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

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

I like the finale, but the rest... Meh.

[Romão 2,274]

The Specialist, definitively

[Sir Hilary Bray 235]

My original Star Wars [New Hope] CD arrived and thus it's that. The 2CD from 1990 (the first CD release I believe). Like the films, sort of used to the Special Edition way of things -in this case the track listings. If anything I like the cover. Plain but cool.

[publicist 4,643]

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

My original Star Wars [New Hope] CD arrived and thus it's that. The 2CD from 1990 (the first CD release I believe). Like the films, sort of used to the Special Edition way of things -in this case the track listings. If anything I like the cover. Plain but cool.

Every once in a while, I revisit that one. I still prefer the Anthology overall, but fuck if the original LP isn't perfect.

Anyway, I've been listening to Congo all day. What an awesome score. As far as African-themed scores go, I think Goldsmith's here is the best.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It's a great score, but Hans used Lebo M the best. Tears Of The Sun takes the cake in that regard, for me.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Congo a great score?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

One of his best.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You have got to be fucking kidding me!

It's nice, but completely mediocre 90's Goldsmith.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

One of his best my favorites.

Better?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

You have got to be fucking kidding me!

It's nice, but completely mediocre 90's Goldsmith.

I really disagree with you. It's in my top Goldsmith scores.

[publicist 4,643]

We got fuckin' CONGO complete but still no GHOST AND THE DARKNESS. How's that for a proof that the world is insane...

[Quintus 5,399]

Congo! We've got Congo here!

See nobody cares.

[Incanus 5,715]

We got fuckin' CONGO complete but still no GHOST AND THE DARKNESS. How's that for a proof that the world is insane...

Yup. The lion music from that score is freakin' badass!

Goldsmith really excellently pulls off his musical mixture of Irish/English and African styles in this score. The Rudy styled slightly Irish main theme interspersed with the African chants is just classic Goldsmith and as I said the music of the lions, the violent orchestral stuff and the eerie chanting make for a captivating contrast.

[Quintus 5,399]

Is the Ghost and the Darkness ost a bit threadbare? That was a fine score in a cracker of a movie!

[Incanus 5,715]

I think the OST focused more on the nicely harmonic Irish flavoured main theme and left off a lot of the edgier and scary lion hunt music.

[crocodile 8,018]

I have yet to hear the score, apart from few random bits.

Karol

[publicist 4,643]

GHOST AND THE DARKNESS was substantially rewritten and actually ate scoring time off FIRST CONTACT. I'd wager that Goldsmith recorded around 90 minutes so the score proper runs around 58 minutes in the movie but there are lots of alternates which must be part in the upcoming release. Or damn you, Intrada!

[Incanus 5,715]

GHOST AND THE DARKNESS was substantially rewritten and actually ate scoring time off FIRST CONTACT. I'd wager that Goldsmith recorded around 90 minutes so the score proper runs around 58 minutes in the movie but there are lots of alternates which must be part in the upcoming release. Or damn you, Intrada!

Interesting. I didn't know that Goldsmith had to rewrite that much stuff or that the schedules of the two scores overlapped. I somehow missed that it was The Ghost and the Darkness that took away time from scoring the First Contact.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You know nothing, Mikko!

[Incanus 5,715]

You know nothing, Mikko!

I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves... Men... and Orcs yet

[Quintus 5,399]

Overlapping doesn't negatively affect Goldsmith scores. As you can see with First Contact.

[crocodile 8,018]

Oh, but it did. First Contact is not very good, his weakest Trek.

Karol

[Quintus 5,399]

There you go again. Koray? Is that you?

I'm not a trekkie by any measure but I own that score.

[crocodile 8,018]

Has great theme and a couple of good cues. The rest puts me to sleep. Insurrection and Nemesis are both superior.

Karol

[Incanus 5,715]

Has great theme and a couple of good cues. The rest puts me to sleep. Insurrection and Nemesis are both superior.

Karol

I disagree. It is engaging throughout and Joel and Jerry's music flow quite seamlessly.

That said I like both Insurrection and Nemesis quite a bit. Final Frontier trumps them both however.

[Quintus 5,399]

Parts of First Contact actually give me goosebumps. I mean, it's fuckin' Star Trek! That's not supposed to happen!

[crocodile 8,018]

Which parts?

Karol

[Quintus 5,399]

Off the top of my head: The Dish through to First Contact (with the ost omitted heroic Next Gen theme statement during the climax).

[Incanus 5,715]

The near-religioso hymn of the First Contact theme is in any form quite sublime and again Jerry distilled perfectly the noblility and beautiful significance of this story element into musical form. I really like the way he always found this warm emotional human element, which actually is at the heart of Star Trek, in these stories so full of futuristic gadgets, tech jargon and odd characters.

