David Coscina

I agree with Morlock. I'm not especially fond of Williams' work pre-Jaws. And I am one of the biggest Williams fans there is.

East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra comes in 3 editions: Silver ($299), Gold ($999) and Platinum (really expensive). I have the Silver Edition and it's excellent. The brass are more expressive and impressive compared to the GPO. All three editions come with their own Kompakt player which can be used as stand-alone or as a plug-in (with SOnar, Cubase or Logic). Check out their demos and you'll see.

Here's another set to stump you guys: "He's supposed to be a getaway driver? What the f*** can he get away from???" "Pardon me, but in the quiet words of the Mother Mary, come again?" "Don't......you will break" "Maybe it's not important who you are, but who you are when you're with that person" "I haven't met that many happy people in my life, how do they act?" "Come quietly or they will be......trouble" "If it bleeds we can kill it" "The imagination..ahhh" "It's inspired by Mozart and Bach..it's sort of a Mach piece" "what's wrong with being sexy?"- "SEXIST not sexy" "If you ever mention my son again, you will no longer be allowed to eat here. Do you understad? (pause) Do you understand, so sick, twisted f***?" "I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability"

Well all know John Williams is a god, hence there's no reason to say it. Seriously though, I don't worship Giacchino. My posts have attempted to provide a little more light insofar as his skills are concerned. To be honest, he hasn't dmeonstrated the range that Williams has, but then again, he's in his '30's. Let's try to remember what type of film scores Williams was putting out at that age. Or Goldsmith. Or Herrmann...well maybe not Herrmann since he was always a step ahead of the pack. I don't think GIacchino is any more or less talented than Beltrami, Shearmur, or any other fellas in their '30's. The exception to this was Elfman when he was in his '30's and Goldenthal. Both of whom had very distinctive, original voices in the film scoring world. I'd add Horner, but copying obscure classical pieces by famed composers doesn't cut it in my books.

I got some of these.... We're going to need a bigger boat - Roy Scheider - Jaws I think I'm familiar with the fact etc etc - Richard Dreyfuss - Jaws again.... SayJim, that's a bad outfit.......chappy when Superman makes his first appearance in Metropolis - Superman I know you've been througha lot etc etc - is that Ernie Hudson and friends in Leviathan? Yes Greg, that was in fact Ernie Hudson who was the only character who got any decent lines in that awful film. The other quotes are from Woody Allen- the first from Shadows and Fog and the latter from Bananas.

See if you can name all these film and characters who said them: "We're gonna need a bigger boat" "I think I'm familiar with the fact that you're going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you in the ass!" "This killer has the strength of ten men...and I have the strength of young boy....with polio" "I slept with an electric blanket as a child...and I was a nervous kid and wet the bed, so I was constantly electrocuting myself" "Saaaay Jim, that's a baaaad outfit. Whew!" Line: "I know you've been through a lot" Response: "BEEN THROUGH??? BITCH WE'RE STILL GOING THROUGH IT!!!! "It's not that I don't trust you....I don't trust you what did you do?" "313 pounds? Oh my God she could be the house...I HATE this job!" "Just because he's got a library card doesn't make him Yoda" "...and don't you go cuttin' up any whores..or else I'll come back and kill all you sons of bitches"

I have a KEYBOARD magazine interview with Giacchino surrounding his ALIAS music. They guy has to write, arrange, produce and have 25 minutes of music done in 4 days EVERY WEEK. David Arnold I'm sure has had a wee bit more time to spend on his "techno" material so it's really not an even playing ground. Giacchino's strongest suit isn't his techno anyhow. I think his orchestral music is far more satisfying and moving. Arnold's work has always come off as too sappy or overwrought. Except maybe his Last of the Dogmen score which has its moments.

Um, Giacchino's budget on ALIAS is far far less than a major film score budget. Give him a break. And I have yet to hear anything as moving as Giacchino's MOD scores from Arnold even with his big scoring resources.

Riccardo Muti's reading of Ivan the Terrible is also fantastic. I believe it's coupled with PRevin's Nevsky on the EMI label. The complete Alexander NEvsky score is also a fine reading. Some great writing, actually the best ever written for the film score medium.

Did Pauline Kael actually say Goldsmith was a pretentous hack? Ugh, the woman should have stuck with film criticism and never attempted to talk about things she obviously had no clue about.

Yes indeed. I have 7 recordings of this piece and the Previn/LSO is the finest one to my ears. The Crusaders in Pskov is more barbaric, and bombastic in this reading than any other I've heard. Although the tempi changes a little too drastically in the middle of "Battle on the Ice", I like the grit in this interpretation more than even Previn's other recording with the Los Angeles Phil.

