Chewy

New Jerry Goldsmith release confirmed.

Let's hope LLL can continue to release music from everything WB owns!
 
 
~
 
MV has revealed there will be no banner today:
 
"No flyer this month
 
Hopefully we will have a release or two on Feb 22. Don't expect anything jaw dropping. Don't expect anything John Williams.
 
MV"
 
https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=118900&forumID=1&archive=0&viewLast=1
 

So listening to it a few times, it is extremely basic, simple, and unimaginative. 
 
It will serve its purpose in the film I imagine. It is just rising notes. There is no real sense of a memorable theme. These are as simplistic structures and figures as the ones Zimmer used. I daresay Junkie XL showed greater facility with melody in Snyder Cut.
 
First Spider Man and  now this - both extremely simple (and simplistic) themes. Don't composers acquire more virtuosity with age - more refinement? Gia seems to be losing it. Listen to a score like Ratatouille for Gia starting out - bursting with melodies - complex, long-lined, nimble, many notes, fast tempi, counterpoint nuance, instrumental variety, imagination, wit, humor. Where is any of it today? He's like I have said, a heartbeat away from RCP power anthem level stuff. What happened?

What happened is that the sensibility of current directors and producers changed a lot. They don't want long-lined melodies, they don't want counterpoint, virtuosic writing or a sophisticated approach. They prefer something much simpler and devoided of any musical complexity. Why? Because the music should never get in the way of their vision, nor the composer is someone allowed to impose his or her own vision to the film. Music is just one color of the filmmaker's palette and he or she wants to have total control over it. Now, of course you can be both simple and musically creative while serving the picture, but the issue is that, more often than not, this approach doesn't produce something interesting enough as music. I don't judge Giacchino here (I listened to this new piece only once without my full attention, so I'll avoid any quick judgement), but I fear that even big name composers like him today are somewhat cornered by producers and directors to write pieces along these lines, i.e. all atmosphere without a defined melodic or thematic personality. The music does create a halo around the images, but it never takes full control (despite being often mixed at impossibly loud volume). I read somwehere that Giacchino wrote this piece before filming began so I guess that he sketched some basic ideas to get the ball rolling, then the filmmakers fell in love with the demo and decided it had to be the theme and that's what he had to work with (that's my assumption, of course). I mean, these processes are always hard to fathom from the outside. I know of top composers submitting demos to producers and then being asked to strip down the composition to the point that sometimes what remains at the end is just the bass line. The review process can be really frustrating for the composer.
 
Also, the majority of the audience of today is not at all welcoming a film score with a clear musical voice (in the sense of the traditional orchestral vernacular) because a lot of people feels like it's dated and taking too much attention to itself, as a sophisticated harmonic language for example is now seen as something really from the past. You have to read the comments on YouTube under music videos or tracks to truly realize how today's audience thinks and feels about music that is just a notch more sophisticated than the average pop piece (a guy on YT labeled one of Adele's songs from the latest album as "something out of an old Disney movie" just because the piece uses jazzy chords and a more spiced-up harmonic vocabulary). That's the world we live in today.
 
Sorry for the long post.

Fixing the new pressings without announcing anything and ignoring mails about asking for replacements is already unfair to me, especially for Schindler's List...

Fixing the new pressings without announcing anything and ignoring mails about asking for replacements is already unfair to me, especially for Schindler's List...

Fixing the new pressings without announcing anything and ignoring mails about asking for replacements is already unfair to me, especially for Schindler's List...

Fixing the new pressings without announcing anything and ignoring mails about asking for replacements is already unfair to me, especially for Schindler's List...

Posted it on the Leslie Bricusse thread, but perhaps it’s wise to post it here too:
 
 
https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2022/01/29/remembering-leslie-bricusse/
 
I hope you’ll save some time to listen to this. I know it’s a very long episode, but it’s absolutely worth. It’s a lovely tribute to Bricusse’s legacy and another great film music history masterclass from Mike Matessino.
 
To tease you even more, I will say you’ll hear a couple exclusive music excerpts weaved in during the talk, kindly provided by Mike.

The Yates films are the best.  
 
I'd rank them as follows:
OOTP DH, PT 2 HBP DH, PT 1 POA* SS GOF COS Columbus deserves a great deal of credit for casting, establishing the visuals and setting, and fealty to the source material (which wasn't as in important with the later films, but crucial in establishing credibility for the films early on).
 
Newell dropped the ball on what is arguably the best book of the series.
 
*A fine film, but a little overrated. It's good, and many of the scenes are beautiful in how deftly they're handled, but it's not quite the cinematic masterpiece it's made out to be. Though I agree that objectively speaking Cuaron is the best director of the lot (though that doesn't mean he made the best Harry Potter film).

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

45th anniversary hum... Get ready for a 45 minutes demastered presentation for each movies, that's the Disney's way

They were probably sent the digital edition and cut sample from that, even though the actual CD version will be different

Looking back, JW somehow seemed less relaxed in Vienna than in Berlin.

Wouldn't it be nice if Lucasfilm/Disney finally joined the party and released ANY expansions for the 13 Williams scores they own?
 
If JW's 90th birthday isn't enough to convince the likes of Kennedy (or whoever runs Disney Records) to spearhead that type of release, I'm not sure anything will. I guess most of us have given up on an MM Indy box for the foreseeable future, after the massive Indy 5 delay.
 
Elsewhere, I have a suspicion this could be the most prolific year of expansions from the boutique labels since 2018. Amistad must be a shoe-in for the 25th anniversary (nicely timed with the 4K remaster), we keep hearing murmurs around Hook (and potential delays that held up an anniversary release last year), Intrada have something in the pipeline (hopefully Nixon or Patriot, given they're the only label who can touch those scores), Varese would probably only do Presumed Innocent if they tackled a Williams title, Quartet might tackle another vintage title (after Images was a strong seller).
 
There's also the 20th anniversary of CMIYC, and we know that's a score JW loved working on.

Is that "friend" Jay, by any chance?

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

Great photo!
 
It’s only missing the cigar. 

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

It's here! 
 

 
This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.
 
Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

oh god please no

DG - John Williams
 
"The Vienna Speeches (Day One & Two)" - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
"The Berlin Speeches (Day One, Two & Three)" - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
"The Complete Vienna & Berlin Speeches" - Deluxe Edition 2 CD/1 Blu-ray, 2 CD, 2 Vinyl
 
"The Vienna Speeches with Extracts of the Music"
Day One - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
 
"The Berlin Speeches with Extracts of the Music "
Day One - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
Day Three - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 1 Vinyl
 
"The Vienna Speeches with the Complete Music and Applause"
Day One - Deluxe Edition 2 CD/1 Blu-ray, 2 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 2 CD/1 Blu-ray, 2 CD, 3 Vinyl
 
"The Berlin Speeches with the Complete Music and Applause"
Day One - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Three - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl
 
"John Williams in Europe"
Strictly limited (1000 copies) XL Super-Deluxe Box-Set garnished with Swarovski gem stones and a facsimile signature of John Williams 
Content:
"The Vienna Speeches with the Complete Music and Applause"
Day One - Deluxe Edition 2 CD/1 Blu-ray, 2 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 2 CD/1 Blu-ray, 2 CD, 3 Vinyl
"The Berlin Speeches with the Complete Music and Applause"
Day One - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Two - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl
Day Three - Deluxe Edition 1 CD/1 Blu-ray, 1 CD, 3 Vinyl