-
Posts
12,192 -
Joined
-
Days Won
19
Posts posted by BLUMENKOHL
-
-
I think we need to be frank about you're achieving versus what you intended to accomplish. If you feel that reducing John's music to component elements and describing them improves your ability to frame music in music theory (a reductionist enterprise), then I say "sure." You'll get no argument from me.
But if you reduce the Imperial March into its components, are you gleaning why or how John Williams' music works? I would contend that you learn nothing meaningful in this regard. You are no closer to understanding how to create a menacing theme for a villain as Williams did for Vader.
You can take all the components you've identified, but something like the Imperial March isn't a simple sum of its parts. The order of your ingredients matters. The quantity of ingredients matters. The skill of your performers combining the elements matters. Your listener's palate matters. And this is where reductionism falls apart: the interaction between all of this stuff matters.
The only thing you're improving by analyzing John's music is your ability to analyze music and frame it in a music theory context. Otherwise we'd see thousands of John Williams caliber composers.But we don't.
We see thousands of exceptional musical analysts and theorists who can eloquently pick apart and describe chords and modalities!
1 hour ago, KK said:There's a reason he remains Hollywood's unrivalled tunesmith, because he's familiar with the nature of intervals, riffs, progressions and tools he's amassed over the years to know exactly what fits the bill and his audience.
Absolute non-sense and delusional wishful thinking.
The reason he is Hollywood's unrivaled tunesmith is because while everyone else is busy analyzing his tunes, John is prolifically producing tunes. He isn't sitting around poring over Haydn's work, he is writing, writing, writing! He is on the piano every day except Sunday (though he still goes for it with reduced hours), as he has said in interviews. He has admitted that he doesn't consume much of other people's work. THAT my friend is why he is great: he's a prolific doer. He uses, plays with, and experiments with intervals, riffs and progressions. Someone who writes about them or identifies them, or describes, them or thinks about them gets good at doing exactly those things.
John Williams is a great composer because he composes. Simple as that.
-
3 minutes ago, Stefancos said:
No! And sadly these days there's far too many members who think otherwise.
It's bollocks. Certainly on this level.
I mean shoot, just a slightly different performance of a piece of music can completely deflate its power. We must stop this madness!
-
Reductionism: the idea that you can break something complicated up into smaller natural parts and analyze them to understand the whole thing.
Reductionist Musical Analysis: This John Williams track is awesome. Let's break it down and see why...
The Reductionist Analyst: This track really gets its spine tingling power from the blah blah blah syncopation and diminished seventh chords....
The Reductionist Analyst Turned Composer: I shall use syncopation and diminished seventh chords to emulate that POWAAAAHHHH!
The Reductionist Analyst Turned Composer Turned Failure: The syncopation and diminished seventh chords fall flat and do not achieve power.
Blumenkohl's Refined Theory of Musical Analysis: Reductionism doesn't work to describe why music works. It's no more effective than trying to understand consciousness by breaking down the brain into brain areas or neurons. Understanding the functioning of a neuron cell (a trivial task) does not explain what consciousness is, how it works, or how to reproduce it. It does not explain what happens when you put 100 billion neurons together. I'd posit that music, while not as complicated, starts to encroach on that territory. Which is why you can break down John Williams all you want, you can emulate him all you want, but you still suck as a composer, and you can't explain why when John Williams does it, it works, and when you do it you fall short.
Blumenkohl's Challenge to the Young, Creative, Smart Minds gracing JWFan (read: Not Stefan Cosman): How do you develop a less limited method for talking about and analyzing music? I'm not saying reductionism is completely useless, but it's clearly limited on its own. So how can you think about music in a more holistic way?
-
-
On 1/1/2018 at 8:27 PM, Stefancos said:
Blume has often passed or fabricated fake news.
I bet he's paid from Russia.
Dasvidaniya.
-
-
-
On 2/10/2013 at 7:16 PM, Blumenkohl said:
I do want to express my direct reaction to Williams' comments, unpopular as it might be:
It completely rubs me the wrong way.
The entire focus of the new Star Wars trilogy is to transition the franchise into the hands of a new generation. Even George "IT'S MINE, ALL MINE, I CAN DO WITH IT WHAT I CHOOSE" Lucas has stepped back and is handing it off to relatively younger people.
And here is John going "OH I CAN'T WAIT TO WORK ON IT!"
It just doesn't strike me as particularly classy, on several levels. Chiefly, he's not elegantly handing off a torch to future generations, he's not saying "I've done my bit for king and country, I'll let rising talent take a shot at it." He's basically muscling his way into screwing over anyone that may or may not be selected to score the film after him. Because now we know the old lovely man wanted to score it, and some youngin stole it from him.
Second the assumption that he will be involved comes off as arrogant. Yes, you are Star Wars John, but being a little modest about it would be so much more likable. Feign it, say "I'd love to work on it if I am invited to do so, but I'm also interested in hearing what fresh talent could do with Star Wars."
