Composer Threads The Bear McCreary Thread

[Jay 37,337]

Something about Anne Hathaway and sci-fi doesn't quite work

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You didn't like Interstellar?

[Jay 37,337]

Mentioning one actor equates not liking an entire movie to you?  Why do you make such an extreme jump?

No, I liked Interstellar, but thought her performance was a weak one in an otherwise fine series of performances from a fine cast.

[crocodile 7,999]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

Something about Anne Hathaway and sci-fi doesn't quite work

Something about Sandra Bullock and sci-fi doesn't quite work.

 

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Don't start!

[crocodile 7,999]

She ruined a perfectly good, if slightly pretentious and ponderous, film for me. And so did Clooney. I am upset!

 

Karol

[Jay 37,337]

She's better in sly comedic roles ... Her Oceans reboob might be a lot of fun.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Wait, you didn't like Bullock in Gravity?

[Jay 37,337]

Who, me? I didn't say that; she was great!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Good!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'll watch Anne Hathaway do just about anything.

[pete 907]

Bear is set to score an episode of Black Mirrors...or perhaps he's already score it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/black-mirror-season-3-netflix-portishead-geoff-barrow-compser-score-max-richter-bear-mccreary-clint-a7169741.html

[leeallen01 2,135]

20 minutes ago, pete said:

Bear is set to score an episode of Black Mirrors...or perhaps he's already score it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/black-mirror-season-3-netflix-portishead-geoff-barrow-compser-score-max-richter-bear-mccreary-clint-a7169741.html

 

Yeah, with the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane directing the episode. I think Black Mirror is some of the best writing I've ever seen. Charlie Brooker is a sensational writer. And I mean bloody sensational. His previous Black Mirror episodes are so inventive, original and have shocking twists and great moral lessons, not to mention the acting talent he attracts. Shame it's on netflix now, which I don't have. 

 

 

[Jay 37,337]

Black Mirror is easily one of my favorite TV shows on the air right now

[Jay 37,337]

Outlander Season 2 OST coming October 28th

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I22P62Y/

 

[JWMike 117]

Outlander Season 2 soundtrack out today! I shall be listening now.

 

http://www.bearmccreary.com/#blog/blog/albums/outlander-season-2-soundtrack/

 

[Richard Penna 3,680]

Listened to much of this at work.

 

The first half (French bits) isn't doing much for me. The second half is more promising, but seems to have rather an overload of bagpipe-led action material, with the more dramatic material constrained to the end. It's certainly a different type of scoring to season 1.

 

I'll probably buy this for the latter half's highlights.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

TV soundtracks are always too long.  What are the highlights?

[JWMike 117]

On 28/10/2016 at 8:34 PM, Disco Stu said:

TV soundtracks are always too long.  What are the highlights?

 

Two listens in. I'd recommend the whole thing but my early favourites are:

 

2. Leave the Past Behind

5. Into Paris

10. Faith

12. Je Suis Prest

13. 125 Yards

17. Moch Sa Mhadainn

18. White Roses of Scotland

21. Destiny on Culloden Moor

22. A Fraser Officer Survived

[BloodBoal 7,538]

On 28/10/2016 at 9:34 PM, Disco Stu said:

TV soundtracks are always too long.

 

Not true.

 

That's often the case, sure, but not always. Some are unfortunately too short/could benefit from being lnoger.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

BBC's Robin Hood?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Countless? There have been but a couple!

[Thor 7,490]

On 28.10.2016 at 7:57 PM, Richard Penna said:

Listened to much of this at work.

 

The first half (French bits) isn't doing much for me. The second half is more promising, but seems to have rather an overload of bagpipe-led action material, with the more dramatic material constrained to the end. It's certainly a different type of scoring to season 1.

 

I'll probably buy this for the latter half's highlights.

 

For me, it's the opposite. I love the first part, with loads of baroque pastiche -- sometimes referencing existing compositions in the style of JNH's RESTORATION, but done so very organically. The second part is OK too, but basically material that was covered in the first volume.

 

I do think the album is too long, though. It's a common problem with McCreary; the quality of the music is often undermined by the presentation. But with the first OUTLANDER, he remedied some of that with a concise, 50-minute, listening-friendly presentation that works as its own thing. Seems like he left some of that behind, and returned to his ol' self with his 77-minute volume 2 (although not quite as extreme as some of his earlier 2 and 3CD sets for other shows).

