Joe Brausam

It’s possibly the best JW interview in years. It truly helps when you have a brilliant writer and excellent music critic who knows his stuff doing the piece.
 
I’m very glad also to see the work of scholars like Frank and Emilio recognized. Well done, dear friends!

https://web.archive.org/web/19991013020724/http://starwars.talkcity.com/starwars/trans/5-6-99.htmpl
 
 
As a curiosity, here's an article from TheForce.net mentioning my transcript.
https://theforce.net/episode1/story/Williams_Chat_Transcript_80586.asp
 
 

Just a quick update on Willow from Roger.
 
 
So at least we know now it is definitely coming.
 
Karol
 

No diss, but I listened to this album the other day and would never be able to pick out which tracks are sampled and which tracks are live.  The way it's mixed, it all kind of sounds sampled.  I certainly didn't pick out the Battle of Yerbana track.  It was a good listen and a nice wrap-up though.

I also picked up THIN RED LINE. 

Thanks for the tip, I just picked it up with The Thin Red Line - this 30% off sale is great!

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Rosenman
Legendary Hollywood: Miklos Rozsa - conducted by Bernstein
E.T. - Williams (the original album - it was AWESOME)
Inglourious Basterds - Various
Conan the Barbarian - Poledouris (expanded Varese album for just $20!)

It is!  I just received it yesterday from them along with Far and Away.

Heres a pic of my favorite part :p
 

...to be honest, while it's not interesting on its own - Hildur's score is extremely effective in the film.  As well as her work on Chernobyl.  She did the job, and did it well.  So please don't make excuses for her win.

...to be honest, while it's not interesting on its own - Hildur's score is extremely effective in the film.  As well as her work on Chernobyl.  She did the job, and did it well.  So please don't make excuses for her win.

Or... those who voted have a different opinion on this score than you do and her gender doesn't enter into it?
 
Pretty surprised Bong Joon Ho beat Sam Mendes for Best Director! Could Parasite be the big winner later tonight as well?

Was rooting for Johnny, but I enjoyed Joker’s score very much. Congrats, Hildur!

I don´t agree. The best performance is priority always.

Definitely not historical.  Well, let me clarify because this is multilayered.  We are hearing a romantic French version of what ancient Arabian music sounded like.  That influenced the next generation of modal composers like Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Respighi ergo Miklos Rozso in his biblical epics ergo JW in the closest thing he did to a biblical epic, Raiders of the Lost Ark, when he needs to draw on that tradition quickly.  So we are sort of hearing a romanticized French impressionistic version of this style that we associate with the period.  Hollywood dumbs epochs of styles because they might use an element from 4,000 years ago plus french romanticism with something from contemporary islamic heritage (like a call to prayer) to immediately establish an expected sound world with primitive instrumentation (heavy percussion and emphasis on rhythms and archaic modes) and that is what you are hearing.  My point is that you "hear" this as historically arabic because you are western and heard the western version of what traditionally arabian music sounds like.  This is what the authentic stuff sounded like which if we heard it in a film would be authentic but wouldnt make us think of ancient arabia:
 

They’re doing a deluxe slipcased edition of the two books. 3,000 copies. The Hobbit Sketchbook will be signed by Lee.

OK.  I saw the film in the theater last night.  And holy motherforking shirtballs, THIS SCORE IS INCREDIBLE.
 
I cannot recall another experience quite like this one, where I went to the theater and saw a movie, and was just in awe of how good the score was the whole way through like this.  What was most amazing was that even after listening to the 95 or so minutes of score we have between the FYC and OST a lot before seeing the film and becoming very familiar with it, EVERY SINGLE ADDITIONAL, UNRELEASED CUE I HEARD IN THE FILM WAS SOMETHING I WANTED TO HEAR AGAIN OUTSIDE THE FILM!  Every cue he chose not to put on the FYC or OST had SOMETHING special in it that made it worth having.  I just sat there being blown away as cue after cue was a great unreleased highlight.
 
