stravinsky

I don't know long that must have taken you to programme it all in but this is fantastic music for a Chase Scene. Great pastiche of Williams. Well done mate. Impressed.

To think that wonderful Fortress of Solitude music lay buried in a vault for 40 years. Its wonderful music. Full of wonder. As is the first few minutes of the Prelude before the main title. Enchanting. This is one of my top 5 favourite scores from the master. Pure gold.

Shit sorry

Hello can anyone tell me if the previously unreleased tracks on Disc #1 of Inferno are now true Stereo even if they were built up from Mono sources? Would they have been created the same way the scores for Jaws and Earthquake were assembled? I mean from separate Mono stems now remixed to Stereo? Because they sound Stereo to me. Track 19 has no asterisk beside indicating it is Stereo whilst the fantastic track which follows it (Out of the Shaft) does have an asterisk. I'm confused. Would the treatment of these Mono tracks be similar to the way old LPs in the 70s presented Mono as "Fake Stereo?

Thanks for that. Am now exploring Earthquake which is equally exciting.

Poseidon sounds great. The best it can possibly sound considering Mattesino was working with the original tapes. I believe he also had other sources to work with incl material from the Irwin Allen Estate and he has worked wonders. I've always loved the score for Poseidon cos it's so dark. A friend said he hardly played the old FSM disc because it did sound tinny. Well its not tinny now. Even the two partial Mono tracks sound fine. You'll hear the sonic improvement in my favourite moment from the score which is a phobic section from 1:53 - 2:38 in track 15 "Hold your Breath" with beautiful low Harps Bassoons and Bass Clarinets. Inferno sounds equally magic. One of my favourite tracks of the whole score (which was relegated with a few other damaged tracks to the end of the old FSM disc) "Departmental Pride and the Cat' is now pristine. Strangely I'm kind of disappointed with the thrilling Main Title on Disc 1 which I think must be my favourite opening track of any Williams score. It sounds good but not that much better than the old release. I guess the recording set up. In the 20th Century Fox studios (?) was a bit dry. Still there's an alternate Main Title on Disc 2 which I haven't heard yet so am hoping the sonics are as good with that as the stellar sound of the rest of the main score. Also kind of wish Lalaland had moved the early lounge tracks to the source music section of Disc 2. Lastly the first "Mono" source cue I've heard (and one of the handful of lost cues making their debut here) doesn't sound Mono at all. Sounds totally brilliant. There's a previously unreleased "Mono" track #20 "Out of the Shaft" on the main score on Disc 1. Its wonderful and just the kind of thing I was hoping for with this new release. Just that thrilling mid 70s sense of wonder when you are a kid going to the pictures to see a Hollywood movie. The mystique of the American dream. How do they do it Martin? Or rather how did they do it? Cos its gone now. Finished.

I've just been re-reading this topic. May I ask something? And forgive me if the matter has been discussed already. Whilst listening to the various fascinating ciphers inside what must be Williams' Magnum Opus, I noticed again the extended solo Flute dialogue with Pizzicati strings from 08:40 - 09:10 at Track 9 - "Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader's Trap/Departure of Boba Fett" on Disc 2. I've always been convinced that the old RSO double LP of Empire presented this small section of the score in a proper mix because on the 1997 Special Edition Reissue one can hardly hear the Flute in this mix and it sounds as if channels are reversed or something. Could this be something that perhaps Mr Matessino may rectify if and when he ever tackles the mammoth task of issuing completely new sets for the three trilogies?

Ach I've miss the boat as its a, waiting list only. Probably sold out months ago. Bummer because I have that weekend off. Canny be helped.

Hello are there tickets left for the Vienna, gig? And when is it?

Thankyou Jay!

