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James Horner - ALIENS in full score (Chris Siddall Publishing)


BrotherSound

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So, @Jay and other Horner fans, here’s a pleasant surprise: the complete full score of Aliens, now available to pre-order: http://www.chrissiddallmusic.com/aliens.html

 

Looks great!

 

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Why did they put "5M1 Combat Drop" instead of "5M1 Landing Preparations" ???

 

Landing Preparations is Horner's name for that cue.  Combat Drop is just some album name Varese came up with for the DE

 

Same issue with 4M1!  "LV-426" is another new name Varese invented for the DE album.  Horner's name for that cue is "Alright, I'm In"

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42 minutes ago, Jay said:

Why did they put "5M1 Combat Drop" instead of "5M1 Landing Preparations" ???

 

Landing Preparations is Horner's name for that cue.  Combat Drop is just some album name Varese came up with for the DE

 

Same issue with 4M1!  "LV-426" is another new name Varese invented for the DE album.  Horner's name for that cue is "Alright, I'm In"

Maybe the cues don't have names on the sheets, just numbers, so they took titles from the DE?

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generally a really nice idea, but I'm not convinced. How „official“ is it? I'd really like to understand the legal aspects behind such publications. 

 

Also I've had a look on the launch sequence from Apollo 13 on the blog. It's great to be able to do transcriptions by ear, but there are clearly some wrong harmonies/chords.

http://www.chrissiddallmusic.com/blog

 

 

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Hey great to see a thread here about this, thanks @BrotherSound!

 

In answer to a few queries here:

 

Alien and Alien 3 are on my to do list "one day". I need something lighter between now and then! 

 

Yes it is fully licensed, and I am aware of the headaches. I am waiting on 6 more licenses right now which have been in progress for over a year. I've not given up on them yet since I had one approved after exactly a year and a day. They just take that long to hammer out! 

 

Apollo 13 launch was great to work on but may well contain a few bum notes. I was under the 50th anniversary deadline and didn't do a full cross check against the recording. Feel free to point out anything you spot and I'll fix it up! 

 

I'm based in the UK, so Europeans may rejoice at slightly reduced shipping charges vs. some of the other full scores that are available. Know though that all we do is pass on the actual costs to ship, and we try really hard to find the best options. 

 

Any other questions feel free to ask!

 

Oh I forgot. The cue names in the book are to sync with the recording so it's easier to know what you're following along with. As mentioned, there are none on the original score sheets, only cue numbers. 

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Horner's cue names are used on the Blu Ray with Matessino's isolated score track

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x3GBJHftmOQpaC8r5Zx6h2sHW9KxbpDThTrMgWYSXVs

 

That's a cool spreadsheet, thanks for sharing. I've not seen it before! Are they definitely all intended cue names by James and not sometimes action/hit points (like "alright I'm in")?  It's actually really quite common for his cues to be nameless, having seen a number of his scores.

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1 hour ago, chrissiddall said:

 

That's a cool spreadsheet, thanks for sharing. I've not seen it before! Are they definitely all intended cue names by James and not sometimes action/hit points (like "alright I'm in")?  It's actually really quite common for his cues to be nameless, having seen a number of his scores.

They might have been from a seperate "cue sheet"/log... or came up with later.

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47 minutes ago, Spider-Fal said:

They might have been from a seperate "cue sheet"/log... or came up with later.

 

I did actually make a request to see any cue sheets or similar that may show the names of the orchestra members who played on the recording as I wanted to credit them, but nothing could be found. I also asked the LSO archivist but as we have the joy of 2020 messing with "the arts", I haven't had any joy there either yet. 

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21 hours ago, lemoncurd said:

It's great to be able to do transcriptions by ear...

 

 

 

Actually it was done by eye (using scans of the original sheets for reference, same as Aliens), so would be interested to know where you're hearing errors so I can take another look!

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7 hours ago, chrissiddall said:

 

Actually it was done by eye (using scans of the original sheets for reference, same as Aliens), so would be interested to know where you're hearing errors so I can take another look!

