TheUlyssesian

Max Richter is one of my favourite composers to emerge in the last two decades, one of the greatest proponents of post-minimalist romanticism. I have 25 of his albums, both scores and concert music. I first took proper note of his name after the use of his music in SHUTTER ISLAND, but I had actually seen and enjoyed WALTZ WITH BASHIR, his breakthrough score, prior to that, without really noticing Richter's name.
 
But - curiously - WERK OHNE AUTOR is not one of those I enjoy that much. For some reason, that didn't connect with me. Hard to say why, but it might have something to do with its "detached" nature. Maybe it will grow on me.
 
The iconic THE LEFTOVERS remains my favourite of his. And for non-film music, THE BLUE NOTEBOOKS.

Restoring Howard Shore's original music to the Adventure Begins scene. This is one Shore's most beautiful pieces for Hobbit, it is perfect internal structure and it builds towards a magnificent and exuberant crescendo - a cut as perfectly timed as the famous cut that Williams scored in the chase sequence of ET when the bikes come in.
 
Peter Jackson keeps the crescendo itself but replaces the build-up with something else, I wonder why.
 
Nevertheless, I have rescored the scene with Shore's track on the album and even produced a more sync version, two of the easy ones that Jackson missed in the film - for the overhead of shot of Hobbiton and the last shot of the scene.
 
 
There is almost something moving about the way Shore scores this scene, something poignant and brings a sense of yearning. What might seem irrational and impulsive in the images Shore gives meaning to and makes it understandable.

John's rejected Color Purple score over Jone's score

Troy for sure.
 
I literally can't for the life of me can't imagine what they were thinking.
 
Like if you just heard Yared's music you would be like that is splendid.

I couldn't hum a single theme from Black Panther.
 
Avatar's best moments are beautiful and lovely. I dislike the film but love the score.

Timeline
Troy

I couldn't hum a single theme from Black Panther.
 
Avatar's best moments are beautiful and lovely. I dislike the film but love the score.

Except Ratatouile looks great, its visual direction is not "cheap 90s TV show CG"

This will always remain JW's story-telling masterpiece. I feel he has never displayed better mastery of narrative than here. Every single cue is lifting the movie up - providing suspense, providing pathos, providing tension and poignancy, provider wonder and magic.
 
The music does soooooo much of the work in this film it is absurd though the movie is magnificently directed anyways.
 
I can understand a composer overcompensating for a bad script and direction and performances to life up the picture but for an already excellent picture, JW just hits it out of the park. The desperation of the chase theme, like in the above Michel's search cue and the climatic chase cue always gets me. 

This will always remain JW's story-telling masterpiece. I feel he has never displayed better mastery of narrative than here. Every single cue is lifting the movie up - providing suspense, providing pathos, providing tension and poignancy, provider wonder and magic.
 
The music does soooooo much of the work in this film it is absurd though the movie is magnificently directed anyways.
 
I can understand a composer overcompensating for a bad script and direction and performances to life up the picture but for an already excellent picture, JW just hits it out of the park. The desperation of the chase theme, like in the above Michel's search cue and the climatic chase cue always gets me. 

This will always remain JW's story-telling masterpiece. I feel he has never displayed better mastery of narrative than here. Every single cue is lifting the movie up - providing suspense, providing pathos, providing tension and poignancy, provider wonder and magic.
 
The music does soooooo much of the work in this film it is absurd though the movie is magnificently directed anyways.
 
I can understand a composer overcompensating for a bad script and direction and performances to life up the picture but for an already excellent picture, JW just hits it out of the park. The desperation of the chase theme, like in the above Michel's search cue and the climatic chase cue always gets me. 

I figured we'd have to start the year and formal decade on a high note.
 
 


X Main Title
1M1 The Forest (Revised)
1M2 Keyes Arrives
1M2A The Final Solution
2M2 Looking for E.T. - Might be my favourite little discovery here, the "mickey mousing" as Elliot throws the Pieces around and downs a couple.
X The Encounter
 
In this extended overture, themes are set up, some action grabs your attention, and the mood is established.
 
 


2M3 The First Meeting
3M1 Into the House
3M2 Meeting E.T.
3M3 E.T. and Elliot - Unused, movie tracks E.T. is Alive over it
4M1 In the Closet
 
The gentle friendship blossoms during this calm break in the score, but the ominous Keys theme still reasserts itself a couple times.
 
