nicholas
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Posts posted by nicholas
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As they say: why use a long word when a diminutive one will do?
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There's a - very dated - saying which goes something like this:
Heaven has British policemen, French chefs and German engineers.
Hell has German policemen, British chefs and French engineers.
Not fair of course, but perhaps it touches on a universal truth that everyone's best at something...
I wonder what the equivalent would be with, say, Americans (ie the US), Canadians and, say, Mexicans?
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Such a nightmare sharing this common language. In fact, it's so bad I'm going to pop out and have a fag on the pavement.
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I can see this could be quite a controversial thread.
It's interesting that your choice of talented people come from a relatively narrow field - you might call it showbiz, or popular culture (not meaning to denigrate the maestro...). Clearly the US is the home of "showbiz" and pop culture, and, to a lesser extent, the UK - perhaps it's largely an English-speaking phenomenon. I'm sure in many other fields of human endeavour you'd find other parts of the world dominate: as in, for instance, Sumo wrestling. Or gondola manufacture...
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Article in yesterday's London Evening Standard began:
"Dam Busters fly in for British [sic] film night at the Proms.
The 113th BBC Proms will celebrate great British films with a concert of scores from classics such as The Dam Busters and The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the British Academy of of Film and Televison Arts, the concert at the Royal Albert Hall will also include John Williams's soundtrack for Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.
Announcing this year's Proms programme today, controller Nicholas Kenyon said: 'Some of the best music by British composers was written for film so we thought it might be a good moment to celebrate that.'"
No date for the concert is given. Presumably it will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
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Must admit I do not get the Dvorak thing at all, and I'd have thought that "Peter and the Wolf" would be the last contender from Prokofiev.
Surely the strongest "classical" influence on "Jaws" must be Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps" or "Rite of Spring"?
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Anything - ANYTHING - from "Thomas and the King." Actually, familiarity with the piece has warmed me to it ... in places ...
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Parts of "The River" seem to occupy their own sound world, particularly with that drum beat in the main titles. Also, I thing "The Days Between" from Stepmom is not typical Williams at all - the harmonies are very French, like Ravel. I think only aficianados who knew the piece would recognise it as Williams.
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The avant garde establishment (now there's an oxymoron!) scorns commercial success as much as they do the genre of film music - perhaps its the reason why they disapprove of film composers. They would just as strongly disapprove of Michael Nyman (in his capacity as a "serious" composer) and - heaven forbid - Karl Jenkins as they would John Williams. The view is still pervasive that poverty produces quality and wealth only mediocrity and decadence.
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Thanks Miguel - much appreciated. I'm at work right now so could only listen to a small bit with the volume turned down but it sounds amazing...
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I would dearly love to hear this piece. Can anyone who has heard it describe it?
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In the UK they used the beautiful opening tune from Faure's "Agnus Dei" on a commercial for easy spread margarine. Seriously.
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I'm reminded that Morricone chose to represent Hamlet with the solo viola in that beautiful, hesitant main theme of his. It just wouldn't have worked on a violin, somehow, or even a cello.
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I always associate the viola with a certain amount of world weariness and melancholia. Certainly you wouldn't dance a jig with one. Is this significant, I wonder?
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I speak as something of an outsider here since I am not a great fan of the films (they've just always been there, somehow, usually at Christmas) and I rarely listen to the scores (the only one I don't own is "Temple of Doom" - why does this score not appear to be reviewed on Filmtracks, by the way?). I am not a huge adherent of "action music" and since these are action films and action scores par excellence I guess that must be the underlying reason for my comparative lack of enthusiasm.
The single track I do love, however, comes from "The Last Crusade" and that is "The Penitient Man Will Pass". The beautiful simple tune in this track, which I imagine to be the oft-quoted "Grail theme" is amongst the most haunting that Williams has ever penned. I only wish we heard it more often in the soundtrack, or that it was given a concert piece treatment. Has it ever been?
Apologies if I make lost of glaring imbecilities above - I'm just more of an "Angela's Ashes" man.
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WELCOME! What a great post. Now that's one attic I'd like to spend some time in...
The liner notes to the Scottish National Orchestra's re-recording of "Superman" detail the problems of trying to get hold of the original score. A lot of the music had to be reconstructed from actual recordings, I believe.
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John Williams did get an honorary, if unacknowledged, mention during the ceremony. Kylie Minogue, who presented the award for best score (says it all, really - not that I have anything against Kylie Minogue), hummed, or rather grunted, a bit of "Jaws" in an attempt to demonstrate the efficacy of film music... Not very enlightening.
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Tracks that run together and are divided at arbitrary points. The Healing/The Great Eatlon/End Titles from Lady in the Water are prime examples. I'd much rather have one long cue.
Then it runs into a pop song? Unforgivable (almost).
Lack of any liner notes about the music. It would be unthinkable in a "classical" album.
Sorry to "misquote" - only just worked out the new system! Durrr....
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I have the original RECORD from the early 80s.which has the exact same cover, front and back (but a bit bigger, of course). I sort of grew up with these versions and really rate them highly - I particularly like the end of the Throne Room, I've never heard another version quite like it.
But tell me - who the hell are the National Philharmonic Orchestra?
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Is anyone familiar with the American composer Peter Lieberson? There has been a lot of media coverage surrounding the recent release of his Neruda settings which were sung by his wife who tragically died shortly after the recording was made. The reviews are, without exception, glowing. I have to confess I had not heard of the composer before, being a provincial Brit. Having "Googled" him, it seems he's written a large number of concerrt works. Any recommendations for a Williams fan?
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I saw the film Capricorn One again on television earlier this week and was very impressed by Goldsmith's music and am seriously considering getting the score on CD. It's funny, though. John Williams has, up until now, been the only composer of film music I have followed, and certainly the only film composer whose music I would automatically buy. So I feel sort of strange buying Goldsmith. Like I'm taking a mistress or something.
Should I get over it?
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For rare - or obscure, if you prefer - 60s and 70s scores the website Movie Grooves (based in the UK) is very good, but it has a limited Williams selecvtion.
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With apologies for posting twice in such rapid succession - but the auction house I work for in London has just sold Audrey Hepburn's dress from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" for £410,000. I wonder if JW's dinner suit would get the same?
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I have been a follower of John Williams' music since Star Wars (and I STILL call it that), though I was first converted to his genius by Close Encounters (one of his greatest scores still). However, I do not subscribe to the generally-held view - or perhaps the most forcibly presented one, which may or may not be the same thing - that his best music was his earlier, so-called "classic" stuff. As I have already made clear on other posts, I consider Revenge of the Sith, Munich and War of The Worlds as the equal of anything else he has produced (I do have a problem with Memoirs of a Geisha, however - there just seems no theme quite memorable enough for me).
Are people suffering from a mis-judgement caused by nostalgia? I remember, for example, how the first reviews of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (or Sorcerer's Stone as my American friends refer to it) were met with at best indifference and even disapointment. The concensus was that it lacked "magic." Yet now it is, quite rightly, considered a great.
Are we juding this music objectively do you think?
Buckbeak's...theme?
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I am not qualified to comment here, but this is why I love this site...