ConnieR.

I wish he had done the music for Pirates of the Carribean. Although I do like the music, I would like John Williams' take on it even better.

Thank you for the info. I'll check out Amazon.

I think a film is overscored when the music becomes distracting and doesn't seem to fit the visuals or the dialogue. The music doesn't necessarily have to have the same emotional feel as the action; in fact often it works well when its just the opposite, because it can make you feel tension that isn't directly seen, or it can be a warning of something about to happe. I think the type of movie also plays a part as to how much music should be there. The Star Wars movies are meant to have an epic feel, so naturally they have a lot more music, but I don't think its overdone. It all depends on whether you want a big epic feel to a scene, or whether you want to have a more intimate approach to the inner feelings of the characters. And I think the same music will have different meanings to different people, just as the acting does.

Is there a soundtrack for this film that ever came out on CD? I've never seen the film, but I love the "Hymn to the Fallen" and I would like to hear more music from it. Also I was wondering if there are any Marches or similar in it, because its a war movie.

I actually did check imdb.com, but I missed the Wagon Train ep. Tales of Wells Fargo must be a lost TV show or something, nobody has much info on it and I can't even find any episodes on VHS or DVD. I wish there was a fan forum or something for it so I could find out more. Several of my favorite actors guest-starred in different episodes, and I would like to watch the show.

Thank you for the link. The ones I want I still can't afford, but maybe they'll be on my birthday list!

I read in a book about TV themes that John Williams wrote the music for some TV episodes before he got famous as a film composer. They mentioned in particular some episodes from Wagon Train and Tales of Wells Fargo. Is there any way to find out what episodes they were, and if he got credited for them? I am a fan of the old Western TV shows, and it would be neat to watch episodes that JW wrote the music for. Thanks.

Another suggestion: Sibelius's tone poems. They're good atmospheric pieces. Dover has a book with a collection of sevral scores of his tone poems for full orchestra.

Congratulations, Fiery Angel. I entered the first Notion contest but not the last one. Here is a piece of music I wrote. Its never been performed by a real orchestra but I used Notion to play it. http://www.4shared.com/file/62882262/cdf08938/Excelsior.html I was wondering if there are other notation programs that are comparable in price to Notion but have better sounding brass. I m not really satisfied with the brass sounds; they don't sound "ringing" enough. (sorry, I couldn't think of a better word at the moment.) LOL Otherwise I really like this program.

I still buy LP's when I can get them cheap at library sales and garage sales. I didn't know there was a way to put them into the computer, though. I think my player is too old to have a USB port! However, I like listening to them while I'm doing crafts, etc. I like a lot of the older recordings for classical music. Even though cassettes aren't the greatest, I also have a lot of those. As long as they're cheap enough, music is so addictive that I can overlook the quality! I can't usually afford to buy very many CD's, so I have to add to my collection any way I can!

Thanks, Guys. Great suggestions. King Mark, are those pieces on your list available? I never heard them before.

I had an idea fora good theme for a CD - John Williams: Marches and Fanfares. He is a master at both large and small compositions, and I think his marches from various movies are superb musical gems in their own right. And his fanfares and Olympic themes are unbeatable. I think maybe I'll make my own CD using music downloaded from emusic, etc. Does anyone have any ideas for tracks to be included? Here's my list so far: Marches: Raiders March; 1941 March; Midway March; Imperial March from Star Wars; Superman March. Fanfares: Liberty Fanfare; Olympic Spirit; Olympic Fanfare and Theme; Summon the Heroes. I know there's more, but I can't think of any right now.

Yes, that's for sure. I was at this concert, and I was not very happy with them drowning out the music before it ended. This was the experience of a lifetime for me. I finally got to see my favorite film composer, as well as my second favorite conductor and orchestra. I was hoping to get his autograph, but he didn't come out after the concert. At least the music was wonderful (of course!) I was very excited when he played Olympic Spirit. That is my favorite JW non-film piece, and I wanted so badly to hear it in concert. I didn't expect him to play it though, because its not film music. I was so surprised I didn't even pay attention for the first couple seconds! I was also glad that he did Flight to Neverland and the Flying Theme from ET. (two of my favorites). The one thing I didn't like was that we didn't have a very good view. The rows of seats at Tanglewood are not steep enough to allow people to see over the oones in front of them, and we got probably the two tallest people in front of us! (I can't afford to get seats up front, unfortunately. Maybe when I graduate.)

I haven't seen the movie, or heard the complete soundtrack, but I have heard several tracks, and what I've heard I like. Great theme, and great treatment. It's one of my favorite Korngold scores.

John Williams has been my favorite film composer since I first heard one of his scores!

Miguel, could I email you too? I love studying scores, especially manuscript scores, and especially scores by one of my all-time favorite composers and certainly my favorite film composer.

I mostly watch older movies, both black and white and color. (Also older black and white TV shows) I don't like horror movies, though. Mostly we watch Westerns. I've seen High Noon, The Westerner, The Plainsman, etc. For non-Westerns: Sergeant York, It's a Wonderful Life, You can't Take it With You, King Kong, and more that I can't think of right now. (I think we've seen most of Gary Cooper's movies. He's pretty popular at our house.) We watch a lot of James Cagney's movies, like City For Conquest, The Fighting 69th, Angels with Dirty Faces, 13 Rue Madeleine, etc. Another very popular actor here. We were brought up without TV and movies, and only have been watching them now for a few years. My father mostly just allows the older movies because he feels the newer ones are "moral-less" (a lot of them are, I guess.) Usually we just watch stuff that my father watched when he was growing up.

A lot of great choices, guys. I personally would like to see him conduct: 1812 Overture - Tchaikovsky; Finlandia - Sibelius Symphony No. 5 - Tchaikovsky Sheherazade - Rimsky-Korsakov Pines of Rome - Respighi Roman Festivals - Respighi Anything by Tchaikovsky Any of the Strauss family Walzes, any overtures by Von Suppe My list can never be complete because I like a ton of classical music (really music from the "romantic" era and on; I don't like the "classical" era - Mozart, Handel, and the like) and since he's my second favorite conductor I'd like to see him conduct any of it.

Conductors: (in order) Erich Kunzel John Williams Leonard Bernstein Charles Dutoit Leanard Slatkin and more that I can't think of right now! Pianists: I don't really have a favorite one because I don't listen to much piano music. (Although I sort of play piano. At least I took lessons for 5 years. Practicing every day was my weak point!)

I think JW's music has some of Peter Tchaikovsky's influence in it. Maybe not the orchestration, but the way he treats his themes (variations, counterpoint, etc.) I don't have any examples off the top of my head, but I know when I listen to JW's music I often think of how certain theme treatments are similar to Tchaikovsky's. (Of course, I may be biased, because Tchaikovsky is probably my favorite non-film composer!)