A Controversy from 1993/4 - Who Wrote The Better Music?

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

John Corigliano is an incredible American composer. It wouldn't be far fetched to say he is equal to Williams in terms of musical talent and skill. John Williams needs no introduction here.

Pretend in 1994 the two met at the Academy Awards to duel over their two Oscar nominated scores. John Williams won.

If you asked me 10, 15, or 20 years ago, I would have said "DAMN STRAIGHT! Corigliano's work is dull, stuffy, directionless, boring!"

Listening to The Red Violin these days...I'm not so sure. Schindler's List hasn't aged gracefully with more listens for me. It appealed to my sappy 16-22 year old, but it's a bit much now-a-days.

But The Red Violin is filled with intricacies and details that only reveal themselves with more listening. It's beautiful without hammering you over the head with it. Looking back, I can't help but think Corigliano may have written the better music.

But who am I to say? YOU VOTE!

[Edit] Accidentally a word. [/Edit]

[Marcus 390]

Is this purely a hypothetical scenario? "The Red Violin" is from 1997 and won the Academy Award in 1999, over Williams' "Angela's Ashes".

They are two extremely different scores, united by one factor, which is a very prominent solo violin (albeit far more prominent in Corigliano's score).

Personally, as a tune, I find the theme from "Schindler's List" to be slightly more eternal than "Anna's Theme" (the main theme from "The Red Violin").

I prefer Corigliano's concert pieces ("Chaconne for Violin & Orchestra", "Violin Concerto") based on "The Red Violin". They pack an emotional punch superior to the actual film score.

As film scores go, "Schindler's List" is about as dignified and classy as they come.

[Jay 37,352]

John Corigliano is an incredible American composer. It wouldn't be far fetched to say he is equal to Williams in terms of musical talent and skill. John Williams needs no introduction here.

In 1994 the two met at the Academy Awards to duel over their two Oscar nominated scores. John Williams won.

If you asked me 10, 15, or 20 years ago, I would have said "DAMN STRAIGHT! Corigliano's work is dull, stuffy, directionless, boring!"

Listening to The Red Violin these days...I'm not so sure. Schindler's List hasn't aged gracefully with more listens for me. It appealed to my sappy 16-22 year old, but it's a bit much now-a-days.

But The Red Violin is filled with intricacies and details that only reveal themselves with more listening. It's beautiful without hammering you over the head with it. Looking back, I can't help but think Corigliano may have written the better music.

But who am I to say? YOU VOTE!

You've lost your mind. The Nominees at the 66th Annual Academy Awards for Best Original Score were

Schindler's List – John Williams (won)

The Age of Innocence – Elmer Bernstein

The Firm – Dave Grusin

The Fugitive – James Newton Howard

The Remains of the Day – Richard Robbins

"The Red Violin" is from 1997 and won the Academy Award in 1999, over Williams' "Angela's Ashes".

Close. The Red Violin premiered at a few festivals in 1998, but didn't open to the public until 1999, which is why it was nominated against other 1999 films at the 72nd Academy Awards (which were held in 2000)

The Red Violin– John Corigliano (won)

American Beauty – Thomas Newman

Angela's Ashes – John Williams

The Cider House Rules – Rachel Portman

The Talented Mr. Ripley – Gabriel Yared

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Pretend they were duelling Jason!

[Jay 37,352]

I've never heard The Red Violin (or seen the movie)

[Wojo 2,453]

I vote for Star Trek because There Is No Comparison.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

I've never heard The Red Violin (or seen the movie)

Do both, you scoundrel! This weekend!

[KK 3,307]

The Red Violin is quite good, especially the Chaconne. But I still find it hard to really get into the underscore.

Schindler's List on the other hand still moves me now and then, and I can appreciate it more.

[filmmusic 1,826]

I didn't even think about it..

Schindler's List!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I'm not wholly familiar with The Red Violin so I'll abstain. I listened to it once or twice awhile back when I first joined the board, can't remember it making any type of lasting impression. Then again I do find myself in a similar situation as Blume with Schindler's List. It used to be my favorite Williams score, but as the years pass by it appears to be losing the extraordinary impact it had on me when I first discovered it as a budding score collector. The film is out on Blu tomorrow, perhaps I'll rediscover its gravitas by experiencing it with the film again (which I have only seen once).

[crocodile 8,006]

I don't think The Red Violin is all that strong a whole score and certainly not Corigliano's best film work. There is a lot of source-like music in there, which is fine, but that doesn't make for all that interesting listen. The main theme is absolutely gorgeous, though.

