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Did you know John Williams's "The Mission" had 4 parts, including a scherzo and a fugue?


Josh500

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17 minutes ago, king mark said:

I've always known The Mission had 4 parts.

 

what's wrong with the videos, the  speed and pitch seem wrong (too fast and high), especially on scherzo for today

 

Incorrect conversion from 48 kHz to 44.1 kHz somewhere along the way.  Speed correct by a factor of 0.91875 (-1.467 semitones) and you're back in business.

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1 hour ago, Philippe Roaché said:

I don't find it a particularly heroic sounding piece. It's more ominous and villainous. I don't know what Williams was thinking assigning that to the good guys.

Remember the new trilogy no longer sees things in good/bad or good and evil.  It is all gray.  So, there are no "good" guys.  

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7 hours ago, Josh500 said:

 

Which part of LC exactly sounds like which part of The Mission?

 

 

 

5:40. It's not a straight quote, but it's close enough to remind me of The Mission every time.

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5 hours ago, Philippe Roaché said:

Sounds like a load of crap.

Well, of course it is.  You still have the evil, Nazi bad guys, and the noble good guys.  Evidently, having good characters who make mistakes and have to learn that their bad choice was bad and coming around to make a good choice somehow makes them morally ambiguous.  Such is modern day Hollywood. 

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2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

5:40. It's not a straight quote, but it's close enough to remind me of The Mission every time.

 

Ah, I see what you mean.

 

I thought some parts of The Mission NBC Nightly News kinda sounds a bit like Fawkes the Phoenix, particularly the way it builds up and up at one point.

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17 minutes ago, TownerFan said:

What I love about the four-part NBC News theme suite is that it truly plays out like a miniature symphony. I wish JW would play in concert the other pieces as well more often.

 

Yeah, albeit a rather short symphony. Each part is only around 2 minutes....

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Great finds!  I was dimly aware of the existence of the other pieces (the hilariously self-important "Fugue for Changing Times" particularly rings a bell; come on, folks, all times are changing times), but I'm not sure I'd ever heard all of them all the way through before.  Those trumpet licks in the scherzo are insane!  Has JW ever asked so much of his trumpets before or since?

 

I know he did "The Mission Theme" concert arrangement live as an encore in Chicago in 2007, back when "encore" actually meant an entertaining but somewhat obscure chestnut to send us off with, rather than just the place to put Star Wars pieces. B-)  (For reference, his other encore that day was "The Accidental Tourist"—in other words, a pair of deep tracks so deep they didn't even make Lockhart's CD last year.)  I'm afraid nowadays there are just so many AAA tracks in his oeuvre that he needs the encores just to fit everything in.

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10 minutes ago, igger6 said:

Those trumpet licks in the scherzo are insane!  Has JW ever asked so much of his trumpets before or since?

 

That YouTube recording is sped up.

 

Try this one...
 

 

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I wonder why someone would alter the speed and pitch of music they upload on you tube

 

It's like " I have these rare JW cues to share but I don't want you to have the "real" version"

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3 hours ago, king mark said:

I wonder why someone would alter the speed and pitch of music they upload on you tube

 

It's like " I have these rare JW cues to share but I don't want you to have the "real" version"

 

So ContentID won't recognize the music automatically, which would mean the video is demonetized (good, they shouldn't be making money from doing nothing), the video is restricted (bad, people on mobile can't listen to it, and most of the youtube-uploaded cues the guys overseas share here I can't even start, banned in my country) and their channel is striked for copyright.

 

TL;DR: see below.

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16 hours ago, igger6 said:

Those trumpet licks in the scherzo are insane!  Has JW ever asked so much of his trumpets before or since?

 

 

Every single Star Wars prequels score. ;)

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  • 4 weeks later...
On ‎1‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 3:43 AM, Josh500 said:

 

Yeah, albeit a rather short symphony. Each part is only around 2 minutes....

Sinfonietta, really.  The Meet the Press theme is excellent, really deserves to be expanded.  I maintain, though, that the March of the Resistance owes a lot to it.  