 

On 11/15/2020 at 2:32 PM, Jay said:

Horner's cue names are used on the Blu Ray with Matessino's isolated score track

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x3GBJHftmOQpaC8r5Zx6h2sHW9KxbpDThTrMgWYSXVs

 


No, the cues for the film have never had "Official" cue names. Horner never named his cues until later on in his life.

 

The Cue names by Varese are made up and the cue names by Michael Matessino are made up.

 

Some people need to stop acting like they are authoritative figures.

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Cool find. But I’ll wait to see what Chris comes up with next. It’s really cool that people like Chris and the guys at Omni are giving us access to this material. I have Batman and How to train your dragon from Omni, and they’re incredible. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy anything from them again. Just waiting to see what’s next. 

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Eagle-eyed customers may spot a change in the shipping cost. Due to a technical error (i.e. the pink squidgy bit in the system: me), I failed to spot that Royal Mail made a change to their world zones and pricing in September, which had a significant impact on shipping prices to the US (doubled). That's now rectified so sorry to anyone who hasn't purchased a copy yet who wonders where the $15 option has gone, and congrats to the lucky "early adopters" who saved themselves $15!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

People who purchased this have gotten this email

Quote

 

Dear customer

 

Thank you very much for your order, it's exciting to be making more full score study books available for your interest and enjoyment.

 

It is with regret that I have to let you know that we are not going to be able to reach our goal of shipping in time for Christmas. I know that a number of you have purchased this as a gift for loved ones, so I can only apologize for the disappointment and inconvenience caused. The challenges of "2020" have caused a delay in production which means I am not able to take delivery of the books until the new year.

 

This is not the first impression that I was hoping to give. I hope that when you do hold the book in your hands the product will speak for itself and you will see that it was well worth the wait.

 

If you would like to contact me directly, please use the email address above. I will contact everyone as soon as I have a firm date for dispatch.

 

Many thanks for your continued support.

 

 

And @chrissiddall has posted this update on FSM:

 

Quote

Hi all. Yes it was sent by me, and a very tough email to send. I'm equally if not even more disappointed that we haven't succeeded in shipping in time for Christmas but faced with the choice of compromising the quality of the end product, I feel that the lesser of two evils is to give the printer the time they need to do the fantastic job I know they now will.

 

With regards to Brexit and customs after Jan 1st, nobody knows for sure (what a ridiculous situation), but I can say this as far as I know it right now:

Printed sheet music is tax exempt and ships under a specific commodity code that identifies it specifically as printed sheet music. I don't have direct control over what any customs agent will decide to do when these packages cross their desks, but they will all ship with a properly filled in customs declaration that should mean no additional charges are applied.

 

I look forward to seeing everyone's reactions when they do finally get their hands on these books. Any feedback about the books themselves, the packaging they're shipped in, any issues with customs, whatever it is I would love to hear it. Please feel free to contact me on info@chrissiddallmusic.com

 

We also have a Twitter account and Facebook page where you can reach us and hopefully enthuse about your new scores!!! www.twitter.com/csmusicservices www.facebook.com/chrissiddallmusic

 

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=142107&forumID=1&archive=0

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  • 1 month later...

I received an e-mail stating that my order has shipped.  As it needs to cross the pond, I’m not expecting it for 1-2 weeks.

 

Maybe in time for my birthday.  Still gonna have to wait until Apr 16 before fully digging in.

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As ALIENS is one my alltime favourite movies (top 3!), and Horner's score is one of his very best (top 3!), these note sheets might seem like something up my alley. Alas, I can't read music, so there wouldn't be much point. But, for whatever it's worth, I still aim to get all the Dark Horse comics, just to have a complete ALIEN collection.

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17 hours ago, karelm said:

Will I eventually get my score?  I think I purchased this two months ago and still no score.  :o

 

Hi, sorry if you've not seen the numerous updates I've sent to make sure everyone knew what was going on. You may have seen people receiving them this week and yours is on the way. 

It was shipped on Tuesday 26th Jan.  You should have received an email.  Please PM me your email address if it has changed from the one on your order.

