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

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

No

[Jay 37,369]

Here's your chance!

 

https://open.spotify.com/album/35N2paA3Tb44f0a3beEU3V

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I don't Spotify.

[Jay 37,369]

It's a really nice, free, legal way to check out film scores you haven't heard before

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Why would I wanna listen to A Christmas Carol in December anyway?

 

Pavlovian bullshit!

[Incanus 5,715]

Abzû by Austin Wintory: This one has been getting steady listens. Still among the best of the year. This guy should be scoring all these big blockbusters. While not exactly holiday music this one contains such beautiful and lyrical atmosphere it is perfect to settle me into relaxed holiday mood.

 

Home Alone (LLL 25th Anniversary Edition) by John Williams: Ah such a holiday classic and always gets me into Christmas mood. Doing all the decorating and preparations goes all the easier with this as the soundtrack for Christmas bustle in our household.

 

The Nativity Story by Mychael Danna: A completely different kind of Christmas score but among Danna's very best with such stupendous mix of influences but still coming through it all as a unified whole where each part complements the other. The score boasts superb vocal music and on the whole is perhaps conceptually more spiritual and subtextually deeper musical response to Christmas than your average Hollywood epic.

 

The Thief of Bagdad (Tadlow/Prometheus re-recording) by Miklós Rózsa: Almost Korngoldian in its playfulness, this might be considered the composer's top fantasy/adventure score full of colour, energy, whimsy and sprightly thematic interplay in the best Golden Age fashion. At times the atmosphere brings to mind some of the Romantic greats like the Russian master of colour Tchaikovsky. The restored songs and additional material unearthed for this re-recording from the Syracuse University library is masterfully prepared by Leigh Phillips and performed with their customary gusto by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, who have become really adept in recreating the musical ambience of Rózsa's lively music. Another suitably glowing release to brighten the Yuletide.

[Jay 37,369]

Yesterday at work I had a lot of work to do, so instead of picking different things to listen to throughout the day I made a big playlist on Spotify in the morning and listened to that.  I dunno how I chose what I chose, but what I put on it was:

 

Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes

 

I thought Varese had this score in perpetuity since 1998, but this release is credited to"Project 3" dated 2015, but is the 1992 Intrada program (which was basically the 1968 LP with "The Hunt" added in).  Anyways, this score is just so cool, such wacky instrumentation I haven't really heard used again since.  Does anyone know if the 1998 Varese CD can be improved upon, IE by a sonic upgrade (better elements) or additional unused/alternate music? (I know it contains everything you can hear in the film)

 

Jerry Goldsmith - Alien

 

The OST album.  I love the mood this score creates, regardless of which presentation you listen to the score just sucks you in

 

James Horner - Aliens

 

The Varese DE.  When listening back to back you pit up on little orchestral things JH did to reference the original score.  The highlights of this score or unquestionably the action cues, but there's so much good stuff in the in between stuff too!

 

James Horner - Humanoids From The Deep

 

Hehe, in many ways, this is like a prototype Aliens score, or like a low budget version of Aliens.  It does't feature the same level of action music, but has similar suspense / horror music.  Its pretty good.

 

James Horner - Battle Beyond the Stars

 

And this is kind of like a low budget Star Wars / Krull.  There isn't much here that excites me, because he would redo it all better later.

 

Basil Poledouris - Robocop

 

Releases credited to Orion Pictures Corporation 2015, but is actually the Intrada program.  I programmed out the 4 source cues, just listened to the score.  Still great!

 

Danny Elfman - Mission: Impossible

 

It was the OST program.  Love every minute of it.

 

Joseph LoDuca - Army of Darkness

 

The OST.  This score is like a forgotten 90s classic, isn't it?  The whole score is good, lots of different ideas in this score, but its all cohesive.  I'm starting to realize that more of it was influenced by Danny Elfman than the single cue he penned for this.  Good stuff here.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

James Horner - Battle Beyond the Stars

 

And this is kind of like a low budget Star Wars / Krull.  There isn't much here that excites me, because he would redo it all better later.

 

Very energetic score though. and I love the way the orchestra completely loses it on one of the tracks.

 

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

Basil Poledouris - Robocop

 

Releases credited to Orion Pictures Corporation 2015, but is actually the Intrada program.  I programmed out the 4 source cues, just listened to the score.  Still great!

