Trope

I discovered this OST recently and it is a really excellent score. I especially love the track "The Wedding of Officer Torres" (sounds like an extension of the rhythmic material in Catch Me If You Can). I would buy an expansion of The Terminal and Catch Me If You Can instantly. 2001-2005 has slowly become one of my favourite JW periods, and I love hearing all the little connections between the works from this time.

This most recent update may not be completely finished yet - For a few days, the site read "maintenance mode is on" and nothing could be accessed.

The new website looks amazing! http://jameshorner-filmmusic.com

I still haven't seen the film, and whilst I don't think I would call the score a "masterpiece" by JW's standards, it is extremely beautiful in parts and contains some of Williams' best melancholy/reflective Americana writing. The Last Battle (5:07-end) is absolutely gorgeous. I adore the contrapuntal trumpet writing, and those woodwind chords at 7:19 are wonderful.

This I agree with. Everything else, I don’t, and that’s okay!

IMO The Thin Red Line is a lovely ambient and reflective work which is a nice stylistic contrast to the over-the-top 90s action music Zimmer was pumping out at the time. If you're jumping into the score for the first time, I would echo the sentiment of listening to the OST first - It's very well put together, and touches on every major theme/style from the complete score (and some music not on the 2CD LLL main program). If you enjoy that, then you will be able to better appreciate the complete score. Some people find that the main program can drag at times, given most of the music is quite static (rhythmically and harmonically). But for me personally, the calmness and stillness is what I love about the score, and when I'm in the right mood, there's nothing quite like listening to it and being enveloped by its peaceful tones. Also, any time woodwinds, harps and counterpoint appear in a Zimmer score, it's something to be celebrated. "Airfield - Bell Flashback" (aka "Light" on the OST) is one of the most beautiful and tender pieces Hans has written. And I say all this as someone who still hasn't seen the film.

One of the most surprising ones for me was Horner’s The Mask of Zorro. I’ve tried over 5 times to sit down and listen to it, and every time I lose interest and think of other Horner scores that offer more of what I want from him. More robust action? The Rocketeer. More melodrama? Legends of the Fall. More romance? Braveheart. I was shocked at how it didn’t resonate emotionally with me at all and I honestly think it’s down to the Spanish influence on the score, particularly the harmonies. I haven’t yet had the courage to try The Legend of Zorro or The 33.

There is some really beautiful atmospheric music that I adore in this expansion. Definitely not something I listen to from start to finish every day, but when I'm in the right mood for it, it is really fantastic. And I haven't even seen the film!

I heartily recommend Field of Dreams and The Thin Red Line. They are some of my favourite LLL releases!

I honestly would love to get a complete Finding Nemo release. That score means a lot to me, it was my first ever experience of Thomas Newman as a child. I’m still a little saddened that nothing came out for its 20th anniversary last year.

Despite Top Gun not coming back in stock before the LLL sale ended, I made use of the 25% off to blind purchase 3 new scores: Jack the Bear (Horner), Wuthering Heights (Sakamoto) and The Weather Man (Zimmer). Keen to jump into these in the next few weeks (when they arrive!).

Thank you! I might pass on this one.

Is this release worth grabbing as the LLL sale comes to an end? I’ve never seen the film and I only recently listened to the OST and enjoyed it (can’t say I was blown away, but it had some quite nice Elfman moments). I know it’s a 3CD set, so reasonably costly apart from the discount. I guess what I’m asking is, is the previously unreleased music available on this set interesting/engaging enough that it warrants essentially a cold purchase? Or are the primary highlights already available on the OST?

I'm looking forward to sitting down and listening to this set from beginning to end now that it has arrived! I skimmed through the OST (which I really loved) and was reminded of how beautiful this theme is.

I'm not sure I've ever been able to fully comprehend your criticism of his style... Is it the jaunty/playful rhythms you don't like? Or the instrumental choices/combinations? Or the moments of harmonic dissonance? I personally am not the biggest fan of the title theme (haven't listened to the rest of the album), but I usually love Desplat's work.