I know this is a, daft question but could someone give me timestamps of the five new themes. If indeed there are actually five? I like the tiny Horn statement in the Prologue (at 0:33) which reminds me of a small motif which occurs throughout the score for The Empire Strikes Back. You know the one I mean? I can't remember what its called. Another great Horn moment on "The Journey to Exegol" at 0:09 which I wish was a theme but it probably isn't because I can't hear it anywhere else. I guess it's just a development of the "Anthem of Evil" material? Horns yet again at 2:28 in the concert suite "The Rise of Skywalker" offer a lovely little idea that I know must be part of the actual underscore because it appears on the FYC sampler. I went to see a triple bill last night at Cineworld Renfrew Street in Glasgow, Scotland with my good friend Martin (who is the only physical contact I've found from the forums and we are firm friends now). I stayed only for Episodes VII and VIII because it'll be my last opportunity to see them on the big screen. I didnt fancy sitting in the same chair until 2:30 am so I have yet to see Episode IX. What is great is the experience of watching these movies on the big screen with the dazzling sound projected from multiple speakers (a little too loud) and I'm guessing this wrap around sound thing started back in the day with "Sensurround". In addition I'm guessing the Trumpet idea in "The Speeder Chase" is just a one off right? Would be great if it appears somewhere else. Finally can we expect a repeat of the situation with the score for The Last Jedi when the complete score was released online?

Exactly! Couldn't have said it better myself mate. The thing about Williams' music (like Bruckner or Mahler or any other gas giant) is that I find it diffucult to memorise the material straight away. After about a week of constant playing something like this very last Star Wars score the pennies finally start dropping and the process of recognition begins. And what a wonderful process of discovery. Often a motif that sounds like something humdrum suddenly takes on new meaning. It's a bit like discovering a new Mozart String 4tet or delving into Bruckner's 5th Symphony (which only revealed its deep majesty after about the 30th hearing) . This is testament to the terrifying passion and sheer metaphysical weight of Williams writing. As far as I'm concerned he is up there with some of the greatest composers in history. As far as movie music is concerned Williams is the daddy of them all.

Watched it tonight on iplayer. Wonderful.

Ach I was only in the chorus lads but thanks. Then again how was I to know as an astonished 8 year old bunking off school one Friday afternoon in late January 1978 (and being taken to see Star Wars with my Uncle Jack... he wasn't really my Uncle just one of my Ma's drinking pals...but every adult was either your Uncle or your Auntie in those days) how could I have known I'd end up being a miniscule minion of the Star Wars religion? I'd first heard of Star Wars when my Ma and I were briefly living in Blackpool in England (went went down there from Glasgow because she was forever trying to run away...from herself) and she used to work in a hotel at the seafront. I used to sit in the kitchens in the bowels of the place waiting for her to finish whilst I was being fussed over by the head waiter and his wife who was the cook. There was a small portable telly that I would watch whilst munching cake and on came an old game show one evening called "The Krypton Factor". There were only three channels to choose from in those days but conversely the telly was a damn sight better than it is now. Anyway The Krypton Factor (!) had pretentions of being a high brow intellectual show and one of the tasks the contestants had to achieve was to study a short clip of a newly released film then answer detailed questions about it. Well on came Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi in the Cantina and of course I had no idea what this was. What transfixed me though was the presence of this big hairy thing sitting alongside them. Anyway that was that. I had been whisked to another universe for all of two minutes. But what an impression it had on me. This would've been late October/early November 1977 just about a week after my 8th birthday. By the end of November we were back up in Glasgow living in cheap bedsits again and by December that year there were centre page spreads about this new thing called Star Wars that would soon arrive in Scotland. It was then I remembered the big hairy thing again because his image was plastered all over the newspapers. Seeing the photo of "Lord Darth" as my Ma referred to him was enough to send me stratospheric. So the day came that Friday afternoon when I was let off school to go and see this phenomenon with Uncle Jack. I got sweeties and he bought a few cans and we sat there and witnessed the whole thing. It changed my life. Me and all the millions. We left the Odeon Cinema on Renfield Street and on the way home bumped into my father who had been separated from my Ma for the past two years. I begged him to take me to see it again. "But you've already seen it!" he exclaimed. "But I want you to see it Da" came my reply. Ah the nuance of pester power... By the time Jedi was released I was 13 so therefore old enough to go on my own. I wept bitterly at the end of the film which may have been a reflection of the truly intolerable conditions I was by then enduring at home. By this time we were squatting in a ramshackle house and my Ma's drinking had reached fever pitch. All alone in the house with her I escaped...into music via the tapes of Star Wars and Empire I had pestered my Ma to buy me for Christmas 1980. The minute Jedi was released I knew I HAD TO GET THE MUSIC. So within a week I begged, borrowed and stole and went on as many errands as I could to gather the money for the tape. Within a few days the prize was mine. I had a small mono tape recorder then and I would play those three tapes to death. I still have them. I even bought a Baton (!) from Biggars music shop on Glasgow's famous SauchieHall Street. Biggars was one block away from "Casa Cassettes" (now long gone) which was a great music store where I bought my very first tapes. I would listen to the three Star Wars tapes over and over whilst conducting an imaginary orchestra with my baton. The great Carrie Fisher had this to say about the phenomena of long ago in a galaxy far far away. And I agree with her... “Movies were meant to stay on the screen, flat and large and colorful, gathering you up into their sweep of story, carrying you rollicking along to the end, then releasing you back into your unchanged life. But this movie (Star Wars) misbehaved. It leaked out of the theater, poured off the screen, affected a lot of people so deeply that they required endless talismans and artifacts to stay connected to it.” Via The Princess Diarist And I think this is what the whole world has been trying to do. Trying to relive and recapture the first time we saw Star Wars as kids but failing to realise that with each new movie we got older and each film got further and further away from that feeling of childlike wonder. What doesn't change though is the quality of the one element that saved me through the most desperate times of my life as a kid (and adult). The music. And here I am at 50 years old listening to the latest and very last incarnation from the pen of a master. I wish time machines were real. I would hop into that escape pod and go back to that freezing Friday in 1978 and relive it just one more time. A golden little day I'll never forget. May the Force be with you all friends and music lovers!

