igger6

Oh yeah! I love that little bridge. A perfect little melody in “top of the world”. I miss it.  Wonder what the motivation was to change that. The version in the 2017 production sounds like it was a sketch of what would be fully formed in the 99 version lol.

I was chatting with someone elsewhere and managed to change my own mind on that. I still think a "greatest hits" style of BGM would be disastrous, but it actually could be possible to create appropriate orchestral loops for different areas of the land. I started thinking of examples and realized that I could get onboard with the use of atmospheric cues that aren't too thematic or mickey mousey (ironically). The Resistance forest, the market, the First Order area, and the Falcon area could each get their own distinct loop.
 
The hard part would be finding enough material to avoid having super short loops like Universal's.

I’ve visited in person, and Tom is dead-on. The lack of orchestral music in the Star Wars idiom is a glaring flaw in the land’s otherwise excellent design, one that has been commented on by several theme park blogs in reviewing the land as a whole. It’s eerily quiet in most of the land in a way that blatantly fails to remind you of scenes from the films, which nearly always have a Western orchestra playing neo-Romantic music under them. It’s inexplicable that Disney would voluntarily forget the playbook they’ve been using for 65 years to create immersive environments and arbitrarily tie one hand behind their backs in terms of sensory immersion in the theme. Literally every other land they’ve ever created uses music as part of the immersion. This one arrogantly attempts to reinvent the wheel and kneecaps itself in the process.
 
I am not calm either. 😎

The German version of "Top of the World" ("Uber der Weldt"?  Something like that...) also blows the updated one out of the water.  Cutting back on the silliness of the gargoyles in the new show meant this song had to change, but the "A Guy Like You"-esque counterpoint vocals in the original are fantastic (better than "A Guy Like You," in fact).  And unlike most of these spectacular 1999 songs, you can actually hear this one in English, thanks to this fantastic YouTube cover from a few years back.  There's a sort of "B theme" to Esmerelda's part of the song ("When my outlook is a glum one...") that just oozes peak Menken, and it's totally gone in the 2017 version.  Plus the back and forth between the gargoyles and Quasimodo in the finale of the song is heartwarming and ingenious.
 
The same account also did "Out of Love (Reprise)," which is also excellent, and sadly they stopped there.  An English version of "Balancing Act" is still on my "Things to Finance When I'm a Billionaire" list.
 
Incidentally, while we're pooping on the 2017 downgrades to the musical—truly a carousel of unforced errors—you should also check out the original version of "Esmerelda," the Act I closer, which was equally maimed in the updated show.  The original can be seen in English on YouTube in a weird, iffily acted but incredibly well-funded and absurdly talented Florida high school production that remains, I think, the only publicly staged English performance of the 1999 show.  Unlike the bloated, aimlessly operatic 2017 version, nearly every melody that's sung in this brilliant pseudo-"One Day More" is drawn from somewhere else in the score, and it ties together Quasi, Phoebus, Frollo, and Esmerelda in an absolutely mesmerizing piece of musical theatre that mostly comes through even when  performed by teenage amateurs.  (One key line of Phoebus's from the German version is randomly transferred to Frollo here...see if you can guess which it is!)
 
Naturally, that production's performance of "Balancing Act," if it ever existed, is not preserved on the YouTube playlist. *sigh*  As you can see, Comparative Hunchback Studies is my long-lost college major.  But it's a heck of a field!

The German version of "Top of the World" ("Uber der Weldt"?  Something like that...) also blows the updated one out of the water.  Cutting back on the silliness of the gargoyles in the new show meant this song had to change, but the "A Guy Like You"-esque counterpoint vocals in the original are fantastic (better than "A Guy Like You," in fact).  And unlike most of these spectacular 1999 songs, you can actually hear this one in English, thanks to this fantastic YouTube cover from a few years back.  There's a sort of "B theme" to Esmerelda's part of the song ("When my outlook is a glum one...") that just oozes peak Menken, and it's totally gone in the 2017 version.  Plus the back and forth between the gargoyles and Quasimodo in the finale of the song is heartwarming and ingenious.
 
The same account also did "Out of Love (Reprise)," which is also excellent, and sadly they stopped there.  An English version of "Balancing Act" is still on my "Things to Finance When I'm a Billionaire" list.
 
Incidentally, while we're pooping on the 2017 downgrades to the musical—truly a carousel of unforced errors—you should also check out the original version of "Esmerelda," the Act I closer, which was equally maimed in the updated show.  The original can be seen in English on YouTube in a weird, iffily acted but incredibly well-funded and absurdly talented Florida high school production that remains, I think, the only publicly staged English performance of the 1999 show.  Unlike the bloated, aimlessly operatic 2017 version, nearly every melody that's sung in this brilliant pseudo-"One Day More" is drawn from somewhere else in the score, and it ties together Quasi, Phoebus, Frollo, and Esmerelda in an absolutely mesmerizing piece of musical theatre that mostly comes through even when  performed by teenage amateurs.  (One key line of Phoebus's from the German version is randomly transferred to Frollo here...see if you can guess which it is!)
 
Naturally, that production's performance of "Balancing Act," if it ever existed, is not preserved on the YouTube playlist. *sigh*  As you can see, Comparative Hunchback Studies is my long-lost college major.  But it's a heck of a field!

