Yoda Longbottom

Give a listen to Angela's Ashes not only to "know" another John Williams' score, but for it's one of the most remarkable scores of his oeuvre. Besides, if you like "Anakin's Theme", you'll enjoy "Angela's Ashes" I dare guess. My all-time favorite!!! Maybe too much of seriousness (e.g. Seven Years in Tibet, Schindler's List) in it for a film music fan but it shouldn't scare you off. (I prefer Decca Classics' narration-free version of the score to AA; see Sony Classical) Morn will dissent about this but go give a chance to Danny Elfman's Sommersby. Undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated works by Danny to date. (If you have problems getting "Sommersby", "Black Beauty" and "Edward Scissorhands" are worthy a look-into too.) Another milestone in the film score anthology is without a shadow of doubt a magnificent score by James Horner to Legends of the Fall. One (me) can't belive Horner did this. It sounds like nothing he had done to that date plus it offers lots of beautiful, grand, romantic and tragic tracks interrupted by hardly more than one weaker one near the end. Don't hesitate. There is one that's not that easy to recommend, but this Jerry Goldsmith's score to First Knight is my furtive favorite. It has two stunningly beautiful themes to offer plus great variations of them. It's short in running time, very short, but I like it so much that I place it above other Jerry's works. Difficult to find in my country! I can't recommend much from Hans Zimmer for I only have three of his scores (Gladiator, Crimson Tide and Nine Months), but the Crimson Tide is my favortite of his. (First thing to listen to should be "Roll Tide" end-titles track and you'll understand why I like this score). Ren, note that it's just a fraction of what could be of interest for you plus it's entirely based on my taste. Yoda L.:alien:

I picked JNH as an nip-and-tuck counterpart to HS, something like "...if U were to have to choose...", so I did...

No, I didn't. 8O Sorry I didn't have time to reply sooner. Ricard, I mean I didn't intend to discredit Howard Shore's merits in any way, and I like the score to Lord of the Rings and its ability to set me quivering from excitement. It was my misdemeanor to throw a judgment upon Shore's entire carrier by "having come across" what's hardly one third of all of his work (The Cell, Dogma, Analyze this, Cop Land, Before and After, Seven, Philadelphia and The Client to name them all). But I haven't been engrossed, except for LotR and perhaps Seven, by anything I've heard from him to date. But I haven't heard it all, that's true. I personally gravitate to James Newton Howard's latest scores much more, especially to his "The Sixth Sense", "Dinosaur" and "Snow Falling on Cedars" style of scoring. Yoda L.:alien:

The composers you mention don't set off beyond film music I believe. Incomparable with Williams. 1. Except for the Lord of the Rings Shore hasn't done anything equally notable. 2. Shore had been working on Lord of the Rings score twice-thrice as long as it usually takes these days (it "usually" takes 3-10 weeks to come up with score for a 2-hour movie; Prokofiev usually devoted 3 month-period for composing large orchestral pieces). Don't want me to compare LotR to Prokofiev's or Mahler's stuff. Music in LotR is not as big as it sounds from your stereo although it's sturdily impressive. Quality is not necessarily predicated in robustness. Have someone play you themes from LotR on violin and compare it to the same performance of themes for instance from Dvorak's "American" string quartet. Hey, I like LotR score very much and bow low before Howard's achievement. But this disappoints me that so many people favors this over other noteworthy scores but aside from the largest gatherable ensemble and doubled chorus it's not all that gorgeous. At least I don't hear so. It too often seems to me people judge the "quality" by no other merits than number of themes, their melodiousness and power coming from each sections of the orchestra during action passages. But music has more to it.

You needn't believe me, Morn, but where I live movie music is considered a "minor" stuff and is treated as such both at stores and catalogues. I have big problems getting Williams' and other composers' stuff apart from soundtracks to blockbuster movies. While you are about to get TITANIC soundtrack on just about every corner here, it was miracle I found AMISTAD at a store and so on. It's difficult, as I've just grumbled, and the old era composers like Alex North whom you mention and others, though great music they did, have never been readily orderable in this part of the world. Ask other Czech guys here on these boards about the "ease" of getting rarer movie music here, Williams' stuff included, and you'll get clued in. :idea: Happy upcoming weekend, Morn! (P.S. I have Silva Screen's "Ben Hur" compilation (2-CD) with music by Miklós Rózsa, which is, alas, only one of my fewer voyages to the golden movie music era. What surprised me pleasantly about Silva's compilations is that some feature Czech orchestras as the ensemble that performs the music on the recordings.) Yoda L. :alien:

This below is what I found in the dictionary. But what jsawrok said makes perfect sense to me. Thanks. Theme: 1. A phrase that serves as the subject, or melody for a given work, as in a fugue, or sonata form. Motif: A short musical idea, or melodic theme that runs through a piece. Motive: A short melodic or rhythmic pattern. Leitmotif: "Leading Motive". Use of a musical phrase to identify with a certain person, place or thing in a dramatic work, especially an opera, usually repeated every time its referent appeared in the work. Yoda L. :alien:

