karelm

Great job!

You've never heard of him?!? What the!*(#@ Nah, it just means classical music is probably not your thing. I'm sure my lack of knowledge when a hip hop figure is killed shocks some of my friends.

He was one of the greatest. Musicians I know who played under him were in awe of him as a formidable musical mind. They go out of their way to praise him in a long list of famous conductors.

For complete sets, I like Rudolf Barshai, Kiril Kondrashin (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian), and Bernard Haitink. These are very fine interpretations, well played, visceral, and have decent recorded sound (though they are from the 1970's and 1980's mostly). If you want a more recent sounding in a complete series, Dmitri Kitayenko is good and the Petreno/Royal Philharmonic series on Naxos gets very good reviews though I find the sound to be too harsh with close mics. Jarvi/Chandos is pretty good but has an 1980's Chandos sound that might be off putting to some. I love Maxim Shostakovich's London Symphony recordings - stellar playing and recording but since the Collins label went under, these are very hard to find. I actually prefer splitting the series amongst composers because the Bernstein/Chicago Symphony of No. 7 is the best for that symphony but he only recorded a few of the symphonies so no box set. Deutsche Grammophon has some of the very finest interpretations in their library and are putting together a compilation of the complete symphonies you might want to keep an eye out for.

I'm sure the RMA (recording musicians association) tracks this because their are payouts that happen to recording musicians when certain thresholds are met. http://www.rmala.org/pages/contact.aspx - agents frequently reference this information for negotiation purposes so I'm sure the info can be tracked.

One of these days, it would still be interesting to study the enigmatic qualities that JW is so good at - that "sense of wonder" that seems so perfect in Close Encounters, E.T., etc. I am not exactly sure what that even means other than saying you can hear imitation of it in the hands of lesser composers. For example, I thought Giacchiano's score to "Super 8" made overt attempts to replicate some Williamsisms but never had that sense of wonder, something great about to be revealed to the hero that would explain a deep and persistent mystery in a new and magical way that had never even been conceived of before to that character...it would be be interesting to find some musical examples for analysis because it was so much a part of his style. Perhaps a topic for a different thread.

I would also point out that the progression of chords Mr. Shark analyzes here move almost continuously by falling 3rds, which, although they create a sense of forward drive, they lack a sense of resolution (i.e., they don't form a cadence, but demand to keep moving forward). Even when this pattern is temporarily broken from the Em7(add#11) to the B7, the progression is down a 4th - emphatically a lack of resolution (has the same sound as a half cadence - an imperfect cadence in British terms). Only when the cue ends do we get a progression down a semitone, which, as Mr. Shark rightfully points out, stands in for the dominant, so is understood as a dominant-tonic progression, or down a 5th, finally giving the music a sense of resolution with the end of the cue. As usual, Williams well matches the musical characteristics of his harmonic progressions (and other features as well) with the agitated feeling of the onscreen chase scene. Hi Ludwig, Would you say this build is telegraphed in the first flying scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTVoFCP1BLg&feature=player_detailpage#t=35 (35 seconds in) where there is tense build up to the huge resolution when they start flying?

Is it possible that the "sound" of the times was bad? The music seems excellent (well, except for the overtly derivative parts) but the mix sounds very dated.

Wow, on the negative side, I just listened to Colywn theme and is that derivative of Goldsmith's Ilia (or is that Leia) or what? And the chorus is so out of tune. I have to assume they were recorded without the orchestra so just don't match. And the fake 1980s reverb ugh.

I must say, though I completely enjoy listening to Krull right now (I'm on the "Ride of the Firemares" track) I find it excellent but it completely pales to JW's Asteriod Field from Empire Strikes Back which is sort of the quintessential sci-fi exciting action track of early 1980s. Really, what can compare to that sense of velocity, adventure, heroism, and danger? Perhaps I shouldn't compare a very good work to a masterpiece?

