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

[Bespin 8,483]

Some classic Franz Waxman this morning from the superb Charles Gerhardt Album.

[Bespin 8,483]

Today, three fave of Jerry Goldsmith, from the 70/80s : Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979, Expanded), Gremlins (1984, Expanded) and Hoosiers (1986, Expanded).

[Thor 7,508]

 

This 2014 score put Nuno Malo on the map for me, as it did many others. It was a critical favourite at the time (I later hired Nuno to sit in a film music jury), and it's well-deserved. Elegant, orchestral crime waltz music that sweeps over you in waves. Muscular when it needs to. I don't believe he's bettered it since.

[Thor 7,508]

 

Jim Titus designed this old promo release for me several years ago (I also posted it in the Elfman thread awhile back). It's another obligatory Christmas album for me. Of course, I should rather play EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, but I'm very careful about playing that these days, as I almost killed my appreciation of it when it featured in my thesis in 2004. FAMILY MAN combines Elfman's beautiful, thematic writing of olden times with various contrapuntal ideas that he explored at the time. It's right there in the "cross section".

[Bespin 8,483]

Today I listen to three favourite scores by Howard Shore : The Return of the King OST, Ed Wood (Collector's Ed) and The Aviator OST.

[Bespin 8,483]

Excertps from Good Will Hunting Soundtrack by Danny Elfman (I don't own the expanded score).

 

[Bespin 8,483]

Which score to listen first with my new headphones?

 

E.T. (2017) of course!!!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

A score like this would be cool for

OPPENHEIMER!

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Spent my Christmas morning drive listening to the complete Hoosiers!  🎄 🇺🇸 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

007 double feature

FRWL

GOLDFINGER

 

LP PROGRAM

[Naïve Old Fart 9,534]

6 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Spent my Christmas morning drive listening to the complete Hoosiers!  🎄 🇺🇸 

An absolutely fantastic score!

[publicist 4,643]

On a belated note, Powder (also Goldsmith), Sarah Brightman recorded Goldsmith's super-saccharine (but beautiful) theme.

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Too saccharine for this fan.

Diabetics, beware.😉

[Naïve Old Fart 9,534]

Thanks for the tip, Bruce. Insulin standing by.

[Bespin 8,483]

I'm still in honeymoon with my new headphones, listening to some particular best-sounding albums of my collection

 

Danny Elfman - Batman Returns Expanded

Randy Newman - The Natural

Chailly, Nino Rota - The Fellini Album

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

5 hours ago, Bespin said:

I'm still in honeymoon with my new headphones, listening to some particular best-sounding albums of my collection

Randy Newman - The Natural

 

Try Randy Newman's Faust. That sounds just stunning (and it's perhaps his best work, too).

[Holko 9,526]

From pretty much every score I tried, I can't connect with or simply dislike Goldsmith's 80s style. Maybe I tried the wrong scores, the problem's probably with me, but I dislike the sound, very little grabs me, the cues just fly over me with no impact. STTMP all the way, I couldn't even finish STV.

 

 

But holy shit do I love Legend! Just completed my first full listen. A grand, gorgeous, fun fantasy adventure with just enough strangeness and drippy sappy pathos to balance each other out.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

If you like the style and sound of Legend, I can't see how any of his big hits from at least 82-84 could be a problem for you.

[Holko 9,526]

Hmm. Maybe that should be changed to "late 80s-early 90s style" and I should try more scores then.

[Jay 37,368]

Some of Jerry's best scores are from the first half of the 80s - Poltergeist, Twilight Zone The Movie, and Gremlins would be my recommendations

 

I haven't really gotten into Star Trek V yet either

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

1 hour ago, Holko said:

Hmm. Maybe that should be changed to "late 80s-early 90s style" and I should try more scores then.

 

Perhaps. Poltergeist and Night Crossing certainly are among his very best and still very much compatible with his 70s stuff. But then, right from 1990 you have Total Recall and Gremlins 2, and those are right at the top as well.

 

Star Trek V didn't fully click with me until the expansion. But since then I often think it's almost equal to STTMP.

[Bespin 8,483]

I chose, according to me, the best sounding experience albums from my collection to relisten to, with my new headphones.

