Tom Guernsey

Saw this thread pop up so did a quick litmus test using the main titles of all the versions I own (which I think is all of them apart from the original tracks which, as far as I recall, haven't been properly released on CD). I do like the Tribute version a lot, but I think my main issue with their Korngold is that it doesn't quite have that Straussian opulence that Korngold demands (kinda the anti-Herrmann!). The brass doesn't blaze as brightly or the strings shimmer and swoon as seductively (go me on the alliteration). Also, from the opening titles, the brass doesn't quite have consistency of tone on all those tricky fanfares that the others do. The Kojian is the recording of more than just a suite that I've had the longest and tends to be my go-to. The slightly more bracing tempos were probably murderous for the players (again, especially the brass) but the performance (and recording) is pretty spectacular, attacking it with all the gusto it depends. The Gamba version on Chandos has a slightly longer selection the BBC Phil perform pretty marvellously, plus Chandos has a pretty lustrous recording aesthetic which I think works well for this type of music. The Gerhardt is certainly an exceptionally performed suite and better than Previn with the LSO which is surprisingly average given the calibre of the conductor and orchestra. Having said all of that, it's pretty well an embarrassment of riches for The Sea Hawk. All are worth hearing, but for my money (in alphabetical order by conductor surname): Gamba - Excellent performance and sound, perhaps the ideal length of selection if you don't want the whole thing. Kojian - Superb performance and sound, albeit a less than half the score. Stromberg - Complete, great sound and generally fine performance, albeit without that lustrous sheen of performance or recording that the others have.

I'm not sure that's necessarily the best reference as he was clearly asked to write a John Williams style score. I guess it somewhat counters my earlier comments about older superhero movies having scores in a wider range of styles, although this is probably the closest those older movies got to have a shared universe.

I really enjoy that recording too, the sound is fairly warm given how stark the music is, especially compared to the very dry Elfman version. Both are great in their own ways, certainly fine interpretations. Can't say I feel like I'm massively missing out not having the original tracks. On a semi-related note, really enjoying Quartet's superb Endless Night recording. I haven't actually read what the issues some people have with it, but coming to it knowing very little about it (never even heard of the film before it was announced), the performance and recording are very fine indeed. I don't think I'd quite class it as top tier Herrmann, but his lesser works are still worth hearing and better than 99% of everything else!

Whatever the if or if nots... I'd definitely have liked to have heard a Jerry Goldsmith Marvel score, although hard to know how it would have sounded like. When he was alive, superhero scores had a much wider range of styles and there wasn't really any attempt to tie them all together into a vaguely homogenous sound, so I think he'd probably have hated having to just ape someone else's sound.

The Prussian Requiem is really superb and has plentiful mournful parts but I know what you mean, some of it is a little lighter. Highly recommended. The shorter work on the album, The Prize is Still Mine is great too. Orchestral/choral gospel work of surprising power.

Watching The Americans on Amazon (great show by the way) and there’s an episode where they are all watching David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear and the music accompanying the tv broadcast... why it’s the opening titles from The Towering Inferno. Given that it appears to be the original footage (including sound) I assume this is actually what they did use for the broadcast.

Yeah, it sounds a lot better than the older release. It was pretty clear, but quite raw and abrasive sounding (not sure how best to describe it). Although it does make you realise just how crappier some other scores from the period sound relatively, even with remastering efforts (Williams' Dracula for example - much improved, but hardly as crisp and vibrant as The Swarm). Debney did a good job finishing the score. I suppose it helps that it's quite an eclectic effort that you don't notice the joins that much. I had heard about TND. Shame... but never say never (again). As it were. Agreed that the Last Stand suite could have been longer, it would have been nice had he done slightly fewer, longer suites. As mentioned elsewhere, I had similar feelings on the HTTYD2 suite, missing off Flying With Mother (or Stoik's Ship) seems like a strange choice given that it's a pivotal moment in the film and a fine standalone track.

Spooky, I listened to those three over the weekend too. I never really appreciated the Swarm before, the sound on the old expanded release was quite harsh from what I recall so it was hard work to listen to, but now with a much more flattering mix, it's much more enjoyable. I find it a lot more fun than JW's disaster scores I have to admit. Really enjoyed Looney Tunes too, given how much is in there, it's actually got a good number of recurring and pretty memorable themes. It's certainly a very respectable entry alongside his other Joe Dante collaborations. Given his health and age at the time, it's wonderfully fun and zany score, certainly suggests that he had plenty of mileage left in him. :-( And TWINE... couldn't put it better myself! TND. Fingers crossed. Just saying.

Maybe he'll find a way to make it happen, fingers crossed. I'm still curious as to whether this was the work he referred to at the talk before Christmas (mentioned elsewhere) as being a struggle to get right. Given how little music there is and how straightforward the music sounds (not seen it personally), it seems hard to fathom that he'd have difficulty in coming up with something appropriate, unless Liman is very particular. Half hoping he's working on something else more interesting! NP: Da 5 Bloods (Terence Blanchard) - really love this one, guess it's not really Blanchard's core compositional style but it's a terrific riff on Williams Americana, without leaning heavily on anything specific.

