David Coscina

I just checked out the website for symphonicworkshops.com and they appear to be based up in Toronto where I live. Very cool. I do the occasional film score and have a half dozen concert works that I'd love to have performed. Thanks Jesse for giving us composers this invaluable link.

A very impressive piece. Nice orchestrations! I agree that samples just don't compare in any way shape or form to the real thing. They're nice to help a composer out with sketches but I hate hearing them in any other context. Congratulations and keep up the excellent work!

The reception had about 70 people in one of the reception rooms in the basement. Williams arrived after 10 minutes and had changed out of his tux into a regular suit and tie. He greeted the fans and was very generous with his time allowing fans to take pictures, talk to him, and so forth. A fellow in front of me had a rare cd copy of 1941 to which Williams gasped and I think said "oh no", as if he himself thought little of that particular film. He didn't look tired to me and was much more humorous in person than I would have expected. He commented on how many children were present (he actually looked around and said "wow, look at all these kids" in a sort of amazement). After he signed autographs, the director of the Pittsburgh Symphony said a few words about Williams and then let John address the crowd. He got in a joke about how he really travelled to the city to enjoy their golf courses to which he added that music is just a side-line job for him. That got quite a good reaction from the crowd. He also thanked the Pittsburgh Symphony association for having him and the players for being the great musicians they are. Lastly, he thanked the attendees for supporting the orchestra and added that it was one of the finest American institutions out there.

I saw Williams on the evening of June 7th and was lucky enough to get tickets to meet with him after the concert. This was my first time seeing John Williams conduct (live) and obviously the first time I met him. He's such a nice fellow but that isn't at all that surprising. I had brought along my CD of The Accidental Tourist for him to sign which took him aback for a moment. He commented on how it was such a small film and he was surprised that anyone remembered it. I mentioned that it was one of my favorites of his and added that it was a beautifully shot film. I had a friend take a photo of myself and Mr. Williams but, a day after, we discovered that he had neglected to load the camera with film...oyyyy, the disappointment. What was really unfortunate is that I'm from Toronto, Canada, a city that everyone is avoiding like the plague (or SARS) so I don't think I'll have the same opportunity to get a picture together with him again, at least up here (kinda wonder why he hasn't ever played Toronto- Goldsmith did in 1990). But, on the bright side, I did get a chance to speak with him albeit briefly, and had the opportunity to tell him how much his music has influenced my own music odyssey.

I hear that everyone at PIXAR is trying to get aboard The Incredibles since it's supposed to be "the movie" to work on. Apparently, it's so good that it will topple the Toy Story series. We'll have to wait and see for ourselves although I love Brad Bird's Iron Giant. Michael Kamen has his own website and personally answers his emails in a post board such as this. It's great to be able to ask him whatever comes to mind. I enquired whether Bird had contacted him regarding the scoring of The Incredibles since I love his score for The Iron Giant. This was before I discovered that John Barry is slated to write the music. Kamen replied that he hadn't heard from Bird but had a great time working on the Iron Giant. For all you Kamen fans out there, check out his website. He's not only a talented composer but a genuinely nice fellow.

If you like cool Daie Kaiju films, check out Majin:Monster of Terror. It takes place in Feudal Japan and centres around this giant statue of an imprisoned evil demon god which eventually comes to life and kicks some major butt. Very impressive effects for the time and Akira Ifukube's music is excellent!

Um, Howard Shore isn't a newcomer. He's been scoring films since the late '70's for David Cronenberg.

After seeing Gollum in the Two Towers, I'm inclined to agree that the hulk doesn't look all that impressive. I dearly hope they re-render him for the film. As for the actual movie, I can't believe that Ang Lee would produce a piece of crap. His "sense and sensibilities" don't fit with the Michael Bay style of all style no substance. Therefore, I still have hopes that THE HULK will be a decent film. Maybe a lot better than people are expecting.

One of the cues not represented on the disc is the music where Richard is speaking to his mom after his older brother's funeral. The string elegy is so moving. And Williams moves into his secondary theme beautifully (the five chord string progression that epitomizes Nixon's character). I wish Williams could have included that on the soundtrack in favor of some of the darker dense material. As it stands, I love "Meeting with Mao".

I never meant to slight Spielberg with my posting heading. I really meant to garner some discussion as to how effective Williams' music is in a film. yes, most of us on this board agree with that wholeheartedly. It's quite disconcerting that others out there make statements like "he ought to retire, his music is noisy" (this is a real slap in the face considering that author of this assertion praises Zimmer's music- how ironic). In pure music terms, Williams has always been in the upper ranks of composers, and not just film composers. I do believe that history will see him as one of our great late 20th century composers, in line with the likes of Stravinsky, Berg, Mahler, Cage, Penderecki, Copland, Adams, Glass, etc. etc. But that's just my humble opinion.

I wouldn't say You Are the Pan is "cloying" but I would also take Farewell Neverland in terms of emotional impact. It's more sentimental though than full-out emotional. Still, I love that flute glissando Williams uses as the camera tracks from a statue to Peter on the ground in the snow. It's quite amazing.

His orchestrational skills actually aren't that bad. He's got a good sense of texture and his motivic development is getting better as the show evolves. He also has recurring themes like the Cello Lament for Sydney's mom. Pretty cool show all in all.