[crocodile 8,018]

It is all true, but that one theme doesn't carry the whole score for me.

Karol

[Incanus 5,715]

It is all true, but that one theme doesn't carry the whole score for me.

Karol

I also dig the Borg music. That suspense stuff has held its charm very well through the years for me. I recently got the complete release and I really enjoy the half-electronic, half-organic soundscapes Goldsmith creates both with the motifs and just with specific signature sounds for the biomechanical race and their queen.

[Quintus 5,399]

Yeah, the earlier Borg suspense material has a nice B-movie feel to it, like something out of the old fifties paranoia sci-fi movies.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

First Contact (together with Air Force One a bit later) shows Jerry Goldsmith's utter craftsmanship in that he creates a score that not only perfectly adequate, but actually enhances the film quite a lot, despite beinng written in a very short amount of time.

The theme is one of Jerry's best. The Borg material is effective and he makes clever use of a secondary theme from Star Trek 5 as a sort of connective tissue for the score without making it feel like it doesn't belong there.

Goldsmith wisely concentrates on the parts of the score that require his delicate touch and leaves much of the action bombast to his son. Who does actually deliver quite well on that department.

Even though this is a rush job, and in some instances it does show, Jerry makes sure that the score never shortchanges when it comes to the emotional core of the film.

[Incanus 5,715]

Creation by Christopher Young: The composer should get to try his teeth on drama more often as the results are nothing short of beautiful, lyrical and haunting.

[publicist 4,643]

Beltrami, Snowpiercer

I honor of the WITLMYW-thread; four key pieces are wonderful, mainly the beginning and ending, in between it gets a bit non-descript but it surely is among the good entries of 2014 (though completed in 2013).

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Journey - Austin Wintory

[Faleel 5,359]

Star Wars - John Williams

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Don't you mean-

Star Wars - Michael Towner Giacchino

?

[crocodile 8,018]

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I kind of both like and dislike this one. On one hand, it doesn't seem to carry any excitement and doesn't necessarily stick in your head. One the other hand, it's hard to dismiss all the detail that went into it. All the themes and instrumentations. The carried over elements from Gregson-Williams (synths, ethnic instruments) are well handled and Arnold manages to incorporate all of that into a more purely orchestral environment. The generic Narnia theme (or MV adventure theme, rather) never sounded better than in Arnold's arrangement.

Karol

[Jay 37,373]

John Williams - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (OST)

The OST seems so short to me now, and the loss of the chamber theme in actual underscore is a crying shame!

[Incanus 5,715]

Journey - Austin Wintory

Very good.

Star Wars - John Williams

Excellent.

John Williams - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The OST seems so short to me now, and the loss of the chamber theme in actual underscore is a crying shame!

Isn't that the feeling with all JWs wall-to-wall efforts for us obsessive fans?

But yes the lack of Chamber of Secrets Theme in the underscore in the film is really a shame. In fact I wish Williams had used it in several section where he uses his old material from HPPS. I love the concert suite of that melody.

[Drawgoon 100]

Thomas Newman - Angels in America

I listened to some of my favorite cues (namely "Threshold of Revelation", "Ellis Island", "Ozone", "Bayeux Tapestry", "Mauve Antarctica", "Bethesda Fountain", and "Tropopause") the other night. I had all the lights out but the room wasn't really dark thanks to the street lights. That music, some nice warm cup of chocomilk, and the calm atmosphere of the house really helped me cool down after the long and stressful day I had. Kudos to Thomas Newman.

[crocodile 8,018]

One of his best, no doubt.

Karol

[Incanus 5,715]

Indeed. It is like everything lovable about the composer is put into one neat package. I adore the main title theme and would have loved to hear more of it on the album.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,552]

"What kind of homosexual are you? That ain't purple it's mauve".

A great score from an absolutely magnificent programme!

[Jay 37,373]

John Williams - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (OST)

I forgot how lovely the Window to the Past theme is

[Naïve Old Fart 9,552]

aka: "Jane Eyre's Theme".

[Jay 37,373]

No.

[Incanus 5,715]

aka: "Jane Eyre's Theme".

Nonsense. Same stylistic ground perhaps but not the same theme by a long shot.

And yes it is one of Williams' most beautiful themes in the noughties. I know I am stating the obvious but the score needs a complete release quite badly. The album is not one of JWs best arrangements. Especially the note-for-note repetition of a lot of the material found on the CD in the end credits is of particular fault.

El Cid by Miklós Rózsa (Tadlow re-recording): Vintage Rózsa with intoxicating and rousing musical architecture full of passion and intricacy. I have to say this might be my favourite score by the composer and the Tadlow presentation is a must have for any fan of his.