On a side note, when watching Life of Pi is was thinking: what did the theme from that film remind me of?

Schindler's List is a simpler music actually. But that is very fitting and quite unlike anything else in Williams' repertoire. It actually is one of the few drama scores from him that are emotional in its very raw, almost documentary-like form.

Karol

[Ollie 1,059]

Schindler's List.

[Romão 2,274]

Schindler's List is much more than the thematic concert suites. Tracks like Making the List, with that subtle build up, culminating in that stunning rendition of the Remmembrances theme (which really was earned at that point in the track), really make this score for me. Not to mention emotional stunners like Immolation and Auchwitz-Birknau

[Brónach 1,302]

I still can't get into Schindler's List more than in a superficial level. A lot of the "emotional stunners" get past my brain like neutrinos and some of the melodies don't grab me, the soundscape feels a bit dry. On the other hand, I almost cry with the film. I like some parts of the score like Auschwitz-Birknau.

To me, as a subjective listener, sadness seems the most difficult emotion to capture in music.

My story with Schindler's List is strange because normally I enjoy JW's Schindler's-like moments and mannerisms in other scores of his.

[Incanus 5,714]

I can't but vote for Schindler's List even though The Red Violin is tough competition. I connect a bit more to Williams' work than Corigliano's in this case. That said Corigliano's reworking of his music from the score in the violin concerto is simply ravishing.

These scores as Marcus said above are connected in style mostly by the violin as the solo instrument. While Williams generally focuses on the classical Romantic orchestral and Eastern European folk sounds (Jewish musical vocabulary is explored and alluded to most strongly), Corigliano's score travels deliberately through different musical time periods and alludes to number of different musical styles from Bach to gypsy music and beyond, while still at its core written in contemporary orchestral idiom. I feel a great difference in the mood between these two scores as they each seek to tell a different story.

Schindler's List is music which tries to inject sparks of humanity and emotional warmth into the otherwise harrowing tale, even though the score can be at times a touch obvious in its manipulative force. Still it carries a catharctic power, it provides a channel to the sorrow of the events taking place in the story yet there is also beauty to the music that allows for us to mourn with it. It is perhaps awful to say (I know some will think this pretentious inanity) about such subject matter but the score adds its own brand of soulful poetry to the narrative of the movie. It is not the line of people at the grave of Oskar Schindler that makes me cry at the end of the film, it is the theme playing at that moment, which addresses all that has passed and the significance of it and the tragedy of the whole Holocaust. Some would say that it is shamelessly manipulative scoring but there is I feel such genuine emotion in the music and the playing that it transcends the film and purely as stand alone music succeeds in evoking the same reaction, the same emotional response as it did with the images, although it has to be said that the marriage of this music and the image is doubly powerful.

Sorry for waxing poetic here for a moment.

Corigliano's work for The Red Violin is perhaps a bit more restrained in direct emotional appeal to me although I suspect (alas I have not seen the film) that it plays a major character role in the film. The emotional resonance is not similar to the Schindler's List but darker I feel, the story tragic and full of fateful inevitability, which the composer eloquently expresses in his musical devices. It is also a more episodic score as a whole, alluding to different times and places, clearly divided on the album to different chapters. Although Anna's Theme connects all of them they each form a small musical story of their own. Still the emotional resonance of the score is not to be overlooked, the composer expertly depicting the yearning and fateful qualities in the story through the music. The Chaconne is a rare and wonderful stand alone piece that rounds out the score quite brilliantly.

I also think both scores have aged extremely well.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

John Corigliano is an incredible American composer. It wouldn't be far fetched to say he is equal to Williams in terms of musical talent and skill. John Williams needs no introduction here.

Pretend in 1994 the two met at the Academy Awards to duel over their two Oscar nominated scores. John Williams won.

If you asked me 10, 15, or 20 years ago, I would have said "DAMN STRAIGHT! Corigliano's work is dull, stuffy, directionless, boring!"

Listening to The Red Violin these days...I'm not so sure. Schindler's List hasn't aged gracefully with more listens for me. It appealed to my sappy 16-22 year old, but it's a bit much now-a-days.

But The Red Violin is filled with intricacies and details that only reveal themselves with more listening. It's beautiful without hammering you over the head with it. Looking back, I can't help but think Corigliano may have written the better music.

But who am I to say? YOU VOTE!

[Edit] Accidentally a word. [/Edit]

Glad that you've come around to "The Red Violin", Blume. Now...try "Altered States". Fan-frackin'-tastic!