pixie_twinkle
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Posts posted by pixie_twinkle
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Hi y'all,
Next Wednesday I will be giving a 40 minute presentation on the evolution of film music at a high school in Orange county, Ohio. So far I'm going to present an early Chaplin Essenay film clip with improvised piano. Then the scene in King Kong where the orchestra precedes the entrance of Kong by doing "footsteps".
I'm then showing the scene from Psycho where the woman drives her car towards the Bates Motel through the rain. Excellent demonstration of how music can MAKE a scene!
Then a detailed analysis of the closing 4 minutes of Star Wars Death Star battle, the perfect scene to show leitmotivic development.
Any suggestions as to anything else I should include? Bare in mind these are HS kids, I can't show anything R rated. I probably should include something recent. I don't want another Williams score as I hope to include all different composers, but if it HAS to be Williams then so be it.
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I think the first half of the Superman score is amongst the best Williams ever wrote. After Superman grows up I feel the score becomes a little less than brilliant , though still great fun. The first half though.... wow! The entire Krypton scene is Johnny at his best. Trip to Earth... I LOVE! Growing up etc, and the haunting funeral music. The funeral theme could be one of the greatest tunes to ever appear only once in a movie! Heartbreaking! Just when it seems it can't get any better... Fortress of Solitude! Aaaaaah! What a score!
BTW, looks like Hermione is doing a Britney Spears impression in your pic, Hectar. She needs the next size up in sweaters!
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I voted for Dementors Converge.
Finally, someone else.
Neil
Yes indeed! I must confess though it doesn't remind me of Close Encounters. However on this and the other tracks that include wordless choir I am really reminded of the climactic scenes of Phanton Menace (movie version of "Fates"), especially the amazing single vocal chord (excuse the pun!) that appears in the Quidditch track. Wow!
BTW, am I alone in thinking Mr Williams has been listening to Prokofiev's "Classical" symphony while writing this score? Listen to the Prokofiev-isms in Aunt Marge's Waltz, and Whomping Willow/Snowball fight.
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Ok, I finished the CD. I voted for Dementors Converge. I wish I could have included Finale as well as they run into each other so well on the CD.
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By the way, if there are any airline coordinators reading:
Bring back the peanuts! I HATE bloody pretzels!
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Flying is when I catch up on all the bad movies that I refused to pay to see in the theater. Occasionally I'm pleasantly surprised. Scooby Doo, while I'm glad I didn't spend 7 bucks to see it, was actually a fun way to pass an hour and a half at 42000 feet. Maybe the free wine, scotch, wine, scotch, and scotch helped though.
James (who flies home to England twice a year)
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It was between Always and Empire of the Sun for me. I went for Empire. Love that theme. I also adore the Superman sequence except that bloody awful vocal version of the love theme makes my teeth grind.
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Does anyone else notice that the pizziccato section in Chasing Scabbers is almost identical to Nocturnal Activities from Temple of Doom?
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Can we keep this poll going after the CD comes out? I have dial up and it really isn't worth trying to hear this score 10 seconds at a time.!
did you even try it?I have a dial up too and the music stopped only once or twice in all.
K.M.Who didn't put a time limit on this poll
Yes I tried it. My connection is SOOOO slow. However, I now have a bright, shiny new copy of the official CD and I'm listening through it. I'm about halfway through and so far I'm enjoying the whole thing. No stand-alone tracks yet, but I will vote shortly.
OOOH WAIT, I love the Hagrid the Professor music!!! Sackbutts ahoy!!
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I got mine from a CD exchange in Kent Ohio this afternoon. It was a rip-off at 16 bucks, but I'm really enjoying listening to it. I have dial-up so I was unable to listen to the online version. I'm glad I waited, my stereo has better speakers than my computer! I'm up to Buckbeak's Flight and I must say I'm having a wonderful time.
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"The Map Room at Dawn" IS the perfect concert arrangement of the Ark theme. Now if only he'd program it occasionally...
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Can we keep this poll going after the CD comes out? I have dial up and it really isn't worth trying to hear this score 10 seconds at a time. I'm waiting with baited ears for the CD!!!!
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I have the Concorde CD of this. I was disappointed by the sound quality. Many of the bass drum hits were mixed too loud and ended up distorting. I found this very noticable at the end of Prologue, amongst other places. I wonder if I just got a bad cd? Everyone else seems to love it. Apart from the distortions I like the extra music though. I was just annoyed as I paid around 50 bucks for it on ebay.
As for the score in general, well what's not to like? It's choc full o' tunes and wonderful 40s-style orchestration. I love the homage to Korngold's "Sea Hawk" during Hooknapped.
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Waabllblblb flbbmambhqhjb
Damn I spilt my coffee.
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I'm just re-reading Prisoner of Azkaban.
from Grim Defeat:
(Ron) 'D'you know what that -' (he called Snape something that made Hermione say 'Ron!') - is making me do?...'
