Bofur01

Will we never get this book or the recordings?

Wow, thanks everyone!  Obviously, the most important question to address is how I got those italics. Simple! https://lingojam.com/FacebookFonts 

As for the timeframe: I have over a year to hand in the finished manuscript, but my goal is to have it completed well before that. It's a big book, and publishing is a very slow process. But everything so far is proceeding as I have forseen...
 
It's not a guide to the scores really, but something more holistic, with each chapter looking at cues from all three trilogies from some angle: musical referentiality, thematic transformation, concert arrangements, and so on. There will be a ton of music examples (all my own annotated transcriptions as usu.), hopefully presented in an accessible way that draws in people who can't read sheet music. I know notation and music-theory jargon can be intimidating, and I'm hyper-aware of the potential gatekeeping effect it could on an already niche readership. But at the same time, I think we can all agree this music warrants deep and serious analysis! It's a balancing act for sure... 
 
Alas, I don't have special access to recordings, and can't speak to official expanded album releases, as amazing as they would be! 
 
Incidentally: I don't see it trumpeted nearly enough on these boards but Chloé Huvet came out with a book on SW music (mainly the OT and PT) a couple years ago that is absolutely brilliant and similarly synthetic in approach. The book is in French, which limits the audience, but it's worth getting your hands on if only for the fantastic music examples and charts.  The amount of insight in her prose is incredible too, and it's been a major source of inspriation to me. 

The happy news I cryptically alluded to last week is now something I can make official: I just signed a book contract with OUP for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴!   It's a book it feels like I've been writing in my head for a long, long time -- since middle school, kinda? And unless Williams somehow returns to write another entry in the series, I'm treating it a chance to provide a properly 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 investigation into these scores, all nine of them.   Even Rise of Skywalker?? 𝘌𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 Rise of Skywalker!   My hope is this book does some justice to the complexity, challenge, and sheer magic of this music.   Now, back to the grindstone!   https://www.facebook.com/Falstaft/posts/pfbid0L6wUjeDDxj6AmhwHh1f9obrVMJfYbPx4GJM8YaEWiZtqxwp37A88monPFVDxBQ26l  
Congratulations, @Falstaft!

Meanwhile I'm still waiting for more complete versions of the Hobbit scores..

That's good news, although I think I have a more positive view on the four new episodes thus far than some.
 
I hope Gold is maybe going to put out a specials soundtrack to coincide with this series' premiere, but given his most recent comments about being pissed at his own fans for "stealing" his music (I'd have a few questions about what sort of security his agent's site has, or why it was stored there to begin with) I wonder what sort of release he's going to do at all. I hope he doesn't become the sort of composer that decides his music is just for the show and say FU to fans that have bought his entire DW discography.

Wow, this is invaluable work! I'm a bit late on the hype train, but I'm working on a video breaking down the thematic storytelling in HZ's Dune scores, and these lists have saved me a lot of time. I'd like to credit both you and @WampaRat when I'm done.

That's isn't quite precise. THE LAST DUEL was very nice (for a problematic film). And THE MARTIAN, which was almost 10 years ago,  but not quite. And the gorgeous (chilly, ethereal, offkilter) "Life" theme for PROMETHEUS. All of those were for Scott too. I believe that is the canvas he needs to do something great. If not KINGDOM OF HEAVEN great, then certainly something high quality.

HTTYD 3 is mine. The choral writing, and overall more symphonic style really makes it feel like a fully matured series through the score alone. 

I really wish the end section of “Song of the Sisters” was used more in the movies. It has such a mysterious and epic theme to it. Hopefully in “Dune Messiah” we’ll get it on the big screen.

I'm quite pleased with how spectacularly Dune is doing, critically and commercially! Not just because I like the film (and the first one), and want to see more, but it's incredibly gratifying to see a cerebral, expertly crafted science fiction film doing so well. Especially one that makes intelligent use of CGI, made by people who seem to have passion and care about what they're doing. This isn't assembly-line filmmaking, and it's nice to see a genre film that doesn't involve Superheroes and people getting slammed into walls at the top of the box office.
 
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Hopefully this bodes well for the future, not just for Dune but for cinema in general.

To be fair, a lot of alternates don't get past the demo stage these days.