Cheers guys. It's funny because I joined this great forum 16 years ago. But I've posted hardly anything.

We never recorded in isolation for any of the Prequel music. I remember we had about 9 or 10 sessions for ROTS but only 2 for AOTC. That was it. I remember going to the Cast & Crew preview for AOTC at the Empire Leicester Square and Rick McCallum was on stage looking really happy with himself. I was appalled. The movie was utter dreck. The only thing important to me now is the music.

Already I can hear this new score is cast in the same language as the last two Sequel scores. Same harmonic pallette and darkness. These scores have been more edgy, more visceral somehow. I love what I'm hearing. Williams has an inexhaustible supply of invention it seems. Its often the case with Composers whether for film or the concert hall, whereas pop artists have shorter shelf lives because they are restricted by the 3 minute song form. This is excellent music. Each new bar that comes is a new wonder. I'm seeing with my ears right now. When I see the movie itself I'll hear with my eyes. These last three scores have redeemed the patchy quality of the movies. This is exactly the kind of music I was hoping for before Force Awakens was released. A mirroring of the OT scores but shot through some darker prism. He never let's us down. Even at his advanced age he's got a fire of youth in this new writing. BRAVO MAESTRO WILLIAMS!

HELLO Crumbs. As a Tenor I was only required to sing my line and ostensibly wouldn't have been involved with singing the Palpatine music when Dooku meets up with him. Also it's the only example of a Solo Soprano Vocalise in the entire Canon of music. I was so jealous Lucy Ballard got it. I wanted to swoop up there! Anyway Maestro Williams invited all the Gents to join in the Bass choruses anyway so yes I'm grumbling away the best I could on the soundtracks. Totally out if my range but hey ho. Just gave a bit of added weight with all 30 Gents singing. This was a 60 piece choir I think. Every one a trained Opera Singer. I've heard the mock up before so thankyou Jay. Maybe the real thing will see the light of day soon.

As Spencer was no longer around. His style was "dryer" than Conrad Pope etc where the orchestrational feel is much more "glossy" and thick now. I guess like any composer Williams style just changed. Much like Goldsmith's more sleek and streamlined style of the 90s. Dear all. We all love Williams which is the bottom line. The prequel scores were blazing genius compared to most of what was being written by other composers in the 90s. I guess I was just comparing them to the OT scores which were orchestrated in a different way. As far as fees were concerned film work is easily the most lucrative for a choral singer. It is very closely jealously guarded work. Remember this was £225 for 3 hours 20 years ago which included the buyout. God knows what they are being paid now. I can tell you there was no choral music at the moment you described which was unfortunately replaced with the Imperial March. I just sat there dazzled with those gigantic unearthly chords blasting from the LSO which I described at the time as a "massive orchestral blowout" or something. This was the apex of the entire score as far as I'm concerned and it was cut! The full sequence isn't even available anywhere. Maybe one day we will see this box set of all nine scores we so desparately want. I would also love a complete release of the excellent Rogue One score by Giacchino and the material Powell wrote for the terrible Solo movie. Will this ever happen do you think?