Pretty much that! And it's probably a lot better after 2 seasons (and less than half as many episodes over the same number of years) than TNG was. For anyone who isn't really feeling it for Discovery or Picard, the Orville is much closer in tone to the 90's Trek shows, but with better production values. Not that they lacked, but FX tech moves on; the ship FX are only marginally better, there's just more of them (and not as good as the Mandalorian, for example), although the Orville itself is a bit of a meh design, certainly not as iconic as the Enterprise. However, the music is much closer to the Trek movies than the TV shows, one episode is pretty a pastiche of The Motion Picture, but generally it's more tone than anything specific. Indeed, the main issue I'd have with it is that some of the alien species are so clearly meant to be a pastiche/riff/whatever of specific Trek aliens or characters (Moclans = Klingons, Kaylon/Isaac = Data with a hint of Borg etc. Krill = Romulans (bit more of a stretch) and others) that it's a shame they didn't let McFarlane just make a more trad Star Trek series alongside Discovery/Picard, like the upcoming Strange New Worlds is likely to be. But definitely psyched for the new album...

Funny, the film version is (for my money) pretty horrible and sounds nothing like the rest of the score or songs, but I can't deny that I remember it more than the original version, but I guess it's because it blends seamlessly with the rest. To be fair, in a "proper" musical, it's the kind of pivotal moment that would almost certainly be a song - the old adage that when the emotions become too much to express in dialogue, it's a song and when song isn't enough, dance! I quite enjoy the songs in Mulan, but they are somewhat short and kinda throwaway to some extent. It was that weird phase when Disney still included songs but only a few and they were all relatively short, like it couldn't quite commit to not doing a musical but wanted to shift away from a full on Menken effort.

Our music teacher player the theme from Jurassic Park at the end of assembly... he (rightly) expected I'd notice! It sounded pretty great on a church organ. He was an excellent organist and pianist.

OK, bit tacky to quote yourself but have been giving the Supergirl suite a few more listens and really enjoying it, even if it's not the most coherent suite ever! Plus the main theme performance towards the end is a bit clipped and not as sweeping as it should be, but great to hear those endless string runs sounding so brilliant. I was amused by the fact that the first three notes of the villain theme appear at the end of the love theme before the reprise of the main theme right at the end. Wonder if someone left a single bar in the transcription by mistake!

I don't think I explained myself very well! Sorry about that. I don't have any issue with the concert arrangements themselves, they are both terrific and use the materials from the score superbly well, as Williams pretty well always does. I just felt it was disappointing that they were not meaningfully joined together with specially written musical segues like the credits for the original movies and the sequels... it's just a some pedal notes. I can even imagine how you might write a segue that transposed the descending string figure into the main driving Duel of Fates string figure. Duel of the Fates to Anakin's theme would be harder as they are very different tempos and styles, but sure it's doable. I just enjoy the cohesion and musical ingenuity of weaving themes together in an end credits suite, and I think Williams is probably the best there's ever been at that!

Have to agree with the first comment, certainly in regards to TPM and AOTC, whereby the main theme is just wound down to a long note so it links into the concert arrangements. I remember being hugely disappointed by the finale and credits for TPM, with the awful Augie's Municipal Band (surely one of the most cringe worthy things he's ever written) followed by cut and paste end credits. I'm sure he could have woven Duel of the Fates and Anakin's Themes together effectively. For my TPM playlist to try and pull together the best of the original and complete TPM releases, I just use the concert suites at the end as the actual end credits track adds virtually nothing. The AOTC finale is considerably better (albeit a slightly choppy montage sequence, but that's the fault of the film as much as anything), but the end credits is another edit. ROTS is much better, except for the one dreadful segue (which I've mentioned previously) between the reprise of the Throne Room and the main theme where he just stops with a couple of brass notes and then starts the main theme again... why not use the existing Throne Room to main theme segue here instead?! It's a really odd choice and sounds pretty naff. A double shame as the segue from Leia's Theme to Battle of the Heroes at the peak of the Leia melody is absolutely terrific, indeed one of my favourite moments from any of the end credits. I guess, I'd have to put all of the original three finales and credits more down as equally effective for me. However, I'll go with Star Wars overall since it has easily the best celebratory finale (Walton on steroids), the best segue to the credits (I've always much preferred the original's lithe strings and woodwind segue than the brassier version used from Empire onwards) plus the perfectly pulled off segues between the main theme and Leia's theme, thus setting the template (and expectations) for all subsequent Star Wars scores. Having said, the all of the originals have excellent finales (even allowing for the fact that the re-written Jedi finale doesn't fit with the end credits... I mean... why write something that ended in a way that wouldn't fit with what was already there?! Weird) that deftly weave the new themes together for a very satisfying conclusion. I enjoy all of the end credits to the sequels and like that he not only wrote something specific, but also decided to go for a different style of ending too. I guess they aren't quite as slick as the originals and bounce around all the ideas a bit too much to be quite as satisfying. With the originals you get enough of each new theme to feel satisfied whereas the sequels keep you wanting just a bit more. Honourable mention. Solo, yeah it's a cut and paste, but at least it's not quite so obviously a cut and paste (mostly) and is a nicely high octane finale to the score. Plus the performance of the main theme is absolutely gangbusters, makes the sequel performances of the same feel quite timid in comparison.