I'm sure Powell's instagrams said there were demos, right? That's what I assume those are. They just haven't given Varese the proper info for any of it.
 
I don't think the DreamWorks logo alternate bits were a mess though. I may be alone here but I liked the film version opening the album instead of that alternate one with the more sudden opening.

To be honest, I wouldn't call any of the Disney movies terrible as such. They are all competent and solidly made for the most part. It's the lack of focus and imagination that's the problem. They didn't ruin anyrhing for me, just made me shrug at their worst.
 
The scores I all like. It's quite amazing how much energy. There's some really good material in the third score and I hope we get to hear the rest of it some day.
 
Karol

The thing I appreciate most about The Rise of Skywalker is that it affirms a big theme of the entire series that was established all the way back in The Phantom Menace--the idea that you can't and shouldn't always rely on a governing body to take care of all of your problems for you. Queen Amidala learns that the thing she was putting all of her hopes in--the Republic--was never going to be able to help her rescue her people. So what did she do? She did it herself. Her sin through the rest of the trilogy was that she didn't learn from that experience--instead of continuing that independence of thought, she bought into the Republic wholesale foolishly hoping to change it from within. This lesson is continued in a big way with the Rebellion--despite their mission being to restore the Republic, which is still an admirable position to take. The Rebellion was an alliance of different rebellions and when Jyn Erso learned that she couldn't rely on the Rebellion to help her take the Death Star plans she formed her own coilition to take them herself, and in doing so she inspired the rest of the Rebellion to shed their fear and make a move.
 
In The Force Awakens, it is Leia who forms her own breakaway organization--The Resistence--after she learns that she can't rely on the Republic to save itself from the threat of the First Order. And the Resistance struggles to inspire the free peoples of the Galaxy to stand up for themselves instead of living in fear--until the final moments of The Rise of Skywalker when the Resistance does what Leia did, what Jyn Erso did, what Padme did before them--they showed the Galaxy through their leadership that evil could be stood up to without having a crutch and relying on a power that is unwilling to help itself.
 
Whether this was intentional (and on some level, it is because it's baked into the story, but what I mean by this statement is 'whether this is a call back to the specific ideas brought up in the Prequels and the original films/Rogue One') remains to be seen, but it works so well as the conclusion to a thematic arc that starts all the way back in Episode I.

Original Petition:
 
Link to petition: https://chng.it/M95VFmdPbv
 
We're gonna need to give this petition as much exposure as we possibly can.  Share it anywhere you frequent where you talk about film music and Star Wars!
 
If we can get at least this much accomplished, it becomes much more likely that Disney will allow Matessino to do the rest of the Star Wars scores, as well as the Indy scores, too!

This week I didn't feel like listening to podcasts while commuting, so I listened to this album.
 
HOLY HELL, this score is good, eh?  I think one of the things that makes it so great is that is is, to me, a PERFECT sequel score.  It pays respect to the first score, and comfortably lives in the same world, yet just kinda kicks everything up a notch in all the right ways.  There's so many new and different ways to change up the old themes so it never feels like its retreading old ground, and it also has so many cool new themes, that both feel similar enough to not feel like an entirely different project, but different enough to not feel like leftover.  Everything just feels so inspired.
 
I'm glad I revisited this, it increased my hype for the Deluxe of 3 even more!

My Star Wars is LotR, unquestionably.
 
But this franchise is the next best thing. Other franchises miss the mark because of either composer changes or the composer doing massive tonal shifts resulting in dumping an entire thematic basis. There aren't many where one composer builds a thematic and cinematic world over three films.

Absolutely the best score in the trilogy for me. Yeah, it misses 1 or 2 prominent themes from the first 2 scores, but that doesn't matter in the slightest to me as the new material that replaces it is well worth it! You can really tell Powell grew as a composer after Solo and his "Hubris" album through this score, as every track has superb writing, both orchestral and choral, and great attention to detail.
 
Every theme that returns is used exactly where it should be, and some of the most satisfying thematic payoffs of the trilogy are here! Some themes only return once, such as the heroic viking theme from the first film that returns in "Once There Were Dragons" played on piano, and it's perfect to capture the nostalgia of Hiccup's youth and how far he's grown.
 
