Lewya

Odd that this hasn't been reported at an English-language site yet, maybe just a matter of time. I can see it taking off.

What does he say about Williams and Zimmer? Also, what does he say about Tarantino? Why is he a cretin? Can someone please post a translation of what he said about them?

The esteemed Thomas Adés recently in an interview said that he loves Williams (and Waxman, Bernstein, Legrand) in film music: Obviously, there is a fine tradition of classical composers scoring film. Were there particular composers that inspired you? Adés: "In film music, I love Franz Waxman, Michel Legrand, Elmer Bernstein, and John Williams. Of classical composers who have written for film: Sergei Prokofiev, Per Nørgård." - https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/guilds/editorial/interview-with-composter-thomas-ades?return=colette Mason Bates wrote this back in 2016 about E.T.:

I didn't see this until now. Williams apparently wrote an advance review of Morricone's upcoming book/biography that is out next year: "Throughout his long and distinguished career, Ennio Morricone has consistently proven to be one of the most imaginative and idiosyncratic composers in the history of cinema. This book reveals the powerful personality behind his brilliant work and will be rewarding reading for anyone interested in the magic of music in film." -- John Williams https://www.amazon.com/Ennio-Morricone-His-Own-Words/dp/0190681012/

This obscurity emerges as one of this year's best film scores (what a weak year for scores it has been). For fans of dark, unsettling soundscapes, this might be worth a listen. It expresses a dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Ops, I accidentally voted on Waxman, it should be "other" - North, but I can not change my vote. Followed by Takemitsu. They had chops and imagination beyond everyone else.

Red Sparrow - James Newton Howard The opening is quite nice and I guess it is one of the brightest film music moments of the year (which doesn't say much as all given the weak year), but most of the rest passes by without any of it having any effect on me, I just find the underscore nondescript and dull.

I don't think I am, it is just my opinion, it is just what it is. Impressed by what? Just because my favourites are different than Williams? Come on. I am well aware that nobody cares.

-

Maps to the Stars - Howard Shore I am not a big fan of The Hobbit scores even if they are decent, but this on the other hand is Shore's most striking recent achievement. This is a good and an imaginative score.

I can't even remember the movie, but 2 stars out of 5 stars about right based on what I remember. Not horrible, but not good either. Score.. hm, it is fair to pretty good. I am being a bit generous and voting on 3 stars even if I don't really listen to it or like it much.

Going to give Mandy a listen later today. Arrival was his most recent score I cared for and I have a feeling that this one won't be for me, but maybe it has at least one worthwhile track or something.

Yeah, and the takeaway is a culminative one in my mind rather than standout tracks I think. Much like Cleopatra which I also need to give another listen to soon.

Dragonslayer - Alex North Fantasy music doesn't get better than this. What brilliant orchestration. It makes me want to see the film.

Totally disagree. He is certainly not unmatched, not even among living film composers. I find Newman, Morricone and maybe Goldenthal superior, or at least on his level. They are more original, inventive and/or progressive than Williams. I consider Newman the most original and finest living film composer even if he hasn't written as many very good scores as Williams yet (as he shouldn't, he is after all over 20 years younger than him). I also connect with Newman's style and approach to scoring more - he doesn't put too strong music behind the images like Williams too often does. Takemitsu and North are the kings of film scoring - no one else had their imagination, chops or track record of excellence. I'd put Takemitsu above North as a composer, he had chops even beyond North, but in my mind North's track record of excellence across his film music career is unparalleled, even if Takemitsu came pretty close. Also Takemitsu didn't write any film score as groundbreaking as Streetcar, North was more influential and groundbreaking to the field. I don't think it is controversial to say that objectively speaking, Takemitsu was the greatest composer who ever became a "true" film composer - Takemitsu is the only composer who ranks among the highest rank of modern concert hall composers - something some film composers only aspired to but only Takemitsu achieved. Don't get me wrong though, Williams is one of the top 10 film composers of all time and a master, but far from the king of film scoring. My main issue is his comfort zone which he stays in far too often for my liking, the recycling and the lack of diversity which he did quite well in the 70s in particular. As I have said before, some other composers are more original, inventive and/or progressive - Newman, Morricone and Goldenthal among living film composers - Takemitsu, North, Herrmann and Goldsmith among dead film composers.

