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


Ollie

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Oscar and Lucinda by Thomas Newman

The Shawshank Redemption by Thomas Newman

Hunt for Red October by Basil Poledouris

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good video game music... Marty O'Donnell of course.

:thumbup:

O'Donnell should be the great movie music hope, let alone his stellar work in the games industry.

Yes. What he's done for Destiny with Paul McCartney seems to be quite excellent, from the little that's been heard so far.

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good video game music... Marty O'Donnell of course.

:thumbup:

O'Donnell should be the great movie music hope, let alone his stellar work in the games industry.

Yes. What he's done for Destiny with Paul McCartney seems to be quite excellent, from the little that's been heard so far.

I just hope he does a big feature film someday. But he just doesn't seem interested. Frustrating to me, because with his hairs standing up on arms level grasp of harmony, musical storytelling and uncanny knack for Williamsesque heroic fanfares; I've been saying for years he's ideal for Hollywood and would love him - not Hans or Gia - to eventually work with Spielberg, when the time comes. His upcoming sci-fi Destiny score will likely be just as interesting to me as Williams' rekindling of Star Wars.

Renovia was the latest Marty O'Donnell convert I believe.

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He seems like the kind of guy who might not be into all the non-musical crap that comes with working in Hollywood. But I would love it too.

Here's the preview that I mentioned.

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Never understood the love for his Halo music, but then again I think I stopped after 2, possible he got better with later installments. Give me Joris De Man's Killzone scores over it any day. Now there's someone that needs to break into film, but he once said that he just can't catch a break.

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Killzone has quality music, rather sumptuously orchestrated. But for me it's a little bit Arnold-esque in that it's so totally OTT (perfect, given the material, though). O'Donnell is my preference in part because he constantly reminds me of Williams in his eighties era - listen to the Americana strings and horns at 5:55 in the video linked above to hear what I'm getting at - pure, optimistic Williams.

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Never understood the love for his Halo music, but then again I think I stopped after 2, possible he got better with later installments.

I could see 1 and maybe 2 being somewhat un-engaging outside of the game, but you're right, the subsequent ones do get better.

This is a nice kind of "suite" presentation of some themes. I guess maybe the whole prog-rock/orchestral fusion thing is an acquired taste.

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In the first game Marty had a relatively minuscule musical budget and made do with the synth and instrumentals he had at his disposal. I love the original score. The second game saw him awarded a small orchestra and the quality of writing did scale beautifully with the more sophisticated audio, but it was indeed Halo 3 where O'Donnell embraced full melodic arc and the big sweeping statements of romantic science fiction wholeheartedly. An amazing score in places, with some odd atonal electro stuff which suited the game just fine but undermined the album a bit.

I LOVE Marty's melding of styles with a passion, but as you know he doesn't just write in that way. His versatility sees him deliver cues which are fully orchestral affairs and others which experiment with electric guitars and synth etc - but always the harmonies are strong, which for me is absolutely key.

A cue like this I find friggin' epic:

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Joris De Man... Now there's someone that needs to break into film, but he once said that he just can't catch a break.

Really? That sucks. It seems to me he absolutely has the chops. I've just noticed too that he's not even doing the latest KZ title. WTF? I BET he's been swapped out for some Jablonsky-esque wallpaper dreck - same as what happened to poor Kevin Riepl after his ace original Gears of War soundtrack. Fucking scandalous Zimmer influences...

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Because you are an idiot.

Come on. What is there in CONGO that's remotely interesting?

It has a great theme and some action tracks like BAIL OUT are brilliant in a modest kind of way. It's no great score, but it's surely entertaining along the way.

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Henryk Gorecki's 3rd Smyphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

The first movement especially is sublime. It's a powerful piece and shows how great the Polish were at using simpler tonal structures to create such stirring works.

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Oh yes, it is a great piece of solemn contemplation. It's quite amazing how he manages to be so simple and yet never loose you over the course of those 30 minutes (in the case of that first movement).

I am listening to Romeo and Juliet. And yes, further visits confirm to be it is actually much, much better than W.E. While similar in some respects, the new scores wins me over with its merging of Eastern and Western traditions - from Glass to Desplat to Kilar/Kaczmarek/Preisner. The string and soprano writing are unmistakebly Slavonic fingerprints and that is so rare to hear in films these days. And also able to mirror Nino Rota's work in a sense that both successfully convey this Renaissance world with completely contemporary musical language. Simple, but not simplistic.

Karol

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I don't know. As a whole, Romeo and Juliet is the better score, but W.E. had better highlights. Also the style's novelty has worn off with this new score. And Abel's always been merging stylistic traits of Glass and the likes of Kilar, as far back as "A Single Man".

