Jump to content

Which JW tracks or compositions did you use to dislike, but now like?


Jurassic Shark

Recommended Posts

3 minutes ago, Thor said:

The ALWAYS soundtrack. Used to dislike/was utterly bored by everything except "Dorinda Solo Flight" and "Follow Me", but I now love the whole thing. Beautiful, textural writing. Goes to show how much my taste has changed in the last decade or so. Less enthused about the big and bombastic these days; more into the calm and textural, generally speaking.

 

Yeah, that often happens when one gets old. ;)

 

I was expecting you to say you'd grown to appreciate one of the extended JW releases! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I was expecting you to say you'd grown to appreciate one of the extended JW releases! :)

 

Ha! Some things never change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

There's a long goodbyeeeeeee

 

And it happens every dayyyyyyy

 

That's a beautiful song! And the lyrics are very resonant.

 

I don't know if I ever had this experience with John Williams, thinking about it. I think I received some level of enjoyment out of pretty much every score of his I listened to, with my appreciation for the scores mostly just increasing from there.

 

However, I will say some of the things I enjoy most were things that I either disliked or even despised when I was first exposed to them, but found myself drawn to for some reason, like when a kid asks to hear the same bedtime story over and over and over again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a nice block of late 1990s scores - Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, Stepmom, Sabrina, Sleepers - that I need to take a closer listen to.  I still haven't come around to anything but the concert pieces.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a while where I didn't really like Anakin's Theme, as in the concert suite, but I listened to it again the other day and I think it might've grown on me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Tom said:

Pops on the March.  Most of his concertos, except the flute, which I still find unlistenable. 

 

I think it's a fun, more cantankerous grandpa to the first movement of the Harp Concerto.

 

2 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

There was a while where I didn't really like Anakin's Theme, as in the concert suite, but I listened to it again the other day and I think it might've grown on me.

 

Funny, I've seen a number of people say the same about disliking it. What did you not like about it? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never really liked the whole "shades of the Imperial March" nudge-nudge, but from a different view more recently I realize how cool it was for Johnny to slide that in there while still holding on to the new theme and not going into a full fledged rendition of the march. It's pretty suttil, yet noticeable enough to be kind of a "nice touch".

 

That's where majority of my newfound liking is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, mstrox said:

There's a nice block of late 1990s scores - Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, Stepmom, Sabrina, Sleepers - that I need to take a closer listen to.  I still haven't come around to anything but the concert pieces.

It's interesting you single some of these scores out. Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, and Sleepers are things I've been getting to know lately, and there's some stunning music in those scores. His mid to late 90s scores don't seem to get so much attention, but they are substantial and rewarding if you take the time. His thematic material in those scores has a "breathing" quality that, to me, is a bit unique. By that I mean that the phrases have a very natural ebb and flow, and his conducting of the scores is very fluid and attentive. Now I'm just babbling. But still--give those scores some attention and I think you'll find a lot to like. It even inspired me to buy another copy of Rosewood, since I gave it up a couple of moves ago and now wish I hadn't.

 

As far as my own answer to the question here, I can't think of anything. Like @Nick Parker, I've gotten some degree of enjoyment out of most of his scores and concert works (the Cello and Flute Concerti notwithstanding--I don't think I will ever come around to the Cello Concerto, even though it's got a lot of fans here). I suppose the nearest experience I've had is with the Pieces for Solo Cello or Heartwood. The solo pieces are more interesting that I initially thought, but still not necessarily immediately accessible, and Heartwood is just beautiful, with some of his most interesting combinations of harmonic language and orchestral approaches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found Saving Buckbeak really boring when I first heard it.

 

While I don't quite think it's the sliced bread milestone that some here think it is, it's grown on me. I pretty much forced myself to listen to it properly when I got the HP box because I couldn't bring myself to remove anything from such a wonderfully produced set.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Seth said:

It's interesting you single some of these scores out. Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, and Sleepers are things I've been getting to know lately, and there's some stunning music in those scores. His mid to late 90s scores don't seem to get so much attention, but they are substantial and rewarding if you take the time. His thematic material in those scores has a "breathing" quality that, to me, is a bit unique. By that I mean that the phrases have a very natural ebb and flow, and his conducting of the scores is very fluid and attentive. Now I'm just babbling. But still--give those scores some attention and I think you'll find a lot to like. It even inspired me to buy another copy of Rosewood, since I gave it up a couple of moves ago and now wish I hadn't.

 

You're preachin' to the choir, man! In my opinion, Williams could do no wrong in the 90s. It's all excellent, his best decade by far. Even my least favourite of the decade, SABRINA, is damn good. Of those mentioned, SLEEPERS is a masterpiece.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Seth said:

far as my own answer to the question here, I can't think of anything. Like @Nick Parker, I've gotten some degree of enjoyment out of most of his scores and concert works (the Cello and Flute Concerti notwithstanding--I don't think I will ever come around to the Cello Concerto, even though it's got a lot of fans here)

 

I haven't listened to the entire revised version (which at least by the first movement is _veryyy_ different than the 2002 recording!), but do you at least like the last movement? I think it, especially the climax, is one of the most beautiful things Williams ever wrote.