The Film Symphony Orchestra just debuted their performance of AoH, and it rocks! Give it a look and fall in love with this piece all over again! These guys should do a Blu-Ray…
 
 
 

The Film Symphony Orchestra just debuted their performance of AoH, and it rocks! Give it a look and fall in love with this piece all over again! These guys should do a Blu-Ray…
 
 
 

The Film Symphony Orchestra just debuted their performance of AoH, and it rocks! Give it a look and fall in love with this piece all over again! These guys should do a Blu-Ray…
 
 
 

The German version of "Top of the World" ("Uber der Weldt"?  Something like that...) also blows the updated one out of the water.  Cutting back on the silliness of the gargoyles in the new show meant this song had to change, but the "A Guy Like You"-esque counterpoint vocals in the original are fantastic (better than "A Guy Like You," in fact).  And unlike most of these spectacular 1999 songs, you can actually hear this one in English, thanks to this fantastic YouTube cover from a few years back.  There's a sort of "B theme" to Esmerelda's part of the song ("When my outlook is a glum one...") that just oozes peak Menken, and it's totally gone in the 2017 version.  Plus the back and forth between the gargoyles and Quasimodo in the finale of the song is heartwarming and ingenious.
 
The same account also did "Out of Love (Reprise)," which is also excellent, and sadly they stopped there.  An English version of "Balancing Act" is still on my "Things to Finance When I'm a Billionaire" list.
 
Incidentally, while we're pooping on the 2017 downgrades to the musical—truly a carousel of unforced errors—you should also check out the original version of "Esmerelda," the Act I closer, which was equally maimed in the updated show.  The original can be seen in English on YouTube in a weird, iffily acted but incredibly well-funded and absurdly talented Florida high school production that remains, I think, the only publicly staged English performance of the 1999 show.  Unlike the bloated, aimlessly operatic 2017 version, nearly every melody that's sung in this brilliant pseudo-"One Day More" is drawn from somewhere else in the score, and it ties together Quasi, Phoebus, Frollo, and Esmerelda in an absolutely mesmerizing piece of musical theatre that mostly comes through even when  performed by teenage amateurs.  (One key line of Phoebus's from the German version is randomly transferred to Frollo here...see if you can guess which it is!)
 
Naturally, that production's performance of "Balancing Act," if it ever existed, is not preserved on the YouTube playlist. *sigh*  As you can see, Comparative Hunchback Studies is my long-lost college major.  But it's a heck of a field!

Okay, I am calmer now.  I suppose I find the immersive rationale odd.  The source music of JW's SW scores are very earthly, and I think that is what makes it great.  "Alien" music that is just synth based stuff seems to lack any real creativity (like out of PBS kids show about the future), and it just feels like Disney is trying to reinvent the SW musical wheel (when no such thing is called for).  
 
Maybe I am not as calm as I thought. 

Most of this has already been mentioned, but I have to second the strong recommendation for the 1999 "Glöckner" cast album. Sure, the German vocals need some getting used to, but musically it's just so far superior to the reworked '15 version of the show! I was hugely excited when the US cast album got released (finally, the musical with its original lyrics!) and then quickly deflated when listening to it and noticing that a) many great new songs from the '99 version were cut or lessened, b) the orchestra sounded a lot smaller, and c) they tried to make up for that by amping up the drum kit and piano, which (at least for me) makes it sounds even smaller and "poppier".
 
The incredible ending to Quasimodo's "Wie aus Stein" (Made of Stone) alone makes it worthwhile, no comparison.
 
I haven't heard the 2017 German album, but have seen the new show in Berlin - musically it's the same as the 2015 US one. A good musical in its own right (and some of the new songs are worthy additions), but the '99 version is just so much better.
 
(on the original topic: mightily looking forward to the Legacy Collection )

What film?

I'll wait for the 78 RPM release (a box of 10 discs).

Just listened to it again on @Tom's post. What a fantastic piece.  Sheesh.  Write stuff forever. 

“Practice”
 
[Bless you, @JohnnyD, that was a true gift you gave me! I owe you.]

The more I've listened to it, the more I've loved the ending to this piece (the final 30 seconds or so). Such exciting energy. 

Haha, it'll be a nice pick-me-up after the main title from The Secret Ways.

Looks like we found track 1 for Lockhart's Lights! Camera! 2sic!

Haha, it'll be a nice pick-me-up after the main title from The Secret Ways.

Looks like we found track 1 for Lockhart's Lights! Camera! 2sic!

Looks like we found track 1 for Lockhart's Lights! Camera! 2sic!

This was the extended concert version that has been around since Williams prepared the Star Wars suite in 1977.  It's been recorded MANY times... by Mehta, Gerhardt, Kunzel, Dudamel, and JW himself, among several others.

Looks like we found track 1 for Lockhart's Lights! Camera! 2sic!

I love it!  The main theme strikes me as one of the longest-lined melodies in any Williams overture.  It just goes and goes and goes.  The theme would certainly be catchier if it were shorter, but if you ask me, that's one of the characteristics that marks it as a more "mature" entry in his oeuvre: it's more concerned with doing musically interesting things than with giving us an earworm to latch onto—although thankfully, it's not fixated on virtuosity like many of his brass pieces.  The full orchestra is on display here.  The textures are fantastic, really evoking an idealized vision of Hollywood.  (This would have been a perfect piece for the entrance plaza loop at the Disney-MGM Studios back in the late '80s/early '90s.)
 
Overall, I wouldn't class this with the very best of his Olympic music and other fanfares, but it's up there, especially among his recent concert works.  What a joy to have this land in our laps! 

John Williams, rising from the ashes?