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Bayesian

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Everything posted by Bayesian

  1. I idly notice that amazon hasn't listed a CD version for pre-order, just the digital album. I'm sure that a CD is coming, of course. Man, all this waiting for the floodgates to open on new JW albums this year is starting to wear me out! And all we've had so far to preoccupy us is a noisy 4-hr Justice League score. Lousy covid!
  2. The wife and I started watching Resident Alien on syfy. I’m really liking this series. It’s mostly a comedy, but looks like it will develop into something fairly seriocomic. (I’m only 2 1/2 episodes in.) Alan Tudyk is well cast as a character (in this case, an alien that can morph into human shape) that is equal (and amusing) parts self-important and clueless/thin-skinned covert agent sent to destroy all humans. The other main characters (actors’ names escape me) are pretty good too, especially the sheriff and mayor of the small, made-up Colorado town where the show is set.
  3. Wonderful work to reduce this score, @s081186! My birthday isn’t until next month, but I’ve lately been unable to get this music out of my head. What an incontrovertibly brilliant piece! (Not gonna go so far as to say it’s on par with what Beethoven did with Diabelli’s waltz, but who knows, maybe it is.) I wish I knew the trumpet so I could play those amazing licks from 4:34 on. And that syncopated brass hit at 4:46! The whole damn piece is a candy store for the ear. 🥳
  4. It can be hard to look at something so familiar with fresh eyes, but I feel I might have done that with the throne room scene that ends Star Wars. Most action/adventure movies end with the protagonists winning, and often we'll get a minute or so of a closure scene, but has there ever been a movie other than Star Wars that ends with nearly two minutes of ceremony -- where not a word is spoken, there's nothing but music playing, and spectacle is minimal? On paper, it sounds as boring as hell, like watching an olympics medal ceremony. And yet the way Lucas pulled it off is wonderful. Its purity of message (something like, "good prevailing over evil deserves to be celebrated") is completely unburdened by its aw-shucks earnestness (the acting seems basically impromptu but is completely endearing). And, again, all without a single word, without a single moment of self-importance. Of course, the music is indispensable. JW's masterstroke was to start off with a fanfare but then shift to a muscular version of the force theme, which of course is not celebratory in the least. The fanfare is a perfect tee-up for celebration; it primes us for a triumphant last scene. But then JW goes into muscular force theme mode here for a full 30 sec to reminds us that our heroes went through some shit to get to this moment. Then we go into a musical B-section where we see the actors smile and chuckle at each other in outtake-looking footage (again, completely endearing), which then morphs into the final triumphant fanfare, coinciding with the first and only "hero" shots and only applause of the whole scene. So down-to-earth, so self-effacing, so simple... and so absolutely perfect.
  5. His review is not quite as sycophantic as one might expect for someone giving a glowing review, and that’s refreshing. But he lost all credibility when he said JXL’s score was not only brilliant but almost as good as BvS. Sorry pal, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, I really did.
  6. I love that headline! Best laugh I had all day!😂
  7. I just wanna know when The French Dispatch (and its soundtrack) is coming out.
  8. This. So very this. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Because this is exactly what the problem is, isn’t it? Zimmer is a talented self-taught musician who managed to parlay said talent into a one-man industry that reshaped the Hollywood sound in his image. But as with many self-taught talents, some time ago he either reached his creative limits without realizing it or he embraced those limits and redirected his efforts toward making as much hay as he can from his moderately-above-mediocre product. I’m no psychologist, but Zimmer’s oft-repeated statements of having put in his time, paid his dues, slaved over his work for years, etc. sound like pleas to us to give his (or his protégés’) work the highest possible respect almost solely on the basis of the amount of hard work: “I worked really hard on this, so you really should give it the respect you’d give JW or John Barry or Morricone.” Maybe there’s a hint of imposter syndrome lurking beneath those comments, I dunno. I absolutely respect hard work. But a person can work really really hard at something and never make a truly great product. I have no musical training, but if I tried really hard for a couple years, I bet I could eventually write something pleasing to the ear, maybe even accidentally stumble across techniques that trained composers would have been taught on day 1. But I wouldn't ever try to tell the world to respect my music simply because I worked at it really hard.
  9. Those track titles are eye-rollingly bad in the way they beat you over the head with their turgid solemnity. Nearly four dozen of these things, with their deadly serious metaphors and trying-to-sound-smart wordplay (there are admittedly a handful of normal sounding titles sprinkled in there).... gag me with a fucking spoon already. More and more, this whole Snydercut project just seems like a colossal masturbatory exercise for everyone involved.