[Richard Penna 3,680]

You do know there are two volumes (nearly 2 hours) for the first season? We've got around half an hour less music from season 2.

 

I can't see the argument that this album doesn't 'work as its own thing'. If you find some cues unnecessary or dragging, then, you're simply disagreeing with Bear's choice of interesting material. That doesn't mean the album wasn't produced with the same intentions as season 1 (i.e. a listening experience), it just means your choice of music isn't the same.

 

Honestly, when you're complaining that a composer offered a full CD of music for one entire season, I think you're just saying something about your attention span...

[ChrisAfonso 186]

...especially since the presentation of the two parts (France/Scotland) already partitions the cd nicely into two shorter "mini albums", which keeps the relations similar to the first season, which had one disc for each 8-episode half. Even within the two halves of the S2 disc I find the music quite varied from track to track, this is far from an hour of samey cues one ofter the other (imho the Da Vinci's Demons albums are harder to listen through in one sitting, much more subdued underscore on there).

[Thor 7,490]

17 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

You do know there are two volumes (nearly 2 hours) for the first season? We've got around half an hour less music from season 2.

 

No, I was not aware of that. I only have the 50-minute version. A shame to hear he tagged on more volumes after that.

 

Quote

 

I can't see the argument that this album doesn't 'work as its own thing'. If you find some cues unnecessary or dragging, then, you're simply disagreeing with Bear's choice of interesting material.

 

Not quite. I disagree with the principle, not the choices. I will support a composer's choices as far as presenting the music on his album purely for listening pleasure (which the 50-minute version was), but if the overriding principle has been to present as much music as possible, I disagree with it. In that case, another concern comes in that has nothing to do with re-conceptualizing the music for listening. Clearly, McCreary belongs with the majority of fans who want as much music as possible, in the film's or series chronology. And the OUTLANDER album I have is an exception to the rule. That is very, very unfortunate, because he's a good composer and it completely undermines the pleasure of listening to his music.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Composer releases music. Thor is happy. Composer releases more music from same score. Thor no longer enjoys music? 

[Thor 7,490]

Something like that. I want to kill the obsession with quantity in this world!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

But you got your listening experience. Why does the fact that more music exists commercially ruin the music?

[Thor 7,490]

Just now, Koray Savas said:

But you got your listening experience. Why does the fact that more music exists commercially ruin the music?

 

I got my listening experience in this one case, true, but it's disconcerting that it was an exception to the rule, and that the likelihood of seeing more such McCreary soundtracks is slim. I was talking more about the other McCreary soundtracks I've had, like DA VINCI'S DEMONS -- great music, completely ruined by its overload presentation.

[Jay 37,337]

51 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

No, I was not aware of that. I only have the 50-minute version. A shame to hear he tagged on more volumes after that.

 

Thor, season 1 aired in 2 "halves", a year apart from each other.  The Volume 1 OST contained music only from the first half of season 1 (which aired in 2014).  The Volume 2 OST only contained music from the second half of Season 1 (which aired in 2015).  The brand new Season 2 OST contains music from Season 2 (which aired in 2016).

Pay attention!

[Thor 7,490]

Now that you mention it, I do seem to remember something vague about that, yes.

 

Ideally, I guess he should have waited untill the whole season was finished, and then created a 50-minute album out of everything. But oh well. My 'half-season' CD will have to do.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

Ideally, I guess he should have waited untill the whole season was finished, and then created a 50-minute album out of everything. But oh well. My 'half-season' CD will have to do.

 

Because the album you enjoyed until now is clearly not good anymore. Now that he has written more music for the series, half of the album is invalidated by that and should never have been released, but replaced with music from the second half of the season.

5 hours ago, Thor said:

Something like that. I want to kill the obsession with quantity in this world!

 

I'm beginning to think that you're more obsessed with quantity than most others.

 

Sometimes, less is more. Emphasis on "sometimes", which means "not always".

[Richard Penna 3,680]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

Now that you mention it, I do seem to remember something vague about that, yes.

