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John Powell's PAN (2015)


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Hey it looks like you, me and KK are thinking alike! :D


EDIT:We are morphing into one. There's going to be one monumental member (no pun intended!) named KKrocoBoal

Karol

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Hey it looks like you, me and KK are thinking alike! :D

Thank you, for identifying me properly without the bloody period at the end. I like you now.

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EDIT: Hey, KK. Great minds think alike!

1h5TI2d.gif

Hehehe... Neat.

Hey it looks like you, me and KK are thinking alike! :D

EDIT:We are morphing into one. There's going to be one monumental member (no pun intended!) named KKrocoBoal

Yes! The next stage of film music fans' evolution!

Hey it looks like you, me and KK are thinking alike! :D

Thank you, for identifying me without the bloody period at the end. I like you now.

It's in your username, though. When we'll morph into KKrocoBoal, it will have to go!

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Whoever showed Marianelli the door... that's a paddlin. Wow what a stupidly missed opportunity. I'm so heavily mourning Marianelli's loss from Pan. Just hearing those Powell Piece, while fun, are 100% what I expected. Marianelli's would have been far more surprising and unique.

I hear a lot of HTTYD in those pieces and they are too cluttered. Fun, but too familiar. It's obviously his fantasy sound, and I adore Powell's half of Chicken Run and his HTTYD scores, but I guess he has found his sound already and is now sticking to it, probably for the rest of his career; using HTTYD as his blue-print for the next 30 years. I hope he switches up with his next fantasy score.

I'm sure when an orchestra hears that they are recording a Powell Score, they all stop going to the gym for a few weeks because the workout in the studio must be enough.

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I hear a lot of HTTYD in those pieces and they are too cluttered. Fun, but too familiar. It's obviously his fantasy sound, and I adore Powell's half of Chicken Run and his HTTYD scores, but I guess he has found his sound already and is now sticking to it, probably for the rest of his career; using HTTYD as his blue-print for the next 30 years. I hope he switches up with his next fantasy score.

To be honest, this has been Powell's sound since his earliest scores. It's his orchestrations that have gotten better and better with time. In fact, these Pan samples reminded me quite a bit of his Just Visiting score, from the early 2000's

I guess that the Vaughan-Williams on steroids sound makes some sense in a pirate movie, though.

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Marianelli would deliver his usual husk of consummate technique bereft of any soul or spark of life (see Boxtrolls video posted above).

He's like Desplat, circa 6 or 7 years ago.

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I hear a lot of HTTYD in those pieces and they are too cluttered. Fun, but too familiar. It's obviously his fantasy sound, and I adore Powell's half of Chicken Run and his HTTYD scores, but I guess he has found his sound already and is now sticking to it, probably for the rest of his career; using HTTYD as his blue-print for the next 30 years. I hope he switches up with his next fantasy score.

To be honest, this has been Powell's sound since his earliest scores. It's his orchestrations that have gotten better and better with time. In fact, these Pan samples reminded me quite a bit of his Just Visiting score, from the early 2000's

I guess that the Vaughan-Williams on steroids sound makes some sense in a pirate movie, though.

Yeah, one of my favourites from Powell is Chicken Run as I said, and he had that style back then too, but it's pretty clear the HTTYD is his magnum opus so far, and he has reached his peak sound. I doubt he will change from now on. It's not his fault of course, the filmmakers no doubt said "this marianelli guy isn't doing that dragon movie type score. HEY MATE, we want a score like that dragon movie. Let's get that guy who did it. Get him on the phone and tell him to do that dragon music again."

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Marianelli would deliver his usual husk of consummate technique bereft of any soul or spark of life (see Boxtrolls video posted above).

Having listened to that clip, I am forced to agree.

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Marianelli would deliver his usual husk of consummate technique bereft of any soul or spark of life (see Boxtrolls video posted above).

Marianelli is bereft of soul?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnBFJWD90Q&list=PL5HkXohAfcb3HbZ2NVmi7F2MrbpE4gZsK&index=14

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Some people truly baffle me. Saying Marianelli's music is soulless and lifeless is pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've heard this month. Marianelli is one of the most soulful composers working today.

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Nope. It's ridiculous that you think his music is soulless. Please read what I say before commenting.

