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First War Horse teaser trailer includes Williams score


Jay

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But you love Jurassic Park....

Yeah, but that's sci fi. Plus, the dinosaurs pretty much act naturally (as naturally as we can guess they were, anyway). More like monsters/creatures.

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Dread the film (it's not my kind of concept), but the music sounds very nice!

You are like those people who don't like fantasy films because they are not realistic!

Open your mind Thor!

Uhm, no...

It's only that I don't like live action animal films. Not that I expect this to be a FLIPPER or SKIPPY or LASSIE or BABE or something, but it's bound to have a certain degree of anthropomorphization going on. And I can't stand that. Loved those films as a kid, hate them now.

Nope, then I'd rather watch one of those brilliant BBC documentaries about animals in their natural habitat.

But it's Spielberg, and he's my favourite director, so there's bound to be SOMETHING good there. And then there's Williams, of course. If I managed to struggle my way through the 1994 BLACK BEAUTY only for Elfman's glorious music, I can take this.

Oh come on... it'll be Spielberg's Benji! What could possibly go wrong?

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Not trying to be negative here, but I'm just wondering how much this positive overall reaction has to do with the fact we are on very low-JW diet lately. ;)

Karol

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Not trying to be negative here, but I'm just wondering how much this positive overall reaction has to do with the fact we are on very low-JW diet lately. ;)

Karol

I still think Sabrina and Nixon hold up pretty well.

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Not trying to be negative here, but I'm just wondering how much this positive overall reaction has to do with the fact we are on very low-JW diet lately. ;)

Karol

This <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->much.

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I think people suffer from John Williams deprivation, meaning both this website and the man himself.

It's wonderful music, that's for sure.

But expecting something close to ET? Really ...

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Hey, people get married on that basis, Sounds solid enough for me.

Not as strong as mortgage though. It's stronger than love and death combined.

Karol

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I've already said this in a few venues while the site was down, but I'll say it again - this may not be the greatest earworm ever written, but it's a very pleasant listen. And I agree that the piano near the beginning and the flute near the end are delicious little details.

My favorite thing about this is probably the fact that it just doesn't sound like anything Williams has written recently! Although I've enjoyed Williams' most recent scores, they seemed to have a certain tired quality to them at times, particularly KOTCS. A little autopilot-y, I think. And I don't get that feeling here. It sounds like something rather fresh - as it should, given that Williams has only scored one film (!) in the last six years. I think I've mentioned before that I've been hoping that both War Horse and Tintin do an admirable job of ushering in a new decade of Williams scores. Each decade has been marked by slightly different tendencies in this man's work, and I've been really hoping that the twenty-teens will be the same, especially considering the sad possibility of this being the final decade of Williams' oeuvre.

Aaaaaaaaanyway, the point I was trying to make was that none of the music in that trailer made me feel like he was just slipping back into the same sorts of writing he did in the mid-2000s. And I appreciate that. Hopefully Tintin will be equally fresh. (Or alternatively, I would love a nice straightforward throwback to his adventure scores of, say, the early 80s.)

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I don't know if anybody else felt the same, but as soon as the trailer and the music started, I could tell that (in comparison to the music you usually hear in trailers these days), this was not going to be something by "Trailermen" or "Two Steps From Hell" or whoever the hell writes music for trailers now. This wasn't going to have a Bourne-like string ostinato or the choir of doom. As soon as the music started I thought "This is royalty. This is the fucking king."

Williams music just sounds so different from all of the stuff that you usually hear now. This is how it's done.

I can't wait for this and Tintin.

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Not trying to be negative here, but I'm just wondering how much this positive overall reaction has to do with the fact we are on very low-JW diet lately. ;)

Karol

Yes.

It's nice music. I want to hear more before I go proclaiming it the best of 2011.

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It's only that I don't like live action animal films. Not that I expect this to be a FLIPPER or SKIPPY or LASSIE or BABE or something, but it's bound to have a certain degree of anthropomorphization going on. And I can't stand that. Loved those films as a kid, hate them now.

Babe is a fantastic movie that gets better as I get older. Clean out your eyes!

That trailer music was lovely. Reminded me of Jaws 2 material, which is going back a long time for JW. I didn't think he had that kind of thing in him anymore.

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Not trying to be negative here, but I'm just wondering how much this positive overall reaction has to do with the fact we are on very low-JW diet lately. ;)

Karol

My thought exactly.

I don't know if anybody else felt the same, but as soon as the trailer and the music started, I could tell that (in comparison to the music you usually hear in trailers these days), this was not going to be something by "Trailermen" or "Two Steps From Hell" or whoever the hell writes music for trailers now. This wasn't going to have a Bourne-like string ostinato or the choir of doom. As soon as the music started I thought "This is royalty. This is the fucking king."

Williams music just sounds so different from all of the stuff that you usually hear now. This is how it's done.

True.

But, like croc I hate being a party pooper, you have to consider that once "the others" become worse, Williams automatically sounds better, even though he may be on the same level of "decline" some see him on.