(If the same topic had been posted before, simply ignore this all below.) I admit it's a tad too difficult and --in a way-- unfair to predict things like those I'm about to unfold here, but if you would have any hunch on which John Williams' style could the score to Catch Me If You Can bear the closest resemblance? I don't mean to say it will be a copy of something he's done in the past, but since John has almost put in works possibly all of the imaginable styles in his scores, reaching from jazzy tunes coming from small ensembles to stupendous orchestral might of the 100+-member orchestras, there could be something we may find possible to be re-visited. Although I have very little knowledge of what the movie is about, I "fear" there could be some stylistic similarity to SLEEPERS music wise, although I much wish it would not be the case as I don't cherish the score to Sleepers as much as I value the other of his. I mean, since the movie is about to be about a con "artist" or something like that, I don't know why but Sleepers soundtrarck was the first thing that popped up in my mind. The way I wish the score would take is either "How to Steal a Million" or "Presumed Innocent", to name a few. But it all depends on a story that will eventually be the stimulus for Williams to write his own music for. Yoda L. :alien:

I am new to this board so I don't know many of you. Who is Ewan Driscoll to whom I am compared? Is it a flattery?

Well, Harry, it's difficult for me to "choose" a successor-composer whom I could have counted upon compositional wise as same as I have once begun to "trust" John Williams (I buy his scores and especially concert pieces without having to listen to them before I grab them). Sure I have heard of and from David Arnold, but the only score I can recollect as to having been impressed by is "Godzilla" (Lord I hope he did do this one.) My weakness is that I am perhaps much too much grounded in classical music lands and the only reason for me to ever begin being interested in film music was back at that time a score "Seven Years in Tibet". I didn't know who had composed it back then and I didn't care much and the only thing I knew for sure was that I needed that score.... Hmm, it's a bit of a too long story, too much for you guys to chew here. The fact is that much of what is "IN" these days (Zimmer, Goldenthal, Portman) leaves me cold so I don't much join discussions elsewhere being sure to be thought benighted. The fact is Williams' music is what I love (I couldn't also do without his more serious works). I also, on occasion, buy scores by other composers; I have some James Horner's (LotF, Braveheart, ...), Jerry Goldsmith's (Omen, Basic Instinct,...), Danny Elfman (Batman I, Black Beauty,...) and especially Miklós Rózsa stuff too. But it's all so costly for me. In the country I live in the CDs costs are set too high plus scores are hard to find. Yesterday, rather than having bought "Spider Man" by Elfman, I picked up yet another, my eighth so far, rendering of the ninth symphony by my compatriot Antonin Dvorak. That's how it often goes. Well, okay, too many words on too little of subject; I haven't yet found a potential successor for John Williams. Sometimes I wish Johnny was either younger or I was, ergo, older... Cheer up! Yoda L.:alien:

What if either of them is sold by the hour you get there? I can tell from my own experience that items having long been collecting dust in the shelves have usually disappeared from there the minute before I decided to pick them up. :? Good luck! In the evening, listen first to Rosewood. It can put you in a great mood... it's quite an untypical achievement by Williams, very welcomed though.

Oops, I pridefully considered it a good proffer... :roll: Anyway, Morn, out of the living composers, who do you then think could carry out the uneasy task of building upon good Williams' standards? Well, I don't stick to Danny, but what I don't want to see coming from your keypad pen is Horner's name

"Home Alone" is superb! "Somewhere In My Memory" song is alone worth the full price of the CD. And those wonderful French-horn parts! Or, if you like Nutcracker, you will like Home Alone no less. I love this score extremely! "Rosewood" is one of those more spiritual, yet seriously attempted works. It stands right next to my most favorite ones by Johnny's entire oeuvre, right next to Schindler's List, Angela's Ashes, Saving pvt. Ryan and Seven Years in Tibet. Buy both if you haven't yet! Moreover, Home Alone seems to be getting out of print where I live (Epic Records print), so it could be a collectible item "tomorrow".

Ironically, I will be praying that John won't outdo himself as to quality of this discussed sequel score. Had he done so, I wouldn't wonder at seeing Williams' haters coming out of nowhere screaming things like "Thank God they hired someone to HELP the score being what it should have long had to be..." Still, I would have much preferred seeing --if anyone at all-- Danny Elfman being involved in the process of "developing" thematical material rather than William Ross' persona. I think Danny's style is closer to what John has composed for Harry Potter. Besides, Danny can work wonders with chorus and choir parts and is also very good at composing heartfelt music and sad mini-adagios. He hasn't done much of it recently, chances were scant, but scores such as Black Beauty, Somersby or many of the first half of the 90's are really cool. Perhaps anyone of this big name would have felt it somewhat degrading to work with material they haven't created. But it's silly. Just a thought.