 

For Jerry Goldsmith, I picked those:

 

(I erased "1989-Warlock" that added by mistake, the reissue is worth of mention, not the original CD)

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

18 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Try Randy Newman's Faust. That sounds just stunning (and it's perhaps his best work, too).

I would second the recommendation to hunt down Randy's version of Faust. It's kind of a concept album for the musical rather than a cast album, but it's a pretty stellar line-up from Randy as the Devil, James Taylor(!) as God, Elton John as an angel and Don Henley (off of the Eagles) as Faust. Oh and Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt too. I have fond memories of me and Mr Southall looking for it on our joint 21st birthday visit to New York a "couple" of years go. I think Randy had been (perhaps tongue in cheek) saying it was an opera and so were looking for it under the opera section of various CD stores (remember them?). I don't actually recall whether the disc was eventually purchased in NYC but whatever the case, my original copy has been superseded by a reissue which includes a second disc of demos with just Randy at the piano, also interjecting to explain the plot. Whichever you get, the songs are vintage Randy Newman, ranging from the gospel of Glory Train and How Great Our Lord to the utterly gorgeous Feels Like Home (which I think a Mr T Wogan used to play on his Radio 2 morning show on fairly regular rotation). Shame the show itself has never had a successful production...

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

8 hours ago, Holko said:

I dislike the sound, very little grabs me, the cues just fly over me with no impact

 

Similar to my feelings about his music.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

4 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

If you like the style and sound of Legend, I can't see how any of his big hits from at least 82-84 could be a problem for you.

In particular Secret of NIMH which is in a very similar, Ravel-inspired vein...

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Someone should have told Randy that FAUST has already been done...and done...ane done....😒😉

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Why do you think he called it "Randy Newman's Faust"?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

4 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

In particular Secret of NIMH which is in a very similar, Ravel-inspired vein...

Yes, I personally prefer NIMH to Legend as his best “fantasy adventure” score, although you obviously have to have a tolerance for more comedic/kids movie stuff in there

[bruce marshall 1,315]

OHMSS

expended edition.

3 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Why do you think he called it "Randy Newman's Faust"?

Because .......

I'm stumped.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

20 hours ago, Holko said:

From pretty much every score I tried, I can't connect with or simply dislike Goldsmith's 80s style. Maybe I tried the wrong scores, the problem's probably with me, but I dislike the sound, very little grabs me, the cues just fly over me with no impact. STTMP all the way, I couldn't even finish STV.

 

 

But holy shit do I love Legend! Just completed my first full listen. A grand, gorgeous, fun fantasy adventure with just enough strangeness and drippy sappy pathos to balance each other out.

You may also try Mom and Dad Save the World. Great music.

 

[Jay 37,368]

Still going through my CD collection

 

 

Danny Elfman - The Nightmare Before Christmas (10th anniversary 2CD edition)

 

I dunno how many people know about this; It's a 2-CD set.  Disc 1 is the same OST as always.  Disc 2 opens with 5 covers of songs by current (as of 2006) pop/rock artists (Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, Fall Out Boy, She Wants Revenge, Panic at the Disco), and then has the demo versions of many of the songs, which all feature Elfman playing all the parts.  But the really rare and unique thing was the normal edition you could buy anywhere had 4 demos (so a total of 9 tracks on disc 2), but if you bought it at Best Buy specifically, there were SIX demos (so 11 tracks on disc 2).  This was the only place to get these until eventually the demo version of every song was released in the Burton/Elfman box.

 

Mark McKenzie - The Greatest Miracle

 

Such a lovely score.  His years of orchestrating for the big guys paid off well!

 

 

John Barry - Raise the Titanic (COP re-recording)

 

My first time ever hearing this.  It's a nice score!  Some similarities to Dances With Wolves at times, and a cracking end title.  Oddly, the back of the CD case listed 16 tracks, but the actual CD only has 15, which I didn't realize until the end, so who knows at what point it got messed up.

 

The booklet has a write-up of what scenes each track accompanies, like a specialty label catalog release would do for a score expansion.  I didn't know until reading the booklet that the original scoring tapes have gone missing so a re-recording was the only way to get the score out at all, other than the final film's music&effects stem.

