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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)


Ollie

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War Horse by John "Vaughan" Williams: I love this English, Celtic pastoral music and the steely and propulsive action music is top notch too. DiTullio's flute solos are a highlight. I still think Homecoming is one of the most gorgeous, inspired and naturally flowing of JWs end credit suites from the noughties. There is such genuine joy in it.

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Spectre

A decent score, but its best material is probably before the the credits. The rest of the score is sort of Skyfall part 2, which is alright, but doesn't offer the excitement found in previous Bond scores. It's not a bad score at all. But it's not as great as other Bond scores from the past.

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Angels in America :music:

I don't really see why everybody ranks this one so highly in Newman's oeuvre.

Little Women :music:

It's growing on me...

Innuendo?

No, if that were the case I'd say "Little Women is making me grow", not that I would.

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War Horse by John "Vaughan" Williams: I love this English, Celtic pastoral music and the steely and propulsive action music is top notch too. DiTullio's flute solos are a highlight. I still think Homecoming is one of the most gorgeous, inspired and naturally flowing of JWs end credit suites from the noughties. There is such genuine joy in it.

An incredible score that might been overlooked in the future due to the tepic reception to the movie. The score is as good as it gets

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Capricorn One (Intrada 2015 release): Lean but mean, uneasy, suspenseful, driving, pulse-pounding and frighteningly effective. While not quite as robust in orchestral power as the OST re-recording, this music impresses with atmosphere and certain almost austere approach which creates a lot of suspense and tension without going full throttle and saves up those big explosions for moments of true impact.

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Capricorn One (Intrada 2015 release): Lean but mean, uneasy, suspenseful, driving, pulse-pounding and frighteningly effective. While not quite as robust in orchestral power as the OST re-recording, this music impresses with atmosphere and certain almost austere approach which creates a lot of suspense and tension without going full throttle and saves up those big explosions for moments of true impact.

I can't work up the urge to revisit this one. It seems the start of Jerry's super-sparse style, not the more colorful sort of sparseness of POTA.

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Capricorn One (Intrada 2015 release): Lean but mean, uneasy, suspenseful, driving, pulse-pounding and frighteningly effective. While not quite as robust in orchestral power as the OST re-recording, this music impresses with atmosphere and certain almost austere approach which creates a lot of suspense and tension without going full throttle and saves up those big explosions for moments of true impact.

I can't work up the urge to revisit this one. It seems the start of Jerry's super-sparse style, not the more colorful sort of sparseness of POTA.

I think there is a strange sort of character and allure to the sparseness and ominous rhythmic insistence of Capricorn One. Planet of the Apes is to me a close cousin but slightly more wild and primitive in feel and in some parts more challenging and interesting score. But the subtle gradual accumulative build-up of suspense in Capricorn is what I find so effective and how it is released in these muscular violent bursts. As I say above the OST is the more rounded listening experience but the original tracks have their strange appeal to me, how Goldsmith can take so simple little cells of material, manipulate them and keep coming up with new ways of adding to the unease and tension and all with those sparse textures and rhythmic devices. POTA feels much more active in its tone in comparison even though Capricorn is famous for its propulsive main title theme.

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I'm really disappointed that Bilbo's theme never made it into the film... But hey, at least we've got Bard's family theme. ;)

But yeah, it's the major flaw of this trilogy. Hobbit music is completely sidelined. I can understand the reason why it's the same as in LOTR trilogy, given hobbit unchanging lifestyle. But for a series of films titled The Hobbit that's really no excuse to completely neglect it.

It's not Howard Shore's fault, though. He clearly tried.

Karol

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I'm really disappointed that Bilbo's theme never made it into the film... But hey, at least we've got Bard's family theme. ;)

But yeah, it's the major flaw of this trilogy. Hobbit music is completely sidelined. I can understand the reason why it's the same as in LOTR trilogy, given hobbit unchanging lifestyle. But for a series of films titled The Hobbit that's really no excuse to completely neglect it.

It's not Howard Shore's fault, though. He clearly tried.