Two tracks from the score have been released exclusively: https://ew.com/movies/2018/10/04/first-man-score-first-listen-exclusive/

Nah, one of his better I guess - a top 10 Zimmer score, but there are far too big parts of the score that bore and/or grate me. Still, it has some fine moments. Inception is his best probably - which was remarkably fresh at the time it came out and remains a interestingly obsessive maximum-minimal score. I also dig some of the ambience in it. Now playing: Avatar - James Horner Not really a fan of this, uninspired RCP-like ostinatos and annoying chanting - strikes me as bland "epicness", but I don't mind it too much. It at least has a few tracks that are pretty good. Like Titanic, I don't mind it much in context even if I am not a fan of it, it just feels like a big missed opportunity though. Addendum: East of Eden - Leonard Rosenman Much, much better - in fact, one of the best film scores of all time. As Corigliano said, not even Copland could have written a better Americana theme. 1900 - Ennio Morricone My favourite Morricone score of the 100-something I have heard, not only because of the fantastic main theme, but also because it contains one of the 10 best film music tracks of all time - Olmo E Alfredo. How the melody is laid against accompaniment and what you can do with 2 notes. The string writing starting at around one minute into the track is amazing. It is my most favourite Morricone.

Gone Girl - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Listening to this again. I really dig the none abrasive/industrial parts of the score in particular.

Solaris - Cliff Martinez Fantastic, the best electronic film score of the last 20+ years. I love this score. Drive - Cliff Martinez I hope this one will grow on me on my upcoming listen. I remember liking it, but nowhere near my love for Solaris.

-

Same! I am a pretty big fan of Sakamoto, and his async album was my favourite album last year. Anyway, this thing is way too expensive, and especially since I already owned most of the music before I discovered his list. I decided to just grab some of the tracks that he mentioned which I didn't have before and through someone I managed to access parts of the booklet that comes with the CD to read some of the comments on all the various tracks. I can't improve much on his list and think it is exceptional, I agree with the vast majority of it. I think only two of the tracks were previously unfamiliar for me, I hadn't heard the Lai track, but I agree that it is great, even if it doesn't make my personal top 25. Also the François de Roubaix track was news to me, another great track, maybe Roubaix at his best. Bespin - your Spotify list is not entirely correct, you have picked some of the wrong versions of the tracks he selected and not all of it is on Spotify. The specific Takemitsu track he selected for the CD is not the entire 5 minute suite thing, it is the 1 minute something track which I uploaded to YouTube above. I uploaded the track from Blue too, which I included among my top 5 tracks of all time. It is hard to think of more intimate film music, it is hard to think of ambient music done better than it in film, the only possible exception I can think of is Eno's For All Mankind, which inhabits a similiar kind of soundscape as this, but both are different. It is also hard to think of other film music were spoken word is used on this level. I accidentally deleted the booklet that comes with the CD that I partly got access to, but in it Sakamoto and a few critics/professors (I can't remember exactly) discuss all his picks. His picks are not discussed in great detail, but more like brief thoughts on his picks. It might be of interest to some of you reading this, here is one or two of the things I remember reading in it: Steiner in his film music was apparently superior to Korngold according to Sakamoto. He also said that Gone with the Wind was of high quality too, even if he prefered the moody track from King Kong - probably Steiner's best. He also said something about that Pierrot le Fou didn't impress him first, the music that is, but it is one of his favourite films and he seems to have grown to love the music too, despite his initial impression. The Tiomkin from The Alamo he included for selfish reasons, I think he said something that it was one of the first film scores he remembered and that he loved. At a later date, Sakamoto selected some of the best music movies - some of the movies that according to him have the best music, here is the list of the movies he selected for some events: A Streetcar Named Desire East of Eden Blue The Garden King Kong Jose Torres & Jose Torres part 2 Kwaidan Beauty and the Beast Solaris (the Tarkovsky film) Stalker Nostalghia The Sacrifice India Song Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert Elevator to the Gallows Pierrot le Fou Hiroshima Mon Amour The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Histoire(s) du cinéma Ugetsu Citizen Kane Ivan the Terrible The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari I wish more top film composers selected their favourite film music like this, even if I probably would disagree a whole lot with say what Zimmer, Giacchino etc might have selected. Sakamoto strikes me as the person with the best taste in music, not just going by his film music list, but also the fairly recent restaurant playlist which he made, this one: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2YY3rAwm9tldNhlBmuMqgY I will say that I don't love everything he included here, but at least it is an interesting list which is to me pretty rare. Most of it was new to me too - I made a few wonderful discoveries thanks to his restaurant playlist. I love this track for instance: Gotta love that minimalist influence - new-age at its best. So first North is the most underrated film composer of all time, followed by Rosenman and third would probably be Simon Fisher Turner as the third most underrated film composer of all time. I am not very familar with Fisher Turner, even if I have always loved Blue since I saw it years ago. I sampled The Garden on Spotify after I saw Sakamoto including it among his best music movies, but unlike Blue, I don't think I will love this one, but I will give it a try at a later date I suppose.

