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

[LSH 968]

THE MAN IN THE MOON - JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

 

This very early nineties period in JNH’s career showcases the beginning of his ability to craft gentle and emotionally touching music with orchestra; a skill which became one of his biggest selling points later on.
 

There are still a few scores from this section of his career which remain unreleased (My Girl, for example, crushingly) which also demonstrate this well.
 

Anyway, this is gorgeous. Scored primarily for strings and woodwinds, with some guitars, mandolins, harp, piano and violin solos thrown in, for what is a wonderfully intimate, touching and often playful score.

[publicist 4,643]

 

Halloween-related: Barry's wonderfully moody alto flute sore to Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Not yet released, though it's really only 15 minutes.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

11 hours ago, Jay said:

Danny Elfman - Music For A Darkened Theater 3 (Fan-made compilation)

 

I have no idea who put this together but I enjoyed it.  Not only to revisit scores from this era of Elfman I already really liked (Mars Attacks, Men In Black, Instinct, Wanted), but some stuff that hadn't done much for me in the past clicked with me this time (Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, Meet The Robinsons, Scream 2, Novocaine) and in general the whole "album" had a nice autumnal feel to it.  I also really enjoyed the odds and ends section at the end with stuff like the Desperate Housewives and Dilbert themes, a Honda commercial, and a video game theme

 

This sounds great. Elfman is probably due another compilation. A cheeky ask but any chance of posting the track listing? I assume one could recreate it relatively easily using original album tracks. Although I guess some of the additional items (Dilbert and Honda commercial) aren’t readily available.

 

Agree with your comments on the Ghent compilation. I’m really enjoying this. Quite an eccentric mix of a couple of relatively mainstream choices but otherwise quite unusual ones. Wonder how they managed to get the sheet music for the rejected Troy score?!

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

I'm guessing they worked closely with the composers for this release.

[publicist 4,643]

https://www.thewhitewinecameupwiththefish.com/1

 

Reznor/Ross's new Fincher movie score recalls Desplat's Benjamin Button in its reflective, velvety idiom. Has the director gone soft again?

[Jay 37,351]

2 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

This sounds great. Elfman is probably due another compilation. A cheeky ask but any chance of posting the track listing? I assume one could recreate it relatively easily using original album tracks. Although I guess some of the additional items (Dilbert and Honda commercial) aren’t readily available.

 

CD1
01. Spider-Man [06:16]
02. Hulk [04:34]
03. Men in Black [08:37]
04. Mars Attacks! [04:04]
05. Sleepy Hollow [08:04]
06. Planet of the Apes [04:22]
07. Big Fish [05:03]
08. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [05:00]
09. Corpse Bride [06:30]
10. The Frighteners [04:22]
11. Flubber [02:46]
12. My Favorite Martian [Uncle Martin Theme] [01:25]
13. Charlotte’s Web [05:25]
14. Meet the Robinsons [04:50]
15. Spy Kids [04:18]
16. Nacho Libre [03:09]

 

CD2
01. Psycho [Intro/Logos] [00:43]
02. Good Will Hunting [08:10]
03. Milk [09:12]
04. The Family Man [06:28]
05. Instinct [06:45]
06. A Civil Action [02:39]
07. Deep Sea 3D [Excerpt from Serenada Schizophrana] [03:58]
08. Standard Operating Procedure [05:57]
09. The Kingdom [02:19]
10. Wanted [05:15]
11. Hellboy II: The Golden Army [05:05]
12. Terminator Salvation [03:32]
13. Red Dragon [02:59]
14. Scream 2 [Cassandra Aria] [02:18]
15. Novocaine [01:56]
16. Modern Vampires [01:14]
17. Point Pleasant [01:49]
18. The Fortune Teller [01:48]
19. Fable [Xbox Theme] [03:24]
20. Honda Commercial [01:05]
21. Desperate Housewives [00:43]
22. The Dilbert Zone [Dilbert Animated TV Series] [01:04]
23. Floop’s Song (Cruel World) [from Spy Kids] [00:59]

 

 

Quote

Agree with your comments on the Ghent compilation. I’m really enjoying this. Quite an eccentric mix of a couple of relatively mainstream choices but otherwise quite unusual ones. Wonder how they managed to get the sheet music for the rejected Troy score?!

 

I dunno if they got the original sheets, or if they just transcribed by ear from the promo

[bollemanneke 3,342]

The fabulous baker boys. Horrible. OST doesn't even try to represent the movie, it's just a vehicle for the composer. I want Michelle Pfeiffer instead of 6-minute tracks full of disgusting muted trumpets and saxophones.

