nicholas
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Posts posted by nicholas
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Couldn't agree more about the "Schindler"-syndrome. I have to skip that bit.
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My favourite part of the symphony is the opening. This takes the form of a world-weary, melancholic march (a distant cousin to the "Hymn to the Fallen"). Some say it expresses the misery of war, others the end of empire. It's probably a bit of both.
I'm not an enormous fan of Elgar. I like him best when he's in his melancholic frame of mind, in the cello concerto, most obviously, but also in the first "Wand of Youth" suite which is achingly reminiscent of a lost childhood.
Enjoy the concert. What else is on the programme?
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Just read on Wikipedia that he studied under Arnold Schoenberg. I wonder if he introduced the 12-tone scale into Tom and Jerry?
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I remember reading somewhere that all Scott Bradley ever wanted was to be taken seriously as an avant-garde composer of so-called 'serious' music. Ironic.
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Thank you.
Also, whether I consider it or not is not open to dispute since I am the only person in existence who knows honestly what I consider. Which of the scores is best is, quite rightly, a free-for-all.
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No, seriously. I DO consider it.
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I'd better explain what I meant by a "fallow period". I meant that it seems we will have to wait a long time before we get another score. The maestro's recent output - particularly "Munich", "War of the Worlds" and "Revenge of the Sith", I consider to be amongst his best works ever. It just makes me want more!
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Very interesting - and somewhat controversial! I'd have thought that a string quartet was the most 'pure' form of musical expression. As Beethoven approached his end I think he wrote little else, and those works are some of the most condensed and intense pieces of music ever written. Surely a film score, by definition, is always referring to something else and is therefore not, to that degree, 'pure' music?
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As has been generally recognised we seem to have entered a rather fallow period in terms of the maestro's film scoring. However, I doubt whether he just sits around watching TV or playing computer games. I wonder if he is planning some huge masterwork to go out on, a sort of summation of his musical career? Don't get me wrong - I'd love nothing more than for him to go on for decades (well, say two more at least) but would it not be wonderful to have a final third symphony, or, even better, a piano concerto? What form would you like such a piece to take?
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Your profound analysis of the score confirms my long-held belief that "Angela's Ashes" will be considered the composer's consummate masterpiece.
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There are 2 respects in which I am similar to Winnie-the-Pooh. First, I have a rather large stomach and, secondly, I hum a lot. In fact, humming becomes a sort of constant self-narration, almost as if I am creating a soundtrack in my head for even my most banal activities. No wonder people cross the street to avoid me.
And almost always it's John Williams that I hum. Out of my whole repertoire I would guess that it's Fawkes the Pheonix which is most often performed, partly because, in my humble opinion, it is the most beautiful tune JW has ever composed, but also because it is so damn HUMMABLE.
Anyone else share this distressing characteristic?
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Trevor Jones's "The Mighty".
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Genius almost invariably reveals itself at an early age. I had a friend at school who was composing chamber operas at the age of 15 and, when others were struggling for hours to compose a simple fugue, he could knock one off in seconds - IN THE STYLE OF DELIUS. I wonder if John WIlliams was similarly gifted at an early age, and whether he was considered outstanding at the Juilliard? Is the Juilliard considered the best music school in the US, attracting only the most brilliant students?
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Not the case. My point is a general one about deliberately buying bad scores.
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I have just been reading the review of Clint Eastwood's Score for "Flags of our Fathers" on Filmtracks. Amongst many felicitous phrases employed my favourite has to be a reference to the "eye-rolling aspects of the score's ineptitude." This sounds bad. So bad, I almost felt tempted to go and buy the score. Has anyone else suffered from similar temptations, that is, to buy a score because it's meant to be bad?
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I love The Five Sacred Trees (bassoon concerto) but I have to confess to having reservations over some of the other concert works, at least the ones I have heard (I haven't heard the Horn or Clarinet concertos, for example, nor the Essay for Strings). My particular problem is with the Violin Concerto which seems to me to be something of a wasted opportunity. The endless arpeggios sound tired to me, like going through the motions. And whilst the opening of the slow movement is very beautiful, nothing really develops out of it, it seems to me. In short, I just don't 'get' the Violin Concerto; it seems to have less feeling and atmosphere in its total than in just a few bars of Fawkes the Phoenix, for instance. Sorry.
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Stepmom. But only because of the stupid name.
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What a truly amazing man he is. He has this whole other career and I didn't even know about it. Remarkable.
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I remember listening to the last few minutes of "Hook" on a plane staring out at a fanstastic cloudscape after far too many gin and tonics. Can't remember where I was going, or where I'd been. Surely this must be the essence of escapism?
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Horner's comments about Bach and Jared's score for "The English Patient" come across as particularly naive. Bach was the whole point in that score, or at least the western tradition was, mixed with other - contrasting - musical traditions in an often beautiful polyphony. Jared was composing a deliberate TRIBUTE to Bach.
Also, fancy forgetting the title to "Poseidon".
Mind you, I do like parts of "The Perfect Storm", to give Horner his due, although it all sounds roughly the same. And there are quite breathtaking melodic thefts from Copland in it.
Can you imagine Williams being quite so openly arrogant though? And abusive?
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This poll has made me wonder: who chooses the titles for tracks on a soundtrack album? Do you think the maestro himself has any say?
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I saw "Meet Joe Black" on a plane but didn't have headphones. The moment when the Brad Pitt character gets hit by a car provoked a communal gasp from the passengers. The build up to this scene - particularly with the calming music which precedes it - brilliantly lulls you into expecting a romantic fade-out, not a RTA...
Sorry, not quite The Exorcist but an effective bit of cinema none the less.
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"Letter from America" by The Proclaimers. Probably more about Scotland than America actually...
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Thanks so much for your reply. Unfortunately, I am not technologically very astute - I have only just mastered my toaster - so am not sure what "PM" means. However, I think it's all in vain - I have read an account of the concerto in question and no way can it be the piece I am trying to identify. Sadly, I suspect this will remain a tantalising mystery... But I really appreciate your offer of help.
John Rutter
in General Discussion
Posted
He makes Andrew Lloyd-Weber look like a matinee idol.
Most people in the UK know Rutter from his Christmas music. He is considered hopelessly anachronistic by most people, but his music has an undeniable charm. "What Sweeter Music" is a very pretty carol, but not much more than that.
Unfortunate name, too. "Rutter."