[Bespin 8,483]

It's time for making lists, here are my top 2021 new recordings/reissues/reprints:

• John Barry - Somewhere in Time
• James Horner - Glory
• James Horner - The Wrath of Khan (new edition)
• Jerry Goldsmith - The Russia House (reprint)
• Howard Shore - The Silence of the Lambs (reprint)
• John Williams - Images
• John Williams - Always
• John Williams - & The Presidents Own (new release, recordings made in 2003 and 2008)
• John Williams - The Eiger Sanction
• John Williams - Fiddler on The Roof (that I'll order in 2022!)

[Tallguy 3,395]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

It's time for making lists, here are my top 2021 new recordings/reissues/reprints

 

I was just thinking that I need to have a listen of all the 2021s. Since I rarely (never?) buy new titles I'm not sure what I should listen to. But for the old stuff I got Always, Eiger Sanction, and Wrath of Khan.

 

(Good grief. Was Bad Batch THIS year?)

 

Anyway, this morning: The Land Before Time

 

Wow. This might be just about the most Horner thing ever. I mean it's not like he didn't have a distinct enough style as it was. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving revisiting it. (Not sure why it hasn't been in my rotation for a while.)

 

This always messes up my timeline a bit since I didn't start listening to it (or watching it) until 1989. So I sometimes make the mistake of thinking he knocked out Field of Dreams, Glory, and this in the same year. (OK, even stretching to 1988 this was a crazy couple of years.) You know how you get those scores where you know just when you bought it and you remember exactly where you were when you listened to it? I'm a little surprised that I haven't been playing this and Always back to back like I did in the day. (And The Abyss. And Back to the Future II. AND THE LITTLE MERMAID! IT'S a 1989 RABBIT HOLE!)

[Jay 37,368]

Jerry Goldsmith - Chain Reaction (OST)

 

Ha!  A score that cannot be adequately summed up in 30 minutes.  It just... stops at a certain point, with no feeling of finality at all.  I liked what was here, though it was quite similar to Air Force One at times.  Will check out the expansion at some point

 

 

Basil Poledouris - Farewell to the King (Prometheus expansion)

 

Woah.  Nice score, I liked it a lot.  Interesting percussion at times (gamelan!), and nice string work.  There's good action music, waltzes, marches.... an eclectic score!  It made a nice inadvertent pairing with Raise the Titanic today because of its Barry-esque main theme.  This is a score I've completely neglected until now, but will certainly be listening to it more in the future!

The liner notes by Dan Goldwasser were really great, because he explains all the themes and what they represent, tells you enough about the movie to get what the music represents, and is chock full of great and interesting quotes from Poledouris himself.  Between this and the audio commentary on the Starship Troopers DVD I recently listened to, I am really loving hearing this man talk about film scoring!

[Bespin 8,483]

Discovering with a slight delay, The LOTR Symphony by Howard Shore.

 

Oh, I thing this album was a must of 2011!

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

26 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Discovering with a slight delay, The LOTR Symphony by Howard Shore.

 

Oh, I thing this album was a must of 2011!

 

The music is great but I'm always a bit disappointed that Shore didn't really fashion it into anything more than an extended set of concert suites. The content is very similar to the Silva Screen LOTR compilation, just more joined together. Given his recent concert output, it would be good if Shore could have reworked and developed the material more. Still, a fine selection of highlights though.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Stripes (Elmer Bernstein) - Having acquired the LLL upgrade, probably one of those scores where the additional tracks only marginally add to what was already there, if only because the Stripes march (good though it is) appears (at a guess) about 32,104,362,343 times and it does get a trifle wearing by the end. I mean, it's a fun Elmer score, but variety is not its forté.

 

The Final Conflict (Jerry Goldsmith) - I think I'm always surprised at how much low key noodling there is in this score, given how highly regarded it is. Sure, the highlights are absolutely terrific - the opening credits, the Hunt, the Second Coming, the titular finale - if only the track were called "The Titular Finale", there's a track title pun Michael Giacchino hasn't yet used) but a lot of the in between scoring is pretty low key at times. It could definitely do with a better sounding release either way.

