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Non-JW Favourite Short Musical Moments


Jilal

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Wow, that's a really tough question, even for a fan like me! lol

 

It changes from time to time, but I guess my top favorite JNH scores are (in no particular order) King Kong, Water For Elephants, The Village, Unbreakable and Dinosaur.

 

But if you want to know more about him, there's two ways in doing that: his more intimate, dramatic scores, and the adventure, larger than life scores.

 

For the first group, there's the supremely underrated Water for Elephants, the hard to listen but rewarding Snow Falling on Cedars, the unknown but also great The Emperor's Club, the tragic and Oscar-nominated Defiance, the recently released (and excellent) A Hidden Life, and almost all of his Shyamalan scores except for The Last Airbender and After Earth. The earlier Shyamalan scores are a great mixture of horror with more tender, beautiful string writing, as in Malcom is Dead for The Sixth Sense, Carrying Audrey from Unbreakable, The Hand of Fate Part 2 from Signs, The Vote and some unreleased cues (available on bootlegs and on YouTube) from The Village, and The Healing from Lady in the Water. If you want an example from his early career, there's his first Oscar nominated score, for Prince of Tides, which has his moments, but not his trademark "JNH sound".

 

As for the second, you can't go wrong with the Kevin Costner scores (Waterworld and The Postman), the Disney animations (Dinosaur, Atlantis and Treasure Planet), King Kong, The Last Airbender, Maleficent and the two Fantastic Beasts scores. Vertical Limit is also interesting, and although I don't listen to these albums very often, there's some cues in scores like Hidalgo, Peter Pan, Water Horse, The Nutcracker and Snow White and the Huntsman that are worth listening once in a while. Not everyone likes his Hunger Games scores, but you can make a great playlist with material from the 4 scores.

 

Avoid his suspense/thriller/action scores with a heavier electronic involvement, such as The Interpreter, Bourne Legacy, Salt, Nightcrawler, Michael Clayton, Dreamcatcher, these are generic and uninteresting scores far below his talent. The best one is Blood Diamond, which has a great main theme, some pretty good action (Diamond Mine Bombed) and emotional (Maddy and Archer, the final 5 cues on the OST) tracks.

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On 1/20/2020 at 5:14 PM, Edmilson said:

Wow, that's a really tough question, even for a fan like me! lol

 

It changes from time to time, but I guess my top favorite JNH scores are (in no particular order) King Kong, Water For Elephants, The Village, Unbreakable and Dinosaur.

 

But if you want to know more about him, there's two ways in doing that: his more intimate, dramatic scores, and the adventure, larger than life scores.

 

For the first group, there's the supremely underrated Water for Elephants, the hard to listen but rewarding Snow Falling on Cedars, the unknown but also great The Emperor's Club, the tragic and Oscar-nominated Defiance, the recently released (and excellent) A Hidden Life, and almost all of his Shyamalan scores except for The Last Airbender and After Earth. The earlier Shyamalan scores are a great mixture of horror with more tender, beautiful string writing, as in Malcom is Dead for The Sixth Sense, Carrying Audrey from Unbreakable, The Hand of Fate Part 2 from Signs, The Vote and some unreleased cues (available on bootlegs and on YouTube) from The Village, and The Healing from Lady in the Water. If you want an example from his early career, there's his first Oscar nominated score, for Prince of Tides, which has his moments, but not his trademark "JNH sound".

 

As for the second, you can't go wrong with the Kevin Costner scores (Waterworld and The Postman), the Disney animations (Dinosaur, Atlantis and Treasure Planet), King Kong, The Last Airbender, Maleficent and the two Fantastic Beasts scores. Vertical Limit is also interesting, and although I don't listen to these albums very often, there's some cues in scores like Hidalgo, Peter Pan, Water Horse, The Nutcracker and Snow White and the Huntsman that are worth listening once in a while. Not everyone likes his Hunger Games scores, but you can make a great playlist with material from the 4 scores.

 

Avoid his suspense/thriller/action scores with a heavier electronic involvement, such as The Interpreter, Bourne Legacy, Salt, Nightcrawler, Michael Clayton, Dreamcatcher, these are generic and uninteresting scores far below his talent. The best one is Blood Diamond, which has a great main theme, some pretty good action (Diamond Mine Bombed) and emotional (Maddy and Archer, the final 5 cues on the OST) tracks.

 

I really appreciate this response.

 

 I can't offer much in discussion and hate to give such a short reply, but I've always loved what he has done with the Shyamalan films. But I'll give Water For Elephants and Dinosaur a listen at some point this week.

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On 1/21/2020 at 2:14 AM, Edmilson said:

and almost all of his Shyamalan scores except for The Last Airbender and After Earth. The earlier Shyamalan scores are a great mixture of horror with more tender, beautiful string writing, as in Malcom is Dead for The Sixth Sense, Carrying Audrey from Unbreakable, The Hand of Fate Part 2 from Signs, The Vote and some unreleased cues (available on bootlegs and on YouTube) from The Village, and The Healing from Lady in the Water.


I love every Shyamalan score you mentioned (never listened to Last Airbender and After Earth).
Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village and Lady in the Water all have incredible soundtracks in my opinion. 
I don't listen to The Happening that much, but it has its moments

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30:36 - 31:47ish

 

My favorite section of the music that Copland cut out of the familiar concert suite of Appalachian Spring.  I think it's a shame that more people haven't heard this wonderful music.

 

 

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Made me think of Schifrin's M:I stuff (the stuff beyond the theme, like The Plot)

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The little low brass counter melody that ends up blatting that low C...ohhhhhh my god, it's so satisfying. This is what happens when you get a true blue composer to do a big cartoon type score!

 

Also love the little clarinet figure at :35, reminds me of the textures Walker would use for her Two Face theme, it's such a great and succinct depiction of the character. And the trademark Goldenthal brass growl around :58 is delicious, too.

 

 

 

 

On the subject of tiny satisying moments, the bari sax/trombone fall around 2:11 here gives me goosebumps almost every time.

 

 

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I got my copy of LLL's Casper this afternoon and I'm very happy to report that one of Horner's most charming musical moments is finally on CD.

 

You can hear it starting at 2:11 in this video, or at 1:10 on track 22 of CD 1. This is movie music magic, on a par with JW.

 

 

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I love this little moment in the end credits of Goldsmith’s The Mummy. The little descending piano colour towards the end of that statement of the love theme at 4:16. Gives me goosebumps.

 

 

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Here's a song I love, and one that for me at least rings so very very true after today.

One short musical moment here that has always captured me starts at 0:59, when Debbie Reynolds sings "..and you and you and you and you." I'd love if someone could explain what that chord progression is and why it sounds so magical.

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This cue is sooo good -- I've played it so many times since I first discovered it a month or two ago: 

 

 

From the ecstatic little flute echoes over the charging strings (particularly around 1:07) to the beautiful dancing piano line over the rich, flowing strings beginning at 1:10, this is such a great cue. 

 

The rest of the score is not particularly inspiring, but this track is Desplat at his very best. 

 

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Alan Menken is awesome. Listen to what he does between 1:13 and 1:41. It's straight-up magical.

(I didn't timestamp this one because I think the buildup in the cue is helpful to making the short moment I mention really pop.)

 

EDIT: I'm back with another one! Randy Edelman this time:

From 0:32 to 0:51. But especially from 0:40 to 0:51.

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