Soundtracks, Compilations, or other recently purchased Music

[Bilbo 3,709]

[Incanus 5,714]

Capricorn One (Intrada re-issue)

Sand Pebbles (Intrada 2 disc release)

[Faleel 5,346]

Sand Pebbles (Intrada 2 disc release)

[Bespin 8,480]

[DreamTheater 131]

KUNZEL RULES... Great Film Fantasies is a great album ! Love it!!!

And this is my most recent purchase (along with Judge Dredd and Gremlins 2)

[Incanus 5,714]

Yeah Kunzel usually did good (and sometimes brilliant) job with the Cincinnati Pops and their countless compilations.

Sand Pebbles (Intrada 2 disc release)

I have the Varese re-recording but finally decided it was time to hear the original in its full glory.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

KUNZEL RULES...

Their album covers are awful, though.

[Incanus 5,714]

KUNZEL RULES...

Their album covers are awful, though.

Yes they quite often are. But same can be said of e.g. every other Prague Philharmonics compilation album.

[DreamTheater 131]

I don't know, I think it's quite mesmerizing to stare at a Kunzel album cover for however long the CD plays.

If I close my eyes, the cover has burned into my retinas and I can make out the negative image if I concentrate hard enough.

And the negative looks surprisingly fantastic.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

All used, except for the Goldsmith:

Gremlins 2 (Goldsmith, Deluxe Edition)

Cloud Atlas (Tykwer, Klimek, Heil)

Dark City (Jones)

Free Willy (Eidelman)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (JNH)

JFK (Williams)

Legends of the Fall (Horner)

A Beautiful Mind (Horner)

I'd also included used copies of Glory and Fields of Dreams in the order, but SAE threw in a paper notice saying that they were no longer available...

[Bilbo 3,709]

and

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I have that one.....signed!

[Bilbo 3,709]

I have that one.....signed!

Yes, you used to have it as your sig didn't you?

Pretty cool collector's piece!

[DreamTheater 131]

I have that one.....signed!

A pic of you in the shot holding the disc, with John signing it, or it didn't happen.

[Jay 37,353]

Here you go

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22593&page=14

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thank you.

[DreamTheater 131]

Cool! Great photos in the older post from 2013. Must've been something to be so close to a legend.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It was a fantastic day for Jason, Foxfan, JWFangirl1992 etc etc to finally meet me in person, yes.

[DreamTheater 131]

I meant the legendary composer.

You are the legendary poster of jwfan, which means absolutely nothing in the real world.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

How rude!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[crocodile 8,008]

I picked up some cheap used copies from a local store today (CD's in pristine condition):

The Count of Monte Cristo by Edward Shearmur

The Sixth Sense by James Newton Howard

The Cell by Howard Shore

Nice finds, methinks!

Karol

[Incanus 5,714]

I picked up some cheap used copies from a local store today (CD's in pristine condition):

The Count of Monte Cristo by Edward Shearmur

The Sixth Sense by James Newton Howard

The Cell by Howard Shore

Nice finds, methinks!

Karol

Excellent finds indeed!

[crocodile 8,008]

I picked up some cheap used copies from a local store today (CD's in pristine condition):

The Count of Monte Cristo by Edward Shearmur

The Sixth Sense by James Newton Howard

The Cell by Howard Shore

Nice finds, methinks!

Karol

Excellent finds indeed!

This guy sold me those for almost nothing. He had no idea these titles were worth so much more than that (I mean Shore and Shearmur).

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yet how true!

I'll have you know that in real life I am a figure of respect, fear and sex!

[crocodile 8,008]

Not necessarily in that order.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well, the night is young...

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

A.I. (Williams)

The Cape (McCreary)

The Firm (Grusin)

Inside Out (Giacchino)

Jurassic World (Giacchino)

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Eidelman)

Tomorrowland (Giacchino)

[crocodile 8,008]

Marian... a Giacchino fan?

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

I've been one for a long time - since Lost and Alias. The Giacchino section in my collection is pretty complete. I'd nearly lost interest when his characteristically dry post-Lost sound made everything more or less the same, but it seems he's been on a roll recently. I still fail to comprehend what everyone sees in John Carter, but Jupiter Ascending was his best in years and Tomorrowland was wonderful in the film and seems to hold up well on CD, too. Jurassic World sounds fun so far.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh no!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Its Steef...STEEF!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[DreamTheater 131]

I've been one for a long time - since Lost and Alias. The Giacchino section in my collection is pretty complete. I'd nearly lost interest when his characteristically dry post-Lost sound made everything more or less the same, but it seems he's been on a roll recently. I still fail to comprehend what everyone sees in John Carter, but Jupiter Ascending was his best in years and Tomorrowland was wonderful in the film and seems to hold up well on CD, too. Jurassic World sounds fun so far.