 

Good release of an outstanding score. But the source cues should have been included as bonus tracks. They don't work in the main program at all.

[crocodile 8,017]

Elfman's score is absolutely fantastic. Now this is how you pay homage and yet completely change the game. And he seems to enjoy playing with other people's material.

 

Listened to The Lost World while contemplating English countryside from a train window earlier. Strange juxtaposition. The pastoral fields scored with jungle drums.

 

Karol - now listening to Broughton's Miracle on 34th Street

[Jay 37,369]

16 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Good release of an outstanding score. But the source cues should have been included as bonus tracks. They don't work in the main program at all.

 

Source cues rarely do, IMO. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Cantina Band is one of the few where I never had the urge to move it

[Jay 37,369]

I keep the Cantina Band cues where they are in Star Wars... I programmed Cartoon Demonstration (Stalling Around) into the chronological order in Jurassic Park...but I have no need for the source cues to be in the main program of Robocop, Back to the Future, The Rocketeer...

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes

 

I thought Varese had this score in perpetuity since 1998, but this release is credited to"Project 3" dated 2015, but is the 1992 Intrada program (which was basically the 1968 LP with "The Hunt" added in).  Anyways, this score is just so cool, such wacky instrumentation I haven't really heard used again since.  Does anyone know if the 1998 Varese CD can be improved upon, IE by a sonic upgrade (better elements) or additional unused/alternate music? 

 

More music maybe (probably nothing substantial) but for the sound i remember Nick Redman once explained how the tinny strings sadly are what they are on a lot of Fox releases around the time. The way they were recorded unfortunately can't be amended by technology.

 

As for seasonal scores that are suitably and hopelessly mellow/sentimental this is one i always love to come back to:

 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Unusually sentimental for you, Pub!

[publicist 4,643]

Not really. I regularly post such disarming evidence of my soft interior.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I bet you watch YouTube vids of fluffy kittens every day!

[publicist 4,643]

Cat content brings me endless pleasure.

[Simon McBride 113]

The Ten Commandments-Elmer Bernstein

 

Still as good as ever.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country complete score

Star Trek: Insurrection complete score

Home Alone complete score

Batman Returns complete score

Hook complete score

 

I can't explain it, but I think Hook may now be my favorite Williams score. We're JWFan official.

[publicist 4,643]

A german friend did this documentary about refugees in Germany: it's a chamber-sized work for strings and harp and it's very good, in a Johnny-Greenwood-sort of way. And the topic is one we might think about much more in the coming years. Merry christmas to all...

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,547]

23 hours ago, Jay said:

Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes 

I thought Varese had this score in perpetuity since 1998, but this release is credited to"Project 3" dated 2015, but is the 1992 Intrada program (which was basically the 1968 LP with "The Hunt" added in).  Anyways, this score is just so cool, such wacky instrumentation I haven't really heard used again since.  Does anyone know if the 1998 Varese CD can be improved upon, IE by a sonic upgrade (better elements) or additional unused/alternate music? (I know it contains everything you can hear in the film)

 

...and, if memory serves, a bit more, besides.

POTA was the first JG album that I bought. My family listened to it, and just didn't get it. For me, it was like water meeting a duck.

I know almost nothing of the recording details, and I'm not exactly sure what could be done with the sound (new masters from the 35mm film?)

If you want an "alternate" POTA, go to Jerry Goldsmith Online, and listen to a re-recording of the score. It's good.

[Wojo 2,453]

If memory serves me, memory's all I need. 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

[Simon McBride 113]

21 minutes ago, Rose Dawson said:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

 

Good Score

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

56 minutes ago, Hawmy said:

Good Score

 

 

Yes.

[KK 3,307]

The Nativity Story by Mychael Danna

The Gospel of John by Jeff Dana

Passengers by Thomas Newman

Jane Eyre by Dario Marianelli

 

[publicist 4,643]

Two equally (and wonderfully) indulgent christmas listens:

 

 

At first i was afraid of too much anachronistic 1940's cuteness - the fairy tale setting kind of invites it and i can't stand Max Steiner and Korngold's more mickey-mousy efforts - but Rózsa for the most part elegantly sails around that. What's more, the thematic treasure trove opened up by filling in instrumental voices for the song alternates makes the melodies finally come to life without recalling third-rate operettas, a problem that plagued the otherwise superb Bernstein re-recording from the 70's with its throatlump baritones.

