Smaug The Iron

For Your Eyes Only - 007 firmly back on Earth after Moonraker, and we get a superior Moore Bond as a result. Good action sequences, the 'cheesy' humour is kept under control for the most part, silkily urbane villainy from Julian Glover, a great ally in Topol, a beautiful AND believable leading lady in Carole Bouquet and a truly Cold War 'McGuffin' (and speaking of which, the 'That's detente, comrade ... ' ending here is just about perfect).

Drop Dead Gorgeous - blackly funny Nineties mockumentary centred on a small-town teen beauty pageant in Minnesota. Starring Kirstie Alley, Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Amy Adams, Ellen Barkin and Allison Janney.

Life Of Brian - annual Easter rewatch of the Pythons' peerless religious satire. He's not the Messiah ... 

Love FYEO. Both films and score!!!

James Newton Howard - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Source: Sheet Music
 
1m1v39 Main Titles
1m1v40AltPU Main Titles (Pickup)
1m1Bv2 What's in the Case
1m1Cv5 After Immigration
1m2v6 It Was Like A Ghost
1m3v3 Newt Listens to Mrs. Barebones
1m5Bv18 Niffler Bank (Part 1)
1m6v34 Niffler Bank (Part 2)
1m9v2 Jacob Walks Away
1m11v8 Macusa
1m12v6 Macusa (Part 2)
1m13v7 It Could Mean War
1m14v2 Wand Permit Office
1m15v5 A Case of Pastries
2m1v9 Jacob Rejected
2m2v7 Soup and Leaflets
2m3Av2 Hopscotch
2m3v15 Creatures Escape
2m4v7 House Repair
2m5v9 Lollipop Demiguise
2m6v5 Shaw Newsroom
2m9v5 Pie or Strudel
2m10v5 Credence Passes Leaflets
2m12v9 Escape From Magical Apartment
3m1v15 Inside the Case
3m1v17PU-1 Inside the Case (Pickup)
3m2v5 Credence Punished
3m3Bv1 Niffler Car
3m3v4 Erumpent Shadow
3m4Av6 I Made Them Cocoa
3m4v15 Niffler Jewelry Store
3m5v23PUv1 Erumpent (Pickup)
3m6v3 Call Me Jacob
4m3v2 Tina and Obscurus
4m4v7 Obscurus and Senator
4m5v11 Tina Barges In
4m6v10 Obscurus at Macusa
4m7v5 In The Cells
5m1v5 Leaflets In the Air
5m3Bv5 The Chair
5m3v10 Tina and Newt Trial
5m4Av12 Escaping the Macusa (Part 1)
5m4bv17 Escaping the Macusa (Part 2)
5m5v10 Credence & Graves in Alley
5m8v6 Gnarlak Negotiations
6m1v18 Demiguise Intro
6m3v17 The Occamy
6m6v4 Returning Creatures to the Case
6m7v4 Newt's Friend
6m9Bv3PU Credence is the Oscurus (Pickup)
6m9v6 Credence is the Oscurus
6m10v6 Look After My Creatures
7m1v6 Graves Follows Credence
7m2v8PU Into the Subway (Pickup)
7m4v5 Newt Talks to Credence
7m5v7 Graves and Newt Fight
7m6v15 Don't Do This
7m7v13 Graves Fight
7m8v20 Newt Releases the Thunderbird
8m1v15 Jacob's Farewell (Part 1)
8m4v5 Newt Says Goodbye to Tina
8m4v7 Newt Says Goodbye to Tina
8m5v4 Jacob's Bakery
8m6v3 End Titles
8m7v2 End Titles (Part 2 Overlay)
8m7v2 End Titles (Part 2)
9m1v8 A Man and His Beasts (Part 3)
9m2v8 Kowalski Rag (Part 1)
9m2v8 Kowalski Rag (Part 2)

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. 

I know it is probably not likely but I have a feeling that the John Williams release from Intrada will be The Phantom Menace for its 25th anniversary in May. They just did Solo so who knows. But it is probably a fools hope. 

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!

Maybe today I'll even get to listen to it!

https://www.facebook.com/share/xzPXyC4MpBjqgWfS/
After a long wait, the expanded edition arrives next Tuesday. In the meantime, there's this: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/xzPXyC4MpBjqgWfS/
After a long wait, the expanded edition arrives next Tuesday. In the meantime, there's this: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/xzPXyC4MpBjqgWfS/
After a long wait, the expanded edition arrives next Tuesday. In the meantime, there's this: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/xzPXyC4MpBjqgWfS/
After a long wait, the expanded edition arrives next Tuesday. In the meantime, there's this: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/xzPXyC4MpBjqgWfS/
After a long wait, the expanded edition arrives next Tuesday. In the meantime, there's this: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KEFcHzMraNq5LuFG/
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KEFcHzMraNq5LuFG/
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KEFcHzMraNq5LuFG/
 

Back in stock!

Got my copy today, I am so happy that I now can listen to the entire trilogy in complete form. And the fact that it has only been  five years since this came out and we already have the complete score is so great!

Soundtrack Corner just cancelled my order because they didn't get enough copies. 
That's dis-ap-poin-ting. 

Yes finally!

Got my copy today, I am so happy that I now can listen to the entire trilogy in complete form. And the fact that it has only been  five years since this came out and we already have the complete score is so great!

Yes finally!

First impression is that this score's fantastic. Fun new themes, some real interesting variations on the old ones, some amazing highlight cues, you really can hear the maturation of Powell's writing, there's even a surprise source cue!
 
On the second listen though, I wasn't 100% satisfied with the structure. It's going along nicely and then oh no, we're at the end already without that much buildup, when many of the themes barely got space for nice renditions? And we're already doing the big epic sad ending when the score itself didn't much suggest that this was all leading to a big sad ending? Though the film absolutely does not build up to it either so that makes sense. Also it has the messiest battle cue of the three. I just thought that 2 does a better job with its structure, having an arc, feeling like a full journey, having enough space for all the themes to be explored, having more emotionally charged key moments etc., largely helped by the movie being much better and allowing for all that of course. Ironically this is the longest of the 3 scores (if only by a few minutes and helped by the credits) but somehow on this listen I felt like it should have definitely been longer, which I never really thought with the really well-rounded first two.
 
But Busy Busy Berk is still amazing.
And holy shit Forbidden Courtship.
And Romance in the Clouds!
And The Hidden World!
And Grimmel's Surprise!
And Viking Wedding / Boat Epilogue!
And Setting Up Camp!
And Stronger Together!
And Into the Hole!
And With Love Comes Loss!
Oh, and all the Powell quotes in the booklet are lovely! And I didn't know he was so involved in even the script/ideas phase!
 
 
My first pass at an edit looks like this:

 
I did a little blanket EQing across the whole thing to boost the mids. I took many of the OST titles where I liked them better but it's all the DE tracks.
 
Joined Mysterious Creature with Toothless in Love. Joined Valka's Warning with Setting Up Camp, in reverse order (heavier cue first, playful second) because I felt it makes for a better transition between the darker ending of Exodus and the playful Forbidden Courtship that way. Moved New Berk Feast forward to replace Near Miss Valka (makes this block more light, no short dark interruption), also lowered its volume a bit, what is it with loud medieval source cues in the middle of the program, first the Nelwynses then this Joined Near Miss Valka and Ambush / Cage Fight Joined Stronger Together, New Island and Into the Hole, the latter two especially work better joined when the tension is kept up instead of them just being short disconnected cues. Also the first 12 seconds of New Island were moved to the start of this track, before Stronger Together. Joined With Love Comes Loss and Grimmel's Surprise