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

[GerateWohl 6,369]

Actually, for me it's not just the theme. The score has a wonderful love theme, a remarkable theme for the mechanic owl, a great villain theme. And I like the Korngoldian vibe overall.

And the expansion even provides some etheral choir and suspense music.

[Edmilson 11,476]

9 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Actually, for me it's not just the theme. The score has a wonderful love theme, a remarkable theme for the Mechanismus owl, a great villain theme. And I like the Korngoldian vibe overall.

And the expansion even provides some etheral choir and suspense music.

Aaaaaand... Congratulations for posting the 50,000th post of this thread 

 

May this thread continue to have interesting discussions over older scores until we reach the 100,000th post! Which will happen in about 13 years if the average posting frequency remains the same.

[Tallguy 6,686]

11 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Actually, for me it's not just the theme. The score has a wonderful love theme, a remarkable theme for the Mechanismus owl, a great villain theme. And I like the Korngoldian vibe overall.

And the expansion even provides some etheral choir and suspense music.

 

The theme may be the least interesting part of the score. It's got a range of textures and moods that you just don't find anymore. You might not have found it then as much as we think.

 

Possibly an underrated score.

 

(Damn! If I had responded to this thread FIRST...)

[GerateWohl 6,369]

9 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Aaaaaand... Congratulations for posting the 50,000th post of this thread 

I am not sure, but shouldn't that batch go to the previous post of @Thor?

I think, mine was the 50,000th response to the first post. But his was actually the 50,000th post in the thread, wasn't it?

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

41 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

And I like the Korngoldian vibe overall.

 

I would even say Strauss, not Korngold. Of course, they were contemporaries, and Korngold has all the Golden Age/Viennese Romantic flair in his own scores. But there's something "classical (as in: concert music) Romantic" about Rosenthal's score that feels entirely unexpected in a Hollywood score even from the Star Wars era and that I haven't (I think) encountered in any other film score I can think of.

[Jay 44,818]

32 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I am not sure, but shouldn't that batch go to the previous post of @Thor?

I think, mine was the 50,000th response to the first post. But his was actually the 50,000th post in the thread, wasn't it?

 

You are correct.  There are 50 posts per page.  So the last post on page 1,000 is the 50,000th post of the thread.

[Thor 9,334]

 

50.000 posts or not, this is groovy and psychedelic.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

Any Grusin is worth a listen.

ONE OF A KIND is a stunning record.

[Andy 6,930]

3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Clash of the Titans - Laurence Rosenthal 

This will always be my go to score, when I  want to listen to Rosenthal. Better than Young Indiana Jones. Better than Horner's Krull, that came shortly afterwards for the same kind of fantasy genre.

Krull definitely has flourishes that remind me of Clash.  I’m not sure if I’d agree it’s better than Krull… but it might be. 
 

I love a score like this where a composer gets a project that truly inspires them to swing for the fences and go wild.  Rosenthal’s most rousing and thrilling work and it ain’t even close. 
 

My favorite theme, more than the Main Title, is the Pegasus Theme.  Lyrical and soaring, it fits the delicate mythical beauty of the character like a glove. 

[Edmilson 11,476]

Let's have some fun with math!

 

@Ollie posted the first post on this thread on October 13, 2010 - a Wednesday. That was exactly 5,066 days ago.

 

This means this thread had an average of approx. 9.87 posts per day since its inception. If we keep this average, we'll reach post 75,000 on August 3rd, 2031, post 100,000 on July 10th, 2038 and  post 150,000 on May 23rd, 2052.

 

Who knows, maybe post 100,000 will be a review of the John Williams Star Wars box by Mike Matessino. 

 

Another fun fact: the first score reviewed for this thread was Alien: Ressurection by John Frizzel, the 2CD La La Land version. The person who wrote it was @OneBuckFilms.

 

[Andy 6,930]

I fucking love Edmilson Math. 

[Jay 44,818]

From one point of view, the thread actually goes back way longer than that.  Back in the day, the mods used to close threads after 100 pages (and back then, pages had 40 posts per page instead of 50).  So there are a series of "What Is the Last Score You LIstened To?" threads in the archives from before this one;  This one simply happened to the one going when we stopped locking threads after 100 pages.