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That trailer music was lovely. Reminded me of Jaws 2 material, which is going back a long time for JW. I didn't think he had that kind of thing in him anymore.

yeah that too, the End Title from Jaws 2. One of the most beautiful JW tracks

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I think people read too much into these 2 minutes.

Although I have listened to this trailer music more than to any individual track from Deathly Hallows.

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I think people read too much into these 2 minutes.

The last time music from the score made it to the trailers was with Philosopher's Stone, and before that Hook and they're both amazing scores so this one will be amazing too probably JW's best ever why can't you see that?

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It sounds nothing like SPR.

That can't be true. My brother and I watched the trailer. Afterwards, he(with little film score knowledge) asked me if it was from SPR. I mean, if it sounds the same to untrained ears, then it's probably at least similar...

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I don;t think it sounds like SPR though

I must say I find all these acronyms tiresome; I always have to mentally go through every John Williams movie, and if that's not enough, every possibly ever here discussed movie to figure out what people are talking about (or scroll up and down, hoping someone spelled it out). More than once was I tempted to just say "oh yes, that's just like in HBIWGUC..." to give you guys a headache ;-)

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I'm getting the feeling that the noble brass theme is sort of a one time thing (I desperately hope not). The theme at the beginning on the piano sounds like it might be a main theme. I keep thinking of Back to America from Angela's Ashes. It was used prominently in the trailer but it wasn't the primary theme.

What I heard was fantastic though. I've watched the trailer more than 20 times and can't count how many times I've listened to the music.

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Some are criticizing the music as "too sentimental". And I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Sentimental pretty much means "driven by emotion", isn't all music like that? Isn't all music driven by emotion. I can't help but think of Rain Man's score, where Levinson told Zimmer not to use strings as it would sound "sentimental".

What we got was some cheap synthetic crap. They probably are satisfied with midi string staccato driven scores with bass levels that are ungodly high because it sounds "epic".

I guess that's enough ranting for today.

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I think people read too much into these 2 minutes.

The last time music from the score made it to the trailers was with Philosopher's Stone, and before that Hook and they're both amazing scores so this one will be amazing too probably JW's best ever why can't you see that?

I assume you mean films specifically scored by Williams, because plenty of other trailers use their respective original scores.

Now, it being his best score ever? I thought I was retarded for saying Munich was, but man, you take the cake! ;)

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It's a simple theme but I notice all these little ornamentations in the music. It's like Williams really knows how to sculpt his music, but nothing is random

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Ahem...Roald, care to validate my claims officially?

I actually drafted a post yesterday. Didn't quite finish it, but here's the short version:

FilmComposer518 spoke the absolute truth many weeks ago. Don't know how much details I can give. Let's just say I 'heard' the War Horse theme long before the trailer was released. ;)

What I understand from FilmComposer is that the theme from the trailer is the main theme from the movie, not just a finale track.

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As others have pointed out this trailer just sounded so different from the usual fare these days with the ostinati and epic choirs. It was like a breath of fresh air. Not only does the film look gorgeous but there wasn't a cynical note in those 2 minutes of music and it sounded glorious. The theme has strong lyrical warmth and immediacy to it, which of course is good for a trailer, with subtle British/Celtic stylings. I love the Celtic sounding flute solo at the end of the trailer, which is just pure Williams, one thing that actually confirmed this to be his music in my ears. The obvious and unabashed idealistic warmth of the music is delightful to hear. It is time for some sentimentality!

I know it is perhaps just ravings brought up by the JW score drought of few years but this promises to be a fantastic new score from the Maestro. The direct emotionalism of this music will be something I am looking forward to in this climate of sound design and brooding ostinati noodlings. With Tintin and War Horse the last quarter of the soundtrack year is in good hands. If only we could hear the Tintin main theme now!

And gkgyver! Lighten up man! You have not said anything positive on any music since Return of the King!

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It sounds indeed nice. Not much more at this point.

The film on the other hand looks quite frightening.

Some are criticizing the music as "too sentimental". And I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Sentimental pretty much means "driven by emotion", isn't all music like that? Isn't all music driven by emotion.

I know what you mean. After i watched PATCH ADAMS i said to myself 'Gee what sentimental pap!'. Then i thought for a minute and thought 'Hey, but emotion IS sentimental pap, so it was actually pretty good and true to life'. Sometimes you just need those epiphanies. ;)

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Like Star Wars

Well, timing is everything. In them seventies, Star Wars didn't feel generic at all. As a young laddie, I was surprised there were no triangles, soulful wah-wah guitars or synthesizer sweeps in the music. This was a high tech science fiction movie and yet the music sounded like Prokofiev and Stravinsky were combining forces. It's really weird and unexpected but it's how I became a John Williams fan. War Horse will never be able to do that.

Alex

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That seems like a rather unfair barrier you've already got up for yourself there, Alex.

He's just a realist.

Hey, Steef said "it's generic like Star Wars"! I'm not the one who's being negative (eventhough Quint is very eager to point his finger at me) but let's not get carry away, shall we?

Alex

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