Delivery target is 5-7 days to USA.  According to the tracker it is:

 

image.png

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/28/2021 at 6:15 PM, chrissiddall said:

Anyone here received theirs yet? I'm seeing that a few have arrived today. 

 

Received mine yesterday after almost three months' wait - and Friday is one mighty fine day to receive such fine merchandise! :D

 

For anyone interested, here's my short first impressions "review": the score arrived perfectly packaged and protected. The book itself looks wonderful; engraving and printing are first-class. Since UK has left the EU, I had to pay import costs and Slovenian VAT, all of which raised the complete price of this score to almost 100 EUR, making it one of the more expensive scores I own - BUT I daresay it has been worth every cent since I'll now be able to finally enjoy studying full score of one of my all-time favorite soundtracks for many happy years to come! :music: :lol: 

 

I haven't yet had much time to spend with the score itself but in the coming days and weeks, I will definitely go through the whole thing (while listening to VS's Deluxe Edition ofc) very diligently and thoroughly and I'll report any comments I might have in this topic. So far, I've only noticed that - compared to the LSO recording - one or two slight rallentandi and fermatae could be absent from 1M1 Main Title, but that might well have been just because Horner's conducting/interpretation during recording sessions and it would be understandable that he (or McRitchie) didn't write every last little tempo change in the score and/or parts. (It also gives one the joy of being able to scribble and add his own marks and comments in the printed score itself.)

 

There is one difference though, at least from my (and my ears') point of view (still speaking of 1M1): according to the recording, the 2 × 2 tam-tams and sizzle cymbal/large suspended cymbal tremolos begin on the second beat of measure 11 (together with brass playing Horner's "alien chord") and not on the third beat of measure 10 (together with field drum motif) as printed. BUT that might have also been just a decision made only at the Abbey Road at the time of recording this cue back in April 1986.

 

All in all, I wish to offer both thanks and congrats to Chris for undertaking this doubtlessly difficult project and bringing out this amazing score to all Horner/Alien/film music fans and musicians around the world. I'm already very much looking forward to the next one, whichever it may be!

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1 hour ago, Maglorfin said:

 

Received mine yesterday after almost three months' wait - and Friday is one mighty fine day to receive such fine merchandise! :D

 

For anyone interested, here's my short first impressions "review": the score arrived perfectly packaged and protected. The book itself looks wonderful; engraving and printing are first-class. Since UK has left the EU, I had to pay import costs and Slovenian VAT, all of which raised the complete price of this score to almost 100 EUR, making it one of the more expensive scores I own - BUT I daresay it has been worth every cent since I'll now be able to finally enjoy studying full score of one of my all-time favorite soundtracks for many happy years to come! :music: :lol: 

 

I haven't yet had much time to spend with the score itself but in the coming days and weeks, I will definitely go through the whole thing (while listening to VS's Deluxe Edition ofc) very diligently and thoroughly and I'll report any comments I might have in this topic. So far, I've only noticed that - compared to the LSO recording - one or two slight rallentandi and fermatae could be absent from 1M1 Main Title, but that might well have been just because Horner's conducting/interpretation during recording sessions and it would be understandable that he (or McRitchie) didn't write every last little tempo change in the score and/or parts. (It also gives one the joy of being able to scribble and add his own marks and comments in the printed score itself.)

 

There is one difference though, at least from my (and my ears') point of view (still speaking of 1M1): according to the recording, the 2 × 2 tam-tams and sizzle cymbal/large suspended cymbal tremolos begin on the second beat of measure 11 (together with brass playing Horner's "alien chord") and not on the third beat of measure 10 (together with field drum motif) as printed. BUT that might have also been just a decision made only at the Abbey Road at the time of recording this cue back in April 1986.

 

All in all, I wish to offer both thanks and congrats to Chris for undertaking this doubtlessly difficult project and bringing out this amazing score to all Horner/Alien/film music fans and musicians around the world. I'm already very much looking forward to the next one, whichever it may be!