[Faleel 5,346]

LOL

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

 

CD1
01. Spider-Man [06:16]
02. Hulk [04:34]
03. Men in Black [08:37]
04. Mars Attacks! [04:04]
05. Sleepy Hollow [08:04]
06. Planet of the Apes [04:22]
07. Big Fish [05:03]
08. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [05:00]
09. Corpse Bride [06:30]
10. The Frighteners [04:22]
11. Flubber [02:46]
12. My Favorite Martian [Uncle Martin Theme] [01:25]
13. Charlotte’s Web [05:25]
14. Meet the Robinsons [04:50]
15. Spy Kids [04:18]
16. Nacho Libre [03:09]

 

CD2
01. Psycho [Intro/Logos] [00:43]
02. Good Will Hunting [08:10]
03. Milk [09:12]
04. The Family Man [06:28]
05. Instinct [06:45]
06. A Civil Action [02:39]
07. Deep Sea 3D [Excerpt from Serenada Schizophrana] [03:58]
08. Standard Operating Procedure [05:57]
09. The Kingdom [02:19]
10. Wanted [05:15]
11. Hellboy II: The Golden Army [05:05]
12. Terminator Salvation [03:32]
13. Red Dragon [02:59]
14. Scream 2 [Cassandra Aria] [02:18]
15. Novocaine [01:56]
16. Modern Vampires [01:14]
17. Point Pleasant [01:49]
18. The Fortune Teller [01:48]
19. Fable [Xbox Theme] [03:24]
20. Honda Commercial [01:05]
21. Desperate Housewives [00:43]
22. The Dilbert Zone [Dilbert Animated TV Series] [01:04]
23. Floop’s Song (Cruel World) [from Spy Kids] [00:59]

 

 

 

I dunno if they got the original sheets, or if they just transcribed by ear from the promo

Thanks for the Elfman track listing. Think I’ll have a go at cobbling as much of that as I can into an iTunes playlist. I like that it includes a few tracks from scores he didn’t otherwise compose.

 

Regarding Troy, you might be right. Although I’m not sure if all of the music in the suite on the compilation was on the promo score. I couldn’t quite identify the opening… but that could just be me!

[Jay 37,351]

John Williams - The BFG

 

I had not listened to this score in something like a year or so, and boy did this revisit go nicely!  I still love The Witching Hour as my favorite track of this score and just one of the best "mood setting" tracks in recent history, and then I also quite enjoyed the whole rest of the score too.  Delightful mix of magic, whimsy, adventure, and friendship

 

Alan Silvestri - The Witches

 

Meh.  For some reason a lot of this score reminds me of Contact, which I wasn't expecting.  It also doesn't have enough of a spooky type feeling like I was hoping.  Really nice, uplifting end credits track, though!

[Holko 9,525]

BTTF1 - great excercise in quasi-monothematicity. Obviously the obvious highlights are the obvious highlights, but they are more impactful when the connecting tissue already familiarised us with their elements, and there's not enough of those for them to really feel like too much or filler. Clocktower is a towering marvel but others like Marty's Letter and '85 Lone Pine Mall really capture the heart of the story.

 

BTTF2 - expands the first's material very well. Introduces a fitting dark villainous element now that there is more of a direct confrontable villain in Biff than pretty much just time itself. Doesn't have quite the satisfying ending of the first but as a middle chapter, neither should it, and it's still damn good.

 

BTTF3 - And a surprisingly different but perfect direction to finish on. What came to mind this time is how easy it would have been to just twist the nervous Doc material or come up with something else goofy for the Clara scenes, but no, we get a gorgeous, adorable, honest love theme. Of course the train setpiece is fantastic but stuff like It Erased and the perfect Doc Returns (again, it could have opened with loud wacky music trying to compete with the sound effects for the train but instead it follows perfectly from the previous cue) go right back to that sweet heart 1 had. Ends up being best of the 3 overall.

 

 

Bram Stoker's Dracula - Halloween, why not? Still love it.

 

 

And then for some reason I felt like listening to some good woody sounds. So:

Five Sacred Trees

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the music of John Williams

Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone.

 

Loved 'em.

[Faleel 5,346]

Personally, I find 1 to be the best of the 3.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

1 hour ago, Holko said:

And then for some reason I felt like listening to some good woody sounds. So:

Five Sacred Trees

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the music of John Williams

Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone.