I decided to just post just once instead of posting two lists since I agreed with him so much. Sorry, it was 23 tracks that he picked actually, I forgot that he picked two Morricone tracks. Sure, here are all of the top 23 tracks he picked for his CD (my list is very similiar except that I excluded the first three tracks, the fact that I added three more tracks to make it a top 25 and also limit myself to one track per composer): Ferdinand from Pierrot le Fou composed by Antoine Duhamel Today It's You from A Man and a Woman composed by Francis Lai Tema di Aziza from Arabian Nights composed by Ennio Morricone I Fill This Room With the Echo of Many Voices from Blue composed by Simon Fisher Turner Belle Reve from A Streetcar Named Desire composed by Alex North - This is his favourite track of all time, and I agree with him Jose Torres from Jose Torres composed by Toru Takemitsu - And this was his second favourite track of all time, and I also agreed with him on that Prelude from 49th Parallel composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams Les Ombres from Napoleon composed by Arthur Honegger Beauty and Avenant from Beauty and the Beast composed by Georges Auric East of Eden Main Title from East of Eden composed by Leonard Rosenman Olmo E Alfredo from 1900 composed by Ennio Morricone Train from Stalker composed by Eduard Artemyev American Beauty from American Beauty composed by Thomas Newman Maybe You're My Puppet from Solaris composed by Cliff Martinez Rochester from Jane Eyre composed by Bernard Herrmann Gelsomina from La Strada composed by Nino Rota Camille from Contempt composed by Georges Delerue Journal De Bord from Les Aventuriers composed by François de Roubaix Grey Waltz from Life Dances On composed by Maurice Jaubert Overture from The Alamo composed by Dimitri Tiomkin A Boat in the Fog from King Kong composed by Max Steiner Kings Row Main Title from Kings Row composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold The Best Years of Our Lives Main Title from The Best Years of Our Lives composed by Hugo Friedhofer 20 out of his 23 picks are on my own top 25 since I agreed with him so much. I excluded the first three tracks that he selected for his CD, and added the Eno, Williams, Goldsmith, Shostakovich and Prokofiev to make it a top 25.

-

Gone Girl - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross I now think that this is the duo's finest score so far, but I still only care for less than 20 minutes of it. There is some fine ambience to be found here. I am not a big fan of the more industrial, edgy and gritty stuff though. Favourite tracks include Empty Places, Procedural etc.

Oh, maybe that wasn't clear, I don't put Goldenthal higher than him as a composer - Goldenthal has contributed more to film music though (unlike Corgliano who has contributed more to the concert world than Goldenthal has), but I don't count Corgliano as a film composer like I do with Goldenthal so that is why I mentioned him like that. For me it is only Goldenthal and Newman that are film composers I find to be really interesting. Ok, Shore etc can also be interesting I guess. Corgliano is at least as interesting as Goldenthal, even if I probably would agree with him that he couldn't do what Goldenthal does in film music better. I wish both of these men did more film work - it would be refreshing from the usual mediocrity.