Jay 37,271 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 CD release in the U.S. on June 9thhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VA57SPY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,271 Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 It's on Spotify nowhttps://open.spotify.com/album/2MZ0A2KLSJlbFd8jsOXviR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 7,979 Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Again, not here. Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Only the Arabesque movement is available here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 After taking it in a bit more i must say that PAS DE DEUX is really a bit of a curiosity: flip-flopping between ripe filmmusic clichés (swooning strings intoning flowery prose), introspective soloistic, vaguely folkloristic impressionism (Vaughan-Williams looming large) and puzzling Hollywood grandstanding (a BEAUTIFUL MIND/STAR TREK-inspired finale), there never seems to be an attempt to adhere to any formal dictum which is of course necessitated by calling your piece a 'double concerto' (but for a Hollywood composer, we might let those annoying ground rules slide). It's mainly Horner straying around in his old lumber room, and while the 25 minutes are mostly pleasant and in Horner's preferred romantic idiom, namely a broad british classicism modeled after Vaughan-Williams' or Delius' adaptations of english folk songs, the seasoned fan just cannot escape the fact that the finetuned reworkings of IRIS, SPITFIRE GRILL, several animated movies and so on come with a very heavy layer of patina - to stay on polite terms.When Horner gets to his big finish - a melodramatic finale swinging from shimmering minimalist arpeggiations to tearful Hollywood schmaltz into what threatens to become the triumphant ROCKETEER finale - there is the distinct impression the composer is auditioning for an illiterate film mogul feeding him what an illiterate film mogul might consider 'great classical music'...you know, because it's played with instruments. It bears no connection to the rest and left me a bit perplexed why Horner has to resort to this kind of doubtful showmanship.Be that as it may, it's far from bad (though classical connoisseurs might beg to differ) but it's also strictly for diehard Horner fans - which for reasons we all know all too well is a a hard-earned label - the old adage 'Cobbler, stick to your trade' might not yet in order but if his recent horn concerto is the same...well...you get the drift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Ware 525 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 That's very similar to my thoughts about his recent horn piece Collages, which I really didn't enjoy at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Haters will hate!Horner is such a genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TownerFan 4,983 Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 This is my review of the CD:http://www.colonnesonore.net/recensioni/cinema/3771-pas-de-deux-.html(it's in Italian, so you might want to use an automated translator )I'm enjoying this new Horner work a lot. I love it for its complete unpretentious spirit and beautiful lyricism. It's not music that wants to reinvent the wheel, nor it doesn't bring anything new to the repertoire. But it's very fine music written by a very competent composer. HornerIsTheMan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I've just listened to it and I'm afraid have to share Pub's sentiments. This is the kind of stuff that gives film composers a bad name in the concert sphere. What we're served is a putrefied corpse dressed up and powdered with heavy makeup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TownerFan 4,983 Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 I wouldn't be so harsh. It's perfectly acceptable new music to be heard in a concert hall. It simply chooses to express itself within a consolidated and reassuring stylistic framework. I very much prefer this kind of intellectual honesty than a clumsy attempt at doing experimental or avant-garde. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I'm more in agreement in with pub and Sharky. Enjoyable enough on the surface, yes, but there's no reason for this music to exist in the concert hall really, when most of it is a regurgitation of what we've heard in his films. Pleasant enough and competently written sure, but don't quite see the point.That and the Gorecki rip in the second movement irks me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 The most remarkable thing that we so earnestly assess this thing as if it were anything beyond warmed-over IRIS and [fill in the dozens of blanks]. Thanks Maestro, indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TownerFan 4,983 Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 Sometimes it's nice to just enjoy a lovely piece of music and appreciate it for what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I've just listened to it and I'm afraid have to share Pub's sentiments. This is the kind of stuff that gives film composers a bad name in the concert sphere. What we're served is a putrefied corpse dressed up and powdered with heavy makeup.Like your avatar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I've just listened to it and I'm afraid have to share Pub's sentiments. This is the kind of stuff that gives film composers a bad name in the concert sphere. What we're served is a putrefied corpse dressed up and powdered with heavy makeup.Like your avatar? I'll set TheGreyPilgrim on you.I very much prefer this kind of intellectual honesty than a clumsy attempt at doing experimental or avant-garde.I'd much rarer see and hear someone dare and fail, than this kind of pleasant orchestral mush.In the words of Drew Barrymore, "If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewya 360 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Wolf Totem > This Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,232 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Sometimes it's nice to just enjoy a lovely piece of music and appreciate it for what it is.I'd love to see this sort of open-mindedness on here about certain other composers!As I said a bit back in the thread, the music washes over the ears and that's about it. Music in my view is 50% sonic interest/pleasure and 50% spiritual/poetic meaning. This is 100% the former, and tenuously. And I also have to agree that this is the sort of thing that continues the stigma of film composers among the particularly pretentious and shitheaded - not that anyone should adjust