All in all It's a bit cringe worthy. It's like that stalker ex that just doesn't know when to quit. Everyone else is looking forward to the fresh direction, and he's still like "I'm gonna score it!"
You greedy son of a gun Johnny. I can see how you cleverly manipulated your way into screwing over Patrick Doyle with the whole Stepmom fiasco.
6 hours ago, Nick1066 said:As much as I adore Williams and his Star Wars scores (they're the reason I got into film music), it might be heresy to say, but Star Wars does not belong to John Williams. If George Lucas could let it go, Williams certainly can.
Of course I think he should have first right of refusal on scoring any of these movies, no one will ever make Star Wars music like John Williams. But otherwise I think he should step back and allow other composers to do as they will. I hope this
reportrumourunverified gossip isn't true, or if it is true I hope it's being mischaracterised.Fucking seriously? You got your knickers in a bunch over my post over 4 years ago!
-
13 hours ago, JoeinAR said:
man what a pile of idiotic bullshit you just wrote. I would not ever think of you as clueless until now. See my response to Tom's foolishness below.
I could use a quote from Aliens, but I would rather be far more rude and blunt but thanks for your retarded response. We all feel better now. I guess you said the same thing when Yoda schooled Luke,
you say that like its a bad thing.
Fuck off.
-
4 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:
They did not ruin Poe Dameron's character. He was taught a valuable lesson. It was a great arc. He will be a better character as he leads the rebellion as General in Star Wars IX.
It was the most un-Star Wars arc. Star Wars has always been about subverting the behind the desk bureaucracy in favor of heroes who dive into the action, take risks, and suffer the consequences.
This message was "STFU you petulant daredevil and trust the bureaucracy and their secret plans!"
At least Holdo had the heroic decency to sacrifice herself at the end. But the ultimate message: shut up and trust the bureaucrats and their secrets is just not a Star Wars message.
-
Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Being a Behind the Desk General is Just as Good as Being a leading the charge Leader!
- Pieter Boelen and A. A. Ron
-
1
-
1
-
-
One of the plot lines I most disliked in TLJ was Poe’s. It rubbed me all kinds of the wrong way.
He’s a terrible person in this movie, and Holdo and Leia serve to only make him worse. The entire arc defies everything that a Star Wars movie and a mythology should be.
We send a very bizarre modern day message that a good leader is someone who methodically thinks through problems and tries to optimize the equation and saves everyone and himself.
In the first part two thirds of the movie Poe is portrayed as a hotheaded instinctive idiot, who none the less puts his own ass on the line by being out in the action. The problem is that he puts other people’s asses on the line as well. Fair enough.
He he comes back and he is basically told by the bureaucratic people in charge, observing the situation from the comfort of their big ships, that this is not the way it should be, you are sacrificing too much, and that you are an idiot you are demoted, SLAP.
Leia is is out of commission, a new bureaucratic person takes over, and then like a classic sitcom refuses to communicate and stares pensively out into the abyss, no doubt methodically thinking through the problem and optimizing the equation. The lack of communication makes Poe take matters into his own hands, but now, starting to take the bureaucratic lessons to heart, he sends Finn and Rose to do his bidding. From his bureaucratic chambers, he deems the plan is going well, and he over throws the bureaucracy with his own.
The plan backfires, things go wrong, the original bureaucracy returns to power, and Poe gets stunned.
We go down to the planet, the bureaucrats have kind of saved the rebels but really just fucked them by getting them cornered. So, Luke Skywalker comes in and sacrificed himself to give them a chance to save the day.
What does our now more more thoughtful and pensive Bureaucracy Approved Poe do? Well he runs the numbers, optimizes the equations, and while giving a speech about sparks resolves to lead the rebellion by escaping while Luke sacrifices himself for the cause.
But it’s Poe, right? Surely he wouldn’t be that bureaucratic! Surely he would put his ass on the line and find a way to help Luke buy even more time for the Rebels!
Right?
No! Sacrifice is verboten in this new bureaucratic order. Poe determines that being a good leader in this case doesn’t mean taking some personal risk to help maximize the Rebellions chances.
So he literally leads the band, first in line running away from danger, with Bureaucratic Leia smiling at how much of a desk general Poe has become through a rigorous regime of slaps and stuns.
All this, literally in the same universe where just a couple of years ago Jyn and a band of rebels defy the bureaucracy and steal a shuttle to go get plans for a deadly weapon with virtually no hope of success and die not even knowing if they were successful. And that was the message: that doing the right thing and taking PERSONAL risk even when the bureaucracy disagrees is the foundation of the good side.
What an absolutely shitty message the Poe arc sends.
- Bespin and Pieter Boelen
-
1
-
1
-
1 minute ago, leeallen01 said:
I hope you're joking.
It’s canon!
-
8 minutes ago, leeallen01 said:
So they took over the whole galaxy between Rey holding out the lightsaber and Luke taking it then? About 7 seconds.
I've got to give it to the First Order. They're fast.