I'm not so sure about the comparison to Rota's work though. Nino Rota still attempts to convey the period of the film through his work, while appealing to contemporary audiences through primarily the main theme. Abel's work on the other hand makes no real effort to do that, and instead just treats it like another "W.E.". That's the big problem for me. It may be enjoyable music, but it makes no effort to distinguish itself from Abel's oeuvre and show us that this is music for "Romeo and Juliet", the greatest love story of all time...

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In the short, or did you get your hands on the score itself somehow? It's so beautiful.

Thank you!

Henryk Gorecki's 3rd Smyphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

The first movement especially is sublime. It's a powerful piece and shows how great the Polish were at using simpler tonal structures to create such stirring works.

Wonderful piece. Try his second symphony as well. The first movement is... dense, but the second is outstanding.

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Wonderful piece. Try his second symphony as well. The first movement is... dense, but the second is outstanding.

Henryk Gorecki's 3rd Smyphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

The first movement especially is sublime. It's a powerful piece and shows how great the Polish were at using simpler tonal structures to create such stirring works.

Thanks, I'll check it out! I'll admit, I'm not as familiar with Gorecki's work as I'd like to be. I just have his third symphony and a few of his choral works.

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Both Romeo and Juliet and Escape from Tomorrow speak to me more than either A Single Man or W.E. And Abel has been doing this kind of music long before those:

It's a matter of taste, really.

Karol

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Wow. That one cue uses minimalistic techniques in a far more interesting manner than either Romeo and Juliet or W.E.

Is the whole score that good? Though I can imagine one might get bored if the whole thing was just that.

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This sounds like a neat score. I've not heard much of Abel's stuff, but he definitely knows how to do the ostinato/pulse type thing in an interesting way. Very colorful orchestration too. What's the best entry point for listening to his work?

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Both Romeo and Juliet and Escape from Tomorrow speak to me more than either A Single Man or W.E. And Abel has been doing this kind of music long before those:

It's a matter of taste, really.

Karol

so chmury means clouds, then? ;) I thought it sounded awfully familiar.

it's also on spotify!

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Both Romeo and Juliet and Escape from Tomorrow speak to me more than either A Single Man or W.E. And Abel has been doing this kind of music long before those:

It's a matter of taste, really.

Karol

so chmury means clouds, then? ;) I thought it sounded awfully familiar.

Yes!

Karol - now listening to Górecki's third

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This sounds like a neat score. I've not heard much of Abel's stuff, but he definitely knows how to do the ostinato/pulse type thing in an interesting way. Very colorful orchestration too. What's the best entry point for listening to his work?

I recommend checking out Abel's official web page (www.abelkorzeniowski.com), where you find plenty of music to listen to, including lots of stuff from his opus magnum Metropolis, as well as from some of his least-known scores (Tickling Leo is particularly noteworthy).

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Lust, Caution by Alexandre Desplat: A stylish noir score with a romantic undertow, all done with panache by the composer. The Wong Chia Chi's Theme forms the emotional center of the score, a delicate and superbly tender piece, coupled with another trademark Desplat waltz (The Dinner Waltz) and secondary motifs for mystery and intrigue. The score is a restrained one with quiet elegance to it and rising very rarely to melodramatic heights but it has a beautiful coherence to its style and mood. All in all a very impressive score from the composer.

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Lust, Caution by Alexandre Desplat: A stylish noir score with a romantic undertow, all done with panache by the composer. The Wong Chia Chi's Theme forms the emotional center of the score, a delicate and superbly tender piece, coupled with another trademark Desplat waltz (The Dinner Waltz) and secondary motifs for mystery and intrigue. The score is a restrained one with quiet elegance to it and rising very rarely to melodramatic heights but it has a beautiful coherence to its style and mood. All in all a very impressive score from the composer.

Yeah, it takes some time to "get it". Very rewarding in the end, though.

Karol

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Lust, Caution by Alexandre Desplat: A stylish noir score with a romantic undertow, all done with panache by the composer. The Wong Chia Chi's Theme forms the emotional center of the score, a delicate and superbly tender piece, coupled with another trademark Desplat waltz (The Dinner Waltz) and secondary motifs for mystery and intrigue. The score is a restrained one with quiet elegance to it and rising very rarely to melodramatic heights but it has a beautiful coherence to its style and mood. All in all a very impressive score from the composer.

Yeah, it takes some time to "get it". Very rewarding in the end, though.

Karol

Yes it took a while for me to get it as well but there was something to the whole mood of the soundtrack that made persist and finally it clicked fully.

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