Tydirium

Not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if some pitches were tinkered with during the original production, which then got lost in the process. I did find what appears to be some "official" sheet music for a basic voice/piano arrangement of "Optimistic Voices." Check out bar 5 in this image and you'll see the G to F movement, as well as the Cb (B) above it.

Didn't know about those! Interesting. EDIT: The more I listen to it, the more bummed I am that they didn't retain the original vocals for "Optimistic Voices." Some of the notes in the first few bars (the wordless introduction) of this re-recording sound off. A couple years ago I spent a lot of time slowing down the original recording to try and hear exactly what was happening in those bars, and so I got to know a lot of the crunchier inner voices that make me love it so much. This re-recording seems to be missing a few pitches, and the lower voices are either almost inaudible or nonexistent… so some of the chords sound empty compared to the original. Most striking is the last two beats (the juiciest chord!) before the song proper enters; if you listen closely in the original, there is a lower voice going from G to F while all the upper voices hold a half note; sadly, that stepwise motion from G to F seems to be missing, so you end up here with the whole ensemble singing a half note. Furthermore, one of the inner upper voices should be singing a B for that half note... I'm not really hearing it in this recording, but it's possible it's just buried in the mix. Still not hearing the G and F, though. Check out 0:04 in both recordings and maybe you'll hear what I mean.

Isn't "Toto's theme" just Mendelssohn's Scherzo? Or is there another theme I'm missing/forgetting? The use of Mendelssohn and Mussorgsky is actually one of my only gripes with this score; I really wish original music had been used instead.

Yes; there are older predators and they look different from him.

Here we go!

Isn't 86% pretty good on RT?

1:27 seems to be a different version of what is heard in this IG post about the soundtrack: https://www.instagram.com/p/DP1gFYkjZJW/?hl=en The post reveals that to be from the track "The Wicked Witch of the East," which has been in the Broadway show since the beginning but was never recorded/released on the original cast album due to it being very spoiler-y, among other things. My guess is that that part plays when... That tune appears to be a sneaky, more tuneful (and slower) reference to some of Nessarose's material in the song from the stage show. Compare that with 0:12 here: I wouldn't be surprised if Powell gets a metadata composer credit on the OST track "The Wicked Witch of the East" for that spot. EDIT: Then again, 2:20 in that train ambience video is definitely from the instrumental backing track of "The Wicked Witch of the East." (The piano is when Boq sings.) Check out 4:55 in this Korean dubbing video and you'll see what I mean: So, I'm not really sure where Powell's stuff ends, and where Schwartz's/the song arranger's stuff begins.

Thanks for these! I checked out the website; pretty sure that there are also new recordings of the themes from "The Wizard and I" and the main "Defying Gravity" motif. At least, I don't remember them being in the first film's score. EDIT: Starting around 6:13 in the 12-minute file.

New score snippet!

I don't understand what's wrong with that, though? The rating in this case is mostly a technicality due to it only being alien/android blood — no red/human blood. It's not like the violence itself is being toned down, and this director just did an extremely violent R-rated animated Predator movie (Predator: Killer of Killers) earlier this year. (The R rating on that one was no doubt due to the fact that it was set on Earth, so lots of humans dying and red blood.) Basically, I'm not worried at all by the rating. The clip they just released this past week was very violent.

Why is that a problem?

The repetition of the first phrase is driving me crazy, my gosh. Why would anyone do that?!

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/diversions/french-horn-player-will-debut-john-williams-piece-with-vallejo-symphony/article_e13cea72-29ff-45bd-9b4b-df4fc411c483.html Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but the premiere is Oct 26. Apparently it was written back in 2011 for this guy's dad (legendary horn player Dale Clevenger of the CSO, for whom JW wrote his Horn Concerto), and is just now being performed for the first time.

Just noticed this is now on the digital services. I don't think it used to be?

Aw man. I meant to try and let him know about a mistake in his blog post about Episode 207, to hopefully correct it before this set went to print: It's actually the Elven Valor theme (heard at 2:54 in "Damrod"). Still, the set looks awesome!