 

And the "(Older Scores" parenthetical was only added it to maybe what, 5 years or so ago when we started doing split threads for score and film discussion?

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

You are correct.  There are 50 posts per page.  So the last post on page 1,000 is the 50,000th post of the thread.

 

Y2K flashbacks intensify.

[Jurassic Shark 15,940]

The icing on the cake is that the 50.000th post was Thor not particularly caring for an OST.

[GerateWohl 6,369]

Anyway, a good opportunity to praise Thor's efforts to bring some diversity into this community and to widen our narrow perspectives on movie scores by his wonderful almost daily one liner reviews on scores apart from mainstream in this thread.

Thank you @Thor!

[Edmilson 11,476]

On 03/01/2019 at 11:41 AM, crocodile said:

 The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse. 2011 was an excellent year for John Williams fans. Both albums are hugely enjoyable.

 

Karol

Also, congratulations to @crocodile for having the most liked post of this thread! 

 

He posted it in January of 2019 (almost five years and eight months ago) his post praising the 2011 John Williams scores that garnered 9 likes  

[Jurassic Shark 15,940]

And one thinking emoji.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

Screw your thinking emoji, Sharky.

There is no bad John Williams score. There is only degrees brilliance.

[Andy 6,930]

 

I’ve heard Escape from the Planet of the Apes since the suite on the Varèse, but that Main Title never fails to be gripping, almost shocking with its jagged percussion and bizarre orchestration like the steel drum hits.  It’s a powerhouse the rest of the score has trouble matching in dramatic intensity.  But it’s all good because it’s a nice concise score, with plenty of groovy riffs and even some tenderness.  Interesting how Jerry adapted with the times, creating a contemporary score with rock grooves and moog synth of the era.  Although Jerry never went disco, I’d argue his synth soundscapes of the 80s were concurrent with the popular sounds of synth in pop and commercial music.  Did Jerry score anything else that sounds groovy like this?

 

 

First time listen!  I’d seen the Secret of Nimh in the theater as a kid, but never since.  I think my expectations were too high for this because I found it good but not great. The Flying Dreams song is admittedly an ear worm that had me humming it after it was over.  But none of the other themes really stood out.  Much of this sounded like unreleased cues from Poltergeist, and that’s not a bad thing.  I enjoyed it, but it’s not the masterpiece Poltergeist is.  
 

 

Why, oh why am I drawn to Brian May scores like Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr?  This sounds like it could’ve been music for an 80s television series, likely because of the ensemble size and the dry recording.  I just really enjoy May’s light on the feet style, which recalls some of the crisp action music from Arthur B. Rubinstein’s score for WarGames.   This is no great work of art, but instead a fine diversion when I crave something plucky and accessible. 

[filmmusic 2,916]

 

Goldsmith on auto-pilot.

[Andy 6,930]

I listened to the 30 minute OST last week and while I don’t disagree there wasn’t much I found innovative, it was a satisfying listen at that length. 

[GerateWohl 6,369]

James Horner - Patriot Games (OST)

 

Hm. I must say, I find it quite repetitive. 

Are the vocal pieces composed by Horner or adaptations of existing traditionals? 

And then there is the music from Aliens in track 8.

Maybe I will warm up with it in the far future. But probably not enough to long for the expansion. 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

56 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

And then there is the music from Aliens in track 8.

 

There's been music from ALIENS on Horner scores, ever since ALIENS 

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

9 hours ago, Andy said:

Although Jerry never went disco, I’d argue his synth soundscapes of the 80s were concurrent with the popular sounds of synth in pop and commercial music.  Did Jerry score anything else that sounds groovy like this?

 

This sounds disco-ish to me?

 

I don't think any of his other works beat the grooviness of Escape, but The Prize (written 8 years earlier) is similiar, or at least parts of it are, as far as I remember - it's been years since I last listened to it.

 

9 hours ago, Andy said:

First time listen!  I’d seen the Secret of Nimh in the theater as a kid, but never since.  I think my expectations were too high for this because I found it good but not great. The Flying Dreams song is admittedly an ear worm that had me humming it after it was over.  But none of the other themes really stood out.  Much of this sounded like unreleased cues from Poltergeist, and that’s not a bad thing.  I enjoyed it, but it’s not the masterpiece Poltergeist is.