 

The Mummy (Jerry) - One of the occasions where I've retained the original score programme fully in my iTunes library, but taken from the expanded release... I am clearly missing the sound issues others have mentioned as it sounds pretty great to me. There's a long thread on Facebook about when/where/how Jerry made his negative comments about the film. I am sure he said something at a concert in London but reports definitely vary. Either way, given the number of absolutely dire films he scored in his career, to pick on a fun, Indiana Jones style adventure with decent characters (including a villain you can, to some extent, empathise with - which I imagine is useful when writing music for them) and lots of fun set pieces to score, seems kinda churlish. Maybe it was the sheer amount of music which wore him out. Having said that, the quality is top notch, several great themes, some of his best action writing and typically excellent mixture of symphony orchestra and pseudo-ethnically appropriate elements.

 

The Portrait of a Lady (Wojciech Kilar) - Rather gorgeous period score from Kilar, albeit quite darkly hewn than lushly romantic. Although one thing I never noticed before was one of the main themes (played on recorder or similar, non-standard woodwind instrument) sounds uncannily like Ennio Morricone although I can't quite put my finger on which Morricone theme... if anyone has any suggestions, do say, it's been bugging me!

 

Speaking of things that sound like something else that I now can't remember... a score (or maybe even classical music) I listened to recently featured the four note motif from the opening of the Theme from Jurassic Park concert arrangement quite prominently, but now I can't for the life of me work out what it was. Answers on a postcard...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,534]

3 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

...I listened to recently featured the four note motif from the opening of the Theme from Jurassic Park concert arrangement quite prominently, but now I can't for the life of me work out what it was. Answers on a postcard...

I've always thought that the four-note motif in J.P., was a riff on the Main Title from T.T.I.

 

 

6 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

The Final Conflict (Jerry Goldsmith) - I think I'm always surprised at how much low key noodling there is in this score, given how highly regarded it is. Sure, the highlights are absolutely terrific - the opening credits, the Hunt, the Second Coming, the titular finale - ...but a lot of the in between scoring is pretty low key at times. It could definitely do with a better sounding release either way.

Noodling aside, it's a terrific achievement.

If you think the 2001 Sarabande release is bad, you should have heard the 1986 vinyl! 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I've always thought that the four-note motif in J.P., was a riff on the Main Title from T.T.I.

 

 

Noodling aside, it's a terrific achievement.

If you think the 2001 Sarabande release is bad, you should have heard the 1986 vinyl! 

Alas I couldn’t figure out what TTI was?!

 

And yeah, the Final Conflict is a great score but definitely one you remember the highlights and forget that some of it really is a bit low key.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

9 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

And yeah, the Final Conflict is a great score but definitely one you remember the highlights and forget that some of it really is a bit low key.

 

Some of it, but not all that much. And even the low key stuff has standout bits like The Monastery, easily one of the highlights of the score. And regarding the sound quality, at least the Varese expansion already sounds *much* better than the old release.

 

As for Jurassic Park, I always find that most 4 note mofis sound a bit like the Dies Irae, and all have some familiarity with each other simply through the number of notes, even when they *don't* sound too much like the Dies Irae. JP has two of them - the one that opens the concert version of the main theme on the solo horn, and the raptor motif. The latter has always reminded me a bit of Shostakovich's D-S-C-H in his 10th symphony.

[Jay 37,368]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Alas I couldn’t figure out what TTI was?!

 

The Towering Inferno

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Some of it, but not all that much. And even the low key stuff has standout bits like The Monastery, easily one of the highlights of the score. And regarding the sound quality, at least the Varese expansion already sounds *much* better than the old release.

 

As for Jurassic Park, I always find that most 4 note mofis sound a bit like the Dies Irae, and all have some familiarity with each other simply through the number of notes, even when they *don't* sound too much like the Dies Irae. JP has two of them - the one that opens the concert version of the main theme on the solo horn, and the raptor motif. The latter has always reminded me a bit of Shostakovich's D-S-C-H in his 10th symphony.

I will have to listen to The Final Conflict again more closely - it was during work and I was probably too distracted in the quieter parts to appreciate them as much as I should have.

 

 

As for Jurassic Park, I was referring to the four notes that start the main theme rather than the raptor/dino motif. I'm sure it wasn't The Towering Inferno (thanks @Jay!) as I've not listened to it recently and I don't think it was Shostakovich (of whom I'm a big fan). However I think it may have been something classical rather than from a score; looking back through my recently listened playlist, I'm wondering if maybe it was the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra; I'll have to give it another careful listen to check.

