Harry Gregson-Williams

[Edmilson 10,433]

In HGW's case, he could really open an exception for Kingdom of Heaven. The OST excluded a lot of stuff from the final climactic battle.

 

Besides, it's all easily found on bootlegs across the internet anyway 

[thestat 496]

But it's so weird that HGW does not give a shit. I met him at London and he is perfectly reasonable about absolutely everything. He's like my neighbour, and whatever, but he is also a Mozart. a FUCKING legend that needs to acknowledge that. 

[Stéphane Humez 520]

15 minutes ago, thestat said:

But it's so weird that HGW does not give a shit. I met him at London and he is perfectly reasonable about absolutely everything. He's like my neighbour, and whatever, but he is also a Mozart. a FUCKING legend that needs to acknowledge that. 

 

The metaphor Harry used was hilarious. "An album is like the football highlights on TV. You'll see 10 minutes of great stuff, but no one wants to check the 80 min of boring stuff that happened..." He doesn't quite get why people would bother with all the boring little cues here & there. But again, the whole debate is, "the highlights according to who ?" Composers are usually terrible judges of their own work and what people want. The worldwide backlash about No Time For Caution missing from the Interstellar album is one of the best examples...

[thestat 496]

 

7 minutes ago, thestat said:

 

J

 

 

 

Jesus, these guys. What a bunch of legendary Aeronautes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yavar Moradi 3,542]

1 hour ago, Stark said:

To be fair, Narnia probably doesn't need an expansion.

 

There's tons of great unreleased music from his two Narnia scores!

 

Yavar

[Edmilson 10,433]

26 minutes ago, Stéphane Humez said:

The metaphor Harry used was hilarious. "An album is like the football highlights on TV. You'll see 10 minutes of great stuff, but no one wants to check the 80 min of boring stuff that happened..." He doesn't quite get why people would bother with all the boring little cues here & there. But again, the whole debate is, "the highlights according to who

That's because in HGW's case most of his scores are actually 80 minutes of boring stuff 

 

(no offense)

 

I know because I binged almost the entirety of his career between the ending of last year and the beginning of this.

[Thor 9,308]

11 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

And I think it's about time that some specialty label pick this up and release it in a properly expanded form, as I think it's a score that would clearly benefit from an expansion in chronological order that allowed for a better understanding of the composer's intentions!

 

I'll watch the film for that. 

 

But it's easily his best work. And a gorgeous OST.

[Jurassic Shark 14,938]

The drum samples sound too dated.

[Thor 9,308]

8 hours ago, Stéphane Humez said:

He doesn't quite get why people would bother with all the boring little cues here & there. But again, the whole debate is, "the highlights according to who ?" Composers are usually terrible judges of their own work and what people want. The worldwide backlash about No Time For Caution missing from the Interstellar album is one of the best examples...

 

Kudos to him! A man after my own heart.

[Richard P 4,752]

A theory I have regarding a good OST album is to achieve an objectivity that no one involved in the scoring process has got. If you've been watching the same scene over and over, rescoring it, or whatever else goes on, you might tire of a cue, but someone viewing afresh wouldn't carry that baggage.

 

So you could find someone who had a generally open and positive mindset to the film and its score, to view the film, and note down moments where they liked the music. Preferably not a superfan who could go all sycophantic on the process ("Oh, it's all perfect!"). Then they'd compare notes with the album's producer and have an honest discussion about sections that would be worth including, but also perhaps cues that weren't as interesting.

 

It's not incompatible with the Thor view of albums - if you identified a lot of instances of a particular idea that sounded good in the film, then the task of the album producer is to work out what it is about those statements that was appealing, and work them into a listenable form without becoming repetitive.

 

12 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

There's tons of great unreleased music from his two Narnia scores!

 

Yavar

 

It's a rare HGW score that I think works great in complete form. Even if one disagrees with that, we're not talking about a score that's just trimmed a bit for runtime - there's an hour of music missing.

[sdimidenko 3]

Omg an expanded Con Air would be awesome considering you cant find it complete anywhere.

[Meredith McKay 7,842]

On 07/05/2025 at 2:37 AM, Thor said:

 

I'll watch the film for that. 

 

For what?

[Thor 9,308]

For understanding the composer's original intentions.

[Richard P 4,752]

A film can be the worst place for hearing the composer's original intentions.

 

There's only one place where you will hear the score more or less exactly how the composer wanted it for the final cut, and that's an expanded set.

[Thor 9,308]

Intentions are tied to whatever they accompany. You can only glean that by watching the film.

[Jurassic Shark 14,938]

Yes, but who's intentions? The composer or the director?

[Thor 9,308]

Can be both.

[Trope 1,185]

5 minutes ago, Thor said:

Intentions are tied to whatever they accompany. You can only glean that by watching the film.

Here’s an idea: Let’s all watch the film, then check out the OST if we like what we heard. Then, if we want to hear more music, we can listen to the expanded presentation.

[Thor 9,308]

You're free to do what you want.

 

I don't give a monkey's arse about the film when I listen to a soundtrack. If I want to know how the music works in the film, I'll watch - you know - the film.

[Edmilson 10,433]

To be honest, the only HGW expansions that I want to happen are Kingdom of Heaven and the two Narnias. And even if magically he becomes in favor of expansions, Narnia 1 would still have the AFM issue (2 was recorded in London).

 

Believe me, you don't want expansions for Domino or the hundreds of Denzel Washington crime thrillers he has done...

[Richard P 4,752]

I had the Kingdom sessions for a while but realised I wasn't listening to them, and while the OST is a much briefer (and heavily arranged) summation of the score, it only took one or two additions to add the highlights I remembered from the film.

 

I really think Narnia 1 is the only work of his that I'd buy expanded. There's also Seraphim Falls, but that's officially unreleased in its entirety, which has more fuel for the potential of a release, but six people saw that film (not including me) so it's less likely.

[WampaRat 1,768]

KoH Director's Cut is getting an anniversary screening in some theaters. Im considering it! Hope it has the intermission:
https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/4/11/ridley-scotts-kingdom-of-heaven-directors-cut-to-get-theatrical-release

 

[Tom Guernsey 3,217]

A couple of HGW's scores have cropped up on my rotation recently, notably The Martian and The Borrowers, both of which I enjoyed a great deal. The Borrower's is a surprisingly old school (as the kids say) effort, much more early 90s than its 1997 pedigree might suggest.