karelm

I have a group of composers that I love now that used to dismiss outright. Sad to say Horner was in that list. I completely love his music and sound world but in the 1990's-2000's, felt he was phoning in a lot of his scores. I was wrong.

Another unretirement article. John Williams: Legendary film composer not retiring, says he likes to ‘keep an... - Classic FM

The guy is only 21 years old...give him some time. He's very talented!

The trombone and double bass are the only major symphonic instrument left for him to write a concerto for. Yes, he hasn't written concerti for auxiliary winds such as piccolo, cor anglais, etc., but one can argue those aren't major instruments but doublers/auxiliary support instruments. He's been asked and showed interest, but it takes a lot of people to have interest to pull off a major commission. Having a major talent attached like Emmanual Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Itzhak Perlman, Anne-Sophie Mutter helps get the commission secured but you also need the orchestra and music director/conductor attached. There are definitely performers wishing for this but not sure all the other elements have lined up. I would love a percussion concerto where a movement is focused on timpani and another movement for the section. Perhaps we just need a Concerto for Orchestra where movements are dedicated to each orchestral group.

...so the trombone is not a major instrument?

Don't forget Gordy Haab.

Monday, Monday is a great song!

Ok I will. Can you PM me your email so I can tell him? My first composition teacher also went to high school with him and Carrie Goldsmith and similarly remembers him from that period. It sounded like he was pursuing/wished to pursue Carrie and who knows how much of that was because her dad was a super famous composer.

The impression I got is that he was very unpopular as a teen and came across as an arrogant teen. I think it was because he did have aspergers and those who knew him in the 70's probably considered it extremely nerdy and unsocial but today we might realize that was beyond his control. I've heard lots of stories from those who knew him that he had lots of social issues. For example, while in conversation, he would say what he wanted and when the other person responded, he walked away thinking the conversation had ended leaving them in a state of bewilderment since they were mid sentence. I also believe it is a spectrum where those far in it aren't aware of social cues. I've heard so many stories from musicians and people who knew him who call this out. Another thing was some of his big cues were very, very difficult and he couldn't really understand the stress he was placing on the players demanding they get the notes correct without realizing the harder they get pushed the less likely they'll nail it. He just didn't know any better but I think those are important stories to tell to better understand who he really was.

I have friends that knew him in high school and had some interesting stories about him. One worked with him at the Classical Annex of Tower Records and fondly recalls their conversations where he predicted he'll have a section in the music annex some day. He wasn't wrong.

Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerbeg are self-made billionaires who never got their college degrees. Some successful composers don't read music. They hire teams of musicians to make up for what they don't know but can be very good at what they do. Some that are very good at reading and writing music are John Powell, James Horner, Goldsmith, Goldenthal, james newton howard, etc. They have large teams too but usually more in the production side. Basically, hiring whatever your weakness is to maintain high standard, polished, consistent output. Zimmer brags about not reading music. He says it in his masterclass. He dropped out of piano lessons two weeks in too, being way too bored with playing scales rather than tunes. The Beatles couldn't read music either. George Harrison talked about not reading it on The Dick Clark show where he said he doesn't need to. He writes the chord symbols and lyrics and that was all he needed. They don't see it as a handicap.

Wow, I never would have guessed our Johnny penned this one! What genre is this, funk?

Don't yell at me but I quite liked No Time to Die (2020) - Billie Eilish! I don't think it ranks as highly as the vintage songs but damn it's catchy! Perhaps my favorite of the last decade or two.

I would never have guessed this was from Williams. It reminds me a little of his lounge music from the 70's like this (where the flute comes in around 55 seconds) but maybe this is a different genre.

Various lists rank the James Bond theme songs differently. So it is up to us to decide which is the greatest of them all. Various examples of different rankings: All 24 James Bond theme songs ranked from worst to best, based on musical merit - Classic FM Which James Bond theme song is the best Bond theme song? (msn.com)

He's probably just telling them molto vibrato. This was something that ended quietly, right, so hold the vibrato as the note fades type of thing. At a basic level, conductors need to keep everyone on the same beat. In an advanced orchestra like this, they don't need to do that (or at least not often) and focus almost purely on the musical interpretation rather than keeping time. At this level, the orchestra is all listening to each other very closely and even self balancing. Most conductors get in the way if they don't add something additional to the interpretation. He's most likely just eliminated all the non-essential direction and staying out of their way so we're just left with him sort of saying keep that vibrato going as we fade.