Ok, I thought "Pale Blue Dot" was such a wonderful testament to this man. It gave me goosebumps on several occasions while reading. Also "Demon Haunted World" explores history and mythology in the context of science. His brilliance lies in how communicative he was and how many boundaries he crossed. Personally, I believe he and his wife Ann Druyan are sort of like Lennon/McCartney in that they were greater than the sum of their parts. Sort of another way of saying I am not sure the sequel can capture the brilliance of the original however I am VERY hopeful. I think one of the greatest love stories I ever heard of is this: http://www.npr.org/2010/02/12/123534818/carl-sagan-and-ann-druyans-ultimate-mix-tape It is difficult to paraphrase from such a communicator so I invite people to hear it for themselves and ignore me if they disagree but I think it is a phenomenally deep story that will outlast humanity.

Great book but mediocre movie. The film did not understand the book. There is so much good material from him...PM if you want recommendations since it is off topic but I have read a dozen of his books and absolutely love how he bridges science with art and philosophy. Sort of a unique missing link. I was lucky to have met him and have his autograph too! The Vangelis material was pre-existing. None of the music for the Cosmos 1980's show was original but it was beautifully merged with the concept of the series. One of the highlights was the merging of all material - truly Gesamtkunstwerk merging art, science, history, philosophy, poetry, music, etc.

It has been a few years since I listened to Krull by James Horner and I'm struck by just how much I enjoy it. Part of this might be nostalgia, but I am curious what others think of this score - is it too derivative of JW Star Wars style or more in the style of Horner thinking that "I am better than JW, let him imitate me!" Anyway, curious if this is considered somewhat of a Horner masterpiece or derivative imitation. I find myself surprised by the quality and thematic material frequently employing aleatoric or otherwise unexpected devices. To me, it is really good if you like Star Trek II and Horner in his golden age. There is this detailed analysis of the score if not already familiar with the details of this complex sci-fi action/adventure/fantasy score from the 1980's: http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/horner/cuekrull.html

I'm a huge Sagan fan. I love the idea of the new series and thanks for the reminder for March 9. Love Silvestri...love Neil deGrass Tyson. Sagan + Silvestri+Tyson = good.

Hmm, I see one of the deans of LACC this evening and will inquire if they have access to this.

Right, more of him talking about other composers during the early part of his career than his own early start. Did you ever watch the USC interview? He went into quite a bit of detail in that one about his early years.

That's ok - a new recording can supersede the original. There are greater losses in history that are truly irrecoverable...(Alexandria library)!

Has anyone seen these interviews of JW talking about his start or is this old?

Fantastic! Lot's of great ideas all around. Thank you!

Here is some of my orchestral sci-fi music: http://soundcloud.com/karelm-1/sets/kelm-actiondemo

Very nice Henry. Reminds me of pastoral Vaughan Williams (ala Serenade for Music) and Gorecki Symphony No. 3 with a little Ravel thrown in - all great. Interesting harp line at the end.

Nicely done Tannhauser - very epic and Wagnerian. Kind of reminds me of Terrance Mallick.

http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=93208&forumID=1&archive=0&pageID=5&r=794#bottom Cool story. Did you know that a composer you might have heard of named John Williams was considered to score the episodes ala Lost in Space?

That was a good read. I do think it was pretty close to what they did (with some of the proposed plot points making it through to finished episodes) except for flushing out some characters. I'm glad with what they ended up doing with Boone though, he ended up being a tragic hero rather than psycho. Remember these character adjustments happen all the time. I'm reading an extremely detailed book on Star Trek, the original series and it details how different the original pitch was from the final show. They had Kirk and yeomen rand having a repressed affair, no Chekhov (based on ratings, they put him in on season 2), Spock very different, etc. In short it is typical for a series to adjust the secondary characters as the series progresses. One thing in that Lost guide that surprised me was for the original series intent was to be a show that survives on an individual episode basis but I found the reality is the opposite given the deep and gradually developing character stories and slowly unraveling mythology. I started watching Lost mid season 3 and was very confused so then started on season 1 in order and became totally obsessed with it by the time I caught up in late season 3. Basically, it needed an understanding of how we got to where we were which seemed different from the original planning. But for the most part, it stayed very close to its original intent. Also interesting was the very causal tone of the writers. They did a good job selling the concept to the suits.

I think the Boba Fett character is popular because he was the first to stand up to Vader. This was really shocking at the time when anyone who disappointed Vader was choked to death. Without fear, Boba said "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me." and vader responded that he would be compensated if that happened. With these few words you had a deep backstory created.