 

Give it some time. It may not be Poltergeist (what is), but it's a brilliant score in its own way. Aside from the song and theme (which I like, but many find grating), the dramatic underscore is the score's strength.

 

Take these two for example:

 

 

Pretty hardcore for a children's film. The first cue contains a Rite of Spring-ish bit that would later reappear in The Mummy, and the climax of the second cue sounds like a bridge between The Final Conflict and Legend.

[Andy 6,930]

Thank you! Yeah I’m sure given some familiarity, I’ll come around to appreciate NIMH more. 
 

Ive never heard Coma!  Gotta rectify that!

[Tom Guernsey 3,494]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

There's been music from ALIENS on Horner scores, ever since ALIENS 

Let’s face it… since before Aliens.

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

31 minutes ago, Andy said:

Ive never heard Coma!  Gotta rectify that!

 

Coma is classic avant-garde-ish 70s Goldsmith. The film is good, too, and has some of the most deliberate spotting of Goldsmith's career, so that also has my recommendation.

[Thor 9,334]

 

No point comparing it to Goldsmith's, this is a different beast. Love the religoso choral music (the characters' "inner drive"), and how it counterpoints starker string structures or even electronics for their very real predicament. Ebb and flow, give and take - like the escape attempts.

[Thor 9,334]

 

I never saw a single second of the show, but this is one of my go-to albums for loungey stuff -- perfect for Friday evenings with a little red wine in the glass.

[GerateWohl 6,369]

The Mummy - Jerry Goldsmith 

 

What a pleasant surprise. I had watched the movie when it came out and just recognized some desert music from Jerry. Then I heard the suite on the Blue Max rerecording album and didn't like that at all. But the album is great. Beautiful orchestral score. 

I understand why they went for Silvestri for the sequel. That has more of an Indiana Jones vibe. And Silvestri is better in that John Williams pastiche thing than Goldsmith. But The Mummy is a great authentic Goldsmith adventure score. Really like it.

[Thor 9,334]

 

I used to think David Helpling's Spotted Peccary stuff was a bit too New Age, even for my taste. But I've come around on him a little bit, especially via this excellent 2003 score that mixes Indian elements with various ambient elements. Some Rahman and Thomas Newman going on, with bursts of some EDM trends that were popular in the early 2000s. (If you're reading, LSH, I think this might be up your alley).

[Thor 9,334]

 

Awesome, melodic-funky synth score by David MICHAEL Frank (he apparently didn't use "Michael" back then in 1985). Slap bass heaven.

[Tallguy 6,686]

23 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

This sounds disco-ish to me?

 

I don't think any of his other works beat the grooviness of Escape, but The Prize (written 8 years earlier) is similiar, or at least parts of it are, as far as I remember - it's been years since I last listened to it.

 

 

Give it some time. It may not be Poltergeist (what is), but it's a brilliant score in its own way. Aside from the song and theme (which I like, but many find grating), the dramatic underscore is the score's strength.

 

Take these two for example:

 

 

Pretty hardcore for a children's film. The first cue contains a Rite of Spring-ish bit that would later reappear in The Mummy, and the climax of the second cue sounds like a bridge between The Final Conflict and Legend.

 

Not that NIMH is ever very far from my playlist. But I listened to it yesterday with as fresh a pair of ears as I could give it. I listen to this all the time. Poltergeist not so much.

 

I realized this might be Goldsmith trying to be his most accessible. He's not trying to be clever. He's not trying to be challenging. (Ridiculously broad statements by me, I know.) It's like he's almost in the John Williams pocket. This doesn't sound anything like Williams, or even have a Williams vibe. But while this is certainly a crowd pleaser it's never as simple as, say, Hoosiers or Rudy. (I love Hoosiers and Rudy.) The emotion on display is unusual for Goldsmith. Like I said: Kinda Williams-y.

 

I don't have the vocabulary for this, but there are times when I listen to Superman or The Empire Strikes Back where I think "There is no way that he has to be working this hard. A score half this complex would have made an audience just as happy." That's how I feel about a lot of NIMH.

 

Spoiler

 

2:20 - Those horns!