I wonder how they'll handle that! Hehe. You can get away with blanking things out in books.
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OH! It's excellent I agree (and is also a fantastic reminder of seeing the Maestro live at the Barbican Center in 1996??? I can't remember the year, but that's where I bought "Summon the Heroes, which was brand new at the time.) It's also a nice pastiche of Copland's "Common Man". However, for me the greatest olympic piece HAS to be Olympic Fanfare. Particularly the version on "By Request", which I MUCH prefer to the later one. I don't like the other thing tagged on the beginning. Much better that it just kick straight in with the trumpet "triplet" motif.
Ah, what the heck, I love ALL his olympic pieces! Wassa mesa saying???
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I HATE Zam the Assassin by the way. Just when it can't possibly get any worse, an electric guitar comes in...
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Well here goes.
1 Arlington (JFK I'm surprised this isn't on more lists)
2 Trip to Earth (Superman)
3 The Asteroid Field (ESB)
4 Poseidon Adventure Main Title (I love the surging ostinato, and it takes me back!)
5 I Can't Believe It's Real (CEOT3K)
6 For Gillian (Fury)
7 Battle in the Snow (ESB)
8 The Ballroom Sequence (Witches of Eastwick)
9 First 5 minutes of ET (Far from Home or whatever it's called)
10 The Map Room, Dawn
Those are just the few of my favourites that I recalled while making this list. There are plenty of others!
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This song REALLY stinks. However, if any of you guys really get a kick out of listening to really bad (ie so bad it's FUNNY) American patriotism CDs then look out for Mannheim Steamroller's new CD American Spirit. It's REALLY horrible!!! Right down to including voices of little children reciting the pledge of allegiance etc. It sounds just like the music from the show in Waiting For Guffman, except it's not supposed to be funny! A friend gave me a copy and I've listened through it three times for sheer comedy value.
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TPM was quite a good score, it certainly had it's moments. However I honestly can't see how anyone can claim the score to AOTC to be anything more than "Williams by numbers". The Love theme is straight out of the Prologue to Hook. The rest of the score is bland and surprisingly unthematic for a series that has until now prided itself on it's Wagnerian Leitmotif approach. As for the arena fight, wow! What a load of rubbish. Random orchestral bangs and farts without any attempt to make a convincing piece of music. Compare to the final moments of the Battle of Yavin, or the phenomenal Battle of Hoth. AOTC is in my mind an incredibly lazy score. And there you have it.
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Harry Potter and the Philorcerers Stone contains great things. Terrible....yes. But great.
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Too similar to Across the Stars, Hook, and the Lost World (the first two chords!). Nice theme, but very much a "by the numbers" affair in my opinion. John Williams is capable of much better. Worked well in the movie though.
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I'm listening to Anthology's ESB right now and I must say the sound quality is indeed much better than the dead sound of the Special Edition. You can hear far more room in this recording which enables the instruments to breath better. Buy it, I would say. The box also come with a nice book.
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Alex Cremers
My book is signed by JW himself! I met him at the Barbican Centre in London many moons ago!
James
Dvorak Slavonic Dance #7. -
The Hymn to the Fallen is pretty, but it seems a little trite in places. After the stately opening and sombre presentation of the theme we get a slightly irritating Sousa-style descant thingy in the violins. I just don't think it fits well with the piece and makes it all sound a little twee. For a genuinely moving and patriotic piece I don't think Williams will ever write anything better than Arlington from JFK. It's one of the few film-score pieces that could stand alone in a concert of "serious" classical music (as opposed to a pops concert). It's a great homage to Barber too!
High School presentation on film scores. suggestions?
in General Discussion
Posted
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
I went to several shops today looking for Kong on DVD for my presentation. It isn't available!!!!!! All I can think is that they're waiting to tie it in with the Jackson remake. I hate this marketing crap! Why must we be denied a true classic on DVD just to promote some pointless remake? (And no matter how good the remake is, it IS pointless!!!) Looks like I'll have to find Kong at Blockbuster instead. It's SUCH an important movie in film-score history I really feel I need to include it in the presentation.
SeekUYoda, thanks for your comments. I think I already have The Shining thing covered by the Psycho scene I'm showing. The scene where she's driving her car through the rain has NOTHING ominous in it if you watch with the sound down. Then try with the sound on and it becomes one of the most heart-pumping scenes ever shot! Oh and btw, I COMPLETELY agree with you about Howard Shore. We should get together sometime and rant and rave, where the delicate ears of Shore's legions won't hear us!
MaestroJW, I must confess I'm a Tangerine Dream fan! It doesn't alter the fact that there's some awful music they composed for Legend though. What was Ridley THINKING???? BTW, your Mahler CDs are on the way. I mailed them last week. Enjoy!