 

Stylistically it's a cross between Rimsky-Korsakoff (Sheherezade) and pure Rozsa, full of palace processions, horsemen fanfares, brimming with little side melodies and yearning love themes plus kept-in-check dramatic shenanigans that could go overboard in Rózsa's more 'serious' efforts like 'Ben-Hur' or 'El Cid': it's all light on its feet. It's prototypical Rózsa, of course, in that its obvious that he might respond to the images on the screen but remains first and foremost a voice dedicated to creating a serious musical work within the confines of movie scoring. 

 

It might be a dubious comparison but my recent struggle with 'Star Wars: Rogue One' sprung exactly from the total lack of such pretensions: today it has come to a point where rough approximation is enough, forget finer points of counterpoint, instrumental timbres or basic compositional ability to create a larger idiomatic parenthesis in which your work resides. We are almost lost for composers who write for films but are saddled with 'film music specialists' (Rózsa's own derogatory words) and while i give MG benefit of the doubt here (he at least is enthusiastic about the things he does), the sad fact remains that enthusiasm alone can't make up for solid craftmanship.

 

Back to Bagdad: it's also almost 2,5-hours full of (often totally different) alternates and concert versions, so for the price you really can't lose.

 

 

Another one for the season: 'Home Alone 2' (a soulless filmic retread if there ever was one) loses one or two points for the lack of the charmingly unique chamber music approach of the first one but also is a musical landmark in Williams' career inasmuch it is 'Home Alone 2' that is referenced (and quoted verbatim) in i. e. his later Potter scores as well as the more recent 'Tintin' and 'The BFG'.

 

Best described as a bridging work between then and now it features a special sheen and orchestral splendour that wasn't absent in JW's work before it but kind of seals the deal on his Prokoviev/Tchaikovsky/Broadway persona with the ego to engage every orchestral section with extensive festive flourishes, elaborate scherzos and marches and a cabinet full of side melodies that are strict indulgences, musically (most of them are not really needed, dramatically speaking, but are extremely enjoyable in their own right when you are in the mood).

 

The Big Apple, at least the part 'HA 2' cares to show, glitters with glockenspiel, celesta and bells like an elaborate Christmas gift package and alone merits three or four distinct melodic ideas, a honour bestowed even to the most inconsequential bellboy, really (makes you wonder why Trump's cameo goes musically unnoticed).

 

The scarier parts are handled in much the same way and it's here that the Potter comparisons really come to the fore: just listen to 'HA 2's 'Haunted Brownstone' cue and almost the whole Potter universe, at least of parts one and deux, opens up in your ears. Like the movie, the score works hard but stays out its welcome in the final painful half an hour with increasingly shocking booby traps that might be modeled on old Tom & Jerry cartoons but somehow make you feel like watching a dry run for 'Saw I-V'. Williams mickey-mouses heavily here and while he is not above reusing prior 'HA' cues there is new material for at least 3 further movies (thankfully John Hughes never became that desperate). 

 

Adding two big christmas tunes to the mix (probably aborted ideas from movie one) this one feels like the meal ticket with a wide collection of pastries and deserts piled on top. It's nothing you could or should have every day - not even every week - but life would be just a tad less rewarding without indulgences so 'Home Alone 2' gets some credit from me for doing it right long before its more famous cousins arrived 10 years later.

[Incanus 5,715]

Always by John Williams

 

The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection

 

Agatha Christie's Poirot by Christopher Gunning

 

The BFG by John Williams

[publicist 4,643]

Are you slowly turning into SelinaKyle aka RoseDawson?

[Incanus 5,715]

Nonsense! We all do have our favourites. JP and TLW are in steady rotation but I expect the initial mania to pass soon-ish.

 

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York by John Williams

 

Fracture by Mychael Danna: A pretty low key effort. Suitable reading accompaniment for a crime novel I received as a Christmas gift.

 

The Ghost Writer by Alexandre Desplat

[publicist 4,643]

But 'Always'? And it's not the second or third time!