  10. So much going on in this thread... too hard to quote everyone separately, so I’ll just brain-dump a few thoughts: @Erik Woods, you’re wrong and @Jay is correct; Southall and that first poster were judging an unreleased score. The words “I doubt...” are words of opinion and opinion is judgment. Zimmer’s long winded semi-apology does not excuse his lashing out at a score reviewer, which upon re-reading comes across as a lot of empty bragging. (Whoever earlier used the term “non-sequitur” in this context was absolutely right.). We can be glad for them if Southall and Zimmer buried the hatchet, but it doesn’t mean we need to move on. There’s a troubling trend of true insecurity on Zimmer’s part that’s worth exploring. (As an aside, JXL’s original announcement of his 4-hr score on Twitter reads like another gimmick to either boost interest in the snydercut or to make the movie seem like the Biggest Epic of All Time. To be fair, if I were marketing this movie, it’d be my job to do exactly those kinds of things.) Somebody, maybe @Mephariel, mentioned something along the lines of us not pre-judging JXL’s 4 hr score until it releases and noted the potential hypocrisy in the hypothetical event of a JW curated 4 hr SW score being announced. Unfortunately, the comparison isn’t truly apt because both composers are known quantities to us and thus we go into any new release with an a priori (or Bayesian, forgive the joke) expectation—namely, that four hours of JXL score for this bloated movie is probably going to be three too many, while four hours of JW’s SW would be assuredly far more engaging and enjoyable. Bottom line, this score is almost guaranteed NOT to merit its 4-hr length, nearly everyone knows it (even if they won’t admit it publicly), and Zimmer was butt-hurt enough by a very reasonable a priori opinion to make a classless rant for all the world to read. At least that’s my take.
  11. I a I sent Carlsson a friend request. If he accepts, I will screenshot and post the whole thread here. No one else seems willing to do the work.
  12. And thanks to a recent episode on @TownerFan's podcast, we also know Williams championed Ann Hobson Pilot and wrote her a concerto in consultation with her.
  13. Yes yes yes yes YES!!! This news made my week! 😄😝 This is exactly the kind of ignorant opinion you see altogether too often re: the Simpsons: “The show is terrible. I haven’t watched it in years. Why does it keep getting renewed?” The Simpsons movie came out in 2007. Fourteen years ago. You claim not to have seen any of the show since 2007? Then you know nothing about how well the show has been written since those terrible Mike Scully-as-showrunner years, especially during the 2010s. It really frustrates me when people judge something they haven’t seen. Luckily the folks at Disney/Fox know better than to listen to the gaggle.
  14. Halfway up the page on this thread it was already determined this is NOT an original JW composition. Alack and alas. It seems to me that a percussion concerto would be right up JW’s alley, though. He could explore a near endless range of timbres and harmonies and write something really avant garde. Maybe we’ll get one if Grubinger pesters JW enough. (It seems that’s what it takes to wring a concerto from the man—endless pleadings from highly interested soloists!)
  15. It is interesting to hear Holkenborg’s take on this, but wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that executive producers no longer want what JW sells? Because what he sells is a beautiful score borne of a filmmaking process that resists endless recutting and reshooting and the input of dozens of chefs in the same kitchen? Plenty of movies in the present day would benefit from articulate, melodic scores, and many composers still strive to deliver that to varying degrees of success (like JNH, DE, JP...). These younger composers (younger than JW at any rate) are probably just more willing to abide today’s ADHD manner of moviemaking.
  16. Great interview with AHP, @TownerFan! Neat to hear another aspect of JW's time with the BPO and lovely to hear her respect for the composer (and vice versa) and a bit about the backstory of her harp concerto. It was interesting to hear more than a couple references to JW conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. To my knowledge, there are no recordings where he's credited with the BSO. Are there any? (Other than Schindler's List, maybe?)
  17. Good lord, I never knew this happened. This is instantly my new JW holy grail. I love CotC.
  18. It's the one expansion I regret purchasing. The extra material did next to nothing for me, alas.
  19. Must.. try... not.. to comment again... about the existential threat to society this technology portends...
  20. No, this sounds like it has real potential. I’m a huge Burton fan, so my opinion’s obviously colored by that. But there’s nothing bad about the premise, and while using an Addams Family frame is far from original, if that’s what it takes to get Netflix to produce Burton, then so be it. And it goes without saying that the prospect of an Elfman score is too tantalizing to ignore! 😊
  21. It sure does look and seem pretty grim. Not one moment of levity in the trailer. It’s so jarring to see the Disney logo in this material.
  22. It was probably Elfman that kickstarted the whole obsession for me. Particularly Beetlejuice (main titles), Batman, and Batman Returns. Before these movies, I’d perk up to catchy or harmonically sumptuous music but not bother paying attention to who wrote it.
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