Chen G.

I thought so, too! All these Arabic and Farsi terms - which clearly were the epitome of the exotic to Herbert and to Villenueve - come across pretty funny to a native, especially in what's supposed to be an otherworldly setting.

I must say, I'm less taken with this than I was with part one, and its not the novelty of part one being the first. Both films are very slow, meditative with a mystical atmosphere, but in this film, where all this plot is meant to come to a head, it feels a little counterproductive: a whole laundry list of important new characters have to wait to the 100 minute mark to be introduced. I also think Villenueve, because he wants to make Dune Messiah, emphasized everything that would suggest there's more of this story to be had. I'll be curious to see if that way of playing it out pays off.

I like those a lot! But I think that was someone else whose name currently escapes me. Mark Governor, I think. Also, Gallagher has continued to post. While the sheet music suggests there's recordings with a full orchestra taking place, Gallagher and Wilsher are also recording a chamber orchestra (featuring some NZSO Lord of the Rings luminaries) in Our Lady Star of the Sea Convent Chapel in Wellington. A venue owned, funnily enough, by Jackson and Walsh.

I'm interested to see what Gallagher will do with this. It seems to me rather a unique situation where, across the seven films now, while Howard is clearly not scoring this film, someone whose contributions can be heard sandwiched into Howard's score, did. You could say all seven films - and ancillary projects like Hobbiton or whatever contributions they provided for The Rings of Power - was all done by "Howard Shore and co", encompassing what I think are very erstwhile conributions from Plan 9, Gallagher, etc... And we know Gallagher knows Howard's technique, having been a music editor on his scores and having - Doug tells on the score commentaries - read Doug's book in preparation for The Hobbit, and audiences at Annecy saw footage from this film with what’s almost certainly a Howard Shore temp track. Whether and how much he'll channel the Howard "sound" remains, therefore, to be seen. He’s obviously in his right to use as much or as little of Howard’s sound as he pleases.

Aye. Its this instrument: has a very medieval, but quite nasal, sound: It seems to be mostly chords moving: the melody part doesn't start until circa bar 10 and we can't really tell where the melody goes.

I missed this, which is too bad because Dame Gwyneth Jones... But this is just in, replete with Garanca:

Hoiho! Hoihohoho! Come Gibich vassals, gather now! Woe! Woe! To arms! To arms! Arm through the land! Goodly arms! Mighty arms! Sharp for strife! Need is upon us! Need! Woe, woe! Hoiho! Hoiho hoho! https://www.instagram.com/p/C3wSbTVpau8/ https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/429457666_1613510452799067_5985161466116954416_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s1080x1080&_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=103&_nc_ohc=ed9XFlQbE6wAX874HI6&edm=APs17CUBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfASiZT3q1rb-lDHpDIqrUgxlpmAcu4WHtJKoTsqSmSyqA&oe=65E07BF2&_nc_sid=10d13b

Well, yeah. But its more space suit than armour, is what I'm saying. It became MORE armoured - and less cheap-looking - over the films. But its still primarily a space suit (or, as retconned in 1977, a life-preserving suit).

Some armour…it seems to me the majority of Vader’s suit is leather, not armour.

which would make a movie that's actually three hours be three-and-a-half... Its just funny to me see people take two-and-a-half hour movies and somehow round them up a whole half hour.

Pet peeve here, but why do people feel the need to round a movie runtime upwards so hyperbolically? The movie is over at the 156 minute mark. Nowhere even near three hours.

Pretty sure he's doing that solo. Season three, though...who's to tell?

On that one you could do Hagen’s call to the vassals, probably. A little menacing, but I guess it works too! 😅

Easy. You just do the Star of David thing AND sound Siegfried’s horncall! 🤣

Canon is a term that's used within a musician's body of work as within that of any other artist: So, Beethoven has early pieces that he disavowed, so they're not part of his "canon." Rienzi is not part of the Wagnerian "canon", etc... But "Canon" is also a musical form, similar to a round. I'm personally of the opinion that Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Star Wars Holiday Special and the two Ewok films should be considered as much a part of the Lucas-Star Wars oeuvre as the later Clone Wars stuff. Just take a look at the Holiday Special: It had a story by Lucas, all the principal cast, Williams cues, sound by Ben Burrt, masks by Stuart Freeborn...it was a bona fide Star Wars production. So are the Ewok films.

Well, his descriptions of this 250-page screenplay tend to include a concluding forest battle...that's the rough draft. Lucas seems particularly fond of it, because its the one he kept coming back to for ideas, be it said forest battle in Return of the Jedi, or basically all of Episode I.

There's even a Kenner ad that misquoted Lucasfilm, making it seem like its 14 films!

Even the Second Draft is not really the film as we know. Its only the third draft outline that can really be regarded as the first genuine draft to the film we know today. Oddly enough, the draft that Lucas regards as this 250-page "Ur" screenplay is the Rough draft! Except the rough draft is quite succint - its shorter than the shooting script by a considerable margin. The amount of material ported from it to the other entries is in the area of 15-16 pages. Big whuff!

Sidebar, but I heard what I believe to be a similar production, still with Kampe as Kundry (very good!) but with Semyon Bychkov conducting. It was as good a Parsifal as I've ever heard: you never hear the harps at the end of the opera like you do here without the conductor slowing the music down enormously, which Bychkov was somehow able to circumnavigate. Great singing, especially from Franz Josef-Selig as Gurnemanz: some of the most gorgeous phrasing I've ever heard of anyone singing this role: couldn't be further removed from the Hagen-like Gurnemanzes of Kurt Rydl and Sir John Tomlinson. I find myself quite taken with Bychkov's Wagner in general.

Its funny the defenses I've seen from Lucas apologists for this kind of stuff: "He said he made the first act into a movie, but he didn't explicitly say that he turned the other two acts into the subsequent entries" - yeah, except he did. "He said he made the three acts into the three films, but he doesn't say he had them ready as three feature-length screenplays" - yeah, except he did. There were a couple of other apologetics I can't quite remember right now, but you get the picture.

Its as Brunnhilde says!

I haven't sat through any of their works, either, although I did see a scene from Les Huguenots. Meyerbeer won some acclaim in his day for inventive orchestrations, but at least back in Germany his works were thought-of (including by the likes of Schumann) to be empty pomp. I can't really attest to that, except to say that their works are not really part of the repertoire and when they are presented, they're extremly cut-down. Being a Wagnerite does tend to spoil number operas, except the very best ones (Verdi, Mozart, Weber)...

Giacomo Meyerbeer. It was his first break into the Parisian arena. Most of these are by him and Fromental Halevy.

The Crusader in Egypt.