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"Soviet" Scores


BLUMENKOHL

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By Soviet scores I mean...the dark brooding scores with weighty strings ala Thirteen Days or Star Trek The Undiscovered, and that distinct tone of majestic dread.

Of the top of my head, those two are the only ones I can think of....

Any others?

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While I am not familiar with either of those, pieces of Air Force One and perhaps The Hunt for Red October come to mind.

Also a special mention to the Russian segment from International Code (Independence Day).

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My mind is a blank right now but as far as Soviet inspired music look no further than Air Force One, Sum Of All Fears, Hunt For Red October, Rambo II & III, Red Dawn and perhaps Kilar's Ninth Gate score as the brooding styled music.

I'm sure Prokofiev wrote something we could add. :)

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The Russia theme from Air Force One is terrific, and it's climactic use in the film is one of my favorite uses of a theme ever. No particular score comes to mind the feels Soviet from begining to end.

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Enemy at the Gates, of course (which has absolutely NOTHING to do with Schindler's List, Manuel... that has been proved many times over the years in this forum). Horner has been one of the best capturing that russian sounding for film scores.

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How about Jerrys "The Russia House" ? Not quite 'Soviet' per se, but certainly moody.

The most 'Soviet' Soviet music are the folk songs fondly remembered in Russia even today.

The bombast is one thing, but it's more the ideological lyrics in songs that point to that era.

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I'm surprised no one mentioned Prokofiev's Ivan The Terrible. it's one of the best scores ever written. The Gergiev recording is spine tingling.

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Anyone ever see the HBO film "Stalin" with Robert Duvall playing Stalin? Absolutely fantastic. The music was great! Written by Stanislas Syrewicz .

frosty

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"Red Square Band" from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Probably because I just listened to it.

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Why doesn't anyone mention Prokofiev? His Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible are as russian as one can get. When compared to them things like Hunt for the Red October or Enemy at the Gates sound lame and flat. They just don't get it right.

Karol

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Why doesn't anyone mention Prokofiev? His Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible are as russian as one can get. When compared to them things like Hunt for the Red October or Enemy at the Gates sound lame and flat. They just don't get it right.

Karol

Prokofiev was mentioned in the 3rd post, Ivan the Terrible in the 7th

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Why doesn't anyone mention Prokofiev?

He was mentiioned by somebody.

But I didn't realize the OP was asking for original Russian compositions as such.

If he was, the list could go on and on.Mussorgsky,Korsakov,Borodin, Kabalevsky, etc.

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Ivan and Alexander Nevsky are both film scores and sound like the kind of thing most people would associate with Russian music.

And nobody does better Russian film music than a Russian composer! :mellow:

Karol

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Doctor Zhivago would be eligible for this list?

I'm not familiar with it, but the movie is very russian...

Well the movie itself has

in it (if I remember correctly). As well as Balalaika playing. Aswell as the internationale (although, originally french) anthem adopted by the early communist movement in Russia as the Soviet anthem until the creation of the
during Stalins era, more well known. But Jarres score as such is less Russian in feel.
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This thread made me quite curious about the genuine soviet scores - written by the soviet composers for the soviet movies (except Prokofiev's, whose music has already been mentioned). I haven't heard any (let alone I don't even know any modern russian score).

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K-19 is a pretty good one.

I certainly agree. Very depressing movie though.

And I am the third one to recommend K-19, very Russian.

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This thread made me quite curious about the genuine soviet scores - written by the soviet composers for the soviet movies (except Prokofiev's, whose music has already been mentioned). I haven't heard any (let alone I don't even know any modern russian score).

Shostakovich scored quite a few "propaganda" scores in the 50's. The Fall of Berlin, for example. If there is something more bold than big Hollywood music, then that would be it. If you can get over the fact what was their original purpose and treat them as a satire of sorts, you can have a lot of fun with them.

Karol

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like Goldeneye's romantic cues, they are really good. And the "Run, shot and jump" track kicks ass. Not to mention the opening song - a classic.

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  • 10 years later...

By the way, I do not just take, War and Peace by Martin Phipps has got a pretty neat theme: 

 

 

4 minutes ago, karelm said:

Definitely check out Chris Willis' "The Death of Stalin".  Excellent Soviet style soundtrack. 

 

Initial scrubbing through: EXCELLENT! 

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Aside from being a very fine/disturbing documentary, the score is excellent in a 1950's soviet esque sci-fi b movie way.

 

5 minutes ago, Blumenkohl said:

Initial scrubbing through: EXCELLENT! 

Listen to the whole thing, damn you!

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1 minute ago, karelm said:

Aside from being a very fine/disturbing documentary, the score is excellent in a 1950's soviet esque sci-fi b movie way.

 

Listen to the whole thing, damn you!

 

I'm saving these for grey autumnal days! This also sounds excellent. I will hoard it for the winter. 

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1 minute ago, Blumenkohl said:

 

I'm saving these for grey autumnal days! This also sounds excellent. I will hoard it for the winter. 

They made another documentary called Nukes in Space that has similar 50's era music since this is about the Cold War, definitely has soviet inspiration and very finely composed.  There that is three hours of music.  Soviet music is a very rich heritage and there are tons of fine examples.  Shostakovitch composed over 30 film scores that were soviet propaganda of various degrees of subtly.  Then there were many composers influenced by him who similarly followed his style.  There are standouts of Shostakovich's scores (Gadfly, the Shakespeare movies), but all of them are excellent scores if the films themselves range from masterpieces to rubbish. 

 

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12 minutes ago, karelm said:

Definitely check out Chris Willis' "The Death of Stalin"

 

8 minutes ago, Blumenkohl said:

Initial scrubbing through: EXCELLENT! 

That one's really good.  Very Williams-esque at times I'd say 

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