[Incanus 5,715]

I have soft spot for James Thatcher's horn solos that is all.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

[publicist 4,643]

Rose you are slipping.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I would have gone overboard, but Mr. Williams here saved me.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Hell Or High Water

Mars

by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

 

My first listen of the latter a few months ago didn't leave much of an impression, but after the Hell Or High Water discussion in the movie thread, I decided to revisit it tonight. Perhaps I just wasn't paying attention earlier, but the score really opened up to me on this listen. It wasn't anything like I recalled it to be; much more lyrical and emotionally rich. Cave and Ellis are two of my favorite composers, and while I absolutely adore their work, I will admit that they are more or less one trick ponies. Similar to Philip Glass, each work feels of the same body, but damn if there isn't something about their sparse sound and style that really resonants with me. I'm tossing Mars up with my other two favorites of the year: Arrival and The Vessel.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Casper

 

I love it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,206]

Finally listening to the expanded Lost World. And I can suddenly remember how in 1997 I could think that this was the greatest score ever.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

It's been 19 years and I can still smell the fresh popcorn. The film had never been viewed, the music had never been listened to. The Lost World was called the greatest score ever. And it was. It really was.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

La La Land

 

Seems like this is the clear favorite for Best Original Score.  I actually really like it, would not mind if it won at all.  It is extremely effective in the film, even if it is sparse and incidental on the album.  Weird to actually support the winner of best original score, if this does indeed win.  Usually the winners just piss me off.  I've still got a lot of catching up to do otherwise, though.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Finally listening to the expanded Lost World. And I can suddenly remember how in 1997 I could think that this was the greatest score ever.

 

2 hours ago, Rose Dawson said:

It's been 19 years and I can still smell the fresh popcorn. The film had never been viewed, the music had never been listened to. The Lost World was called the greatest score ever. And it was. It really was.

 

Still listening to JP1. I'll get to JP2 soon.

[publicist 4,643]

 

'Willow' (the last time i heard it while being halfway passed out on the metro after a hard day's night) is an eternal favourite of mine. It just has everything that's great about James Horner punched into one big bag full of (rather sophisticated) fun. 

 

The cue 'Elora Danan' is one for the ages: i would not hesitate to put it in any Top 10 of film music's big achievements. What Horner constructs in this 10-minute opener, a marvel of musical storytelling that even manages to incorporate quotations from 300 years of music history without any stylistic breach (Mozart: Requiem, Rachmaninoff: 3rd Symphony, Janacek: Glagolitic Mass, Bartók: Cantata Profana, the bulgarian peasant song 'Mir Stranke Le' as the main theme), remains testament to his genius: only later that impression would start to crumble, here only the eternal nitpickers couldn't see the forest for the trees - while it is interesting to read about the vast variety of classical works Horner drew from, i never got the accusatory posture: would the 'Theme from Willow' really profit from having enough notes changed at the beginning to not resemble Schumann? It is idiomatically in the same ballpark, anyway, accept it or move on.

 

But apart from that there are also large parts of 'Willow' that sharply put into focus Horner's ability to distinguish himself from his mighty predecessors: regularly interrupting the romantic fabric are harsh interjections of dissonance and modern compositional techniques (being Horner, of course the Shakuhachi blasts and Penderecki are never far away) that put 'Willow' in a league of his own, never being just a backwards classical pastiche but a vital combination of all old and new of the musical heritage (it's clearly a score written by a studious albeit young-ish professor).

 

With all that said, 'Willow' remains probably Horner's magnum opus (it certainly isn't mawkish pop pap like 'Titanic') that should make us thankful he got a few opportunities to use this unique talent and being largely left to his own instincts. It's the one big expansion i crave and would order in a heartbeat - but the old 73-minute album remains a reference anyway.

 

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I've just listened to the whole new Jurassic Park. I think my favourite new piece is track 9 on disc one. I like the thump it has on my hi-fi.

 

Otherwise, it's too long. You could probably get s 40, maybe even 30 minute album from this.

[Jay 37,369]

6 hours ago, Daniel Clamp said:

I've just listened to the whole new Jurassic Park. I think my favourite new piece is track 9 on disc one. I like the thump it has on my hi-fi.

 

Track 9 on Disc 1 is "Jurassic Park Gate", which was on the OST.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It was? I couldn't remember that. I'm forgetting people's names too.

[Jay 37,369]

Absolutely it was.  It's track 13

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I know. I just forgot.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I just realized I already knew.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Try a couple of practice ones over there!

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Will this work?!

 

Hook

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Titanic