You think his music isn't soulless. You think it's ridiculous that I do. Therefore, you think it's ridiculous that someone doesn't feel what you do about something. Please think before trying to spar.

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Nope. It's ridiculous that you think his music is soulless. Please read what I say before commenting.

You think his music isn't soulless. You think it's ridiculous that I do. Therefore, you think it's ridiculous that someone doesn't feel what you do about something. Please think before trying to spar.

Didn't realise we were two knights battling it out for glory. I just disagree with your opinion. Perhaps you'll be better 'sparring' 'duelling' or whatnot on a forum where people don't disagree with your opinion.

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Thanks, I feel like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Aren't you the guy who dedicated one of his first posts to pontificating about how we're all so sensitive when someone disagrees with us?

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I'm glad you're a fan. You may remember me from such posts as; 'I'm going to brutally murder you all for slightly disagreeing with me, and 'how dare you say I'm wrong, here is a list of ways you should kill yourself.'

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I have a pet theory, and it is firmly in the domain of evidence-less musings/bullcrap. I think it's something to do with where the composers grew up. I used to think it was a European/American dichotomy. But I've got a new one.
I think the composers that have difficulties with "spark of life" in their music tend to have been raised in dense urban environments. They have a distinct...mechanical greyness to their voice. Whether they're Parisian or New Yorkers.
It probably has to do with "removal from nature." I imagine it's more difficult to get that intuitive grasp of "life" when you're surrounded by concrete or old stone growing up. The reason we see it less in American composers could be that it's much easier, at least in places like LA to find yourself in suburbia with a grassy lawn and a tree at least.
It sounds out there, but if even birds have different "musical accents" depending on if they live in urban or natural environments, I don't think it's far fetched to think a composer's musical accent is affected by where they grew up.
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I've always felt that there are "musical accents" and was just thinking about it today actually. Obviously time affects it - what's the musical language that's relevant in your lifetime - but place is also very important I think, yeah. Minimalist composers from New York have a sound that is definitely distinct from those in California, for example. Same time, same principles, but a different... outlook? Based on where you live? Yes, I buy that completely, but I've never given thought to what you're saying specifically. Why not? It would be difficult to assess though... where are all these guys from originally?

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Finally listened to the two clips.... ehhhhhhh, not too impressed. Sounds too similar to HTTYD, I think. IDK.

I will certainly withhold full judgement until I've heard the entire OST. When will that be coming out, anyway?

Why are 2 tracks from it online so early?

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I totally agree with the fact a composer's environment can affect/affects the way he writes music, but what's with all the "American composers have less difficulties getting an intuitive grasp of life because there is grass where they live" bullshit, Blume?

Because the United States has a lower population density, more spread out, more forested areas than Europe? I'm proposing there is a connection between exposure to nature and the ability to write music that doesn't sound...grey.

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I tend to think it just has to do with how invested in a story the composer is. If it doesn't truly engage you emotionally, what comes out is probably not going to be genuine emotion, no matter how talented you are. You can't fake feeling. You might write something technically interesting and well-crafted, but it won't really mean much. That's what I hear in those Marianelli examples, for instance.

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I totally agree with the fact a composer's environment can affect/affects the way he writes music, but what's with all the "American composers have less difficulties getting an intuitive grasp of life because there is grass where they live" bullshit, Blume?

Because the United States has a lower population density, more spread out, more forested areas than Europe? I'm proposing there is a connection between exposure to nature and the ability to write music that doesn't sound...grey.

By that logic, polar bears and russian wolves must make for the greatest composers.

I tend to think it just has to do with how invested in a story the composer is. If it doesn't truly engage you emotionally, what comes out is probably not going to be genuine emotion, no matter how talented you are. You can't fake feeling. You might write something technically interesting and well-crafted, but it won't really mean much. That's what I hear in those Marianelli examples, for instance.

Both of you write exceedingly irritating rubbish today. Go to bed.

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Because it is craft that drives 98% of film music. To claim that some divine inspiration lays at the heart of every film music you like whereas everything you don't get/isn't moving is just a composer phoning it in is just...feeble beyond words.