I haven't thought of it until now. But it's true. Except for "Always", which frankly is the only W/S score I don't hunt for, I just love all the scores John has composed ever since him and Steven teamed up.

Morn, sure I don't know for sure. I wish I were darn wrong. You mean to say --if I understand you well-- that they will likely USE those 40 minutes of music John composes in the particular scenes in their original, intact form (without Ross' alternations)? I can't imagine how this would happen, but in the end this might be what they intend to do. Because this would mean that John is writing music for certain scenes to fit in the movie while other scenes, prevailing majority of them as to length of the movie, would be scored by material William Ross develops off John's themes and motifs? I think there would be a palpable dissonance between the parts composed by Williams and Ross. But I am not sure about it, as I've just said. Time will tell. Altogether, I don't think I would be happy about either of the events. Well, tell me what you think might be intended to happen. I am not very clear about it, plus I am still cast down by both this news and that here in the Czech Republic they're not still selling Minority Report. Yoda L.-)

Maybe Chris Columbus was not 100% contented with what John composed for the first Harry Potter movie and feared to tell it to John when all was done or John himself simply might have reasoned out that it is no necessary for him to again put up with the spate of criticism he has had to endure after the first Harry Potter score was often spoken of as "lacking the essential magic". Perhaps William Ross is a hell of a wiz.

I have to agree with Harry Potter's view. I am most disappointed since perhaps my mom told me some 20 yeasr ago I won't have any other siblings. I'm dead serious. All I want is pure, intact, from the heart coming music entirely done by John Williams. Considerations trying to appease us all downcast with statement that 40 minutes of music WILL be by Williams are "untrue" (although they are correct in fact) and misleading. John will only compose these 40 minutes of music to wholly serve as a raw material for William Ross to consecutively DEVELOP upon them (and for me it would be like DECONSTRUCT). The themes will be there to be heard, no doubt, but none of the music John will have composed will remain INTACT. Actually, there will be no single cue that would have remained untouched or something, just like John will have composed it. And that is even bringing tears in my eyes. Fairly. I just don't want it that way. Sorry, folks, I don't want this to happen but I know it will happen. Saddening? No, heart-breaking...for someone as dependent on John's music, like I am. I don' say William Ross' work won't come off in the end (by the way MY FELLOW AMERICANS has some really great action music that at places sounds as if made by Goldsmith or Horner.). Perhaps he will succeed and it better be so. Anyway. What I wish to hear is nothing but John Williams' score, not for its quality that may surpass Williams Ross' skills, perhaps it wouldn't. But I want JW's score with all its assets and flaws. I know John makes "mistakes" occasionally. And I want them darn present in HP II, all in all they are his signature, his style that wouldn't be complete without them! To those who try to stand up for William Ross saying that he might eventually pull out all the stops to achieve the best that is in him, I don't say he won't. But Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will never be the same.... without John Williams involved completely in it. Sorry for the dark visions. Can't help. :cry: Yoda L.-(

Who is William Ross? Regardless of how cool he may be, why should he DEVELOP Williams' music? Why on earth any body is assigned to do so? Is Harry Potter II gonna end up as an offshoot of the likes of Jurassic Park III - John's themes developed by someone else...? Tell more whom this all makes sense to to cheer me up healthily...... Yoda L.-(

Basically everything concerning the music score from movies as offered on the CDs we regularly buy is INSPIRED by the motion picture (composer, except for Star Wars, sees sketches from almost-complete movie and it is supposed to inspire him to tinge it with his music), hence the heading in the albums... :-) No, seriously, I have only seen HP twice and moreover it was dubbed into Czech to disburden our little kids so I can't tell which cues presented on the soundtrack really made their way onto screen and which cues are "album arrangements" since much of the music was lost in the fog of dubbing. Anything that appears in the movie that was altered or tailored for its album release may be labeled as "inspired by..." and conversely. What confuses me more is the difference --if there's any-- between ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK and ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE. Yoda L.-)

In the Czech Republic, it all varies with each new score I buy by Williams. For instance, AotC was available on the very same day it spotted the light of a day worldwide, and so was the movie, on the other , alas, hand I agreed to endure a 3-month wait to get my copy of A.I., which I slowly dare considering to be the best Williams' non-fully-classical score. Minority Report score's release date in my country is very likely going to follow the suit the title of the movie suggests so it can, considered for minorities that perhaps don't mind having to wait, become --at best-- a cool Christmas present for me. Sad but true. Well, ordering online from Amazon or elsewhere, I think my name should have sounded a bit differently to afford such luxury (Bill G. comes to mind). I'm low on money as much as a JW fan can be. So I'm proud of having what seems like 60% of score/non-score material John's ever conjured (incl. my 3 copies of Schindler's List of which I also got the gold disc which is now the most treasured thing in my 2-room flat). Y.L.-)