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John Powell kicks ass


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Finally!

cant wait!

 

Interestingly,

WarnerMedia announced that the movie will be released next month in HBOMAX:

https://pressroom.warnermedia.com/us/media-release/hbo-max-highlights-january-2021
 

That’s fast!

How Powell can muster the orchestra recording in its pandemic arrangement within this short period of time?

or, will it be primarily “electronic” score?

 

Eventhough this is a really amazing news, 

but i think i will contain my expectation. Dont expect orchestra grandeur in this one.

 

 

 

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Maybe it will be another "Fair Game" situation with minimalist music that's entirely synth?

 

(Obviously I hope not, but then again, it looks like the entire thing has been shot and produced over the last 3 months...that's not exactly a very long time.)

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12 hours ago, PrayodiBA said:

Finally!

cant wait!

 

Interestingly,

WarnerMedia announced that the movie will be released next month in HBOMAX:

https://pressroom.warnermedia.com/us/media-release/hbo-max-highlights-january-2021

 

 

On 12/17/2020 at 9:59 AM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

 

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Am I right in thinking I read that Powell wrote the music for the Star Wars logo on Disney+? The one that's shown at the start of each epsiode of The Mandalorian. Or am I making that up?

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3 hours ago, Anthony said:

Am I right in thinking I read that Powell wrote the music for the Star Wars logo on Disney+? The one that's shown at the start of each epsiode of The Mandalorian. Or am I making that up?


Really? Huh. I always assumed it was Goransson.

 

(tbf I don’t really like it either way, sounds like JW-lite to me) 

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5 hours ago, Anthony said:

Am I right in thinking I read that Powell wrote the music for the Star Wars logo on Disney+? The one that's shown at the start of each epsiode of The Mandalorian. Or am I making that up?

The Disney+ Star Wars logo cue was done by neither Powell nor Goransson. It is credited to Joseph Shirley, Ludwig Goransson's scoring assistant, who also worked on a few smaller cues for the show.

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Someone recently posted, like within the last week or so, that they thought it was Powell. No idea where that idea came from. 

 

I had always assumed it was Göransson and was surprised it wasn't on the first OST album. Interesting to learn it was Joseph Shirley

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just listened to the Powel film suites on YouTube and again realized how good he is with themes, harmonies and composition ideas, but when it comes to more classical oriented scores how bad he is with percussion. For scores like The Bourne Identity the percussion is completely fine, but when it comes to more classical scores like Ice Age or How to Train Your Dragon suddenly the most beautiful music sounds very very rough. I am not sure if he sees that as his personal style or if he would just need better orchestrators and better conductors. 

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4 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

how bad he is with percussion

 

Could you explain more in details? A lot of people, including me, love his percussion work.

Powell himself often says he's a fan of percussion and sometimes draws inspiration from African rhythms, etc.

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I can explain. It seems to me, like Powel does not really Trust into the rhytmic power of the melody instruments in the orchestra. Oh, here we need power, so let's cover the music with timpanies and tribal drums.

One point where this became most obvious was at the soundtrack album for Solo.

First piece from Williams who is really the world ever champion in using orchestra dynamics in a fine way using percussion just for accentuation (Lost World a noble exception). Next piece is Powel's Meet Han. Same theme covered under a carpet of drums, even though less dynamic, less interesting to my mind.

Does this make clear what I mean?

 

As I said, I habe just an issue here with the classical scores. Action scores like Bourne, which are mainly build on percussion sound colours work fine with that.

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26 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I can explain. It seems to me, like Powel does not really Trust into the rhytmic power of the melody instruments in the orchestra. Oh, here we need power, so let's cover the music with timpanies and tribal drums.

One point where this became most obvious was at the soundtrack album for Solo.

First piece from Williams who is really the world ever champion in using orchestra dynamics in a fine way using percussion just for accentuation (Lost World a noble exception). Next piece is Powel's Meet Han. Same theme covered under a carpet of drums, even though less dynamic, less interesting to my mind.

