BTR1701

"Battle in the Snow" from EMPIRE prominently featured two grand pianos, pounding out that bellicose ascending and descending triplet figure that heralded the advancing Imperial walkers.

"Battle in the Snow" from EMPIRE prominently featured two grand pianos, pounding out that bellicose ascending and descending triplet figure that heralded the advancing Imperial walkers.

"Battle in the Snow" from EMPIRE prominently featured two grand pianos, pounding out that bellicose ascending and descending triplet figure that heralded the advancing Imperial walkers.

"Battle in the Snow" from EMPIRE prominently featured two grand pianos, pounding out that bellicose ascending and descending triplet figure that heralded the advancing Imperial walkers.

"Where was the epic new tune to hum on the way out of the theater?"
 
If only this question would be asked of all other modern film composers currently working. At least Williams is producing music that's melodic and listenable. I honestly can't imagine why someone would sit down and listen to a score from THE AVENGERS or JUSTICE LEAGUE, for example. They're just 45 minutes of endless fluttering string ostinatos over booming electronic drums and the themes-- if they exist at all-- consist of long, sustained whole notes running up and down a scale progression.
 
That ain't hummable.

"Where was the epic new tune to hum on the way out of the theater?"
 
If only this question would be asked of all other modern film composers currently working. At least Williams is producing music that's melodic and listenable. I honestly can't imagine why someone would sit down and listen to a score from THE AVENGERS or JUSTICE LEAGUE, for example. They're just 45 minutes of endless fluttering string ostinatos over booming electronic drums and the themes-- if they exist at all-- consist of long, sustained whole notes running up and down a scale progression.
 
That ain't hummable.

"Where was the epic new tune to hum on the way out of the theater?"
 
If only this question would be asked of all other modern film composers currently working. At least Williams is producing music that's melodic and listenable. I honestly can't imagine why someone would sit down and listen to a score from THE AVENGERS or JUSTICE LEAGUE, for example. They're just 45 minutes of endless fluttering string ostinatos over booming electronic drums and the themes-- if they exist at all-- consist of long, sustained whole notes running up and down a scale progression.
 
That ain't hummable.

I was down in the box seats much closer to the stage. The yelling lightsaber crowd was behind me and unless I turned around, I hardly knew they were there. It was no distraction at all.
 
Yes, he said the score is done but he couldn't play any of it this year because Disney won't allow anything to leak ahead of the release date. He promised LAST JEDI pieces for next year's concert.
 
Great concert, as ever. My only complaint is that I wish more of these concerts would feature Williams' lesser-known cues. It's usually the same rotation of standards-- Star Wars Main Title, Harry Potter Medley, E.T. - Flying, Imperial March, Raiders March, etc. All wonderful pieces but ones you hear over and over and over again. If they're worried about turning off the casual fan, they don't even have to go into the older, more obscure films. Just play some different cues from the big blockbusters: Miracle of the Ark instead of Raiders March; The Battle of Yavin instead of the Main Title; T-Rex Rescue instead of Jurassic Park Theme, etc. It'd just be nice to have some variation, and also to see some of these big action cues performed live.
 
Got this nice little poster on the way out last night as a souvenir.

I was down in the box seats much closer to the stage. The yelling lightsaber crowd was behind me and unless I turned around, I hardly knew they were there. It was no distraction at all.
 
Yes, he said the score is done but he couldn't play any of it this year because Disney won't allow anything to leak ahead of the release date. He promised LAST JEDI pieces for next year's concert.
 
Great concert, as ever. My only complaint is that I wish more of these concerts would feature Williams' lesser-known cues. It's usually the same rotation of standards-- Star Wars Main Title, Harry Potter Medley, E.T. - Flying, Imperial March, Raiders March, etc. All wonderful pieces but ones you hear over and over and over again. If they're worried about turning off the casual fan, they don't even have to go into the older, more obscure films. Just play some different cues from the big blockbusters: Miracle of the Ark instead of Raiders March; The Battle of Yavin instead of the Main Title; T-Rex Rescue instead of Jurassic Park Theme, etc. It'd just be nice to have some variation, and also to see some of these big action cues performed live.
 
Got this nice little poster on the way out last night as a souvenir.

I was down in the box seats much closer to the stage. The yelling lightsaber crowd was behind me and unless I turned around, I hardly knew they were there. It was no distraction at all.
 
Yes, he said the score is done but he couldn't play any of it this year because Disney won't allow anything to leak ahead of the release date. He promised LAST JEDI pieces for next year's concert.
 
Great concert, as ever. My only complaint is that I wish more of these concerts would feature Williams' lesser-known cues. It's usually the same rotation of standards-- Star Wars Main Title, Harry Potter Medley, E.T. - Flying, Imperial March, Raiders March, etc. All wonderful pieces but ones you hear over and over and over again. If they're worried about turning off the casual fan, they don't even have to go into the older, more obscure films. Just play some different cues from the big blockbusters: Miracle of the Ark instead of Raiders March; The Battle of Yavin instead of the Main Title; T-Rex Rescue instead of Jurassic Park Theme, etc. It'd just be nice to have some variation, and also to see some of these big action cues performed live.
 
