karelm

You might be right...I remember that triangle roll was discussed as being removed but maybe I'm thinking of something else. I'll check. Don mentioned that the LSO original timpanist had four drums (maybe 5 for some cues) but was a monster at tuning fast but this passage was always problematic. In an LA scoring session, they wouldn't have this problem because they'll have a chromatic set but he pointed out it was impractical.

Here are some examples of the very minor orchestration changes. During the opening blast of the first fanfare, there was a triangle roll (part of that high shimmer) before the theme starts: No longer done in empire and after: The walking timpani line I mentioned is at 1:02 of Star Wars. It's not in empire and after. Star Wars timpani in yellow was doubling the tuba and low strings in red. It was simplified after as you see here in Hal Leonard. Don Williams (composer's brother and pro timpanist) considered the original bar not great orchestration finding it "too notey" and not easy to stabilize the intonation because they'd have to tune several of those notes. If the music is loud like it is here, it probably won't be noticed but it's considered awkward/temperamental with the revision being more idiomatic. It also says a lot about the level of perfectionism that goes into these scores that if given another chance to redo it, JW is always looking for how it could be improved even if it's something no one would really notice.

There is probably very minor tidying up but hard to notice. Another oddity that @Jay always sets me clear about this then I forget again is the main Star Wars theme. That is generally re-recorded for each film though I think in several films they simply reused it from an earlier recording. There are also very minor alterations. I know in a new hope there was a timpani walking line that was removed for empire (it became a repeated note), etc. I think to make things more complicated, sometimes the version on the OST is not the one used in the film. OST's are not records of what's in the film, they tend to be produced by the composer so the composer might have a preferred take that differs from what the producers/directors used.

That credit is just a contractual agreement and is not fully true in either of those cases. I know orchestrators who worked on both those trilogies. I recall talking to the late David Cripps about recording Return of the Jedi and I'm going off memory so forgive if I get some of the specifics wrong. They recorded in several studios for various reasons like re-edits to the film or preferred venue was booked and the schedule was slipping. At the smaller studio he said it was considerably difficult; the orchestra couldn't hear each other as they were way too many players for the studio size. This is partially why there is wide range of recorded quality in the Return of the Jedi. Some of that included the re-recorded cues like Here they Come but my understanding is that was planned but would have been a new recorded version. There might be more details because it seems they used it as temp music and just agreed it was fine but I'd be surprised JW wouldn't want to rework it a bit rather than have it straight from Star Wars. For Stanley & Iris, it looks like he did use his then regular orchestrators but also the score was small so it might have been a very minor job like just a few cues needed them.

I was an orchestrator for Chris Young on several films. Ask away!

I just saw Cloud Atlas. A bit of a mess. I like the premise but feel it would have worked better as a manga but as a film, it's overly long and jarring story telling. Jarring could be fine if concise like Sin City and Pulp Fiction but they also give episodes time to themselves. This film literally flips epoch's mid thought for much of the run time. It might have been better if they gave each epoch 20 minutes straight then jumped and tide it all up just at the end where they could have done a flip through of the various timelines in a few minutes.

Very interesting...will check it out as well!

Michael Tippet's "New Year". A rather strange opera from the 1980's.

I wish but they're all sold out....I waited too long.

Alot of Horner such as Field of Dreams, Cocoon, New World.

Finally, a good thread. There are too many to count. Here are a few: The first forceful use of the force theme at 0:59 This is a masterclass in brass writing, the whole cue but especially from here to the end, that fanfare at 2:35 ugh!: I'm so happy someone managed to arrange this cue for trombone octet!

That's what I was told by someone who performed it publicly. They had to get her permission because she owned it and ASM gave permission.

It's from the poetry of Walt Whitman which is excellent and multi-layered. For example, Whitman's "A Passage to India" is about a new train route that connected Europe with India, at the time that was opening up a distant, exotic land. The poem isn't really about the train, it is about the march of progress of science and technology through time and how it connects unknown people. That means the poem applies today to new technology every bit as much as it did back in 1871 - like the internet allowing people to connect who might never had the opportunity or a bunch of JW fans connecting from around the world. The train becomes a metaphor. Similarly, the Sea Symphony starts off about ships sailing the sea, but by the end, becomes about the journey of the human soul depicted with the ship of life slowly and calmly disappearing over the horizon into the afterlife, that which is unknowable and can't return from.

That's the best recording of the work I think. It is a very, very good work and much deeper than most think. It is not about the sea.

What is this project you are doing? Are those new mockups?