Not quite what everyone had mind but there is this... coming soon from Omni. I’ll be having that!

Lots and lots, but currently Hoffa by David Newman, which I thought I knew well but I don't think I'd ever quite realised how John Williams-y it is... can't quite pin down which JW score though. Maybe just the tone. Still, one of Newman's finest efforts. Just need a complete release of his score to the animated Anastasia which is really terrific.

If you don't mind (lossless) digital, it's available on 7Digital: https://uk.7digital.com/artist/jerry-goldsmith/release/timeline-music-inspired-by-the-film-5333966?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2 I have the SACD version (I think) which I can't seem to re-rip so am seriously contemplating getting it in FLAC. I don't begrudge his estate £15.

Blimey, it's like PMQs... my words are coming back to haunt me. From what I recall, he said he had to re-write a cue a few times and was struggling to give the director what he wanted. So I did mean assignment in a broader sense but he was clearly finding the demands of what the director wanted to be difficult. Still, could well be it. If there's not much music, the director may well be more demanding to ensure that those moments that are scored are exactly what they wanted.

I think I'd have to go for Return of the Jedi, but it has many close competitors (Empire for a start). Wonder if we need another poll of how many versions of the main titles each of us... by my reckoning, I have about 20 different recordings (although I'm not 100% if the same recording was used for all of the sequels like for the prequels), so depending on how you count, somewhere between 20 and 25. And yes, many are quite different...

I think of those listed, Mulan would definitely be at the top of the list. The Oscar promo is pretty complete as far as I know but there are a mixture of unofficial versions with extra tracks, so it would be good to have a "definitive" release with the various known alternates (such as the hair cutting sequence). It really is a terrific score and severely let down by the official album. I quite like the songs, but wouldn't miss them, plus you get his absolutely splendid arrangements, particularly the choral version of Honour To Us All in the opening titles. I always thought it was a shame that Goldsmith effectively highlighted the songs in his concert suite when he could easily have prepared an alternative suite of music from the score highlighting his own music. Of this others, it would be nice to have the complete rejected score to Timeline (think there's about another half hour missing), would happily hear more of Medicine Man and Legend (although that's one I'd controversially enjoy a couple of the cues in orchestra version only to= enjoy them without the synths, but only as alternates). I'm sure there must be something missing from Rudy but since it's pretty repetitive as it is (albeit using some superb themes) I'm not sure an expansion would add much? Not sure I've ever seen the film. Lionheart certainly would be nice to release in a "definitive" version rather than choosing between the single disc and two volume versions, albeit allowing for the iffy performance. I'm sure Tadlow could do it justice. Timeline - only OST exists, surefire seller Along Came a Spider - only OST exists, moderate seller Hollow Man - only OST exists, surefire seller The 13th Warrior - only OST exists, must be licensed out by Disney, surefire seller Mulan - only OST and FYC exists, must be licensed out by Disney, surefire seller L.A. Confidential - only OST exists, surefire seller 2 Days in the Valley - only OST exists, moderate seller Angie - only OST exists, moderate seller City Hall - only OST exists, good seller Love Field - only OST exists, good seller Malice - only OST exists, moderate seller Matinee - only OST exists, good seller Rudy - only OST exists, good seller Six Degrees of Separation - only OST exists, bad seller The Vanishing - expansion almost complete, moderate seller Medicine Man - only OST exists, must be licensed out by Disney, surefire seller Mr. Baseball - only OST exists, bad seller The Public Eye - no release exists, good seller Mom and Dad Save the World - only OST exists, moderate seller Not Without My Daughter - expansion almost complete, however: lost elements, bad seller Leviathan - only OST exists (potential expansion by Quartet), surefire seller The 'Burbs - expansion missing alternates, surefire seller Innerspace - expansion almost complete, surefire seller Lionheart - expansion already complete, surefire seller Legend - expansion almost complete, however: lost elements, must be licensed out by Silva, surefire seller Supergirl - expansion almost complete, must be licensed out by Silva, surefire seller The Final Conflict - expansion almost complete, surefire seller Caboblanco The Boys from Brazil - expansion already complete, surefire seller Damien: Omen II - expansion already complete, surefire seller MacArthur - only OST exists, surefire seller Twilight's Last Gleaming - expansion almost complete, good seller The Cassandra Crossing - expansion already complete, good seller High Velocity - expansion almost complete, good seller

Makes me wonder if this was the score Powell was referring to in the talk he gave just before Christmas... given how little music there was, it seems surprising that he'd have found writing it as hard as his comments seemed to imply!

...but The Spy Who Loved Me is by Marvin Hamlisch?!

Hard to narrow it down but to the above I’d add the Gerhardt Citizen Kane compilation which is brilliantly performed in great sound but has some less well known gems like White Witch Doctor and Beneath the 12 Mile Reef (one score I’d love to have re-recorded in full I must admit).

Cheers. I managed to find it in lossless on 7Digital. One to download when I get home. Cheers.