Williams was very easy to work with because there was absolutely no ego. The important thing is he is a composer/conductor as well as an instrumentalist so he's a polyglot. He UNDERSTANDS the musician and all of the demands required of him or her. Celebrity Conductors like JEG are megalomaniacs and they hide their insecuruty with unpleasantness and POWER. Have a look on YouTube of a rehearsal with Celibidache rehearsing Bruckner with a top German Orchestra. He is so patronising and they fuckin hate him. Williams doesn't need to bully anyone. That behaviour is beneath him. After all he is a composer not only of film scores but also concert music and an example of how HUMAN he is is that he has concentrated almost exclusively on the Concerto as a format? Why? I guess because he loves people and gifts not only the orchestra but also the Soloist with his gentleness and wisdom. The only other conductor I can think of that I worked with (in a choral capacity of course) to match Williams humility was Rattle when I sang with European Voices (it was either them or I was depping for the Arnold Schonberg Chor or something) when we did a tour of Mozart's Idomeneo with the Berlin Philharmonic. There is wonderful music for chorus in that Opera. My claim to fame with Rattle was my conversation with him after a rehearsal when he confirmed my idea that Idomeneo was Mozart's one and only use of the Piccolo, which as an instrument was in its infancy in Mozart's Day. Rattle was VERY down to earth. I worked with the screaming skull only once. Solti conducted us as students when I was in 2nd year at RCM in Parsifal I think it was. Then about two days after the concert he snuffed it! I remember Stephen Cleobury as being desperately dull but a very worthy musician. I worked with Richard Hickox only once with his group Collegium Musicum 90 and he really Impressed me as a great musician. Jan Pascal Tortelier was also a delight to work with I remember. I worked with Rattle again at the Proms in another production of Parsifal, then one last time in what is known as a "bumping" job when professional singers are paid to bolster the sound of an amateur symphonic chorus like the LSO chorus. We recorded the ballet "Harnasie" with the CBSO in Birmingham... In Polish! I sang in all the Haitink Galas at Covent Garden but I don't remember much about him. Generally with Opera conductors the chorus are a hindrance. It takes them all their time to look up at us from the podium because this breed are interested in only one thing...the Orchestra. I remember in Salzburg once I sat in on a rehearsal of Katia and Marielle Labeque playing through the Double Concerto of Francis Poulenc with the Vienna Phil and I thought to myself "Christ how lucky am I to get paid for this?" I think we were singing Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex or something. This is like 20 odd years ago so I can't remember cos I've done a fair bit. I can say with confidence that John Eliot Gardiner was the finest choral trainer I ever worked with. But as a human being? Well I won't go into it. I remember once we had a gig where he used us in the Montervedi Choir to sing in Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe and because it wasn't his "Fach" the whole thing nearly collapsed. "Period Instrument" conductors like Gardiner (or Minkowski and Norrington both of whom I've also worked with) concentrate a lot on Baroque repertoire which very often doesn't have a great deal of rubato or time signature changes (in fact none) so things naturally become more motoric and fixed. Certainly rhythmically more foursquare. However with something like Daphnis it's all over the place. I'm telling you now if some of these big name classical conductors walked into a Hollywood sound stage and had to conduct something to order when time is MONEY they'd have a job on their hands. Korngold was looked down upon for his move to movie music. But like Williams he was triumphant because he drew on his enormous musical wealth and HUMAN FEELING. Truly great ARTISTS don't need to shout. Often their whispers are more deafening.