You, sir, are a legend (of 1900!). Thank you so much. I do read music, so that score example was really helpful. I'm going to analyse the score further to see if there's a pattern or logic to the note progression/intervals within the individual parts. This whole discussion reminds me that I actually tried to achieve this floating effect over a year ago in a piece I was trying to write for orchestra, inspired by Cinema Paradiso and other Morricone soundtracks I was listening to at the time. I didn't have any Morricone scores (i.e. sheet music) to analyse, so I tried to replicate the effect/something similar by ear. Here's a little excerpt, where I tried to get a similar floating effect in the high winds. Obviously nowhere near as effective as the strings. Emanations Excerpt.m4a

I love that cue from The Mission! I'll share some of my favourites. Sentimental Walk (and the many other tracks from Love Affair which use this technique). Absolutely gorgeous. Humanity (Part 1). At about 5:10 in the cue, there's a beautifully icy passage (one of my favourites from the whole score). Love the underlying cluster as well. Four Interludes (just to keep us on track, given the . The third interlude (0:53) is floaty and ephemeral. I like the harmonic ambiguity. I'd be fascinated to know the exact method Morricone used to generate these textures. I'm sure he would have had some systematic/mathematical way of dividing the harmony up across the string section and deciding when they would each move to the next note.

Ennio's "suspended strings" effect is one of my absolute favourite techniques of his. It appears in so many of his scores, and it's always a standout moment when he applies it.

The 37-minute stereo program has recently been released digitally! Yay! Also this: And this:

I honestly quite like his Star Trek IV score. Home Again / End Credits is wonderful and IMO sits among the very best that the Star Trek soundtracks have to offer. Listening to the rest of the score can be challenging, as it is very fragmented and shifts quickly between different levels of dissonance. There are themes/motifs, but they too are often shrouded in dissonance, so make sure you’re really listening carefully else you’ll likely miss them. Also the recording sounds rather dated… I imagine a contemporary re-recording with the LSO would reveal a lot more of the sonorities Rosenman was going for. Overall, while it is often deemed the weakest of the original 6 scores, I think it does have several very nice moments. There is a lovely quaintness about the whole work, more in line with the music used in the TV series.

Is anyone able to post a thematic breakdown/summary for this score? I'm excited to jump into the full score program and want to get the most out of it. I've heard there are many different motifs and variations...

Why are LLL apologising for their latest releases?

Wonderful that there's a sale on. Everything by John Williams that is currently in stock I already own (and am very pleased with!). I cannot recommend the 3CD releases of Hook and A.I. enough. I was going through my expanded soundtrack CDs today and making a list of my favourites, and those 2 (along with the JW Harry Potter box-set) were in my top 5 all-time favourites! I'd also like to shout-out Always; that was a completely blind buy on my part (never heard the OST or seen the movie), and it is a wonderful, intimate and atmospheric soundtrack with a beautiful orchestral finale. There remain only a few LLL releases that I'm potentially interested in that I haven't felt the need to purchase, but are now on my radar given the sale. If anyone had any positive recommendations/thoughts on the following, please let me know: - Jack the Bear (James Horner) - Sliver (Howard Shore) - Nobody's Fool (Howard Shore) - Wuthering Heights (Ryuichi Sakamoto) - Spider-Man (Danny Elfman) - The Ring (Hans Zimmer) These are all scores that I've never heard and haven't seen the films they are a part of, but by composers whose work I often enjoy. P.S. Does anybody know if Top Gun will come back in stock before the sale ends?

Be sure to pick up Titanic if you haven't yet - It's a wonderful release, an iconic Horner score, and I can't imagine how insanely high the price will skyrocket once it's out of print.

I wouldn't call Hook, The Mask of Zorro, Octopussy, Live and Let Die, or Top Gun niche...