 

 

 

0:37 - This is some of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith action music.

 

Oh, and his music for Jeremy the Crow is some of the only "goofy music" that I can stand.

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

35 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I realized this might be Goldsmith trying to be his most accessible. He's not trying to be clever. He's not trying to be challenging. (Ridiculously broad statements by me, I know.) It's like he's almost in the John Williams pocket. This doesn't sound anything like Williams, or even have a Williams vibe. But while this is certainly a crowd pleaser it's never as simple as, say, Hoosiers or Rudy. (I love Hoosiers and Rudy.) The emotion on display is unusual for Goldsmith. Like I said: Kinda Williams-y.

 

Sort of his 80s counterpart of The Great Train Robbery.

[Tallguy 6,686]

5 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Sort of his 80s counterpart of The Great Train Robbery.

 

I have never been able to get into that score. But I see your point.

[Edmilson 11,476]

The Graint Train Robbery is awesome. Certainly in my top 10 Goldsmith action scores (and the competition among those is fierce).

[Tom Guernsey 3,494]

53 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Not that NIMH is ever very far from my playlist. But I listened to it yesterday with as fresh a pair of ears as I could give it. I listen to this all the time. Poltergeist not so much.

 

I realized this might be Goldsmith trying to be his most accessible. He's not trying to be clever. He's not trying to be challenging. (Ridiculously broad statements by me, I know.) It's like he's almost in the John Williams pocket. This doesn't sound anything like Williams, or even have a Williams vibe. But while this is certainly a crowd pleaser it's never as simple as, say, Hoosiers or Rudy. (I love Hoosiers and Rudy.) The emotion on display is unusual for Goldsmith. Like I said: Kinda Williams-y.

 

I don't have the vocabulary for this, but there are times when I listen to Superman or The Empire Strikes Back where I think "There is no way that he has to be working this hard. A score half this complex would have made an audience just as happy." That's how I feel about a lot of NIMH.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

2:20 - Those horns!

 

 

 

0:37 - This is some of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith action music.

 

Oh, and his music for Jeremy the Crow is some of the only "goofy music" that I can stand.

I mean. All of that. I love NIMH*. It’s Jerry does Ravel and who wouldn’t want that?!
 

*minor caveat being that I find the song rather cloying but that’s more a performance/recording issue for me than the melody which is gorgeous.

[crocodile 9,488]

NIMH is gorgeous. I hope one day we get a truly complete release.

 

Karol

[Edmilson 11,476]

Elmer Bernstein - Heavy Metal

 

 

A very old fashioned score, even for the 1980s. It is certainly a curious strategy to combine 80s rock and heavy metal songs with a score more reminiscent of the 1950s epics. But I haven't seen the movie, only have very vague memories of my father watching it while I was a little kid. Either way, if you like 50s fantasy and sword and sandals music you'll like this.

 

Don Davis - House on the Haunted Hill

 

 

One of my favorite horror scores. Haven't listened to it in years and revisiting it it was nice to discover that it has a lot more going on than "huge and dark orchestra and choir". It also includes rock and electronic music in some cues, in others what seems to be a pastiche of classical. But the highlight of the score is when Davis puts his choir to shout and scream accompanied by some violent orchestra reminiscent of his Sentinels music for The Matrix.

 

I really miss this Davis...

 

Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Ramin Djawadi, Lorne Balfe and Mel Wesson - Batman Begins (complete score)

 

 

I've been studying Zimmer's Bat-music over the last few days, especially the first two Nolan movies. For Begins it's nice to hear the complete scores while paying attention to which composer did what. JNH's music seems like a mix between his 90s thriller scores, The Sixth Sense and a very Unbreakable-ish love theme for Bruce and Rachel. He did a lot of the more emotional parts, but also two major action sequences. In a simplistic way it's kinda like JNH did Bruce Wayne while Hans Zimmer made Batman.

 

Zimmer got all the brooding Batman material, mixing stuff from Heavy Rain, his 2000s style with a lot more of dissonant, electronic and ambient music that we were used from him back in 2005. Djawadi was responsible for the first part of the Ra's Al Ghul theme (Zimmer wrote the second, which is great but almost went unused in the movie). Balfe arranged Zimmer's themes and JNH material for action scenes, probably helped by HZ.

