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


Ollie

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I wonder if Michael Kamen's score for Shining Through is available. I forgot how much I enjoy that music.

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I can't say I enjoyed S.U.N., in fact it was one of the rare purchases I've regretted. The music really just goes nowhere. I understand that is a standard quality of the music for a lot of video games....but Uematsu made Final Fantasy music interesting nevertheless. Oh well.

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I was in a big, bombastic mood tonight -- so I had Krull on earlier. Horner at his most creative and unrestrained, full-blown fantasy mode. It still feels fresh and invigorating after all those years... especially compared to the likes of Avatar and The Amazing Spider-Man. :sarcasm:

Now I have Stromberg & Morgan's demo CD on. It's a nice sampling of what they're capable of, especially the Golden Age-esque action music.

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Schindler's List by John Williams: Still remains one of the absolute masterpieces in Williams career and a personal favourite. The whole heartfelt creation from themes to orchestration to deeply moving performances remains a stunningly beautiful and touching still after all these years. Itzhak Perlman's performances add immensely to the music and his work here is difficult to recreate and indeed very few of the many later recorded performances of these themes can capture the same raw and affecting tone heard on the soundtrack album.

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Schindler's List by John Williams: Still remains one of the absolute masterpieces in Williams career and a personal favourite. The whole heartfelt creation from themes to orchestration to deeply moving performances remains a stunningly beautiful and touching still after all these years. Itzhak Perlman's performances add immensely to the music and his work here is difficult to recreate and indeed very few of the many later recorded performances of these themes can capture the same raw and affecting tone heard on the soundtrack album.

(Y)

Its one of those scores that owes a lot of its success to its recording atmosphere. The composition will likely never be performed again with that incredible degree of effectiveness.

And I know publicist here is no big fan of it, but Schindler's List is my favourite Williams score.

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Agatha Christie's Poirot by Christopher Gunning: Dark yet elegant, melodic and deliciously sophisticated music for Belgia's greatest detective. The hour long album really presents a wide selection of music from the first 4 years of the show re-recorded specifically for this CD. The chamber like orchestra is used to its best extent in these pieces that both capture the time and place but also the atmosphere and spirit of this show, the detective show hovering somewhere between an epoch drama and film noir in influences. Gunning's main theme is the definite musical representation of the character and his world, performed as the opening of the album in an extended variation. The saxophone also lends Poirot its voice, somewhat urbane but melancholy, at times contemplative and moody yet capable of witty jocundity as well, featured throughout as a solo instrument.

The composer is not afraid of melody and each episode usually featured a new theme or motif, of which there are several examples here. From the eerie synthesizer and children's voices chanting the play ground rhyme of One, Two Buckle My Shoe to the slightly Slavonic bittersweet piano romance of Double Clue and the suave and sultry strutting saxophone stomp of The Height of Fashion Gunning shows off inventive orchestrations and well crafted musical set pieces that delight with their old fashioned and fully self aware melodrama, a warm tip of the hat to the conventions of the genre and you can see that the composer clearly revels in the opporturnity to use such musical devices. Another good example is the suite from A Mysterious Affair at Styles, where a sinister "murder" motif is first presented in War with clarity and foreboding, which then transitions to truly beautiful and evocative English pastoral melodies of A Country Retreat and finally extrapolate with glee the "murder" motif in the Death of Mrs. Inglethorp that has fatal melodramatic drive and urgency. Not only does this slight melodramatism work in the context of the show, it also makes for a great listening experience apart from the film as the music is written large and well and expressively.

The orchestra as mentioned above is of only 20 to 25 people strong, often just a few people playing together but the orchestrations are such that they make the music sound all the more impressive despite the reduced forces. One of the most interesting aspects here is the expressiveness of single instruments and their combination. Nearly all sections receive solos, piano, horn, viola, woodwinds and saxophone most often highlighted. This not only creates opporturnities for expressive solos, it also enhances the often quite intimate nature of the series as well, the music matching the surroundings and circumstances.

The range of the music is also very impressive from the previously mentioned melodic tunes Gunning pens with such apparent ease to the violent music of the deaths and murders featured in the show, of which there are a couple examples on this disc, scored with urgency, brutality and menace of growling horns, stinging strings and keening woodwinds but always keeping the score in the confines of the sophisticated musical world and language the composer created for the series. And as always Gunning keys everything to Poirot's theme that holds the album together as it makes suitable appearances throughout and is frequently hinted at, making clear who is the star of the proceedings.

Highly recommended to the fans of the show and of strongly dramatic yet intimate film music.

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Robin Hood (Marc Streitenfeld, 2010)

There are some entertaining moments. However it sounds incredibly cheap. After listening to this kind of thing two times any kind of magic disappears as it doesn't have anything to offer.

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Captain America: The First Avenger

I find the album a bit uneven. The magnificent highlights certainly outweigh the lower points, but cues like "Frozen Wasteland" and "Hydra Lab" could've been cut with little to no effect on the album presentation. And Disney's oversight to not include the "Captain America March" on the physical CD is almost unforgivable. But the theme is catchy and nicely performed... shame Silvestri didn't use it more often in The Avengers, where he only referenced it once or twice.

