pixie_twinkle

This HAS to be the Ark theme for me. It scared the pants off me when I saw this film as an 11 year old. It's different from all other themes on the list as it's harmonically based. It's almost impossible to play it without the harmonies underneath. My favourite rendition, The Map Room of course! This is cool as we get the Nazis theme thrown in for good measure! The Philosohers' Stone motif from HP1 seems to me to be almost a simplified version of the Ark theme, reduced to just 3 notes. Of course the notes are different, but the chromatic nature of the themes is similar, especially as they're both over pedal points. Scaryyyyyyy.

That sounds like a different poll...

Well it'll be nice to have a Christmas Potter film again. I suppose you all know by now that the 6th book is supposed to be called (highlight. I don't know if this is a spoiler or not. Playing safe): Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

Fiery Angel, I listened to the first of the two. Very nice! You are an excellent orchestrator. I wish you would develop the motives a little more. You have enough material there for a 5-minute piece. I wanted more! (Whch is a good thing!) Maybe bring the opening material back to close the piece with a bang. Nice trumpet theme, very SPR. My favorite material was definitely the first minute though. PLEASE extend it!

Warrick Davis!!!!!

I guess I was a little confused about when GoF is coming out. I assumed it was going to be Summer. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm sorry, but this is nuts. Episode 3 is the culmination of one of Williams' most important works. Not just because it's popular, but because he's devoted so much of his professional life to it. Finishing the Star Wars Saga is a seminal moment in his career, and there is nothing that should keep him from it. John- who thinks a Howard Shore Star Wars score is the stuff of the most terrifying, disturbing nightmares. The Shore comment was supposed to be tongue in cheek based on what I think of the prequels. Trust me, I am in NO way endorsing Howard Shore! I suppose I'm just not into the new trilogy nearly as much as the original one, and I don't really feel that Johnny has had much opportunity to write classic film music for it. In fact I really don't like the AOTC score very much at all. It just doesn't seem like it belongs next to the first 3 scores, which already have a place of distinction in the history of film music. The Phantom Menace score was better than AOTC, but even so the style was so very different from the first 3 films. For me I can't think of Star Wars as being either 6 films OR six scores, but rather 3 of each. Of course I don't want a different composer writing the last score, but were it to come to a choice between the two I'd still rather Williams did Potter. Hope this clarifies my remark.

Your point being? You really need to learn to read other people's viewpoints without getting angry and rude. It betrays a lack of faith in your own argument.

One of my favourite composers is Ravel. By your argument Ravel is who he is because he wrote Bolero. It's a cool piece, but hardly the best thing he wrote. And yet 99% of people who have heard of Ravel have only ever heard of Bolero. You should have said John Williams is as famous as he is because he wrote Jaws, Star Wars etc... Here are my feelings. I completely agree with Miguel et al regarding Williams' less fantasy-based scores. He has already proved himself in that field, not that there isn't anything else he can contribute. I am glad that he feels he can still take projects by personal preference rather than just because it's a Star Wars film or a Spielberg film, or a Potter film. 2002 wasn't Williams' finest year for scores now was it? I think he felt trapped by a load of commitments and simply couldn't find the inspiration. Personally however I am very disappointed he won't be scoring GoF. I think it's the most exciting book in the series and I would have loved for John to stick with us through this chapter of Potter. In all honesty I would rather he scored GoF over Ep.III. I have no really high expectations for either the film or the score by this point. I am completely serious, I wish he would dump Ep.III and take GoF instead. Let Shore score Star Wars, his music is more in tune with George Lucas' new style.

No,my nuance is that Williams should score his remaining films at what hs's best at,not necesarely popular films. Lets see the List of "Different" Williams scores: The Zany Comedy score:Guide To The Married Man The Friggen Weird Psycho Score:Images The Comedy Mystery Score:Family Plot The Suspense/Action Score:Black Sunday The Synth Score:HeartBeeps The English Score:Jane Eyre The Americana Scores:Sugerland,Missoury Breaks,The River The Irish Score:Far And Away The Jewish Score:Schindler's List The Tibetan Score:7YIT The African Score:Amistad The Russian Score:The Terminal The Ultimate Melodrama Score:Angela's Ashes The Military Elegious Score:SPR The Political Serious Scores:JFK,BotFJ,Nixon The Cheezy Romantic Score:Sabrina The Jazzy Score:CMIYC The Soap Opera:Stepmom The Westerns:The Reivers,The Cowboys The Dissonant Oddball Score:Sleepers The Thriller Score:Presumed Innocent, The Straight Black and White Action Score:Minority Report See,he's done it all already,if it's not potter we'll get another one of the above,which isn't nessesary. K.M. He hasn't done a porn score yet! The porn score: Boston Pop Shots (aka boom chikka baw waaa)

NO!

Yes indeed! I love the opening, celesta, vibes and tremolo strings unless I'm mistaken. Then the violin comes in on that delicate yet spine-chilling high A. I saw a live performance of that at Severence Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra and Elmar Oliveira a few years back. I have also played in a performance of Isle of Bliss. By a coincidence the performance I played in was conducted by Dan Perttu who's picture is on page 38 of June issue of The Instrumentalist, the one with Johnny on the cover! Small world!

I'm sure you'll love the Bax! It's so film-score-esque (!). As for the Rouse, approach it with caution, it's not to everyone's taste. It's extremely exciting and colorful music with amazing timbral and rhythmic variety, but it's very dissonant and loud. No tunes, just blastingly good exciting noise!

In Life of Brain it's spelt with a "W". "A wabble of wowdy webels..."

