[“I Roderyn” (The Noble Wood) by Howard Shore (Based on themes from "The Hobbit" trilogy)]

Here's a recording of the Berklee performance that someone posted to Soundcloud:

It's a really lovely piece.

[RIP Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)]

I think he truly was the greatest composer of the post-war era.  I find everything he wrote phenomenal, even the post-1970 works that didn't get the same degree of critical attention.

6 hours ago, Pawel P. said:

I had an interview with Maestro eight years ago. Extremely nice man. During the interview, I asked, among other things, whether he was tempted to write something for a film himself, since his music was used by great directors, such as Kubrick, Scorsese or Wajda.

 

"I don't want to waste time," he replied. "Besides, it would be a transition to the 'other side', which I don't want to do.

 

"Other side?" I asked.

 

"Look at John Williams. He composes very good music, various symphonies and concertos, he is comprehensively educated, he conducts, but everybody knows him only as a film composer. Similarly Ennio Morricone - even when he writes a mass, it's not as good and known as his film music. I think I'll stay on this side!"

 

https://kultura.onet.pl/muzyka/gatunki/klasyka/szkoda-czasu-na-film/jn34jqn

 

Didn't he write scores for a few films in the 60s?  I was also under the impression he composed some new music for Katyn, but I've only seen the film once and that was when it was released before I really had any knowledge of his music.

[John Powell's Call of the Wild vs James Horner's Balto vs Bruce Broughton's Homeward Bound]

I hadn't listened to Call of the Wild before this thread, but I think it's now my favorite John Powell score.  It and Balto are both fine scores (the latter's poor mixing and inconsistent tone aside), but Homeward Bound is a masterpiece.

 

On 3/2/2020 at 10:33 AM, Kasey Kockroach said:

Homeward Bound over Call of the Wild, Call of the Wild over Balto. 

This, but Balto has the best single cue of any of them ("Heritage of the Wolf").

On 3/2/2020 at 9:14 AM, Fargo said:

I've never listened to Balto. Is it as good as House of Sand and Fog?

No.

[What is the last Television series you watched?]

Rick and Morty.  It's... weird.  I'm not sure why it's so polarizing...  It's not bad; it's not ground-breaking or great.  It's just an above-average Adult Swim-style show that has mostly stupid humor but fairly clever storytelling.  I have to say I'm looking forward to the future of the show, though.  Being guaranteed 70 additional episodes could give them a lot of flexibility that other (probably more deserving) shows never got.  Now if only Brockmire got that long a rope.

[Cool Runnings Trailer Music?]

16 Blocks needs a proper album release.

[Who will be the first famous composer to compose a work related to the coronavirus pandemic?]

John Cage wrote one preemptively.  2020: the year every orchestra plays 4'33".

 

On 3/20/2020 at 10:27 PM, mrbellamy said:

 

I think United 93 earlier that year was the first studio movie directly about 9/11. 

 

There haven’t really been many since those two, have there?

The abomination that was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

[Cool Runnings Trailer Music?]

Thanks!  I miss this version of Zimmer.

[Cool Runnings Trailer Music?]

Anybody know the piece that plays after the cue from Hoosiers?

[The 15 Best Film Scores Of The Decade]

Wow... that is an awful list.  The only John Williams score that even gets an honorable mention is The Last Jedi, easily the weakest Star Wars score.  No Shore, no Mansell.  Mica Levi gets a nod, but for Jackie, not Under the Skin? Swiss Army Man?  The quote from @Uni in my signature feels quite relevant.

[2020 Oscars - Best Original Score predictions]

11 hours ago, First TROS March Accolyte said:

I estimated the maximum accuracy of the Best Score / Best Dramatic Score Oscars so far.

Maximum, because there might exist some better yet not awarded scores also in the years where nothing came to my mind / I didn't know of any.

 

Can't bother with more accurate maths or more detailed presentation:

 

3:3 (1933-1939) =< 50%
5:5 (1940-1949) =< 50%
3:7 (1950-1959) =< 30%
3:7 (1960-1969) =< 30%
3:7 (1970-1979) =< 30%
1:9 (1980-1989) =< 10%
3:7 (1990-1999) =< 30%
3:7 (2000-2009) =< 30%
2:6 (2010-2018) =< 25%

 

26/84 ~ 31 [%]

 

To quote Toscanini: "You have no ears, and no eyes. Nothing at all".

 

If this decade were to uphold the typical standards of 30%, TROS would have to win. The last time Williams was so dominating as this decade, however, the accuracy was at an all-time low.

