Bayesian

My wife loves this movie! She quotes lines from it with her sister all the time. So random to see it pop up here—although it is a lovely score and Delerue’s name should be spoken of ‘round these parts far more often than it is.

Just in time for fall, Schumann’s “Spring” symphony in B-flat. I have a soft spot for this one. The last movement is one of the happiest sounding things out of the Romantic era I know of. You need a good conductor this one, though. Not some dour Furtwangler or Karajan or arch Gardiner. No, you wanna go with Mehta and the Wiener men circa 1976. It’s glorious.

I appreciate the Cassandra-approaching-chicken-little-level of dismay about generative AI in the creative sphere. When ChatGPT broke into the popular consciousness back in February, I was aghast at the implications and not a single development since then has changed my view on the perils of this technology. Ive said it before and I’ll say it again—there are some things humans can do that should simply not be done. We, for example, mutually agreed as a planetary society not to spend our time and energy developing chemical or biological warfare agents. Imagine if we hadn’t, though. The technology has been around for a century to do exactly such things and if we had chosen to race towards designing the “best” in biochemical agents, well, we wouldn’t have an Earth in 2023 with humans on it anymore. By the same token, and like others have said above, if we keep racing to make the best generative AI, we’re going to put millions of people out of work. And that is a huge risk in so many ways—economically, of course, but also spiritually and socially. How many of us derive our identities from our professions or the jobs we do? What happens to ambition or the quest to mastery in a subject that gen AI has dominated at a fraction of the cost and time? You think society is on a knife edge now? Wait until AI puts millions of people into forced furlough with nothing to do but stew in their resentment at the tech elites responsible for the situation. There’s no universal basic income high enough to compensate for that. Generative AI is an experiment that needs to die. It’s that simple.

Don't know where to start with this one, other than, um, not.

The scary part of the linked article was the mention of companies that make AI-generated music. These already exist?? Who are they selling to? I can’t believe there’s already a market for them.

@danbeck, you are my hero.

Said every Goldsmith fan ever, amirite?? Trenchant japes aside, this announcement is really exciting. I have all of the JNH/Shyamalan scores on CD, having collected them several years ago with the sense that there was something special about their collaboration (and that there wouldn't be any more of it forthcoming). There's something nostalgic too about their collaboration that, for me, represents one of the best things from the aughts decade. I don't really know how to put words to it, but I know I'm very much looking forward to this CD.

I was going to blame the composer and his hot mess of a score for that one, but I guess edmilson’s explanation makes more sense.

I sat in on your seminar today, @Ludwig, and it was really insightful. Thank you for letting us in on your research and interpretations of the methods of JW’s compositional genius! It was enlightening, too, to think about the two examples you chose, from 1980 and 1983. You’re discussing advanced harmonic methods he was employing four decades ago—that folks have only relatively recently started grappling with musicologically. Imagine what JW’s worked into his repertoire since then!

That would be wonderful if they ever get around to it; it'd further entrench JW's deserved position in the classical firmament. Goddamn branding. Why should a yellow label make a difference in people's minds about classical music legitimacy? It shouldn't, but it does.

Maybe this doesn't exactly fit the criteria for this thread, but it is a JW encounter (of sorts) in what I consider to be an unexpected place. On Deutsche Grammophon's website, their news page has an announcement about their 125th anniversary -- and it's JW who gets to grace the article with its main and only photo right beneath the headline. And it's JW who gets listed first in the murderer's row of talent that DG is touting for its anniversary activities. Moreover, reading the press release, it sure sounds like JW's Tokyo concert with the SKO was DG's official kickoff event for its 125th anniversary. It's hard not to feel all warm inside when the world's premier classical label gives JW pride of place for its 125th anniversary announcement, right?? https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/projects/diverse-kuenstler/news/deutsche-grammophon-celebrates-125-years-270831

The MCU has long overstayed its welcome, IMO. I don’t know what Disney will do to replace it, but if their new Marvels movie flops (and I read somewhere that it’s expected to), that’ll be like the Mouse House’s 14th consecutive money-losing film. Coupled with DCU’s half-dozen movie money-losers, maybe we’ve finally gotten to the point where the studios will be willing to try something different, at long last. They’re definitely gonna have to do something different before they go insolvent. On a related note, it’s hard to shake the feeling that a seismic shift in the world of movie production is underway. The studios no longer make the money they used to from theatrical exhibition and have to generate copious amounts of “content” for streaming platforms with their smaller bankrolls. I worry for the SAG and WGA, because the studios really seem determined not to allow writing and acting to remain major cost centers. These strikes really feel like the last possible chance to allow writing and acting to continue to be viable careers.

Like you imply, I'm unsure how often Spielberg and Horner actively collaborated. I wouldn't be surprised if American Tail was the last time. Executive producer just means he signed his name on the check underwriting the production costs.

I'm not going to speak for Jay, but regarding my reply to you, that was purely in jest, meant only to resemble what a rabid, unrepentant JW true believer would write. (Which I'm sure, in this case, is likely pretty close to what a sober and perfectly objective commentator would write about JW's music.) You don't need to explain yourself to anyone and can feel whatever you like about DoD's music. : )

Hmm, see, it sounds like you ARE blaming JW. Moreover, you said JW's contribution to a movie lowered the quality of said movie. There... there just are no words for such words. Under the immutable and ineradicable laws of the universe, JW's music only INCREASES the quality of everything it graces, always and forever. That means, by definition, his reuse of material is a stroke of genius the rest of us might come around to recognizing as such years from now, if we're lucky. Ok, we're good. I'm glad I was able to sort that out for us.