 

Ideally, I guess he should have waited untill the whole season was finished, and then created a 50-minute album out of everything. But oh well. My 'half-season' CD will have to do.

 

So no matter how much music Bear wrote for the show, he must fit everything into 50 minutes? This really doesn't have anything to do with reconceptualising - it's definitely a length thing with you. How else could anyone explain your disappointment that a second volume exists?

 

The first album only tells half the story, hence if you liked its presentation, then you should have no problem putting the second volume on, and enjoying another listening experience for the rest of the story.

 

And I echo Marian's point - you would prefer Bear to have removed half volume 1, and replace with some volume 2 cues, yet you've declared already that volume 1 is a great listening experience. Hence, you would remove cues that you know you enjoy, just because you don't want to listen to it for more than 50 mins.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thor is an extremist. It's very rare to capture one alive.

 

We are lucky to be able to study its behavior.

[Thor 7,490]

2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Because the album you enjoyed until now is clearly not good anymore. Now that he has written more music for the series, half of the album is invalidated by that and should never have been released, but replaced with music from the second half of the season.

 

That's a strawman, Marian. Of course I enjoy the album I have. And I'm not bothered with it being just half the season. But in an ideal world -- and to make it properly representative -- he should have waited, and then selected music from everything on one, succinct album. Could have been 40 minutes, could have been 70, and some tracks on vol.1 would obviously be omitted and hopefully replaced with equally worthwhile cues, but it's my experience that very, very few albums hold up to 70 minutes+. That would warrant some seriously rich tapestry of music, like STAR WARS or Wagner or whatever. And OUTLANDER is most certainly not that. Most soundtracks, IMO, shouldn't be longer than your average pop album or classical album/a longish symphony.

 

Quote

Sometimes, less is more. Emphasis on "sometimes", which means "not always".

 

In this day and age -- almost always.

[Richard Penna 3,680]

So it's not about good or worthwhile music (as it can be replaced at whim) nor apparently about length now (anywhere from 40 to 70 mins).

 

I'm struggling here... 

 

Can't you just put volume 1 on today and volume 2 tomorrow? I mean you don't have to listen to more than 50 minutes in one sitting....

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thor's thought patterns are often incomprehensible. It makes for a fascinating study case.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Richard Penna 3,680]

That makes sense.

[Thor 7,490]

Make fun of it all you want. I know that is what this place is all about. But it's not rocket science -- boil a season's worth of music down to an album of succinct length that allows for maximum listening pleasure. For a score like OUTLANDER, you'll be able to make a representative album of some 50-60 minutes. Like, say, the original TWIN PEAKS album.

[Richard Penna 3,680]

But he did do that!

 

He just did it twice - two listening experiences in one season! There is nothing about either of these releases that is oriented towards releasing the maximum possible amount of music.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Thor 7,490]

5 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

But he did do that!

 

He just did it twice - two listening experiences in one season!

 

Well, that's kinda cheating. The challenge is to boil it down to just one per season, max. So that when you want to play some OUTLANDER SEASON 1, you'll put it on, get into it for 50 minutes, and then move on to something else. Focus, focus, focus -- that's the crucial thing here. Quality over quantity.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

1 minute ago, Thor said:

Well, that's kinda cheating. The challenge is to boil it down to just one per season, max.

 

What kind of twisted logic is that? So, you get to decide what the rules are for album production? The composer is no longer qualified to decide how to present his music?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Thor, I've always respected your preference to OSTs over expanded or complete presentations, but what you're saying here just doesn't make sense.

 

By this logic, A.I. would be a bad album because it doesn't contain any music from the first act of the film. Yet that is what Williams chose to put on the album, and thus the artistic listening experience you desire. The complete 3-disc set doesn't ruin your experience for that, yes? I don't see how McCreary did anything different with Outlander.

[Thor 7,490]

Just now, BloodBoal said:

 

What kind of twisted logic is that? So, you get to decide what the rules are for album production? The composer is no longer qualified to decide how to present his music?

 

He can do whatever he wants, just as I can say whatever I want about the decisions.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

1 minute ago, Thor said:

He can do whatever he wants, just as I can say whatever I want about the decisions.

 

Yeah, sure, but at least try to make sense when talking about said decisions!