underscore from Williams' Minority Report) and Davis' Matrix scores, amongst many others. A few cue sheets, and lots of other resources. Very useful. .. and... I want those recordings! Let's be grateful though that we at least have a few seconds in that YouTube vid of unreleased music. I had forgotten how absolutely, masterfully great that Flying Car theme was. I get the impression that Williams had little time to write this score, though... not from the quality of the work, at all, but because of the William Ross stuff, and I remember reading/seeing something about a tight schedule somewhere. Maybe this is one of the scores of his late career that started to put him off film scoring (I think this has happened, for reasons other than his age). That, and Star Wars' music editing. Maybe Williams feels he can't keep up with the ridiculous Hollywood deadlines anymore? How many composers are actually working without sequencers these days, after all. Also, I suppose Williams is now at a spiritual/artistic stage where he wants to be expressing himself musically recreationally, and not commercially (he doesn't need the $$$ after all). I also feel that leitmotif / melodic themes have become a pastiche/clichéd thing amongst directors/producers now (I agree with what Conrad Pope was saying in a recent video interview that was posted here)... I'm rambling, but to bring that round full circle, CoS is a great score that I shall definitely be listening to again now. Scrutinising it for its craft and mastery, and not for it's glitzy expensive production values (oh hi, Avatar!).

Great! I'll definitely be getting tickets for prom 60. Bernstein and Williams, great. Can't sniff at Gershwin and Arnold's Cornish Dances, either... Prom 71 will definitely be another one to get tickets for as well. Stravinsky's rite and Debussy.. right up my alley. :-)

I think it's probably the best score ever written in terms of its overall structure, and how it helps the narrative of the film. I think that's cleverly achieved through leitmotivic ideas that import narrative information into the film through being contextually relevant, and then expressed harmonically and/or intervallically in such a way that sets them at a certain level of 'progression' that matches the required mood of that point in the story. Even the 'faux themes' like here still do the job. And then, as we see here, the way the ideas are initially established (i.e. transitions) can go a long way in pushing things forward.

It is an absolute masterpiece! The choice of harmonies and the way they progress, and how they're voiced for the orchestra is mind blowing.

Hahaha. Actually, not too far off! The first episode is set in Namibia so the tailor made 'Bamblong' seemed to work quite well in that context and I ended up using it quite a bit:

Hi Guys! Just a quick post to let you all know that I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to score Survival with Ray Mears. A 3x1hour series, starting tomorrow on ITV1 at 7PM (UK). Do watch and let me know what y'all think! More: Jack Chapple scores 'Survival with Ray Mears'

In reference to the FP news article. This has to be one of the worst conducted professional performances of Williams' music, ever... The timing is completely skewed, and I am generally unimpressed. The orchestra sound under rehearsed, the brass are splitting partials, the winds have intonation problems... and... they're not playing together! That is all.

Wow, amazing! I wonder if Murphy's mix was recorded...

Yes! The album is simply fahhhhbulous!