Tom Guernsey

I can’t see this available anywhere to buy. It sounds great. Any suggestions?!

Awesome, gotta love some swashbuckling Newman, A!

Thanks for the link and info. The FSM post is interesting, but it seems I'm not the only one who is surprised it's never seen the light of day. As I commented there, I think That Hamilton Woman would have made a fine entry in the Bernstein/RPO series (although I admit there is a lot of competition in that regard!).

Entertaining recording and pretty robust performance! Have to admit that the suite is a bit messy in the choices and how they fit together, rather flits from one thing to another, but enjoyable fun none the less. Certainly a fine alternative to the original and much better strings than the Cincinnati recording where the strings are almost completely submerged in the mix (which is harsh given those endless runs in the love theme). I may have to check out the rest of the Budd album though...

Agreed about the Hollywood 96 cover. Really cheap and nasty. Especially after the cool 95 Bob Peak (I think) painting. Although the album itself is good. Some nice selections well performed. The selection from Menken’s Hunchback score is particularly superb. Might have to post something to the FSM board but thought I’d try my luck here first. Just surprising that it never gets mentioned and not like he’s an obscure golden age composer! Just gave it another listen. Absolutely lovely.

I don’t think Barry even wrote anything. He declined at the initial stages from what I recall.

Hi all Rozsa-files! I was listening to the excellent Hollywood '95 compilation from Varese earlier (probably the best of their Hollywood 94/95/96 albums I think, in terms of content and performance, incidentally the only one without any John Williams on it...) and was reminded just how wonderful Rozsa's theme to That Hamilton Woman is. Indeed, I'd put it down as one of my favourite Rozsa themes, utterly lovely and hugely memorable. It manages to sound somewhat more timeless than some of the more swooning love themes of the period, so it's delicate rather than overwrought. I've never seen the score or movie mentioned anywhere and as far as I know, it's never had a full release, just a few appearances on compilations (which I assume is the same love theme track on the Varese album). Given its age, I wouldn't be surprised if the tapes are lost, but does anyone know anything about it? Is the rest of the score as charming as its love theme?

That sounds terrific. I will acquire it immediately! Agreed. It’s a lovely work. I especially like the orchestral Opening of the Book of Proverbs. It’s so relentless upbeat (but without being as annoying as that might sound) it always puts me in a great frame of mind. I actually must become better acquainted with the rest of the work!

I have the others, but will have to check these out... not sure how I missed that he'd written a piano concerto! Cheers.

Pretty much anything on this album: https://uk.7digital.com/artist/various-artists/release/javelin-the-music-of-michael-torke-5710599?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2 All are relatively upbeat, self contained, propulsive orchestral works, but Green and Bright Blue Music are particularly enjoyable. Torke is one of those "if you like one thing you'll probably like everything else" type composers.

Interesting. I thought the only re-recording of any of the Supergirl music was the main theme performed by the Cincinnati Pops on their Superheroes album (which has mysteriously badly mixed strings so you can barely hear the tirelessly over the top string writing). I was always disappointed that it never seemed to have appeared on any other compilation (silva screen always uses the original soundtrack recording on their compilations for obvious reasons). I remember seeing Jerry at the Royal Albert Hall and he did Supergirl. So much more energy and precision than the original album to be honest. However, in answer to the original question... Superman. I mean it’s a classic. And Jerry didn’t exactly have much to work with. Shame we don’t get to see a glimpse into the parallel universe where he scored Superman. I think he’d have done an amazing job. I do kinda understand the people who find the first half of Superman superior but the film is one of two distinct halves and Williams scored each half expertly. The second half is just a much more traditional action movie so Williams scored it as such but the first half of the movie offers much richer scoring opportunities.

I think I’d prefer a new showrunner (and composer if I’m honest) than a new Doctor. But it doesn’t seem totally beyond the realms of possibility that she’ll leave after this year.

Agreed. Listened to that the other day. It’s a great score. Lots of good thematic material.