I don't understand the reports from people saying eh, most of the highlights were on the FYC or OST, or eh, there's only 30 minutes of more music and most of it was older themes anyway, or whatever.  No way!  I mean, of course a lot of the cues do feature old themes, but many of those old themes are completely new variations of them!  I heard an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC rendition of The Emperor's Theme unlike any I had heard before (it was a quiet rendition, on woodwinds IIRC), a great new version of Luke's theme, some great new Force Theme variations, and TONS, I mean just TONS of great new Rey's Theme variations.
 
JW clearly is in love with Rey, and she is basically the main character of this film, and JW pretty much scores all her scenes with some new version of her theme, and I feel like we only got maybe half of these renditions between the FYC and OST.  He does so much more with that theme in the full score.
 
The other thing apparent from watching the film, is that it is very clear from watching that the film was scripted and shot as a longer experience, and then edited down within an inch of its life for the final cut.  It's quite clear sometimes when entire scenes are missing (some of which we have the cues for on the OST album), and it's also clear in other times that the scenes he kept in where whittled down and down and down after the original cue for them had been recorded.
 
This score is instantly my #1 most requested session leak / complete score release from all the John Williams scores that haven't been expanded yet.  Not only is there just a bunch of great music you can hear in the final film that hasn't been released yet, based on everything we can hear right now it seems clear to me that the full sessions for this score would have the most amount of interesting music we've never heard.
 
I can't remember the last time I was THIS into a new John Williams score this much, nor the last time I got 95 minutes of a score and still wanted more very very much.  It's clear that JW was very inspired while writing this score, either by an earlier longer cut that made a lot more sense, or just something inside him that wanted to make this score really special.  It's amazing to think that an 87 year old man who could have retired 25 years ago with a career more noteworthy than most composers can dream of achieving is still crafting masterpieces like this.  Bravo, maestro!

Considering that the ST is all about reminding people of their love for the OT, while at the same time making them forget the PT, it's a little weird to see Williams quoting random cues from TPM and AOTC on the new trilogy, like Talk of Podracing on Finn's Confession and The Arrival at Tatooeine on that Poe/Zori scene.
 
Maybe this is just a case of temp track love? Many people pointed that some action scenes on TLJ (Rose's sister dropping the bombs on the Star Destroyer, Holdo's Resolve) seemed to be tracked with Battle of Heroes.
 
Or maybe it's Williams James Horner-ing? "I've written this stuff for this other movie, but you know... It would be great if I put it on this new film I'm working on!". It wouldn't be the first time for him. *cof cof Harry Potter cof cof*

I enjoyed it.  I understand what people didn’t enjoy here, not saying they’re wrong or the criticism isn’t valid.  But I couldn’t help but enjoy it the whole time.
 
To each their own!

I can't stop laughing, thank you. 

It is probably my favorite post-2005 Williams score, though for me it has some very strong competition from Lincoln - they both do a lot for me.  I do consider War Horse to be masterpiece level from Williams, and I think it is one of his greatest original soundtrack albums as well.  It's so well arranged and tells a complete story on its own.  In that sense I feel like the score is practically a tone poem and works as a self contained piece of programmatic music.

It is probably my favorite post-2005 Williams score, though for me it has some very strong competition from Lincoln - they both do a lot for me.  I do consider War Horse to be masterpiece level from Williams, and I think it is one of his greatest original soundtrack albums as well.  It's so well arranged and tells a complete story on its own.  In that sense I feel like the score is practically a tone poem and works as a self contained piece of programmatic music.

I do too!  Williams tapped into something special when writing this one
 
I've listened to it regularly for 8 straight years now
 
The OST is superbly arranged, too!

Gustavo Dudamel will helm the recording sessions of Spielberg's West Side Story:
 
https://amblin.com/press/renowned-conductor-gustavo-dudamel-to-helm-recording-of-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story