 


4M2 E.T.’s Magic
5M1 Mary Seaches the Closet
5M2 E.T. Raids the Icebox
5M5 E.T. Gets and Idea
5M6 The Quiet Man
6M2 Levitation - Unused, meant for but also unused in the Laserdisc-exclusive deleted scene
6M3 Bed Time Stories - First time I had to shorten the footage to fit the score.
7M1 Halloween
7M2‐8M1 E.T.’s Machine
 
An idea is born, moods shift into more tension and themes mingle and develop.
 
 


8M2 Michael’s Search (new Intro)
9M1 Keyes Enters the House (revised) - Second time I had to shorten the footage, the shot creeping in on E.T. for lack of a better opportunity. It bothers me that the strikes don't always match up with the cuts but it's the same way in the film.
9M2 Stay With Me (new intro)
10M1 He Came to Me
10M2 E.T. Phones Home - This was shortened in the film but fits just fine like this!
11M1 The Rescue - Had to extend the footage in multiple places
11M3 The Bike Chase
11M4‐12M1 The Departure (plus sweetener bars 79‐82)
END CREDITS (revised)
 
Everything culminates into the grand finale, good on its own but mindblowing as the payoff to all the buildup.
 
 



1M1 The Forest - too long, had to add a short black screen
1M2 Keyes Arrives (New Ending?)
8M2 Michael’s Search - only included the original opening here
9M1 Keyes Enters the House (original) - still had to shorten the footage but not by as much as the film version
9M2 Stay With Me
11M4‐12M1 The Departure (no sweetener, Steven’s fix) - this runs shorter than the film take, but not out of sync by much and not too many hard sync points except by the second half anyway.
END CREDITS

Exactly this.
 
And I am also going by the adage that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
 
I found Soul's score entirely unremarkable. I firmly believe Thomas Newman would have delivered a superior score and he can do this kind of tinkling ethereal texture stuff in his sleep.

Exactly this.
 
And I am also going by the adage that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
 
I found Soul's score entirely unremarkable. I firmly believe Thomas Newman would have delivered a superior score and he can do this kind of tinkling ethereal texture stuff in his sleep.

I'm not sure that picking Reznor and Ross was really much of a risk given that they have considerable mainstream movie scoring experience and an Oscar. It's not really picking some new or obscure or well known but without much/any film scoring experience. Indeed, the more choice of Jon Batiste is probably more daring as he falls into the "well known but not much/any scoring experience" bracket (I've not heard of him, but in his field he is clearly well known).
 
Plus, worth remembering that the choice of Randy Newman for Toy Story was pretty surprising given that he'd not really scored anything like it before (it was a mix of his own song albums and dramas). Similar for Thomas Newman on Finding Nemo. Think that was his first animated film and certainly an unusual choice at the time. And Michael Giacchino was pretty obscure when he scored The Incredibles. While he was clearly a great choice in retrospect it was by no means certain. By those benchmarks, Ross and Reznor are kinda left field, ish, but not exactly startling daring and what they produced isn't really the kind of music that required their particular experience either (unlike, again, Jon Batiste, whose jazz background was clearly required). I think any number of composers could have written some electronic noodling like Ross & Reznor.

Recent score feature
 
 

I’m absolutely certain that mission number one for the music was to find an actual black jazz musician to write the music for the group of black jazz musicians in the film.  It’s respectful and authentic and it helps Pixar avoid a certain type of social media backlash.  The bigger question for me is, why didn’t they let that composer score the whole film?

Came here to post this. Also maybe Fawkes.
 
Even Friendship theme from HP1 and 2. There is something so warm about it.
 
Maybe Dinner Rush from Gia's Ratatouille - has that warm exuberant sound that I associate with Christmas.

Love films without a non-diegetic score. Michael Haneke for the win!

"The Birds" come to mind.
And almost all Dogma movies.
 

In Williams terms, this is like Spielberg asking him to re-record Here They Come for an action scene of an Indiana Jones movie, just because he liked the cue in the temp.

The qualifying date now is till February. And Oscars are in April.
 
So movies can come out for another 5 months to qualify for Oscars.
 
And blockbusters are out but stuff has released on streaming and at festivals.
 
So come hell or high water, hollywood is going to have an awards season.

New audio interview with Patrick Doyle available at this link:
 
https://radio1.be/podcast-soundtrack-maestro
 
He talks about Death on the Nile starting at 35:49; At one point he mentions that he was able to write a 10 minute concert suite, but doesn't specify if it will be on the OST album or not

With very few exceptions, the old Pixar is mostly dead anyway. They're just like any other corporate animation studio, just with a higher quality of technical animation.

So erudite and knowledgable!