I'm not sure that picking Reznor and Ross was really much of a risk given that they have considerable mainstream movie scoring experience and an Oscar. It's not really picking some new or obscure or well known but without much/any film scoring experience. Indeed, the more choice of Jon Batiste is probably more daring as he falls into the "well known but not much/any scoring experience" bracket (I've not heard of him, but in his field he is clearly well known). Plus, worth remembering that the choice of Randy Newman for Toy Story was pretty surprising given that he'd not really scored anything like it before (it was a mix of his own song albums and dramas). Similar for Thomas Newman on Finding Nemo. Think that was his first animated film and certainly an unusual choice at the time. And Michael Giacchino was pretty obscure when he scored The Incredibles. While he was clearly a great choice in retrospect it was by no means certain. By those benchmarks, Ross and Reznor are kinda left field, ish, but not exactly startling daring and what they produced isn't really the kind of music that required their particular experience either (unlike, again, Jon Batiste, whose jazz background was clearly required). I think any number of composers could have written some electronic noodling like Ross & Reznor.

Pretty much that... particularly the first part with the companions being intensely selfish that the Doctor had disappeared for 10 months when she'd been in prison for years. This just seems like poor writing as none of the characters had previously seemed that selfish. It would even have been good if one had been selfish and another had been "hang on, give her a break" type thing, but nothing. Did the spare Tardis come from anywhere?! I mean, if there had been an explanation for it that made sense (plus for the Doctor being in prison) it would have been acceptable but it just turned into contrivance as you say. Having said that, the solution of the Daleks being lured to the Tardis was quite fun (a fairly RTD style way to end I thought). Music was fine, but as I've said before, can you imagine filling the Royal Albert Hall with families coming to listen to any of this music like they did with Murray Gold's?! I really can't, fine enough though some of it is. Akinola's Dalek motif was a pretty basic duh-duh-duuuuuh type villain motif, rather than the apocalyptic chanting that Gold used. Almost reminds me of the difference between Ron Jones and Jerry Goldsmith's Borg motifs, where I think that's a (very!) rare occasion where someone scored similar material better. Jones' synth choir is really effective whereas Goldsmith's is more like Akinola's Dalek motif, albeit a bit more effectively sinister.

Shocked face! Romantic comedy heist movie. Hmmm. Could be good!

I knew there was someone missing and Hisaishi should definitely be mentioned alongside the others! I'd still go for Horner (marginally) but to be fair, all of these composers have produced great work (some of their best) for animated movies.

Ah cool, thanks for sharing. Amazing how much talent there is out there to reinterpret and be inspired by movies. But cool for turning them into soundtrack art. On a non-film music related topic, I'm hoping someone might turn these superb posters into album covers for my favourite band, https://www.theretrocomedy.com/ (not a request but you can see why I made the connection, also the style isn't a million miles away).

I'd probably tie James Horner and John Powell, but their animation scoring styles are very different so it's almost impossible to pick between them. However, James Horner by the tiniest margin (and because I vote for JP in everything otherwise!). Alan Menken would join the three way tie, but again, for totally different reasons. They kinda represent the three sides to animated scoring: James Horner - classical (sometimes literally), live action style with long lined melodies. John Powell - either live action styled scoring for more dramatic efforts (HTTYD, Happy Feet etc.) or more cartoon Mickey Mouse style for the less serious ones (Ice Age etc.) Alan Menken - Broadway comes to animation...

I'm pretty sure there was some electronic scoring in the real world earlier in the movie. I appreciate that broadly that's how it was split, but, I dunno, it just didn't work for me. Maybe if they had sought to combine the two disparate styles together at the end? I think it was more that the electronic scoring didn't go anywhere dramatically or emotionally that meant it fell so flat.

Those are really great... not seen that artwork anywhere. Kinda Soviet Russia in style somehow (by no means a bad thing). I think if there was one for each of the new films I'd use those as the key artwork for the original albums.

I enjoyed the film and the jazz side of the music, but the underscore itself didn't do much for me. Bits of it sounded like the more textural moments of Giacchino's Inside Out score (the more despondent moments) but without doing much beyond that. Perhaps if all of the real world scoring had been jazz based and all of the otherworldly music been electronic, the contrast would have worked better. I just kept feeling that the music should break away into something more interesting and meaningful, but it just kinda kept noodling along without any kind of emotional or dramatic arc.

You must, it's a great score! One I was only aware of recently (somehow).

Oh for sure. It's none the worse for this style of recording and I'm sure having a good level of control is useful as it means that one minor fuckup doesn't ruin an entire take for the full orchestra.

Spies Like Us (Elmer) - A typical fun Elmer comedy score, although I never noticed how much parts of the cue Escape sounds like Raisuli Attacks from Jerry's The Wind and the Lion.