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Because it is craft that drives 98% of film music. To claim that some divine inspiration lays at the heart of every film music you like whereas everything you don't get/isn't moving is just a composer phoning it in is just...feeble beyond words.

No, you're incorrect, misreading, and exaggerating, and I don't have the energy to begin a series of diatribes explaining why and how.

And yet....

Craft doesn't drive 98% of film music. It's 75% emotional reaction to what you're seeing, 10% dramatic instinct to know how to properly respond to and translate those emotional reactions, and 15% technical craft to actually do it in a competent and interesting way. No claims of divine inspiration, come on.

Note that I said "WHAT I HEAR IN THE MARIANELLI." Spare me the lectures on artistic subjectivity - don't I usually purvey those? "What I hear" doesn't mean "it doesn't make me feel anything so he must not have felt anything" but "I know what it sounds like when a composer writes what they *should* write without actually caring." Do I know what was going on in his mind? Nope. Just a hunch.

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I don't really think you categorize things like that. Music, of all arts, is probably the most subjective one. My profound epiphany might be yours crineworthy cliche. We might be describing the same thing but our perception of it is different. Marianelli might come off as a bit dry to someone who expects an instant emotional gratification. I certainly have a similar sort of experience with many composers that others seem to like. It happens to all of us. Especially these days, where you can share everything instantly on social media and can't really process and digest.

Having said that, when I talk about The Boxtrolls piece is that it feels to me more technically appealing. It seems that he understands how orchestra works, range of instruments and things like that. It feels like it creates this three-dimnsional aural space in which I can hear each element and it makes some sort of acoustic sense (if that's how I can even put it). If they were to perform the very same piece in a concert hall, it would make sense. Not silly adjustments and hilarious balancing problems that come up with other musicians (and I've heard shitloads of film music being played live over years). Not many composer these days have that skill, they mostly tend to over- or under-orchestrate (and that includes some of my favourites - Powell, Giacchino). There's not much balance in writing to be found.. Might be old-fashioned but I miss this. And, for that reason, this guy will always be favoured.

Karol

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Well to my ears Powell's Pan sounds like a safe mix of Pirates of the Carribean and How to Train Your Dragon. Looks like it will be another solid effort in a time when most of scores can be described as solid efforts. I am not exactly thrilled about those samples.

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Won't be listening to any of this til the OST's out in high quality. Can't imagine what's wrong with it sounding like HTTYD, though as some narrow-minded posts (not posters) have suggested (not in this thread), that may just be because I'm young. Apparently, I'll "understand when I'm older" and I grow out of my appreciation for Powell's "hyperactivity."

I have yet to rule out the composer-grass connection however. Speaking of which, I see what pub did here! :lol:

That's because he wrote the score in England, where there is no grass! No spark of life!

Better move to the Netherlands, then?

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I totally agree with the fact a composer's environment can affect/affects the way he writes music, but what's with all the "American composers have less difficulties getting an intuitive grasp of life because there is grass where they live" bullshit, Blume?

Because the United States has a lower population density, more spread out, more forested areas than Europe? I'm proposing there is a connection between exposure to nature and the ability to write music that doesn't sound...grey.

By that logic, polar bears and russian wolves must make for the greatest composers.

This would make sense if bears and wolves sat around writing music. Go home, publicist, you're hallucinating.

Because it is craft that drives 98% of film music. To claim that some divine inspiration lays at the heart of every film music you like whereas everything you don't get/isn't moving is just a composer phoning it in is just...feeble beyond words.

Again, this would make sense if anyone was talking about divine inspiration! You keep reducing things to the false and absurd then attacking confidently!

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The theme for what I assume is Blackbeard at 1:22 in Ship Fight is really fresh for Powell, considering the others sound derivative of some of his previous works.

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Won't be listening to any of this til the OST's out in high quality. Can't imagine what's wrong with it sounding like HTTYD, though as some narrow-minded posts (not posters) have suggested (not in this thread), that may just be because I'm young. Apparently, I'll "understand when I'm older" and I grow out of my appreciation for Powell's "hyperactivity."

What a ridiculous sentiment.

I doubt your understanding will improve with age.

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Marianelli's music is bereft of soul? My, my, what is JWFan taking today?

Please cleanse your ears with these bits, thank you very much.

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