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JFK how long is the complete score?


Brundlefly

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Here, at JWFan there is a complete cue list that shows the complete score of JFK. Due to some comments the score is said to be already almost completely offered on the OST. But the complete cue list implies the opposite - that a mass of music is still not offered to us. So, is a substantial part of the cue list source music and that electronic stuff from another composer or is it just Williams' cues?

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From the edit its appears around 20 minutes of missing music. It will be very interesting to see how the music was recorded for the film, From what I remember reading that Williams wrote and recorded the score as suites. So what we saw on the film is derived from those suites. I hope we get to see and hear those complete unedited suites from the sessions as well as alternates or different takes. It would not make sense to release them in chronological film edits. While the release is scheduled for this year, I don't know if La La Land Records will be able to time the release around their November Black Friday dates (since JFK's assassination anniversary will be on 22nd November) but if the project comes out to fruition earlier it would be great!

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As the score was composed and recorded in a bit unusual way (if you are not Ennio Morricone or Sergio Leone) beforehand, it is difficult to tell how much of unreleased material there actually is for this score beyond what we can hear in the film.  As you say there could be alternate takes and versions recorded on the initial recording sessions we know nothing about.

 

Most prominent pieces of unreleased music I remember from the film:

-A ghostly statement of the JFK theme and suspenseful underscore after the prologue for the Rose Cheramie warning that someone is trying to kill the president is not released. Interestingly this appears in the JFK concert suite preceding the Motorcade music.

-The very subdued suspense music for the news bulletin when Garrison is hearing about the assassination is unreleased. This is basically just monotonous bass drum beat underneath the scene.

-A piano statement of the Garrison Family theme is not on the OST which is featured in the film when they are going to a Eastern Sunday dinner.

-The agitated ever quickening exotic percussion music for David Ferrie's ranting (if this was indeed composed by Williams) used IIRC twice in the film.

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I really liked that JFK concert that Williams did with Boston Pops for a concert in Tokyo. You are right we don't know much about the recordings or how much was recorded/left out etc. But I will love to hear them produced the full score as recorded. Hopefully Matessino will be on this project with the best of approach. But it remains to be seen how Williams would like this expanded album represented. Will it be a single cd or will it be relegated to a 2 Disc format with the compete archival score on Disc 1 and  OST album on disc 2. Whatever comes that way, I'll take it. I just love the score.

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Hopefully the labels will do both Born on the Fourth of July and Nixon in the future too! All three Stone/Williams collaborations are ace! :)

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2 hours ago, azahid said:

 

Some of us would love to hear Born on the Fourth of July as in complete form. 

 

Yes.

 

I want JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, and Nixon too... In that order. 3 new holy grails.

 

Or who knows? Maybe we'll get a John Williams/Oliver Stone Collection! (I know how unlikely that is, but how great would that be!) :D

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3 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

You're not the only one who has already dreamt of "The John Williams Oliver Stone Collection"!:wub:

 

 

It's somehow strange that none of the Oliver Stone John Williams movie soundtrack have been expanded.... 

 

Coincidence? 

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Nixon is a Disney film, and those rarely get expanded

 

JFK is WB, and we know is coming from LLL 2017 or later

 

BOTFOJ is Universal, and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets expanded soon after BTTF 1-3, Jaws 1-4, and JP 1-2 all happened!

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So all three are from different studios and all three haven't been expanded so far for different reasons.

 

So it is a coincidence, isn't it? :lol:

 

I can't wait for these, especially JFK and BOTFOJ! 

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Having recently re-watched the JFK film for the first time since the 90s, that score is freshest in my mind, and I look forward to listening to all the music recorded, in a different order than the seemingly random OST order (which I've listened to a few times now since seeing the film and has some really nice music!)

 

BOTFOJ I listened to for the first time a year or two ago and REALLY liked it; However the OST is very short and the bootleg sounds like crap, so I can't wait to get it all in proper sound quality!

 

Nixon I am just completely unfamiliar with.

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

BOTFOJ I listened to for the first time a year or two ago and REALLY liked it; However the OST is very short and the bootleg sounds like crap, so I can't wait to get it all in proper sound quality!

 

The JW score on the OS album is really short (like 30 minutes?), but I wonder how much music was actually missing....

 

I've seen the movie several times, but I can't recall any unreleased cue that struck me as particularly noteworthy. All the highlights are included on the album, aren't they? Except maybe for some dissonant Vietnam cues....