Karol

Agreed. I think that even if not using Bilbo's themes, the Shire themes could have brought a lot of warmth and an emotional anchor to these films. I really missed the Shire music in BotFA. We do have two or three glimpses but nothing very substantial. Then again PJ was more interested in giant trolls, wargs, super-orcs, dwarves and elves going at each other with sharp pointy objects than Mr. Baggins' adventure.

And yes Shore truly tried.

Personally I would have rooted for active inclusion of Bilbo's themes in DoS and BotFA. They are derived from the Shire material anyway so it would not have been such a leap to employ them actively as they certainly carried the same kind of relatability to my mind.

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:music:Back to the Future Part II by Alan Silvestri. Finally arrived today. The music might he a rehash of sorts but the sound quality is so much better.

Karol - who is still waiting for shipping notification for Part III.

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Seven Years In Tibet by John Williams: This has become a perennial favourite of mine and it very elegantly combines Western orchestral idiom and allusions of the Eastern musical traditions together in a lyrical and emotional meditation.

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Seven Years In Tibet by John Williams: This has become a perennial favourite of mine and it very elegantly combines Western orchestral idiom and allusions of the Eastern musical traditions together in a lyrical and emotional meditation.

Its ok, but nowhere near Jaws, E.T., Star Wars or Indiana Jones etc.

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Seven Years In Tibet by John Williams: This has become a perennial favourite of mine and it very elegantly combines Western orchestral idiom and allusions of the Eastern musical traditions together in a lyrical and emotional meditation.

Its ok, but nowhere near Jaws, E.T., Star Wars or Indiana Jones etc.

I find myself turning more to the likes of Seven Years in Tibet these days in Williams' discography than Jaws or E.T. or Star Wars.

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:thumbup:

City Hall and L.A. Confidential are also on regular obsessive rotation.

:music:The Fortress of Solitude from Superman by John Williams

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Amistad by John Williams: I'd love to get my hands on a complete version of this score. Apart from the comforting Americana JW's African allusions are actually very interesting.

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Amistad by John Williams: I'd love to get my hands on a complete version of this score. Apart from the comforting Americana JW's African allusions are actually very interesting.

I'm of the opinion that the Americana bits represent some of the worst scoring Williams has done for a film but the African sections are very good.

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Amistad by John Williams: I'd love to get my hands on a complete version of this score. Apart from the comforting Americana JW's African allusions are actually very interesting.

I'm of the opinion that the Americana bits represent some of the worst scoring Williams has done for a film but the African sections are very good.

Aw man I love Amistad all the way through.

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It has a lot to do with the director and other bigwigs. It always has more to do with that than we take into consideration around here. He can write the sort of music that Star Trek should have (and I expect that guys like Davis and maybe Desplat could as well) and he did in a few select moments for the previous films. But will he get a film that really allows it, and a filmmaking team that pushes for it? I'm not very confident about that. I don't know when if ever we'll get music for a Star Trek production that really feels right again.

STID came after his break during which he seemed to have gained some real footing compositionally as evidenced by subsequent scores, but that one was even further removed from Star Trek than the 2009 score, probably because the film was too. So he's not competing against much to make the next one his best.

His music has worked best for this franchise in its more subtle moments, particularly Spock stuff. To write his "best" Trek score, my advice would be to 1) capitalize on that subtle sound that already works, 2) keep trying to break out of the "familiar" emotional sound by focusing far more on melody than the supporting harmony, 3) also break out of the repetitive action stuff, and finally 4) not be afraid to continue to be more harmonically and orchestrationally daring as in some recent efforts.

The fact that the new film has a villain sort of dashes any hopes I had anyway.

I kind of want Dennis McCarthy back.

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Yea, I noticed that too. He was crazy prolific from 2008/2009 right through John Carter. When he took a year off and came back for STID, he came back with a new sound and style. And that's carried through to Apes, Jupiter, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, etc.

The biggest thing seems to be that he likes to always start with long, developed suites, and then move onto film cues after those are all set. And man, its great he records those suites for the OSTs!

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