The Lost Folio

Very few people seem to have mixed or negative reactions to this score. Which is awesome! But I'd like to hear more from those who don't enjoy the album so much. For me, it's a big meh. The tone of the JW tracks is very uniform except for a couple moments. The classical pieces gladly add some variety, but those performances really lack character. They're played well, but blandly. Such a boring performance of one of my favorite Haydns! (JW's extension of the piece is really not that interesting.) And the whole album uses way too much reverb to create that melancholy vibe. It sounds so artificial. Plus, the tracks are all way too short to develop an interesting form/story. It's always over before it's really started. I like the themes, I like the simplicity, the sort of naivety, and I'm sure a couple tracks will end up in my playlists -- but the album as a whole, from top to bottom: meh. Not in my top 50 best JW... Am I alone?

So, it doesn't sound like JW planned The Journey Begins to transition into Haydn after all. Of course I haven't seen the movie yet, but these samples, no matter how lovely they are, sound rather generic. That kind of light pianism is everywhere, and it ends up being samey. Does Williams do it better than others? Maybe, maybe not. Don't get me wrong, I like it, and I'm glad we got another of these intimate JW scores. But it doesn't seem to have the charm and variety that made his previous intimate scores so great. Hopefully my first impression will change after I watch the movie.

It will be interesting to see if the last track is actually composed to merge the score with the Haydn sonata, a bit like he did with Chopin in Empire of the Sun. I always thought that worked super well on that album. I actually like these piano sonatas and I'm looking forward to hearing how the score flows back and forth between styles.

Why call it "Ludlow"? Sounds to me like this kind of material is always performed on the strings. I'm curious to hear how that same kind of motif can work in a piece for brass ensemble...

Ok. I feel nothing will make you reconsider your position even just a little. But would you have the kindness of providing us the publisher's email so we can at least discuss the facts? What you say does have repercussions on people, on musicians, on you and I, so I'm sure we would all appreciate to see the sources and the original statements.

I'm stunned by how many comments in this thread are against copyright laws! These laws are not perfect, but I wasn't expecting such blatant disrespect for the rights of your favorite composer (who is, as a reminder, still alive and well), and of the many hardworking people involved in the creation of this music! If you respect JW's decision not to release some early scores, well then respect his valid decision (or most likely that of his publishers) to control this music in any way, shape or form they want. It's theirs, not yours! P.s. This thread is a discussion of what, exactly? Some person wrote their discontent about a message they received that no one else has seen. We don't even have the basic facts about any of this! All this because some youtuber dja28 received an email... Anyone else received it? What's dja28 involvement with musicnotes?

To go back to your earlier comment mentioning a bunch of JW pieces you were sad didn't have great arrangements, like Battle of Crait, are these pieces explicitly on the "list" you are talking about? And what about the pieces you regret have no "official" arrangements (ie Minority Report) -- are such pieces on the "list" as well? Do you have a link to that list, or a specific example you could share? I agree with previous comments saying the thread title is misleading. I would add that it's cheaply provocative. There's no "war on sheet music", which remains easily available from Hal Leonard from Big Note piano to advanced difficulty. And it has nothing to do with JW, but with the publishers. Just change the thread title, will you? It's great that there are fans out there dedicated enough to write new arrangements of their favorite JW pieces!! But I won't criticize the publishing companies for wanting to keep some sort of control over what's done with that music. Some arrangements are awesome, sure, but many MANY others are bad and perhaps damaging to the music. The fact that Hal Leonard's arrangements don't replicate the cues note for note doesn't bother me. I have so much more fun playing shorter, sensitive arrangements (like the Keveren) than note for note transcriptions. It's a personal taste, I'm not claiming to be right or wrong, but I'm probably not alone with this preference. There are likely thousands of pianists and teachers tired of amateur arrangements that don't meet their needs. I understand your frustration over this whole issue, of course. It's frustrating to see something we enjoy being taken away. But the internet is a volatile place. Musicnotes is just a baby, an fairly recent experiment, and even if the publishers might have said yes at first, they can think now that it's no longer what they want(ed). We've got to respect that without claiming things here and there that have nothing to do with the actual issues. Something will replace Musicnotes, and the fans are not going to disappear!

Making an arrangement of JW's music is one thing. *Selling* it on sheet music platforms and making money from it, that's just plain piracy of someone else's work! I see no reason why such arrangements should have been allowed to be sold in the first place. Copyright laws are meant to protect the artists, not the fans! If anyone wants a 20-page virtuosic version of the Battle of Crait, they can make it themselves. The official piano folio is only meant to highlight passages from the soundtrack in a way that's approachable for intermediate, amateur players. We have to appreciate that these books exist in the first place, but also recognize who they are for. To this day I still play and thoroughly enjoy the Harry Potter folios, or Jurassic Park, as exciting, yet not too advanced, piano music and I couldn't care less if you told me it's missing 95% of the score or if the melody has a couple errors. I sit down, play through the book and have a good time! P.s. There are some official, advanced piano arrangements. They are fiendishly difficult to perform!!! Check the Devil's Dance official arrangement for instance!

I could see that being the case, at least on paper! He did refer to the march in Mutt's theme as well in a similar way. Wouldn't you also say that triplets are a defining feature of Marion's theme, and used quite characteristically here as well? For me, more than anything else, those triplets recapture the "Indy sound".

According to the Hal Leonard piano arrangement (currently available on SheetMusicDirect), the theme shifts between 2/2, 4/4, and 6/8.

I think after decades of Star Wars music by dozens of composers (TV shows, games, etc.) we know that the Star Wars "style" can be easily imitated by any professional (or even amateur) composer.

I definitely hear the ostinato in compound time -- and most of the piece as well. I've tried checking the videos for any signs that JW would be conducting in 4/4 or 12/8, but that's not very conclusive! He seems to subdivide some of the beats in 3, but he might as well just be marking each note regardless of the measure.

Sony also has the Yo-Yo Ma recording of the American Collection Theme, first released on Classic Yo-Yo (and never reissued since?): https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Yo-Yo-Ma/dp/B00005OAY5/

485 1590 is simply the product catalogue number. Technically speaking, all boxes released by Decca/DG are always limited. They eventually sell out and that's it. It may take a year, it may take five, or more, who knows.

This is very far from true!! A great conductor can do a lot even with a lack of rehearsals, a bad one won't.