MikeH

Quick! Before the Mouse finds the cached page...

Everyone can just head over to mgfan.com!

Maybe there's some inner turmoil going on because he's trying to reconcile his love for trees with his love for paper...

Let's all thank Frank!

oops! Link is now a 404. It's been a great read...wonder what happened?

War Horse was lovely on the big screen. I still get chills thinking about the No Man's Land sequence. The only quibble I had with TFA was the music editing during the X Wing attack on Starkiller base. I did an edit where I let the Scherzo play straight through with minimal cuts and I think it works much better, but what do I know. Though Farewell and The Trip and Jedi Steps more than make up for it, imho.

They're probably waiting for the 200th anniversary of the sinking. See you all then!

I'm sure they'll give JW 25 seconds of screen time to relay a Schindler's List anecdote!

http://dorksideoftheforce.com/2017/06/06/michael-giacchinos-rogue-one-score-favorite-star-wars-soundtrack/ Such a shame too. Over the years I heard that one of the reasons was because they'd have to micro edit all of the Elfman references out of the score for legal reasons. It never made sense to me unless Danny has some stipulations in his contracts regarding his themes...I was under the impression that the studio owns everything.

Wait, was it Giacchino?

What is it about the brass in moments like 0:35 that makes it sound so flat? Is it the orchestration? The recording? It's an issue I have with a lot of his work, like the Mustafar 'fanfare' moment in Krennic's Aspirations where the trumpets, bones, and tubas sound so heavy and flat. One thing JW does is he'll double the trumpets with trombones (and sometimes horns) an octave lower to get a real brilliant thick sound, but it's never heavy. Probably because the tuba/s are either not playing or playing something totally different.

Oof. It's a toss up between Something for Susan and the main theme from Jane Eyre.

I prefer the first film and score, but if I could only listen to one track from either it would definitely be the sequel's End Title/End Cast. After waiting for the Jaws 2 expansion for years, I was surprised at how much I vastly preferred the original album once I listened to the expansion. It's one of Williams' best album presentations, imho. My favorite scene in the entire franchise for sheer mood and atmosphere is in Jaws 2 where the fin appears in the harbor at night. It's the only piece of footage from the Hancock shoot that was used, and I always wonder how the rest of the film would have turned out if they would have stayed with that darker approach.

Here's an interview with her from the JG documentary

This might get you close

Over at FSM I saw a 'blink and you'd miss it' post by drivingmissdaisy (Peter Hackman who works for Varese) on Feb 8th that said: Recording sessions are taking place as I type this. I have some friends playing on it. fsm link

Oh good lord I read the headline too fast and thought it meant that the next three JW/SS scores would be recorded by them! They are very versatile! - John Williams

The CSO presents a fabulous night of John Williams conducting the Theme from Air Force One continuously for two hours! I'm excited. I was there in 2013 but missed him in 2011. I can see it now...Suite from Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I noticed in both The Deep and King Kong that Barry had no violas in the string lineup. Jokes aside, any ideas on why one might make that choice? The timbre of all the strings blend together the most seamlessly of any other instrument choir, so it's interesting to me that in these fairly traditional symphonic scores he'd leave them out.

oh man, that cue. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." ZOINKS!

Yeah, he should really watch these movies! also I'm pretty sure JW always conducts from his sketches. Much less page turns (8 or 16 bars vs 4 bars per page) and if there was a copying error he can quickly fix it (there's a bit of him doing that in the AOTC session video). Goldsmith conducted from his sketches too.

I remember the fun anecdote that karelm shared with us once (via JW's brother Don) about how during family vacations while everyone would be outside in the swimming pool, John would be composing in the hotel room. It's just how he likes to relax. He lives, breathes, and eats music. Horner had his airplanes, Jerry had his technology, etc. I'm sure John has things other than music he enjoys (trees?), but what I've gathered is that music is really the main focal point in his life. Regardless of the innate talent and skill that he was obviously born with, the momentum and craft that one builds with that much detailed focus on a particular subject is bound to be incredible.

One aspect of his work that astonishes me to no end is the depth of his orchestrations. Now I'm not in the camp that says orchestrations have to be complex in order to be wonderful. I do love me lots of Barry and streamlined Goldsmith. Looking at his sketches for cues like "Zam the Assassin" and "Journey to the Island" is often dizzying for me. There's so much going on, and a lot of it is not even noticeable until you look at the layers via the sketch/score. But it all contributes to the whole. This is a man who does this with pencil and paper, every day of his life. Even at two minutes a day, it's staggering to think that he can accomplish as much complexity as he does in the time allotted. It's very, very intense work. All of those 16th and 32nd note woodwind runs (think Journey to the Island), notated by hand, accidentals and all. Now some may argue that he could accomplish just as much emotionally with less orchestrational complexity. He did admit to streamlining a bit during the action sequences of TFA, wondering whether or not it was worth it since it will all be covered up with sound effects in the end. But at the end of the day, it's remarkable to think of how much music he's written over the years with such depth and mastery of orchestration.

lol I didn't realize their username was actually dillweed

Here's some money John, go see a Star War.