Why do you say "acquired" if the article doesn't say that at all? It says there is a partnership. “We are excited to partner with Muse Group and Hal Leonard to help enable their combination and usher in the joint company’s next stage of growth. The combined business will offer its customers unparalleled content and technology focused on music learning across digital, print, and educational channels. The article takes great pain to say they are separate. "While Hal Leonard will join Muse Group, both companies will retain their respective headquarters in the U.S. and Cyprus, respectively, and distinct operational expertise."

These are titans. I think 90% of people who like opera first encountered it through them. They are very, very good at this repertoire. This is not exactly what Puccini wrote, this is Pavarotti showcasing his talent above Puccini. Seriously, did anyone ever sing Nessun Dorma so incredibly?? That penultimate note he sustains indefinitely is NOT in the score. It's a 16th note. This is his version of it and is the standard to which all others are compared to.

I think very highly of Mehta's recording with Pavarotti. It is very well performed and recorded and features the legendary Pavarotti singing his signature tune. Giacomo Puccini, Zubin Mehta, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, John Alldis Choir, Montserrat Caballé, Tom Krause, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Peter Pears - Puccini - Turandot / Sutherland · Pavarotti · Caballé · Ghiaurov · Krause · Pears · LPO · Mehta - Amazon.com Music

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, scherzo (second movement) EDIT: Nevermind, I think you mean the one before Prokofiev.

Very nice job! You could easily have made this a two-hour video of the entire cue and I hope you will. By the way, if you plan to expand this to other ESB cues, I typeset the Duel of the Sabers and Losing the Hand from the original sketches if you'd like them. It would be great if you also did the entire 14 minute Carbon Freeze sequence...hell, the whole film. To me, this might be JW at his greatest, his pinnacle.

What about this guy?

Elliot's Symphony No. 3 can be heard here: Symphony No. 3 for Soprano and Orchestra to the poetry of Barbara Sadowska - PLAY KRAKÓW (playkrakow.com)

* Bernstein's West Side Story * Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (featuring music by Shostakovich) * Williams: Raiders of the Lost Ark * Williams: E.T. * Williams: Superman * Williams: Jurassic Park I haven't seen any of the Star Wars LTP yet.

Alan Silvestri once said the five most important skills for being a professional film composer are delivering on time, delivering on budget, delivering to technical requirements (7.1 vs 5.1, 48hz vs 96hz, 16 bit vs 24 bit, ProTools vs WAV, etc), timely revising when needed, and generally collaborative team player (supporting the director's vision and needs). He made a point that music quality wasn't one of them. If you write the best music ever heard but always miss your deadlines, you'll not make it as a professional film composer. Very, very few composers get the budgets to work like this where they get enough time to record what they want. The challenges are the film is always changing and sometimes the filmmakers will just edit the existing music producing poor music results. This is very problematic in thematic scores where a note is cut out or the theme chopped. So ideally, the composer would revise and maybe get a chance to edit it. Sometimes you don't know what was changed but what used to sync up no longer does. After umpteenth revisions of the same scene, other work piling on from perhaps other projects, schedule dragging and maybe the composer feeling the first version was the best and each revision is weaking it, it can certainly drive the composer crazy. Having a large staff can help soften this since they can delegate work to people, but the hired composer is still ultimately the one on the hook. There are some composers who want to record several versions of the same cue with options such as cued instruments omitted in one take and playing in the other. This is to have options if the director says they're just not feeling the cue works in the sound dub, the composer can say how about this alternative, but this obviously increases the budget for the scoring, performance, and mixing. But having this option gives the composer an added sense of security that they're covered if feedback comes back later. It isn't unusual these days to do stripes (recording sections at a time rather than full ensembles at once) which also allows more options in post. What we're seeing is directors are piecing together a score with pieces but gives them more flexibility in the film than the composer being one of the story tellers with their own point of view.