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No idea; I think I saw the movie when I got netflix in 2001 but don't really remember it.  I'll watch it again if an expanded CD gets announced for sure, though

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BOTFOJ has a 25 minute OST and approx 25 minutes are still missing. There are some nice variations of the main theme, but especially the opening scene when the children are playing war and that harmless music gets more and more threatening (jurassic park-like string chord) alluding to what will follow AND the quiet depressing cue when Ron is crying while sleeping with a whore are missing.

 

But what is left out on the Nixon OST?

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1 minute ago, Brundlefly said:

But what is left out on the Nixon OST?

A few smaller cues here and there, perhaps about 20 minutes more more. The OST contains most of the setpieces. My favourite unreleased stuff includes the gorgeous tender piano moment after Nixon has lost the election and is pitying himself, which is a precursor to the Anakin's Betrayal melody from RotS and the funeral music for Nixon's brother Harold which again finds another life as Williams revises part of the elegy for Shmi's funeral in AotC.

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

Nixon I am just completely unfamiliar with.

I can't believe you haven't listened to it Jay! It is a precursor to the dark tragic style featured in the Prequels. You should check it out ASAP!

 

Plus the dark main theme might remind you of a certain well known theme from Williams' ouvre. ;) 

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1 minute ago, Brundlefly said:

What else by WB is left to be expanded? (Except the Harry Potter Movies which WB want to do themselves, whoever believes it.)

 

Here you go!

 

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/24564-john-williams-scores-by-studio/

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Who knows, these days;  LLL of course just released their Jurassic Park collection and is working on JP3, and that's Universal's biggest property.

 

Anything's possible these days

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Yea,that's a fun aspect of these releases, when there is music that was both unused in the film and not on the original OST, and we finally get to not only learn about its existence but also hear it.  The Varese Deluxe Edition of The Abyss featured a lot of that, a really eye opening album.

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I listened to that on a japanese site that streamed all Deluxe Editions for a while and it is really one of Silvestri's lamer efforts, in long and short form. But 'Empire of the Sun' was a nice surprise, even if the old album was enough really. I would probably choose BOTF and 'Noxin' over 'JFK'.

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1 minute ago, publicist said:

I listened to that on a japanese site that streamed all Deluxe Editions for a while and it is really one of Silvestri's lamer efforts, in long and short form. But 'Empire of the Sun' was a nice surprise, even if the old album was enough really. I would probably choose BOTF and 'Noxin' over 'JFK'.

 

:lol:

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6 hours ago, publicist said:

I listened to that on a japanese site that streamed all Deluxe Editions for a while and it is really one of Silvestri's lamer efforts, in long and short form. But 'Empire of the Sun' was a nice surprise, even if the old album was enough really. I would probably choose BOTF and 'Noxin' over 'JFK'.

 

To each his own, I often say: ' One man's garbage is another another mans treasure' 

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18 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

:lol:

 

You laugh but when i ripped open the package that was all i could see on the spine: NOXIN...and i wondered what the hell i'd ordered there.

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That is classy CD case spine design there. Gives the readers information but also makes them think.

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A picture of the page from the JFK Cue 'Motorcade' posted by LA sessions Cellist Armen Ksajikian on his facebook page. 

 

Looks like the heavy section with the strings section for orchestra blazing in an fiery mode.( The six note attack motif is there)

 

 

jfk.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

So, with the sheet music "out there" consisting of 36 cues, and a possible upcoming complete cd score, I guess this opposes the - I think - Oliver stone statement (?) that WIlliams wrote just 6 cues and he edited those in the film.

I wonder why he said that.

Or maybe he meant that Williams wrote 6 cues prior to the filming, and after the film was complete, he wrote the film score normally?

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10 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Williams wrote 6 cues prior to the filming, and after the film was complete, he wrote the film score normally?

 

That.

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Yes I would be inclined to be believe that is the way it happened. Although John Williams in a Boston Globe interview with Richard Dyer more or less states the same thing about writing these six suites and then Stone comforming those to the film by editing.

 

It will be interesting to hear if and when the purported JFK release comes out, how much of JWs music went unused and are there some completely unheard gems among the recorded materials. Hopefully the liner notes will shed light on the actual scoring process as this is the only reported occurence of this working method for Williams, scoring the film beforehand without seeing a foot of footage.

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