 

In other news, while listening to snippets of various things I've listened to in the last few weeks trying to work to the JP connection, I put on the main theme for Fateless by Ennio which is, possibly, the theme I was thinking of when finding Portrait of a Lady sounding a bit like one of his themes music, although I think there's something else by Ennio that's closer to the Kilar. It's the melancholy theme that rises step wise in POAL, as I say, on something like a recorder or some kind of flute (but not an orchestral flute I don't think), harmonised in thirds. It may just be an impression of one of Ennio's styles, the way it moves, the harmony and orchestration.

 

That reminds I noticed a distinct similarity in the opening four notes of Toto's original Dune main theme and Elfman's Scrooged. Sure they both go off their own way, but the shape and rhythm of those four opening notes is distinctly similar.

 

(Before anyone complains, these are just fun/interesting connections, not me trying to call anyone out!).

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

5 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

As for Jurassic Park, I was referring to the four notes that start the main theme rather than the raptor/dino motif.

 

How about this: 

 

(To be honest, whenever I start thinking about which 4 note themes *could* be similar, I find it even harder to regard any of them as different)

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

10 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

How about this: 

 

(To be honest, whenever I start thinking about which 4 note themes *could* be similar, I find it even harder to regard any of them as different)

Gosh, that's about a semitone out to the JP motif, but it definitely isn't Heidi I'm thinking of, although it does remind me that I need to listen to it again, such a great score! I'm increasingly convinced it was a piece of classical music... the search continues.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 28/12/2021 at 7:45 AM, Jay said:

Jerry Goldsmith - Chain Reaction (OST)

 

Ha!  A score that cannot be adequately summed up in 30 minutes.  It just... stops at a certain point, with no feeling of finality at all.  I liked what was here, though it was quite similar to Air Force One at times.  Will check out the expansion at some point

 

 

Basil Poledouris - Farewell to the King (Prometheus expansion)

 

Woah.  Nice score, I liked it a lot.  Interesting percussion at times (gamelan!), and nice string work.  There's good action music, waltzes, marches.... an eclectic score!  It made a nice inadvertent pairing with Raise the Titanic today because of its Barry-esque main theme.  This is a score I've completely neglected until now, but will certainly be listening to it more in the future!

The liner notes by Dan Goldwasser were really great, because he explains all the themes and what they represent, tells you enough about the movie to get what the music represents, and is chock full of great and interesting quotes from Poledouris himself.  Between this and the audio commentary on the Starship Troopers DVD I recently listened to, I am really loving hearing this man talk about film scoring!

I just recently acquired the VS of FTTK.

Very good!

[publicist 4,643]

17 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I've always thought that the four-note motif in J.P., was a riff on the Main Title from T.T.I.

 

I think they temped some of the action sequences with 'Total Recall' (a then-recent action score), which features an eerily similar 4-note baddie motif:

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Breakheart Pass - Jerry Goldsmith

 

Goldsmith scored so many gritty thriller Westerns over the years, but for whatever reason this one is my personal favorite.  Great theme, cool suspense music with interesting orchestration, some neat synth touches.  It's great!

 

The movie is very watchable too, I love a good train movie.  There's something about a group of people on a train journey that is inherently a good setting for drama.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

American Factory - Chad Cannon

 

I listened to this back when the documentary came out a couple years ago and just randomly revisited it tonight.  It’s a fine score that reminds me of Thomas Newman a lot of the time.  Chad Cannon is an up-and-comer to keep an eye on.

 

 

[Bespin 8,483]

It's not the first I say it here, I prefer the FYC album versions of ALL the recent OSTs made by John Williams.

 

I absolutely love the A.I. originally intended OST (without the two songs), who is finally the first tracks of the FYC 2-CD album.

 

Today, I'll listen to four other JW's FYC Promo albums:

 

- Tintin (FYC)

- War Horse (FYC)

- The Book Thief (FYC)

- The Post (FYC)

 

Note that my disco list the content of every known FYC albums, when the content is different than the one on the OST.

 

Link: http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/music/disco/albums.htm