 

What striked me the most about Begins is to hear a lot of music that would become important in later movies. No, I'm not talking about the a motif heard in the training montage that would become Batman's heroic theme in TDK and TDKR. I'm talking about literal Begins cues that were re-used almost note for note in the other two. The most glaring example: JNH's Temple Fight and Bruce Left for Dead were rearranged for the scene where Batman and the police are trying to rescue Harvey and Rachel while the Joker explodes the Gotham PD.

 

It is always kind of odd that for these Bat-flicks Zimmer and JNH wrote a bunch of theme suites and cues for Begins, then on TDK JNH did the Harvey Dent scenes and Zimmer wrote the Joker theme and a new Batman suite, but left huge important setpieces to be scored by Lorne Balfe using their themes for the two movies, in sometimes almost repeating in the sequel cues from Begins. And I'm pretty sure for TDKR was the same thing.

 

For example, the little bit below:

 

 

which is used when the Police Station is blown up, I was kind of surprised of learning that it was a Batman/Bruce theme written by JNH. 

 

Why let the additional composers arrange your suites and movie 1 cues for the most important scenes in the movie? Were Hans & James too busy writing the Joker and Harvey suites?

 

It's kinda like if John Williams scored the battles of Hoth and Endor with only with material from A New Hope's The Last Battle and Tie Fighter Attack mixed with some Imperial March here and there to avoid it looking like a complete reprise. It's a very strange way of scoring a movie series.

[bollemanneke 4,249]

The specialist, Barry. Really liking this album so far, minus the reverb that was obviously added post-recording.

[The Score Cleaner 9,299]

@Edmilson Have you checked out the guide TheGreyPilgrim posted a few years back?

[Edmilson 11,476]

20 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

@Edmilson Have you checked out the guide TheGreyPilgrim posted a few years back?

Of Batman Begins you say? I don't think I came across that. Could be interesting.

[The Score Cleaner 9,299]

Ok, turns out it might have actually been Inception? And it's gone now. Oops! 🤦

 

Edit: okay there was one for TDKR:

 

 

[Edmilson 11,476]

Sigh. I don't understand why people make sure to delete all the quality posts they make here instead of leaving them for posterity. Was he ashamed of what he wrote?

[thestat 497]

Auto-pilot, I think not:

 

The downbeat trumpet stylings, even a detour into soppy JG happy-land, the magic is with the synths - which are awesome.

[Jay 44,818]

On 02/09/2024 at 3:07 PM, Edmilson said:

Sigh. I don't understand why people make sure to delete all the quality posts they make here instead of leaving them for posterity.

 

I never understood that either.

[Andy 6,930]

 

War Horse FYC

 

I can’t say I listen to the OST frequently, but this was a delight.  Is it me, or does the FYC contain more emphasis on the Bonding theme?  What is it about that theme that just grabs you by the heartstrings?  I found its use in the trailer incredibly effective and memorable. 
 

 

 

This score has quite a few lovely pastoral themes and motifs, so while it may not be Williams at his most innovative, it’s wholly accessible. A good heaping of comfort food, this one. 

 

 

 

 

[The Score Cleaner 9,299]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

 

War Horse FYC

 

I can’t say I listen to the OST frequently, but this was a delight.  Is it me, or does the FYC contain more emphasis on the Bonding theme?  What is it about that theme that just grabs you by the heartstrings?  I found its use in the trailer incredibly effective and memorable. 
 

 

 

This score has quite a few lovely pastoral themes and motifs, so while it may not be Williams at his most innovative, it’s wholly accessible. A good heaping of comfort food, this one. 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully some Sessions leaked, so we don't have to deal with all the microedits

[filmmusic 2,916]

Didn't know where to post this:

Does anyone know if Paolo Vivaldi has written other religious scores besides Barabba? Maybe @Thor?

I'm searching his filmography at imdb but I can't find anything.

Also, I'm just listening to this exceptional music, which I assume is a concert work.

 

[Thor 9,334]

Not that I'm aware of. I've encountered him on a few occasions, and I think we got a promo of LA VITA PROMESSA once, but I'm wholly unfamiliar with his output as a whole to answer your question, I'm afraid.