Does this make clear what I mean?

 

As I said, I habe just an issue here with the classical scores. Action scores like Bourne, which are mainly build on percussion sound colours work fine with that.

 

Oh yeah I get your point now. I do agree, but I must say personally that I love the use of Powell's percussion to give more power, even if, of course, it's not comparable to the genius of Williams. 

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Yeah, Powell can sometimes be a bit too much of a good thing, but his percussion is what gives his repertoire that "Powell touch". I don't think it'd be as good without it.

 

On a related note, what did you think of A Prussian Requiem, @GerateWohl?

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16 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

On a related note, what did you think of A Prussian Requiem, @GerateWohl?

I didn't know this Requiem existed. I just listened to some parts of it on youtube. At a Requiem you expect something sad. But I was surprised. Probably the lightest most optimistic Requiem I have ever heard, musically. 

Percussion is quite decent here, at least in the movements I listened to. I didn't know that Powel works on such kind of music. Thanks for the hint.

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6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I didn't know this Requiem existed. I just listened to some parts of it on youtube. At a Requiem you expect something sad. But I was surprised. Probably the lightest most optimistic Requiem I have ever heard, musically. 

Percussion is quite decent here, at least in the movements I listened to. I didn't know that Powel works on such kind of music. Thanks for the hint.

The Prussian Requiem is really superb and has plentiful mournful parts but I know what you mean, some of it is a little lighter. Highly recommended. The shorter work on the album, The Prize is Still Mine is great too. Orchestral/choral gospel work of surprising power. 

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8 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Are you implying it glorifies death?

I don't know. But there are whole religions claiming that the best is yet to come on the other side. Probably sad requiems are just a flirtatious way of managing expectations or at least that was what Powel thought.

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10 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Powell’s percussion is the best part about his style. 

 

Really? I've thought since SoloHTTYD 3 and Call of the Wild that his use of melody, both prominent, and in the supporting orchestration, is his biggest strength. I find it astonishing what's going on in some of his busier sections.

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As much as I adore HTTYD, if you pay attention you can really hear his technique of laying down layer after layer, making each more busy and fun after the other, for example in Test Drive one group of instruments are playing the Friendship melody right on the beats with no embellishments mixed lower, and the flute is all virtuoso with added notes and liberal rhythm above it, but still playing the same theme. It's especially noticeable in the demo where the former group is mixed much louder. It's cool to see his writing has matured a bit since.

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6 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Really? I've thought since SoloHTTYD 3 and Call of the Wild that his use of melody, both prominent, and in the supporting orchestration, is his biggest strength. I find it astonishing what's going on in some of his busier sections.

I haven’t listened to any of his recent output, so my opinion is based on his earlier work. 

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11 minutes ago, Jay said:

What made you decide to stop listening to new Powell scores?

I’ve stopped listening to most scores in general. Haven’t really listened to anything for the past couple years.

 

Part of it is my music library getting messed up when transferring to a new computer. Still haven’t had the inclination to go back and fix everything.

 

But my music tastes have mostly drifted away from film music into other genres for now. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/22/2021 at 11:10 AM, Koray Savas said:

 

 

....my music library getting messed up when transferring to a new computer.

 

 

Bummer.

But, Jay + Co. keep telling us CDs are outmoded and obsolete and we should jump on the digital highway.😗

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Well obviously I hope it is Solo, HTTYD 2, and HTTYD3 on CD

 

But it's probably Solo Deluxe on vinyl, Call of the Wild OST on vinyl, and Suites Vol 1 on vinyl

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  • 5 weeks later...
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23 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Great news. Absolutely loved the Prussian Requiem (was lucky enough to be at the premiere too) and The Prize is Still Mine is a superb companion work (who’d have thought an extended orchestral gospel choir work could be so great).  

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9 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Looking forward to CALL from Intrada!

 

When's this happening? I feel like it was at least 2-3 months ago that Powell announced this but haven't heard any more.

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