Now I have The Cape on. It's refreshing to hear McCreary develop the theme over the course of several episodes, and while McCreary doesn't emulate Walker by temp-track influence, but by spirit. I can't imagine anyone who loves Walker's efforts on the Batman and Superman animated shows not taking a shine to this.

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That piece is not bad on its own, but I think this film looks awful. I watched the trailer a few weeks ago and it was dripping with sugary Oscar-bait. The stills from the movie, not even the actual event, intercut in the video is just as bad.

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A friend showed that to me and thought that the dudes in the video composed the main ostinato. Wasn't a fan of the video myself, but I can see why others would like it.

I like their Cello Wars the best.

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War Horse

First real listen was last night... I'm liking it. Takes a while for the themes to stick with you, but when they do, they're pretty good. I'll probably see the film eventually, might raise my appreciation of the score further.

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The Mists of Avalon by Lee Holdridge: A lovely and winningly melodic dramatic score with a hint of the expansiveness of Horner's best drama scores mixed with Celtic elements, a large adult choir, exotic percussion and a husky female vocals of Aeone. Holdridge's lyrical woodwind writing is here of particular note.

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War Horse

First real listen was last night... I'm liking it. Takes a while for the themes to stick with you, but when they do, they're pretty good. I'll probably see the film eventually, might raise my appreciation of the score further.

It will, in the sense that you will be amazed Williams wrote such beautiful music inspired by such a dull movie :P

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Cherry-picked from Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Also sampled a few tracks of We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story... that's a weird one. And who thought of putting James Horner and Thomas Dolby together for a song (though I'm a huge fan of both)?

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A Royal Affair by Gabriel Yared and Cyrille Aufort: A pleasant listen but nothing particularly stays in mind after the 36 minutes running time of the album. Rather innocuous slightly classically tinged chamber score. Perhaps subsequent listens reveal further depth.

Lady in the Water by James Newton Howard: A magical, minimalistic and moody score, a combination of captivating and intelligent thematic writing, enticing atmospheres and a winning combination of choir and orchestra. If the film this music accompanies lacks the needed fairy tale atmosphere, the score has it in spades.

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Vetrate di chiesa (The Church Windows) by Respighi. One of the greatest symphonic poems ever! Tam-tam and organ solos rock! :D

Oh, and yesterday I listened to The Cowboys after quite some time. I love that score, it's such fun to listen to, and the movie is also cool, I've even got it on Blu-ray. All the kids did a great job as did The Duke of course, but my favourite performance would have to be Roscoe Lee Browne's.

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Green Lantern - James Newton Howard

It's a disappointment, and some of the cues like "We're Going to Fly Now" hint at what the score could've been. James Southall says that the theme rips off from Goldsmith's Executive Decision, and indeed, the main theme suffers from temp-track syndrome. But everything else is generic sound design with JNH emulating his friend Zimmer, with some of the usual orchestral crashes and horn blasts. It's a mediocre score, but I keep going back to it for some reason.

Executive Decision - Jerry Goldsmith

Wow. One of Jerry's more minor and overlooked scores, but much more entertaining than GL. The mid '90s synth beats underlying the orchestra do date the music, but it's a fine score for sure.

Man, I wish the man was still living now. He'd probably be retired by this point, though.

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The Thunder of Imperial Names - Jerry Goldsmith;

Sounds like something Americana that JW might have composed. But it's beautiful to listen to and the narration might have benefit from someone like Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones or Anthony Hopkins. Heck, even Christopher Lee.

Oh good! Williams is finally catching up to Jerry. :P

ROTFLMAO(Y)

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The Mephisto Waltz - Goldsmith

Very creepy... some of the cues are a precursor to what Goldsmith would do later on in Alien (especially in the first three cues). None of the conch shells and didjerdu in Alien, it's a bit more harmonic than that. Very unsettling and a perfect score to start off October with.

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You know, that score from Mephisto Waltz could easily slip in comfortably with Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy.

I can see cues like "The Hospital" fitting Ledger's Joker scenes perfectly in The Dark Knight, with some minor re-arrangements and orchestration. Some of the more ambient cues would fit Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, like "The Latest Victim" and "Main Title", but I think for the more action-driven and dramatic scenes would probably be in the vein of The Shadow and Total Recall.

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The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

Anyone who hasn't listened to these guys yet is missing out on the greatest composer duo to grace the silver screen.

The Road almost put me to sleep and I never even finished the album. Perhaps The Proposition might be better.

The Village by James Newton Howard

The Edge by Jerry Goldsmith

Five Sacred Trees by John Williams

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Skinwalkers - Andrew Lockington

It's a pretty strong score. Lockington's tutti writing is excellent in action cues like "Gunfight" and "Hospital Battle"... the more atonal passages for Varek and his band of evil werewolves don't do anything for me. The melodic passages for the more noble band of werewolves, especially in "Raising Timothy" and "Legend" are wonderfully done and the Toronto musicians handle the more complex passages with aplomb.

The CD is quite a steal at $1.95 at SAE, even cheaper than the MP3 downloads. Worth checking out.

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