If you were a true Star Wars fan, you would know that planets strong with the force like Ahch-to and Dagobah tend to warp the passage of time. An excellent bit of canonic trivia to overcome the sloppy chronology in ESB and now TLJ!
-
1 minute ago, Jay said:
Yep another good point!
No! The fucking crawl spells it out. With all the Republic planets destroyed by the fucking Starkiller, the First Order had little resistane!
Pay attention!
-
2 minutes ago, Stefancos said:
Yeah All films have some awful, groining humour. TFA might fare the best of all in that department.
JJ’s movie was a religious fanboy film. Too much reverence if anything. He probably sees a Wookiee saying garbage smells as the pinnacle of haha.
Literally dying of laughter there.
-
11 hours ago, LOTRHobbitFan said:
The moment Luke throws away his own lightsaber in a cheap, cheesy manner, the dreaded un-Star Wars-like feeling sinks in and does not leave until the end credits roll in. Disappointing.
Religiosity - Watching the humor in the last 7 Star Wars and not seeing it as cheap, cheesy, or dreadful.
I feel like I’ve woken up in a mirror universe where Star Wars humor is anything more than awkward groan worthy. It has always been so, by intent. Maybe the aspergers fans who spend their lives interacting with movies and imaginary situations instead of real people think this is real humor?
-
1 hour ago, leeallen01 said:
Disney think they are giving the majority of fans what they want, in order to make money of course, but in fact what they're really doing is showing how out of touch with the fans they really are.
One person I read put it perfectly;
"I didn't wait 30 years to see my childhood hero again on-screen, to just have him become a runaway coward who would contemplate killing his own nephew. Where is the man who refused to kill Darth Vader because he believed he could be saved?"
Star Wars fans should be embarrassed by what they’ve become.
-
31 minutes ago, Quintus said:
That isn't my point though. In Star Wars '77 we are dumped headfirst into an ongoing war between factions which bit by bit are shown to us to have history and motivations. We see that imperial empire fall at the end of that story, Palaptine was portrayed as being the last great threat of his kind.
Oh, I get it. Sequels tend to cheapen everything that came before and themselves in the process. Because there never will be a happily ever after, the emperor wasn’t the end all and be all, and I’m sure there will be a Snoke 2.0, Emperor 3.0.
31 minutes ago, Quintus said:That isn't my point though. In Star Wars '77 we are dumped headfirst into an ongoing war between factions which bit by bit are shown to us to have history and motivations. We see that imperial empire fall at the end of that story, Palaptine was portrayed as being the last great threat of his kind. I'm happy for there to be new evils rise, but after that you can be damn well sure I want to know where they came from and how they gained status.
I agree.
You know why they left you wanting more with Snoke, right @Quintus?
1 hour ago, Quintus said:Wish I saw the same "risks" in this you guys did.
Frankly, I for a long time was expecting a very different direction to be taken in the storyline for this sequel. What I imagined would happen (based on the very slight look at pre release publicity material I had seen) didn't come about at all though, hence my broader disappointment in the movie by the time I'd watched it play out, in the end quite predictably.
1So here are the risks I saw Rian take:
- The fandom wanted a deep historical backstory for Snoke as some master architect character – Rian killed him off and made him unimportant to the story.
- The fandom wanted/expected some vital parentage for Rey, maybe even Skywalker's daughter – Rian made her a nobody.
- The fandom wanted Rey to play with the dark side, as is fashionable with heroes these days – Rian made her empathetic but unfazed by the dark side.
- The fandom wanted Luke to be an ongoing presence in the trilogy – Rian killed him off.
Those are gambles. The divided reaction to this movie tells me Rian took risks. If you say he didn't take big enough chances, I'd agree. But having Luke be darker and edgier is not something I consider a risk (as the marketing hinted). It's pandering to fashion these days.Anyways, I just doubt we will ever see a big gamble with these movies under Disney. -
- Popular Post
2 minutes ago, Romão said:The biggest twist for me was the moment of weakness when Luke briefly considered killing Ben Solo. That gave Luke a much bigger reason for his guilt and Ben a stronger motive to turn
I reaaaallllly loved that detail. It’s the kind of thing you often see in ancient mythologies. These tiny misunderstandings that lead to cosmic consequences.
-
-
4 minutes ago, publicist said:
Fans. The millstones round the franchises' neck.
I never understand people who think they own something by virtue of consuming it.
3 minutes ago, Denise Bryson said:Maybe when it's on Foxtel. I can't be arsed to go to the cinema anymore.
Fair enough.
-
Just now, Denise Bryson said:
It's a worry when fans on Facebook are calling for George Lucas to return. Geez, if it's that bad...
Why don’t you judge for yourself? Need me to tell you what to think?
Headphones
in General Discussion
Posted
If you listen at idiotic volumes, you're fucked yes. But there is no reason that headphones will damage your ears more than speakers. If anything if a noise-canceling pair of headphones can get you to listen at a lower volume, you're doing better for your ears!
If you're one of those people who can't not be listening to music all the time, you will also fuck your hearing.