 

Loved 'em.

 

I listened to Five Sacred Trees today... twice in fact, both the Williams recording and the Slatkin conducted version. I have to say that I prefer the Slatkin overall... the recording is a lot clearer, the Williams has that kinda softness that you often get with his Sony albums (maybe it's a Shawn Murphy thing?) whereas the Slatkin is a lot clearer and you can hear the details far better. Perhaps the only downside is that the bassoon is probably mixed a little unnaturally forward relative to its somewhat gentle output, but it's not distractingly unnatural. Also, Slatkin seems to shape the music more effectively than Williams does, giving it much a stronger ebb and flow, as well dramatic thrust. I prefer his version of the Cello Concerto for the same reason, it feels much more vibrant than in Williams' version.

 

Is there a thread dedicated to Williams' concert music? I couldn't see one but then I didn't go back that far... I get the feeling it's one of those threads that probably exists but hasn't seen any action for a while. As it were.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

I hope Slatkin's JW recordings will be issued on CD box eventually.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I hope Slatkin's JW recordings will be issued on CD box eventually.

Possible. He's done 5 for Naxos, in addition to the bassoon and cello concertos, he's also done recordings of Williams horn, violin and tuba concertos. All but the tuba concerto appear to be available for lossless download from Chandos.net, although the tuba concerto is available on 7Digital, also lossless. I don't believe any of these recordings are available on CD. I had completely forgotten that Slatkin conducted the original recording of the violin concerto from the 70s, coupled with the one movement flute concerto although I think the more recent recording is better both performance and sound wise. I think the older one (on Varese I think) is pretty hard to come by too. As a bit of digression, I have started buying most of my classical downloads from Presto Classical which has a great selection and is well priced, but although they do stock/offer downloads for Naxos, I can't find the Williams albums anywhere. Weird.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

2 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I don't believe any of these recordings are available on CD. 

 

They're not. JW's 90th anniversary would be a natural occasion to release such a box.

 

3 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Presto Classical

 

That's a great webstore.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

The Empty Man by Christopher Young

 

I wish I could find his synth scores more interesting.

[publicist 4,643]

 

It ain't Hitchcock nor Waxman (well yeah...). A rather spherical electronic ambiance hangs over the proceedings, with a harpsichord-like effect sometimes threatening to gel into something interesting, but here Mansell isn't really able to get to some, any, musical point. It's Netflix and it sounds like Netflix.

 

 

More Netflix, though it's better, with the music at least having a clear dramatic function. The comfy minimalist piano/chopped strings Phil Glass style (composers must hate it by now, it became old in the 2000's), tries to illustrate the mind motions of the chess players (so like Horner/A Beautiful Mind and Desplat/Imitation Game etc.). At 90 minutes it's ridiculous, but there are some pleasing cues.

[Bespin 8,480]

I currently discover the Music Box of Danny Elfman. I love Danny Elfman!

 

Pee Wee, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward, Batman returns, Nighmare before Christmas (instrumental expanded version).

[Bespin 8,480]

Well I may say that the instrumental tracks added as bonuses on the last CDs of the Elfman/Burton Music Box, are a nice curiosity. It allow to recreate a fully instrumental version of The Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride and The Chocolate Factory.

 

But in the case of The Nightmare, as I'm used to the songs now, it sounds strange by moments. But I like that kind of thing, when you can decide which version to listen...

[Bespin 8,480]

I listen to Materia Community tonight. Can we just support our fellow JWfanner @Nick Parker please?

https://bandcamp.materiacollective.com/album/otherworld-a-tribute-to-silent-hill
 

[crocodile 8,006]

 Serenada Schizophrana. Still the best work Elfman has produced this century. This album just never gets old. I've said this before but someone should keep him away from films and ask him to write more concert works. This is where he belongs.

 

Karol

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

2 hours ago, crocodile said:

 Serenada Schizophrana. Still the best work Elfman has produced this century. This album just never gets old. I've said this before but someone should keep him away from films and ask him to write more concert works. This is where he belongs.

 

Karol

Agreed. It’s a great work. And his other concert works are scarcely less good. The Violin Concerto and Rabbit & Rogue are both terrific. I still pick up all his soundtrack albums but they don’t often surprise or intrigue but his concert works are superb. Hopefully he keeps plenty of time aside for those. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

On 10/22/2020 at 2:31 PM, Jay said:

Quote

Agree with your comments on the Ghent compilation. I’m really enjoying this. Quite an eccentric mix of a couple of relatively mainstream choices but otherwise quite unusual ones. Wonder how they managed to get the sheet music for the rejected Troy score?!