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  • 1 year later...
On 2/16/2018 at 7:29 PM, SteveMc said:

Sinfonietta, really.  The Meet the Press theme is excellent, really deserves to be expanded.  I maintain, though, that the March of the Resistance owes a lot to it.  

 

And the Scherzo for X-Wings is almost a minor-key variation on Scherzo for Today ;) 

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What's amazing to me is that these themes are still being used (as far as I know), 35 years later. I mean, it's normal for news programmes to have the same logo music and bumpers for a number of years, but 35? That must be some sort of record.

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Well, sure, they've "updated" some versions with rock or synth-infused stylings (like they've also done for his "Sunday Night Football" theme), but it's still the same themes. Plus, Williams rerecorded "The Mission" in 2007 for further use, which is also unprecedented.

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Some audio files and description are available here, apparently:

https://www.networknewsmusic.com/?s=NBC

Quote

In 1985 NBC wanted to do away with the synthesizer sounds forever and so they commissioned a full orchestral news theme package from famous movie-score composer John Williams, who’s credits include Star Wars, Jaws and Jurassic Park. The deal with John Williams to compose The Mission, as the NBC News theme is called, took 2 years to close. Williams was actually quite reluctant to take on this project because he found it so difficult. The reason? It would have to hold up for many plays a day for a long time (though two decades was on nobody’s mind). Up until that point, he found composing the five signature notes from Close Encounters his most difficult project. He and director Steven Spielberg had gone days back and forth on it. At one point, a frustrated Spielberg called a mathematician to ask how many combinations there would be for just a few notes. When the answer came back at around 35 million — clearly untestable — they went back into the creative process.

Eventually Williams did of course take on the project for NBC News. He was given free reign, only being asked to include opens, bumpers and closes. After a number of meetings with the NBC executive who was in charge of this project, Tom Wolzien, and the executive producers of Nightly News and Today (to get their visions on their programs), he set out to compose the music. NBC did not hear from him again until the day of the recording. After that session he delivered 19 cues to NBC, consisting of 4 closing themes, 4 opens and 11 bumpers. 

 

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54 minutes ago, First TROS March Accolyte said:

I've got to say that this sinfonietta is the best non-film Williams music I've ever heard.

 

It's good, and it deserves a better recording than the old, crackly one we have -- but I'm not quite sure what it has to do with his NBC News music?!

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9 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

It's good, and it deserves a better recording than the old, crackly one we have -- but I'm not quite sure what it has to do with his NBC News music?!

You didn't know that the NBC themes are a sinfonietta? ;)

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2 hours ago, First TROS March Accolyte said:

Some audio files and description are available here, apparently:

https://www.networknewsmusic.com/?s=NBC

I've got to say that this sinfonietta is the best non-film Williams music I've ever heard.

 

I always love revisiting that link just to listen to the Maestro's music. I just wish it was downloadable; that way I can listen to that music anytime without having to go on the computer. Oh well.

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2 hours ago, JohnnyD said:

 

I always love revisiting that link just to listen to the Maestro's music. I just wish it was downloadable; that way I can listen to that music anytime without having to go on the computer. Oh well.

 

Get Audacity and record it.

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On 2/14/2020 at 8:27 AM, ActionCap said:

I recently heard a new variation of “Pulse of Events” on NBC’s Special Report. I would love to find the full version of this. The closest i could find was this video on Youtube. 

 

 

Sounds great. I'm hearing this version for the first time. 

 

When this starts playing, you're not rightly sure whether the news or Star Wars is on.... :D

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  • 4 months later...
On 2/14/2020 at 8:27 AM, ActionCap said:

I recently heard a new variation of “Pulse of Events” on NBC’s Special Report. I would love to find the full version of this. The closest i could find was this video on Youtube. 

 

 

I missed your post. I just heard the same piece in the background on this Covid 19 segment. I thought I had discovered a new arrangement

https://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/frontline-medical-workers-speak-to-the-seriousness-of-the-covid-19-crisis-86923333926

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