The aforementioned track plus the ending "The Hidden World Suite" really come together to help make this score feel like a Return of the King level musical ending. I'm not saying it's just as good, but they really elevate the scores to another level IMO. It's almost operatic in this score.
 
I could be wrong, but I also remember seeing a Twitter/X post showing that the choir was singing actual lyrics in this one too, which if true, again elevates this score to something really special in my eyes.

I'm listening to a track from #3 that had always passed me by a bit, Killer Dragons and it again struck me, that given what is probably some music under some dialogue with something happening at the end, Powell can compose 5 minutes of music that gives his baddie theme a complete workout with some other theme going on undernearth, and then build up to magnificently end the cue with another couple of themes, switching tempos the entire time, and in this cue, even bits of different themes popping in. You can barely keep up!
 
By the time the cue switches at 4:15 I was practically cheering inside for the quote at 4:30 to do a full statement because it feels like we've earned it at the end of 5 minutes of building Grimmel music.
 
There are times with Williams when I see you guys gushing over something I don't really get (usually his older stuff) but this is one franchise where I'm in awe at how much musical inspiration and sheer thematic detail one composer can achieve.

Wow.
 
WOW!
 
Super late to the party here, but I finally opened up and listened to my physical CD edition of this album today.  I don't recall if I ever listened to it on Spotify back in 2019 or not.
 
What a great score!  I don't know if it hits me the same way HTTYD2 in terms of that one striking me as a perfect sequel score.  This is something different, but maybe even better.  The old themes soar to new heights, and the new material is like, ALL really good.
 
Although, I thought it was kind of funny that one of the new themes reminds me of Williams' Imperial theme from the first Star Wars movie (which Powell had just used right before doing this score, in Solo), and another one reminds of Owen's raptor squad theme from Jurassic World (gotta be a coincidence).
 
I almost can't even say what tracks are highlight tracks, since there's just so much good stuff throughout the ENTIRE album! (Well, except for the final track with the Jonsi song.  Yikes!)
 
I think the track that left the biggest impression on first listen was "Once There Were Dragons", which acts like like a great concluding track for the entire trilogy, really.  Amazing work.  There's so many other highlights of course... Exodus, Third Date, The Hidden World.... wow.
 
My anticipation for the Deluxe Edition has now skyrocketed.  How cool that it was announced only 3 years after the film came out?  I wish every score I loved could get expanded so quickly!
 
I'm poking through the whole thread now as I give the OST album a second listen.  I had completely forgotten that there was a suite track released digitally that wasn't on the physical CD edition.  I'll check it out when I'm done!  I wonder if the exact same suite will be on the DE, of if its component parts will be scattered in different places on the DE...

My favorite score of 2019, bar none.
 
And it's my favorite of the trilogy as well. All three of them are masterpieces, but they got better and better with each movie, culminating with the third one.
 
It's like:
 
HTTYD 1 - 
HTTYD 2 - 
HTTYD 3 - 

This is an appreciation thread, and these kinds of posts are not welcome.
 
 
 
Ditto.
 
 
And this not only doesn't belong here, but in any thread.
 
The majority of the posts you've made on JWFan are of a negative nature, often with an argumentative tone, and this is not the first time you've specifically singled out another user and attacked them.
 
Please follow our forum rules when you return in 48 hours.
 
 

Is it as good as Shore's LOTR music? No (very few things are).
 
Is it better than most things written for big budget Hollywood stuff on this day and age? Sure it is.
 
McCreary did put a lot of work and thought into crafting his scores and, especially, his themes. While these days everyone just put out the most generic themes possible, he had a lot of effort crafting unique sounds for each place, culture, etc.
 
Try the OST first instead of the episodic scores. If you liked what you heard on the OST and want more of that, you can move on to the episode albums. If not, then it's probably not your thing anyway.

It was my favourite score of the year last year by quite a margin, and I think it's one of the best scores of the century!  McCreary's wonderfully lyrical scores perfectly complement what came before by taking Shore's brilliant musical template and injecting his own unique sounds and instrumentation to create something that stands on its own but is also instantly recognizable as Middle Earth music! An extraordinary achievement!

-Erik-

It's got everything a Powell fan craves from his scores: exciting action, great themes, wholesome moments...
 
I missed this kind of score from him so badly.