Yes the Original Soundtracks. We recorded at Abbey Road (where I also recorded there) music by Lili Boulanger (great composer who died at age 24 and was sister of the great pedagog Nadia) Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and his Opera The Rakes Progress. We recorded Bruckner Motets there also I think all under John Eliot Gardiner who compared to Williams was a piece of shit. I also recorded Dave Brubeck's Jazz Cantata "The Gates of Justice" there as well as Goldsmith's "Christus Apollo" As well as those modern works we also recorded material like Schumann's "Scene's from Goethe's Faust and" Das Paradies und die Peri" all with the Montervedi Choir. I worked with them for 5 years and toured the globe until I was unceremoniously dropped after standing up to Jiggy as he is known in the business. We performed Beethoven 9 in LA and I even had the chance to visit the old offices of FSM where I bought some CDs from them whilst renewing my subscription to the print magazine. This was in 1999. I sing 2nd Tenor for Scottish Opera Chorus now in Glasgow. We just finished Tosca (which is like one big film score with singing) and we start rehearsing Nixon in China by John Adams this Thursday. Generally in chorus I just stand at the back holding a farmyard implement. It's easier! Yes the Original Soundtracks. We recorded at Abbey Road (where I also recorded there) music by Lili Boulanger (great composer who died at age 24 and was sister of the great pedagog Nadia) Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and his Opera The Rakes Progress. We recorded Bruckner Motets there also I think all under John Eliot Gardiner who compared to Williams was a piece of shit. I also recorded Dave Brubeck's Jazz Cantata "The Gates of Justice" there as well as Goldsmith's "Christus Apollo" As well as those modern works we also recorded material like Schumann's "Scene's from Goethe's Faust and" Das Paradies und die Peri" all with the Montervedi Choir. I worked with them for 5 years and toured the globe until I was unceremoniously dropped after standing up to Jiggy as he is known in the business. We performed Beethoven 9 in LA and I even had the chance to visit the old offices of FSM where I bought some CDs from them whilst renewing my subscription to the print magazine. This was in 1999. I sing 2nd Tenor for Scottish Opera Chorus now in Glasgow. We just finished Tosca (which is like one big film score with singing) and we start rehearsing Nixon in China by John Adams this Thursday. Generally in chorus I just stand at the back holding a farmyard implement. It's easier! The photo of myself and the Maestro is a treasured possession. I had the temerity to go up to George Lucas and as for Williams photo. I wasn't interested in being photographed with him! Lucas said "I don't think that's possible. Mr Williams is so busy". During a break I took a chance and walked up to the podium where the Maestro was looking at his score. I asked for a photo and he was extremely gracious. I was so nervous I forgot to shake his hand to my eternal regret. I told him how I came from a background of poverty and violence in Glasgow in the 70s and how his music eventually led me to win a scholarship at the RCM. I then stayed that his music would last for centuries. He replied "Ah but will we?". Christ I was so slim in that photo haha! Yes I agree with you. I love the Sequel scores because as you say they are closer in some way to the OT music. I consider Williams music for these 9 films to be the modern day equivalent to Wagner's Ring Cycle. Opera was the medium of the day in Wagner's time. Now its Cinema. Don't get me wrong there are wonderful moments in the prequel scores of course. But with trying to marry the quagmire of the Taxation of Trade Routes with what is basically a kids movie I think Williams wrote music which mirrored the artifice of what was on screen. That is how great a composer he is. He can't helped morphing into whichever project he tackles. Seamlessly. Yes Williams spoke to us but this was nearly 20 years ago now when I sang on those movies. The thing about film music gigs in general is that they are a gift for choral singers because (apart from the Sanskrit material) it's all mostly just "oohs and aahs" and generally harmony is firmly tonal. Compare this with works that I've been part of like Poulenc's A Capella Cantata "Figure Humaine", Reich's "Desert Music" or something like the Ligeti Requiem which are impossibly difficult. A lot of Renaissance repertoire came my way also in those days incl the "Missa et Ecce Terrae Motus by Antoine Brumel or the 19 part Motet" O Bone Jesu"by the Scottish Renaissance master Robert Carver. Film music is a walk in the park compared with this stuff which is modal (written before the invention of the bar line) and rhythmically mist complex. I wasn't aware that Williams wrote four scores that in one year. Surely his most prolific year by far?

I can hear what I can hear that's all. I don't like the major themes Williams wrote for these movies because I think he was uninspired by the orgy of CGI. Phantom Menace is about the best of the three. But its all a matter of taste I suppose. Don't fall out with me!

I know I have the invoice somewhere for one of the score sessions. I also nabbed the choral part for AOTC I think. I seem to remember sending it to Chris Chrusher in Oswego NY.

I sang Tenor in the sessions for the Prequel scores with London Voices when I worked doing extra chorus at Covent Garden under the then chorus master Terry Edwards. I think we were paid around £225 for a 3 hour session. So quite lucrative. Strangely the sessions for Attack of the Clones were recorded on a Sunday. The movies were appaling and the scores (esp for EpisodeS II & III) were sub par in my estimation compared to Williams return to form with the sequel scores. But what an opportunity. I'll never forget it.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Holdo's theme. It's a fantastic tune.