 

Although I do have a soft spot for Jurassic Park in concert form, a.k.a. the third movement. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

I haven't listened to the entire revised version (which at least by the first movement is _veryyy_ different than the 2002 recording!), but do you at least like the last movement? I think it, especially the climax, is one of the most beautiful things Williams ever wrote.

 

Although I do have a soft spot for Jurassic Park in concert form, a.k.a. the third movement. 

The finale is the movement I have always thought worked the best, and you're right that the climax really is beautiful. Maybe it's just me, but I have also thought that the end of the piece has almost an air of dread about it. The closing bars have always sounded very dark and foreboding to me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, mstrox said:

There's a nice block of late 1990s scores - Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, Stepmom, Sabrina, Sleepers - that I need to take a closer listen to.  I still haven't come around to anything but the concert pieces.

 

I felt like that about mid/late 90s Williams for some time when I was younger too. For some reason, I couldn't get into The Lost World either. And then at some point, it all clicked. I now think the 90s is his most creatively fertile period.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I could never get into the last 15 minutes of E.T., I thought it was all a bit cheesy and ridiculously over the top. On subsequent listens I have warmed to it a bit more...though I still find it difficult to listen through if I'm not in the right mood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Fabulin said:

unlike HTTYD?

So you are implying that HTTYD is cheesier and more over the top than the E.T. end sequence? I just don't see it.

 

It's something very particular to that piece...it has this aura of "Now LISTEN to THIS!!!" about it which I just find off-putting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fabulin Something just turns me off about that last section of E.T., but especially the chase music. How else can I describe it...you know how people say that film music is basically the manipulation of emotion? For me that usually isn't a problem as I can appreciate the quality of the music writing, but in the case of E.T. the "manipulation" bit isn't disguised so well and the music leaves me feeling almost like I've been cheated somehow. You might not feel the same but at least you can see what I mean?

 

I had a similar problem with Flight to Neverland, but after listening to it some more I don't mind it at all now. And I have always loved the Love theme from Superman (especially the melody itself), and that can be said to be an ancestor of E.T. in some ways.

 

What can definitely be said about the three pieces I've mentioned is that they display JW's "sparkling" orchestral writing skills at their best. But it is the overall tone of E.T. which irks me somewhat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Loert said:

@Fabulin Something just turns me off about that last section of E.T., but especially the chase music. How else can I describe it...you know how people say that film music is basically the manipulation of emotion? For me that usually isn't a problem as I can appreciate the quality of the music writing, but in the case of E.T. the "manipulation" bit isn't disguised so well and the music leaves me feeling almost like I've been cheated somehow. You might not feel the same but at least you can see what I mean?

 

I had a similar problem with Flight to Neverland, but after listening to it some more I don't mind it at all now. And I have always loved the Love theme from Superman (especially the melody itself), and that can be said to be an ancestor of E.T. in some ways.

 

What can definitely be said about the three pieces I've mentioned is that they display JW's "sparkling" orchestral writing skills at their best. But it is the overall tone of E.T. which irks me somewhat.

I have that same feeling about Superman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember hearing the music for the basket sequence in Raiders for the first time and thinking, Well, even the guy who wrote Star Wars has got to screw up sometimes. Now it's one of many cues that cement this as one of my top favorite scores.

 

I also remember TLW being an enormous disappointment for me at first. I couldn't recognize its brilliance till I stopped comparing it to the first score and accepted that it was written with very different goals in mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the early 90's i used to dislike stuff like 'Miles on Wheels', 'Wednesday Special' or '50 Miles of Desert', now i prefer these pop idioms to the uber-romantic stuff (especially when JW pilfers Tchaikovski) like 'Across the Stars'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TFA track: That Girl with the Staff <- I really like how soft Rey's Theme is here as opposed to the big brassy statement in The Ways of the Force, touched my soul!

 

album: War of the Worlds <- a rock album, very different from his other 2005 scores, ❤️it!

 

composition: Flute Concerto <- I didn't like it at first because the 20th Century style was foreign to me, now I absolutely 101% LOVE it.   

On 3/26/2019 at 4:17 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

Mine:

 

I used to find Double Trouble quite annoying, but now I really like it!

😃😃Same! Double Trouble made me shiver when I first it heard back in 2004, now I think it's brilliant, along with the entire HP3 score! Now I see it as something like Theme for Harry's Third Year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Exactly!

And it makes sense because Chamber of Secrets motif was quite prominent in HP2, and the Dementors were a different kind of threat for a movie that's more about Harry's journey from 'youthful pensiveness' to happiness. To me the quirky Double Trouble is just the right kind of ominous humor to lighten Harry's darker chapter. luv HP3 score!😃

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.