I thought X2 was so much more entertaining than Matrix 2. As a reader of the comic series in my youth, I especially appreciate Singer's resolve to keep the characters as close to their comic-counterparts as much as possible. I also liked how he subtley introduced Jean Grey's evolution into Phoenix. I only really read the comic book when John Byrne/Terry Austin/Chris CLaremont were working on the comic book. THere were plenty of great stories and characters that arose during that period. I hope X3 introduces PROTEUS as the next villain. Of all baddies I've ever seen the X-men take on, he seemed to be the most evil and insidious. But, he might be too hard core for the kid audience as he screwed with people's minds and the very fabric of reality. However, that story would have to feature Colossus prominantly which would be cool. I thought X2 had so many great scenes. The pacing was a little inconsistent but I'll give Singer all the credit for slowing things down enough to have character interactions. The only thing that hurt those scenes was the lack of a really great score. I probably am in the minority, but I prefer Kamen's original score. Yeah, it was a little schizophrenic, but his music for Rogue/Wolverine was quite effective. And Ottmans MaIN THEME bares an amazing similarity to Kamen's in that it has the same intervalic relationships (translation: almost the exact same melody). But Ottman's music is perfectly serviceable for the most part. In fact, I liked his trilling horns when Pyro goes ballistic on the cops. Very effective. X2 is definitely one of my favorite films of late. Can't wait for X3!!!!

Yeah, it's a great show. I never saw the first season but my girlfriend got me hooked on the show this year (she had an uncanny resemblance to Jennifer Garner too). I love Giacchino's orchestral scores too. This guy is doing things that I'm only used to hearing in theatres. I don't know if he's the heir to Williams' throne (as much as some tout that) but he's a helluva talented composer. I can't wait for the Season 1 DVD box set to hit stores next Fall. I'm there!!!!

My favorite part was the discussion between the Oracle and Neo. Nice, quiet character piece with no special effects...wish there was a little more of that type of dialogue..

That's fair. I never expected the Matrix actors to be on the same level as Jet Li or Jackie Chan (Chow Yung Fat actually never studied martial arts until his role for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon incidently). I think they just should have kept the fight scenes tighter. After a while, there was no point to the excessive fight sequences. I don't think Reloaded is as bad a film as Phantom Menace. I just said it felt like it in places. It's just a really bad move for the film to rely so heavily on the Revelations to explain for half of what happens in Reloaded. BAD WRITING!!!! Even Empire Strikes Back is its own entity although it does leave some things unresolved.

I couldn't agree more. X2 was thoroughly entertaining and much better paced than Matrix 2. The fight scenes seemed so much more impressive and the dramatic arc of the story...well, there WAS a dramatic arc as opposed to the Matrix 2 which seemed like a series of vignettes more than a unified film. you know, the Wachowski brothers dug themselves into a hole when they made Neo God-like. i mean, it's boring to see a guy fighting when you know he could just fly off if things get hairy.

Honestly, i think Reloaded is about 7 to 10 times better then TPM. The Matrix Reloaded is a film with a surprisingly high amount of flaws, but with such style and energy that it does not make you care about them. It's very hard to make a perfect, flawless film. Shawshank Redemption is as close to a flawless film in my opinion. I never expected MAtrix 2 to be flawless. But I did expect that it would be more compelling than a few extremely protracted fight scenes, none of which made an impact on me- and I've been into martial arts for 20 years.

I just saw the film and Davis' score was serviceable. At least he injected a little more woodwind writing into the music compared to the first film which was much noisier. But, once again, he's pillaged John Adams' work this time quoting "Nixon in China"...Oyyyy. The film itself was one of the most vacuous experiences I've had of late. Everyone in it seemed to sleep through their roles and the excessive use of the computer animation made the film seem like an extended video game. The philophical doctrines introduced in the first film which made it so compelling are either gone or re-packaged into non-sensical empty rhetoric. Very disappointing film. It felt like I was watching Phantom Menace all over again!

Kamen had 3 weeks to write 120 minutes of music. That's like 4 Mozart Symphonies or 1 1/2 Mahler Symphonies. You know, it does take time to compose good music. Kamen usually has quite a hand in his orchestrations but on Robin Hood, the poor guy was just trying to finish the job before the film was released. I think that the orchestra who performed the score were sub-par and the recording acoustics were abyssmal. They really ought to re-record the score. It deserves better than it got.

I agree with your choice of Kamen. I've gone back and listened to his X-Men score and it certainly beats out Ottman's over-blown orchestral rhetoric. I recall Event HOrizon being a cool score and not as noisy as Davis' music. It strikes me that Davis is great at cool orchestral effects but can't write a good tune to save his life. Kamen CAN.

That's great! I wish Toronto would perform some Williams material. As it stands, I'm shlepping my way down to Pittsburg to see him on June 7th. I am a little mystified as to why the maestro or his music has not been performed in Toronto. It is supposed to be one of the more prominant North American cities....weird. H

Sweet. Logic rules!

Yeah, I just snagged 2 post-concert tickets as well. I've never met Williams before nor have I seen him in concert (I live in Toronto and he's never made it up here- I saw GOldsmith back in 1990 here though). Needless to say, I am hyped for this concert. To hear my favorite Williams' pieces performed live by the maestro. And then to be able to meet him after the concert! Wooo hoooo!!!!!!

Are you a Cubase user of Logic? Or Sonar for that matter? Just curious. I switch between Logic and Sonar myself. Sonar incorporates Acid loops so well it just makes life a whole lot easier when working with them. But nothing touches Logic''s intuitive notation editor in my opinion so i use that mostly when sketching out orchestral pieces.