their output to please them. But this *is* ammunition for their cause. Sharkissimo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Sometimes it's nice to just enjoy a lovely piece of music and appreciate it for what it is.The classical elitists of the forum seem to disagree. They love film music, as long as it's dirty feet do not sully their precious and hallowed concert halls. HornerIsTheMan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brónach 1,301 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Why does liking non film music is suddenly elitist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Suddenly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brónach 1,301 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 What makes film music less elitist than non film music, if you want the question rversed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 According to Steef, if you really like concert hall music, you're pretentious. And if you don't like a bunch of film scores regurgitated into a single aimless work of sugary fluff, you're a film-music damning elitist.And Steef, plenty of us love the concert hall works of Williams, Shore, Goldenthal, Morricone, etc etc. There's nothing wrong with concert hall works sounding lke film music, but they should have something to say, which this piece doesn't really. Take James Newton Howard's recent work for instance (Plant a Tree?...I don't remember the name). It shares a lot of his stylistic film music traits, but is done so while challenging himself with more substance and development appropriate for this medium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Stop feeding the troll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Couldn't...resist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 There's nothing wrong with concert hall works sounding lke film music, but they should have something to say,Says who? Is it an absolute requirement that concert music must have "something to say"? (whatever the hell that means) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLUMENKOHL 1,068 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Steef, as someone who enjoys concert music, who frequents concert halls, I assure you this has nothing to do with being pretentious. This is the music world's equivalent of penis envy. In my experience the very tiny fraction of concert-going people who use phrases like "not worthy of a concert hall" haven't done shit worthy of the reverberating chambers of a toilet, let alone a concert hall. That's why they have so much time to pick apart the professionals' works. They are people skilled enough to use big words and give pseudo-objective nitpickings, but not skilled enough to contribute anything anyone cares about. Their professional envy and loud "critical" voice is what turns the public off from concert halls. It is THEIR bullshit that perpetuates the "Concert vs. Film Composer" divide. It is THEIR bullshit that destroys the concert hall, not the work of someone who spends years of their life crafting something FOR the concert hall. When you see some asshole saying something like "not worthy of the concert hall" make sure to call them on their bullshit, and make sure everyone around knows they're a bullshitter. It's the only way to get rid of this cancer that cripples the concert community. Anyways, rant aside, I came in here to say that Horner's death gave me cause to give this another spin. I still find Pas de Deux a bit too sweet for my personal tastes, but there are still some lovely moments all throughout. It's also fun hearing some of the familiar Hornerisms from the movies a bit more unpacked and "unstreamlined." Not Mr. Big and HornerIsTheMan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,232 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 I still find Pas de Deux a bit too sweet for my personal tastes, but there are still some lovely moments all throughout. It's also fun hearing some of the familiar Hornerisms from the movies a bit more unpacked and "unstreamlined." Pretty much how I feel now. I want to grasp onto something really spiritual in it. I'll keep trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLUMENKOHL 1,068 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 It's written more like folk music than something more profound and spiritual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,232 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 But even in folk music I find that sort of sweet and simple emotion. Maybe even especially in folk music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Me too. It's enjoyable on a certain level to hear his Hornerisms executed less in broad strokes, but more intricate precision. Having said that, I still haven't really connected to it. It's pretty and sort of like a nice demo-reel of Horner's traits, but something missing to tie it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLUMENKOHL 1,068 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 It's music for two happy young lovers dancing in the meadows, TGP! Sweet and simple! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,232 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Very well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLUMENKOHL 1,068 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Seriously though, I found trying to picture a dance between a guy and a girl on pointe heightened my enjoyment of the piece. Turn out the lights, put on the headphones, and try to choreograph the duet in your head!Being the backwards sexist man that I am, the big boomy cello is the man and the violin is the woman. The final movement has this intricate footwork... I think that's why I have the young lovers image in my head. The music is youthful somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,232 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 I like the idea and I'm going to try it myself. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.And I'm a real sexist too! I wrote a double concerto with extreme sexual undertones and cast the cello as myself and the violin as the lady... oops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 You are a dirty boy arent you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Baptiste Martin 249 Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 THE NORWEGIAN PREMIERE OF PAS DE DEUX: THE MUSICIANS’ PERSPECTIVE PAS DE DEUX: A DANCE CONCERTO THE NORWEGIAN PREMIERE OF PAS DE DEUX: A CONVERSATION WITH JAMES HORNER, MARI AND HÅKON SAMUELSEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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