 

I dunno if they got the original sheets, or if they just transcribed by ear from the promo

 

They performed a snippet of Approach of the Greeks at last year's Hollywood in Vienna. Perhaps they also just transcribed it (they often do), or perhaps Yared has found a way to provide orchestral scores for live performances under certain conditions?

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

They performed a snippet of Approach of the Greeks at last year's Hollywood in Vienna. Perhaps they also just transcribed it (they often do), or perhaps Yared has found a way to provide orchestral scores for live performances under certain conditions?

I guess it's quite likely he will have copies of the written score he could provide, even if they then had to be turned into orchestral parts. I do rather hope an enterprising label could either release what was originally recorded or re-record it. Both seem fraught with difficulty/expense but the music (however old fashioned feel it might be... I don't think it is especially, but it doesn't have that timeless quality that Horner's score does I guess) deserves a wider audience.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

It's an excellent score and definitely deserves and needs a release.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

6 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

It's an excellent score and definitely deserves and needs a release.

Agreed... might have to give it a spin! Caution, Greeks approaching...

[Bespin 8,480]

Still in an Elfman october mood.

 

Sleepy Hollow (remastered OST)

Alice in Wonderland

[publicist 4,643]

 

The worst kind of film music, the subjunctive kind. Silvestri theoretically would have been able to compose something exciting, but for the 4,000st time repeats the oldest patterns and genre clichés in a listless retread that is all too often musically formless and when it's going somewhere, it does so carefully eschewing any kind of idiomatic originality. 

 

It's careless routine that probably works well enough in the movie, but as insufferable as the The BFG was (it was derivative as this is), it was a masterpiece of musical nuance and craftmanship compared to all the empty starts and stops here. 71 minutes, sheesh.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

Silvestri has done too many superhero movies, it's starting to rub off on his other scores.

[blondheim 1,157]

7 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

The worst kind of film music, the subjunctive kind. Silvestri theoretically would have been able to compose something exciting, but for the 4,000st time repeats the oldest patterns and genre clichés in a listless retread that is all too often musically formless and when it's going somewhere, it does so carefully eschewing any kind of idiomatic originality. 

 

It's careless routine that probably works well enough in the movie, but as insufferable as the The BFG was (it was derivative as this is), it was a masterpiece of musical nuance and craftmanship compared to all the empty starts and stops here. 71 minutes, sheesh.

 

I agree with everything except the dig at BFG, how dare you

[publicist 4,643]

5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Silvestri has done too many superhero movies, it's starting to rub off on his other scores.

 

He always had a lazy side, but I get weepy when I remember Roger Rabbit, Mouse Hunt etc. - or even The Wild. Where he was sometimes brilliant but at the very least could give it some spark. But his work for Zemeckis has been disappointing for a long time now.

[riotengine 3]

Listening to Goldsmith westerns today. Started with Breakheart Pass (LLL), then Stagecoach (LLL), now on to The Loner. I finally just started watching my DVD set of The Loner. Now moving on to modern-day western, Lonely Are The Brave.

[publicist 4,643]

1 minute ago, blondheim said:

I agree with everything except the dig at BFG, how dare you

 

It's a score I completely eradicated after a while. Because it's so much like his older stuff that I got really annoyed by it.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

2 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

He always had a lazy side, but I get weepy when I remember Roger Rabbit, Mouse Hunt etc. - or even The Wild. Where he was sometimes brilliant but at the very least could give it some spark. But his work for Zemeckis has been disappointing for a long time now.

 

His score to Allied has actually grown on me. Yeah, there's nothing new under the sun, but here's he's at least good at copying himself.

[blondheim 1,157]

1 minute ago, publicist said:

 

It's a score I completely eradicated after a while. Because it's so much like his older stuff that I got really annoyed by it.

That's what I like about it, actually, but it took me a while. I also found it too derivative of his other stuff at first, so I get that. Time has revealed for me that wasn't as true as I thought. Not a mold-breaker though, that's for sure. It's also not very Dahl-esque. It would only service Spielberg's neutered Dahl.

 

The Witches is a disappointment.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

4 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

It's a score I completely eradicated after a while. Because it's so much like his older stuff that I got really annoyed by it.

 

It is annoying. Even the main theme is annoying.

[Edmilson 7,436]

BFG is a very "meh" score. Not bad, just... meh.