Got this nice little poster on the way out last night as a souvenir.

Excerpts from two cues in this video:
 
http://lrmonline.com/news/star-wars-rogue-one-take-a-first-listen-to-michael-giacchinos-original-score-for-the-flick
 

Am I the only one sick of thundering electronic drums overshadowing everything in soundtracks these days? Every single soundtrack sounds the same to me. Galloping drums, simplistic themes (if the composer even bothers with themes), and fluttering string ostinatos. These scores can almost be copy-pasted from one film to the next.
And whoever mixed that clip above needs his head checked. When the brass section and the violin section sound equally powerful, you've done something wrong.

Am I the only one sick of thundering electronic drums overshadowing everything in soundtracks these days? Every single soundtrack sounds the same to me. Galloping drums, simplistic themes (if the composer even bothers with themes), and fluttering string ostinatos. These scores can almost be copy-pasted from one film to the next.
And whoever mixed that clip above needs his head checked. When the brass section and the violin section sound equally powerful, you've done something wrong.

SYMPHONY CROWD HEARS OF AN ASSASSINATION
The radio microphones were present at a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at an extraordinary moment in American history.

On November 22, 1963, conductor Erich Leinsdorf was leading the regular Friday afternoon BSO concert at Symphony Hall. Before the program began, it had been reported across the nation that president John F. Kennedy had been shot by a sniper while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. It was known, too, that his injuries were serious, but that was all the information that was available. The orchestra then went on to play the Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony for the grieving audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVNKNz-lc6k#t=606

One of the last remaining witnesses to the orchestra's funeral march speaks about his experience:

As is evidenced by the radio announcer's preamble few in the hall, even backstage, knew in advance what had happened or what, as far as the concert was concerned, was about to occur. One of those few, and one of the only remaining witnesses to that event still with the orchestra, was its librarian, then and now, William Shisler. In a phone interview, he spoke publicly for the first time about his recollections. The memories, he confides, are still painful. He hasn’t been able to bring himself to listen to the broadcast in the 50 years since.
Along with many others he had already heard about the shooting and that Kennedy was hospitalized. "I was in the library working on scoring some music, when my wife called from our home in Needham, Massachusets – it's around 10 miles from Boston," he says, "She liked to watch the soap operas in the afternoon. On this day she was watching one called As The World Turned. And the world did turn. The program was interrupted to report the shooting in Dallas. So she phoned me immediately and I was one of the first to hear that in Symphony Hall."
Word quickly spread, but as the musicians prepared for their afternoon concert and the audience started to arrive it was not yet known whether or not Kennedy had been killed. "Nobody in Symphony Hall was aware. It was near 1 p.m. in Dallas when they announced it, which was nearly 2 p.m. in Boston, coinciding almost exactly with the scheduled start of our regular Friday afternoon concert."
With the show due to start in less than ten minutes' time, Shisler got a relayed message from Leinsdorf himself. Run to the archives, put out and distribute the music for Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. The president is dead.
Such was the rush that Shisler remembers little of his feelings from that moment. His memories get clearer of the minutes immediately following, when it was incumbent upon him to hasten to the stage with scores in hand. "The musicians were already there on the stage, in their places and of course the hall was filled with people. I had to tell each of the musicians as I was handing out the music what was going on. That was the first they knew of the death. It wasn't an easy moment, for them or for me."
In the short pause before the conductor strode out with his own heavy burden, Shisler walked, in something of a daze, back into the wings and then out to the auditorium where he took up his favored listening position, at the back of the first balcony where he could hear but not see. The entrance to the library is nearby and he would sometimes slip through the balcony door to listen in during rehearsals and concerts. He was an accustomed presence there, none of the ushers would have detected anything unusual. Everything seemed normal. Only Shisler knew how different this concert was about to be.
"I was – standing there," he says, haltingly, trying to express the strangeness of the moment, "Knowing he was going to make the announcement and I was about to witness that moment. I had already had my own gasp upon hearing the news, and now I'm standing there witnessing the audience about to have the same reaction. When it came, of course Leinsdorf came out and announced to the audience and there was this huge gasp, it was very emotional."
Some people left, rushing out in grief. But most, he says, stayed as the orchestra played. Many cried. Shisler was among them. "I was brought to tears by the movement of the Beethoven. It's such beautiful music anyway."

That kinda gets right to the heart of it, doesn't it? Parts of LINCOLN might sound similar to WAR HORSE but pretty much every other movie's score sounds just like the one before it. It's like they have a computer database of music they just cut and paste into each film depending on genre. Ostinato string arpeggios over synth drums and the 'themes'-- if you can call them that-- are just long sustained brass chords. Complaining about Williams being repetitive in this environment is the height of irony.