 

So anything goes!

I haven't agreed with a Best Original Score pick since Return of the King.

[Poll: The 100 greatest films directed by women]

Two 2019 films on the list and neither of them is Clemency?  Also, how is there only one von Trotta on there?  There are a couple on there I would definitely not consider good movies, but they don't list Persepolis, Away from Her, or Bar Bahar?  Oh well, 32/100 isn't bad I suppose.

[What is the Last Cue You Listened To?]

Horner's most terrifying cue?

[Howard Shore's THE SONG OF NAMES (2019)]

I think the credits said it was the Montreal Symphony.

14 hours ago, thestat said:

As for the Song of Names, I don't see them nominating this for anything. The film looks terribly cliched - and if you have Clive Owen in the cast, why not show him? While Shore's score will be a marvel, it will be one in a long line of similar projects with critical prestige but total oblivion elsewhere.

I really didn't find the film cliched at all.  Also, just showing any of Clive Owen's scenes would be a significant spoiler.

[The Deepfakes thread]

I fell for the Peter Cushing edition in Rogue One.  That said, the only one of these I found visually convincing was Goldblum.  Lucas' voice was spot-on though.

[Howard Shore's THE SONG OF NAMES (2019)]

I saw The Song of Names a couple days ago and... it's pretty much perfect.  It's going to be really hard for anything (even The Rise of Skywalker) to supplant it as the best score of 2019.

[Movies you did see, but wish you hadn't]

14 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

In that case, watch THE HOBBIT 

The Cell is even worse than Battle of the Five Armies.  The Nostalgia Critic review should give you a basic idea, but honestly... even that doesn't get into just how bad it is.

[What is the Last Cue You Listened To?]

Aww yeah...

 

[What piece of film music you would love to see in a live performance?]

On 10/5/2019 at 5:08 AM, Koray Savas said:

Honestly any score that I like would be cool to see live. Only one cue jumps to mind, though, that would be particularly noteworthy.

 

How about this version?

 

[Movies you did see, but wish you hadn't]

The Cell.  I want to live in a world where Shore's score was written for a movie that deserves it.

[Michael Biehn thinks Stanley Kubrick was an a**hole]

I once heard a second-hand quote from a Hollywood producer in the 1980s "Nobody who ever worked with Stanley Kubrick liked Stanley Kubrick."  Doesn't mean he didn't make some tremendous films.

 

Also, "It took Scatman Crothers 122 takes to get the pantry scene in The Shining."  Jesus.

[What piece of film music you would love to see in a live performance?]

I'd love to see the score for The Cell performed live... preferably without the movie.

Also, it would be incredible to see the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai perform The Fountain together.

[Martin Scorsese says Marvel movies are 'not cinema']

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I don't think Scorcese has it in for genre filmmaking in general.

 

Its specifically the MCU, with its plain, TV-film aesthetics; its light and sarcastically comedic tone; and its endless, greedy serialization that he (and I) could do without.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

[Williams to co-conduct St. Louis Symphony, November 1]

Damn... I just saw the email they sent out about it this morning and already sold out.

[Hans Zimmer's The Lion King (2019)]

On 7/11/2019 at 6:16 PM, Fabulin said:

The 1994 Lion King OST was like orchestral soul music. Half of the instrument and rhytmic/melodic choices were quite haunting. This one sounds like Black Panther mixed with Epic Trailer Music, which to me breaks most of the dramatism. At first I was actually kind of boiling internally, because to pollute a rather delicate score with the aesthetic of 2010s pop soundtracks is bafflingly sacrilegious. That being said, the reimaginings of the two action cues are quite good as far as the use of themes goes. Remind me of the score to the sequel more than the original.

And I really liked this moment:

"Mufasa don't die pls" 

 

Well put.  It really sounds more like an amateur mock-up of The Lion King than something new: "sure, it's good, but it needs more Zebra and amplified solo cello."  I'll admit I do like some of the choral revisions in "The Stampede," though.  It's also baffling just how badit sounds at points.  Something's really off with the tuning in a couple places.  It's really a shame; the suite on the "World of Hans Zimmer" album was so well-done and I had hopes the new album would be in that vein.

[What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)]

The Green Mile (T. Newman) - I can't get much into the more whimsical parts of the score, but the more dramatic parts of the score are phenomenal.  "Coffey on the Mile" is a truly remarkable piece of music.

There's something about the melodic pacing that really throws me off.  The phrasing never seems to resolve in the way I expect.