Definitely! Yared is a master composer who is kinda going through Mahleritis. Largely unappreciated in his own time and not given the license to really show fans what he's capable of in the film context.

Bruce Broughton all the way. Greater melodic skill than Davis, more seasoned than Giacchino, an alla round great composer. He needs bigger assignments.

I agree. Elfman has been doing more harmonic-based scores in favor of sweeping themes lately. Horner back 10 years ago might have done something interesting but is content to rip himself off more than obscure classical references. Zimmer couldn;t write a good tune if it crawled up his a**. Doyle's previous works may be a little frenetic for me in some places, but his got the right sound for Potter. I would have liked Broughton to take a try at it. he needs more big assignments. Heck, we need him to score more big films so we can hear his great music! I wonder what Elliot Goldenthal would have come up with for Potter????

I just picked up the score today and Shearmur did a great job. While not quite at the level of meldocism of Horner's Rocketeer ("Jenny is one of his best pieces of all time), there's a lot going on in the score. It puzzles me how people have been so dismissive of Shearmur's score while they laud Media Ventures and Hans Zimmer...don't quite get that but hey, different strokes....

Actually, Spielberg will at the last minute buy rights to John Adams' Dr. Atomic opera and use large portions of that (which is said to be inspired by those '50s sci-fi films). Wouldn't that be a hoot?

I expect both Episode III and War of the Worlds to sound doomy, like a large blanket that casts its shadow over the world. actually with the way Williams has been approaching non-Star wars films of late, I'd expect it to be closer to Minority Report- or Close Encounters- textural based with a couple big themes. It depends if Spielberg wants to approach it like a documentary, as if it really could happen rather than a fantastical summer blockbuster. I think he's grown past that stage and will imbue War of the Worlds with a little more socio-political sub-text. At least I hope so.

I'm more excited about War of the Worlds.

Ah excellent suggestions! Broughton is a superb and majorly underrated under utilized composer. Poledouris is another one that just needs to get more big film gigs. I don't want to argue this Ottman point to death but X2's main theme is almost unplayable by the trumpet section. And not because it's too hard. It's because the composer didn't know how to write for those instruments. That type of figure could only be effectively played by winds and strings. And it's really a cumbersome version of Kamen's underrated original score IMO. But alas, different strokes for different folks.

If Nolan really wanted to be innovative he should have travelled back in a time machine and brought Alex North or Bernard Herrmann back with him to score Batman Begins! BigKEnLittle, Shore would be a great composer to work on Batman Begins but I cannot believe you put him in the same sentence as that hack of all time Ottman. Really. Seriously. As a musician and composer myself this guy, as nice a person as he is, is REALLY inept at composing orchestral music. It's embaressing. Obviously that's my take on him and you, amoung many others, enjoy his music. But it's insulting to put him in the sentence with the man who penned such innovative scores as Naked Lunch, Crash, and Seven.

I'd would have loved to hear a Howard Shore score for Batman Begins...but not like his LOTR material..more like his 7even score. Now THAT would be very appropriate. Or if Toru Takemitsu were alive, he could have done a neat against type score.

Maybe they'll both kill each other and Williams can step in and save the day.

It's been a good summer for violin soloists. There's also Itzhak Perlman's beautiful violin/fiddle work on Tan Dun's HERO. Between the two, I think Perlman's is a little more emotive but the credits on the Hero score also include Tan Dun on violin so he's got a little more first-hand knowledge of the instrument than Howard....but I do like The Village very much. Glad I didn't see the film which, from the sounds of it, would wreck the enjoyment of the score.

I think the writing here is better than others feel about it. Schearmur's abilities are every bit as good if not better than Giacchino's, although I rather not make direct comparisons. Remember that Schearmur is formally trained and does his own orchestrating. Yes, there are some moments that feel like Williams' original Star Wars material but more from the standpoint that he too was referencing classical pieces (let's not forget the most blatant rip-off of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for the Jawas). I don't think this music is generic at all. Some wonderful writing, and very thematic. And it's contrapuntally a whole lot more interesting than most of the crap that was released this summer. I do find it funny that people laud Williams' HP3 and dismiss Sky Captain when the latter is just as well written and to my ears certainly more musically interesting as absolute music for the most part. NP- Strauss' Alpine Symphony (kicks ass too)

We still have Williams, Broughton (who I wish would get more high profile scoring assignments), Barry, Morricone, John Scott, and a few others.... Sad to say we are living through the last vestiges of our link to the Golden age of film scoring...pretty soon it will be the silver Age....sad but we will always have these composers' brilliant works to remember them by. But it's still a sad sad day.