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John Williams YouTube tributes thread


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On 6/11/2018 at 3:00 PM, Loert said:

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity of having my two piano arrangement of "Welcome to Jurassic Park" played and recorded by two outstanding pianists, Joshua Tamayo and Victor Cheng (who also recorded my arrangement of The Jedi Steps & Finale).

 

 

Hope you guys enjoy it!

 

Nice! Are your arrangements available for purchase?

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4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

They apparently share history with The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra...

 

Are the ellipses supposed to be provocative or something? The difference between these performances and the Prague's are night and day. 

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Prague of today sounds much better than how they were in the 90s and early 00s, though. Obviously, the quality of their performances very much depend on the amount of rehearsal time privided, something Silva Screen seldom was keen on spending much money on.

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They do sound a bit better, it's true. But I still consider the Prague Phil to be a bargain basement greatest hits orchestra; albeit reliable at times for providing us with some otherwise difficult to obtain recordings. Like this for eg:

 

 

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Oh, man, four-hand arrangements of film scores are just the bomb.  I've been a superfan of the Cheng/Lau Harry Potter medley for years, but I just stumbled on this playlist today.  What a shame they didn't keep going!  I'm glad Cheng and Tamayo have posted a few more, but I could listen to these all day and watch them all night!

 

 

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On 6/11/2018 at 3:00 PM, Loert said:

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity of having my two piano arrangement of "Welcome to Jurassic Park" played and recorded by two outstanding pianists, Joshua Tamayo and Victor Cheng (who also recorded my arrangement of The Jedi Steps & Finale).

 

 

Hope you guys enjoy it!

 

That's not Welcome to Jurassic Park, though, but the shorter Jurassic Park Suite. Otherwise excellent work, Tomak! :)

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/18/2019 at 8:42 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

 

That's not Welcome to Jurassic Park, though, but the shorter Jurassic Park Suite. Otherwise excellent work, Tomak! :)

 

Actually, I did arrange "Welcome to Jurassic Park" originally but I also included an alternate ending, which is the ending they went with in the video. And thanks :)!

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1 hour ago, Loert said:

 

Actually, I did arrange "Welcome to Jurassic Park" originally but I also included an alternate ending, which is the ending they went with in the video. And thanks :)!

 

True, shortly after posting I realized it's a combination of the two. :) I just prefer the longer transition from the JP theme to the heroic trumpet theme that's found in Welcome to Jurassic Park. 

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6 hours ago, Loert said:

Here's my piano arrangement of the glorious track "The Rise of Skywalker":

 

 

I tried to respect the various orchestral subtleties, though listening back to it now I think I may have over-egged it in places!

 

This is outstanding! I think you captured the soul of the piece.

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Hello there everyone!

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with mock-ups and I thought this forum/topic would be the most appropriate place to share some of them.

  • Rey's theme:

This is probably the most complex piece I’ve tried to recreate, and probably the one to interest you the most, feel free to ask questions about anything. I’m a bit anxious about sharing as I’m just a socially anxious person in general and although there was a time I used to post here, in the past few years I did a Luke and went away, had to deal with a lot of family issues and such, I’m still not likely to be too active, but this is something I worked on to better myself and if even one other person likes it or gets inspired by it I will be happy, even if it's far from perfect.

 

And let me share 2 smaller, more "quick-fire" mock-ups from the end credits suite of The Force Awakens:

  • The Rey-Force theme connection:

 

  • Kylo's thematic material (this is probably the least accurate to my overly critical ears):

 

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One of John Williams' great contributions to world culture is bringing live orchestral music back to movies. It was in danger of being replaced by electronics.
The music is inspired and well-crafted so it works on almost any instrument ensemble. Loert shows that so well, I hope the sheet music is available some day :)

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4 hours ago, Loert said:

 

Thanks! Did you like the trombones at 4:20? :)

Absolutely!  There were some early moments I thought could be improved but they are nitpicks.  I'll point them out in case you care. 

1. Celesta at start is quite loud in the mix.  I would bring it down a bit.  For example, around 1:05, you have a full orchestra + multiple horns playing the melody but the celesta is louder.  That's not realistic acoustically BUT might be what happens in the recording which I think is not a celesta but a synth.  So what I am saying applies more to the concert suite than what's in the film.  I think at least you should dip it down a bit, too much is really unnatural.  For example, yesterday I made cookies from scratch.  I put too much vanilla extract and realized that is a flavor that should be barely noticed.  If you can identify it when you take a bite of the cookie, there is too much of it. It should be a scent not an overt presence.  When I hear Holst Planets Neptune, I hate it when I'm thinking "that's a celesta", I much more prefer "that is recorded in outer space" which is of course nonsense but demonstrates the instrument is buried in the mix.  The celesta is too close in the mix too.  You should push it back farther on the stage. It is where you would have a celesta concerto in the mix where the orchestra was behind it.  Like at 2ish minutes, that quasi cadenza in the celesta is in front of the orchestra.

2. The horn melody around 1:15 to 1:35ish sounds a bit too fake.  I can't tell if that is part of the legato sample or what, but to me it definitely breaks the spell.  Don't get me wrong, you are a million times better than I am at mockups, but this is my feedback so feel free to ignore it.

3. Some of the faster strings sound a bit too artificial.  Example is around 2:25, those are close and not natural.

4. At 2:30, it sounds quite good.  Generally, the louder the music, the better the mockup.  Soft instruments don't come across as realistic.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

From the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, posted April 3rd, 2020.

 

I'm hoping that it's a hint that the PSO will be presenting the Superman L2P concert in their 2020/21 schedule.  I was over at Heinz Hall for "SW:TESB" in July,  "ET" in September and "Raiders" last February and they were great.

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20 hours ago, BuzzLightyear said:

 

This is my piano arrangement of "Stalling Around" from Jurassic Park!

Hope you enjoy it 

That... was amazing. Thank you for that lovely treat! You tickle the ivories so jazzily!

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Quote

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced artists stuck at home to get creative. Violinist Shaundra Baird Culatta said she hadn't been able to play in any of the orchestras she was a part of for several months. So, the musician recorded herself playing all 20 parts of Princess Leia's theme and posted it to YouTube. What's utterly masterful about the video is the fact that she more than likely had to transcribe parts that weren't originally written for a violin's register. The end result is simply effortless and epic, and truly a treat for the ears.

 

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-princess-leia-theme-violin-cover/

 

 

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It does sound dodgy in places but I wonder if it's more from not properly adapting parts to the violin's tone, sound and capabilities more than her playing.

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Here's a MIDI mockup I made of The Map Room: Dawn from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/8/2020 at 4:31 PM, Loert said:

 

 

So the strategy is to start with the full letters playing and then start deleting parts of them.ROTFLMAO No, I imagine you didn't do that. But I had to refresh the page just to view the thumbnail one more time.

 

I'm checking out some of your videos. Amazing stuff. When I make virtual library orchestrations, I'm able to create a really realistic sound by recording different sections separately and giving them the right EQs and reverbs, before combining them. I also sometimes add more off-time layers, or change the attacks and dynamics from the original intention to suit the library's strengths, it ends up sounding different but in the end, incredibly realistic ...As I'm sure you're very familiar with.... It becomes quite easy. It's like Williams when conducting or composing to suit the instruments of the orchestra correctly, I'm composing to suit the virtual instruments correctly. Half of composing with a library seems to be playing the computer like an instrument, a creative intuition of getting the perfect, richest sound to come out.

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