What about his videogame scores? I wish he'd return to that style of writing.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

What about his videogame scores? I wish he'd return to that style of writing.

They're good, and more fully/smoothly orchestrated than most of his film scores - though I wonder if that was due to a different composition style or perhaps rather due to more freedom from his orchestrators in his early years.

But I rarely listen to them - as albums go, they're a bit one sided. Comes with the territory of the game genre I suppose.

[Jay 37,353]

I think that's one of the reason I connect to his film scores more than his video game ones - they are, as you say, usually a bit one-sided. While the film scores follow a narrative path and explore different emotions.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I'm the opposite.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Ofcourse you are

[crocodile 8,008]

Howard Shore's Sun doesn't feel like a video game score.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It doesn't. Thats why its good!

[Incanus 5,714]

To be fair something like Shore's SUN and Giacchino's Medal of Honor scores are constructed similarly. In each case composer wrote suites based on the concepts offered to them by the gaming companies whether it was locales, characters, world or plot of the game. SUN is a bit more abstract out of necessity as I am assuming Shore didn't have a real full narrative for a open world for a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game. Giacchino's MOH scores till adhere quite closely to the plot and storyline of the games in a linear fashion and a single piece of music usually represents one such segment of the story in itself while still sharing overarching themes and motifs common to the whole work.

I personally don't think the narrative structures of Giacchino's game scores are weak. The main character in each game is a single person and the action focuses on him and his experience in the battles. It might lack the precise action-for-action detail of a normal film score but on the other hand the self-contained tracks containing a clear musical arc and development of a particular motif inside the track are highly evocative and musically enjoyable for their narrative coherense.

Shore's SUN is much more like a tone-poem as it contains subtle thematics but almost every track is built on an entirely new musical idea with less narrative cohesion between the pieces outside the musical style of the whole composition.

[Bilbo 3,709]

Got the Cindrella Legacy Collection.

It would appear that I'm collecting this whole series now. I think I have six of what's been released so far.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

I personally don't think the narrative structures of Giacchino's game scores are weak. The main character in each game is a single person and the action focuses on him and his experience in the battles. It might lack the precise action-for-action detail of a normal film score but on the other hand the self-contained tracks containing a clear musical arc and development of a particular motif inside the track are highly evocative and musically enjoyable for their narrative coherense.

I love many video game scores. Their structure of course depends very much on the game they were written for.

80s game music was often wall to wall, because like with early film music, the lack of sophisticated foley effects (and dialogue, too) meant that they often had the role of providing a sort of emotional base for the game. In fact, there were some C64 games that I often started not for playing them, but just to listen to the music. Those game scores usually consisted of loosely related, looped cues with a song structure. They were written to be catchy, and to convey any emotions they wanted to represent mostly on their own, and to (hopefully) not overstay their welcome even if they were looped for 10 minutes. The result was a set of distinct cues, each catchy in their own way, and each not very long (due to technical limitations). They can often work very well on their own because of these features, and because they're short enough not to meander.

There's also the adventure game (and I suppose RPG) type of score that typically spans long stories with many characters and locations, often using leitmotifs. Those are closest to traditional film scores in that they represent the narrative of the story the accompany. Unlike the type of score I mentioned earlier, these do have a musical narrative, and because of the varied locations, characters and often actual emotions of the story, it's a pretty balanced one that can also still work when on its own.

Action games with extensive, often orchestral scores, used to occupy some sort of middle ground. They tried to bring big, "serious" scores to the mix, often taking film scores as their example. But the games themselves often didn't bring much emotional depth to the table. You had some alternating locations, and a more or less involving framing story, but often no characters. It was just one involving action sequence after the other, and with games as with films, it's not easy to provide a lengthy score for them that doesn't cause me to lose interest on album. Giacchino probably did really well with these, and I have a lot of respect for his game scores, but I still have troubles playing them on their own.

(In more recent years, the genre has expanded to focus more on characters and character arcs with emotions, and it at least partly reflects on the scores. The Uncharted scores for example have a certain emotional arc that at least allows a selection of cues to present a rounded listening experience. I still rarely listen to the full albums though)

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[DreamTheater 131]

Giacchino's Medal of Honor series, Secret Weapons over Normandy, Small Soldiers are all enjoyed more than his film music by me. I don't know why this is, guess I'm just more into the instant gratification not needing a clear musical narrative to discover.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

All those scores have musical narratives to my ears.

[Bespin 8,480]

At last, some will say!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

At last!