[publicist 4,643]

For sure it's completely fulfills Williams' high musical standards when it comes to composing, arrangement etc. but all the Potterisms plus the Home Alone and Hook pastiching make it hard to swallow. And it really gets on my nerves when he makes amends with these concertized pieces, like this flute piece where you go 'just write a more original score and don't fancy it up with elaborate solo things that don't even appear in the movie'.

[KK 3,307]

Pub's bleak but probably accurate survey of recent scores have sadly turned me off on the search for new film music material. I guess I must once again look elsewhere.

[Jay 37,351]

I hear Queen's Gambit by Carlos Rafael Rivera is good

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

It's a score I completely eradicated after a while. Because it's so much like his older stuff that I got really annoyed by it.

 

It's not original by any stretch, but it is first class craftsmanship, and the orchestral colours are probably more accomplished than in any of Williams' earlier scores and ideas it draws from. I haven't listened to the album in ages, but the suite was a highlight of the 2018 London concert, and I wouldn't have minded hearing it again in Vienna.

[Edmilson 7,436]

31 minutes ago, Jay said:

I hear Queen's Gambit by Carlos Rafael Rivera is good

 

It's okay. Has some good moments for piano and strings. But the album is extremely long, almost 90 minutes of music with little variation from one track to another.

 

Apparently, Jon Broxton loved it though.

[blondheim 1,157]

Re: BFG

 

It is my favorite 'voice' of Williams so I really don't mind him continuing to ape Home Alone, Hook, Harry Potter, etc. Composers borrowing from themselves never bothers me, really. It is their music. Is it uninspired? Sure, but that doesn't make it bad music to me. Classical composers quoted themselves and others all the time. There is only so much musical soup that we all ladle from. Plus, there are so many Williams scores. I love that some of them are innovative, and some of them are more comfortably within his style.

 

When I first heard Attack of the Clones, I thought of those scores, but it never lessened the quality of that track for me. Just helped solidify his mannerisms and style.

[KK 3,307]

On 10/19/2020 at 3:55 AM, publicist said:

 

The good news: the Newton Brothers' Haunting of Bly Manor is not a loveless bunch of noise á la Dr. Sleep, but its moody, samey, slow, autumnal strings/piano waltzes (fitting for Corona autumn, for sure) are not exactly a beacon of originality, either (or variation, modulation and so on). Except for scenic recitatives, however, there is nothing, certainly no dramatic development. So you're left with one hour of at-least listenable background music, which seems to be the best you can expect form a Netflix series these days.

 

As we painfully trudge through this bore of a season, the emotional music as heard in context sounds like an obvious second-rate knockoff of Richter's The Leftovers. Clearly the series was temped with Richter's score, just as the on-screen writing is trying to ape some of the Lindelof series' sense of human drama (and falling cringefully short). It doesn't help that the same two cues get repeated ad nauseum...

[publicist 4,643]

7 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

It's not original by any stretch, but it is first class craftsmanship, and the orchestral colours are probably more accomplished than in any of Williams' earlier scores and ideas it draws from.

 

He should have pared it with some new ideas.

7 hours ago, KK said:

Pub's bleak but probably accurate survey of recent scores have sadly turned me off on the search for new film music material. I guess I must once again look elsewhere.

 

The Newton Howard seems solid and there are a few new Wintory things coming.

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

10 hours ago, riotengine said:

Listening to Goldsmith...moving on to modern-day western, Lonely Are The Brave.

That's a good film, with a good score.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

The Witches (Silvestri) - I am clearly enjoying this a lot more than everyone else, although I do still relate to the sentiment of those remembering how much more imaginative and memorable his music was. I did a quick test at the piano and realised that I could get to 20 something Silvestri themes from pre 2000 (as an arbitrary point - roughly midway through his career I guess?) without even trying but would struggle to get to double figures after, and 2 or 3 of them are from the Mummy Returns. If you move the date forward a couple of years, it's even worse...

 

Red Heat (James Horner) - Quite a weird score, the credits music being about 90% Prokofiev and the rest is percussive action music.

 

QBVII (Jerry Goldsmith) - The CPPO/Raine recording. Despite being familiar with the main theme, not one of his efforts I know well so trying to get better acquainted...

[crocodile 8,006]

QBVII is amazing!

 

 Balto. One of my favourites. It's the kind of James Horner score that gets better as the weather outside becomes colder.

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

6 minutes ago, crocodile said:

QBVII is amazing!

 

But it's so boring!