A couple of great CDs out there: Berg and Stravinsky violin concertos. These are paired on a couple of different recordings and are both exceptional pieces, especially the Berg. Bax: Tintagel etc (Chandos chan9168) Anyone who likes film music should give this disk a try. Stefancos, I really think you will enjoy this CD. The 6 pieces included are all great fun, especially Paean which is a bold, brassy piece. Rautavaara: Angel of Light (Ondine ode869-2). Gorgeous neo-romantic piece, full of mysticism. Christopher Rouse: Gorgon. Wow, this piece is a tour de force! Your ears should be ringing after this! There are even a few moments that sound like Return of the Jedi (especilly the ending of The Ewok Battle). I wish I had this piece on CD but it's out of print. I keep looking on Ebay. One day... Vaughan Williams: Symphonia Antarctica. This is the symphony VW made out of his score to Scott of the Antarctic. It's very colourful with a huge orchestra including wordless soprano and wind machine. Several excellent recordings of this. Go for Bryden Thomson or Bernard Haitink for more recent performances, although my favourite is the classic Adrian Boult recording from the 60s. It still sounds clear as a bell today, not old at all. Many more of course, this is just a small selection that should appeal to fans of film scores.

Funny how no one's mentioned Webern, Boulez or Carter. Their music is so emotional!

Probably my favourite Beethoven. Marian - I think the entire seventh symphony is Beethoven's finest. So do I, but I'm a horn player. You'll love the schrezo from the 3rd symphony then! The violins get a lot of tricky noodling, but then the horns come blasting in. Great!

A Neopolitan 6 HAS to be a flat II chord. The flat VI in Aunt Marge would only count as a Neopolitan if the chord V had just been tonicized, giving it the temporary status of Tonic. The number 6 is used differently in Neopolitan 6s from Augmented 6ths. In aug 6ths it means the interval between the notes that form the augmented sonority (Ab and F# is an aug 6th interval). But in Neopolitans it means first inversion, the 6 refering to the figured bass symbol for 1st inversion.

This is awesome! I was worried I was going to piss people off with my initial post, but now I see I'm not alone!!! I'm going to listen to Falstaft's aug 6ths right now! Don't forget you can also have aug 6th chords that resolve to root position I. Schubert uses them to create a "weak" ending (weak meaning pathetic/sad, NOT bad!!!) in his songs. In C the chord would be Db F Ab B. Ok here's a good assignment. Circle of fifths in Williams? I'm sure there are many, but it will be quite hard to find them as they tend to stabalize a key, and Williams music always seems to be modulating!

I think Vader knows about Luke's presence before the Emperor does. He knows that he wiped all the jedi out and yet at the end of Star Wars he says "The force is strong with this one". Here he starts to realize who the pilot is. I think the Emperor had to wait to find out through official sources. Or maybe not. I don't know.

Dr No was more experimental than any of the other films. Literally they were experimenting with the character, with the challenge of bringing the book series to the screen, etc. The series hadn't hit it's stride yet, but that's one of the wonderful things about Dr No, it isn't so formulaic. James Bond isn't so much an action hero as a spy, which is something lacking in many of the later films. It's cool to see him without gadgets trying to evade baddies by hiding underwater and breathing through a reed. The first appearnance of Bond at the casino is classic. Ursula Andress walking out of the sea singing Underneath the Mango Tree. The stirring musical score, the spider in the bed, the shooting of the evil geologist ("You've had your six"), Dr No desperately clutching at the scaffold with his slippery metal hands at the end. Aaaaah. It may not be my favourite of the series (That honour goes to The Spy Who Loved Me, You Only Live Twice, and From Russia With Love equally) but it is more like a genuine spy-caper than many of the action-based films that followed. It's a great start to the series. I LIKE IT! Now my LEAST favourite in the series was the last one, Die Another Day. After an exciting and very unusual opening it just deterierated into the most horribly formulaic film in the series. It didn't have any likable characters or a heart. I was left completely stunned by how completely unmoved I was. I love the Bond films! I'm sure they'll get back on track.

Sorry to be such an annoying know-it-all but the chord you are refering to isn't an augmented 6th. The flat 6 is there but not the raised 4. The chord is actually a flat-VI 7 (borrowed) over a pedal V. Welcome to JWFan. I'm not always this annoying BTW. Pixie Annoying? Compared to AlexCremers or JoeinAr, you're still working on bothersome. . . . but I do find myself agreeing with Bowie here. In the key of G Major, you have an Eb, G, Bb, Db which would spell a German 6th chord resolving to a V. Though G6 chords often resolve to 2nd inversion I chords they also progress to root position V (haven't figured out how to do superscripts on here). Strictly speaking the Db should be written as C# owing to the need to resolve up to a V. However these things are often enharmonically respelled. However, the note we're talking about here, whether we call it Db or C# i(ie the raised 4th) is NOT present in that chord in Aunt Marge's Waltz. Therefore the chord is not an augmented 6th. It is definitely a flat VI chord. This chord also acts as a chromatic pre-dominant (like the aug 6th) and so it still resolves to V, as you pointed out. Homework for next class is to try and find a genuine augmented 6th chord in a Williams score. I'm taking this as a serious challenge!

I can't find the poll from yesterday. It was the "John Williams movie oscars" thing where you had to put your fave film, score, actor, actress, stunt etc. Where did it go I can't find it!!!

Wow Damien. Thanks. How did you know? I have the Stan Kenton Neophonic Orchestra CD. There's a track called Piece for Soft Brass, Winds, and Percussion by Clare Fischer. I assume this is the same person. Of course there's also Johnny's Prelude and Fugue on the same CD. I wonder if they had worked together before Earthquake.

Actually today counterpoint generally refers to any two (or more) melodic lines played simultaneously. In the 16th century counterpoint had more rules concerning intervals between each successive group of notes. This eventually gave rise to species counterpoint and then 18th-century counterpoint as exemplified by the genius Bach! These days anything goes! It's all good.