Just as you convinced me to order it, it’s on back order...😭

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On 2/6/2021 at 5:53 PM, Bespin said:

I only own the OST, the Deluxe release is indeed OOP. Another great mystery and disappointment of Soundtracks World...

This is actually about the full orchestral “conductor “ score. 
 

Isn’t this the deluxe edition?

 

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00005BJJX/

 

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2 hours ago, Maglorfin said:

 

Received mine yesterday after almost three months' wait - and Friday is one mighty fine day to receive such fine merchandise! :D

 

For anyone interested, here's my short first impressions "review": the score arrived perfectly packaged and protected. The book itself looks wonderful; engraving and printing are first-class. Since UK has left the EU, I had to pay import costs and Slovenian VAT, all of which raised the complete price of this score to almost 100 EUR, making it one of the more expensive scores I own - BUT I daresay it has been worth every cent since I'll now be able to finally enjoy studying full score of one of my all-time favorite soundtracks for many happy years to come! :music: :lol: 

 

I haven't yet had much time to spend with the score itself but in the coming days and weeks, I will definitely go through the whole thing (while listening to VS's Deluxe Edition ofc) very diligently and thoroughly and I'll report any comments I might have in this topic. So far, I've only noticed that - compared to the LSO recording - one or two slight rallentandi and fermatae could be absent from 1M1 Main Title, but that might well have been just because Horner's conducting/interpretation during recording sessions and it would be understandable that he (or McRitchie) didn't write every last little tempo change in the score and/or parts. (It also gives one the joy of being able to scribble and add his own marks and comments in the printed score itself.)

 

There is one difference though, at least from my (and my ears') point of view (still speaking of 1M1): according to the recording, the 2 × 2 tam-tams and sizzle cymbal/large suspended cymbal tremolos begin on the second beat of measure 11 (together with brass playing Horner's "alien chord") and not on the third beat of measure 10 (together with field drum motif) as printed. BUT that might have also been just a decision made only at the Abbey Road at the time of recording this cue back in April 1986.

 

All in all, I wish to offer both thanks and congrats to Chris for undertaking this doubtlessly difficult project and bringing out this amazing score to all Horner/Alien/film music fans and musicians around the world. I'm already very much looking forward to the next one, whichever it may be!

 

Thanks for your feedback (and I'm going to have to check out that tremolo now - honestly we try to catch everything but with such a complex score it's almost inevitable that something may slip through.  Will have to check that one though)!

I'm a bit upset to hear you were charged import tax.  I shipped all the books on the specific commodity code for printed music, which is flagged as 0% tax, duty free.  Regardless of the Brexit situation, nobody should have had any additional charges unless they were unfortunate enough to catch an over-zealous customs agent (which apparently you were).

I'll do a bit more research to see if there's anything else I can do to ensure this doesn't happen again but once it leaves my hands, we're in the lap of the gods a bit!

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  • 3 weeks later...

In case anyone still wants a copy of Aliens and missed the news - restock coming on week commencing 8th March. We're also doing a "deep dive" into the score on live stream this Sunday. And then there's this....

 

IG Promo.jpg

 

 

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Did you miss out on Omni Music Publishing's "Star Trek in Full Score"? Never fear, Chris Siddall Music Publishing is here sooth your full score blues!

 

Aliens in Full Score is back in stock and available to ship immediately.

 

www.chrissiddallmusic.com/aliens

 

138470679_689498318410727_7504382466600145990_n.jpg

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By the time I got round to ordering this I had just missed out on the first print run, so I was relieved and delighted to be notified of a second batch becoming available. Received it a couple of weeks ago and have been enjoying following along to the recording!

 

I have a slight issue with the binding in that the pages have come unstuck from the spine at the bottom, but it's nothing major and the score is holding together for now! I have also spotted a couple of tiny mistakes, but again it's only very minor things such as a missing accidental here and there. Overall the quality is great and I look forward to further scores, including hopefully the original Alien if that's possible.  

 

Have also just ordered ST:TMP from Omni, so I'm excited for that to arrive. My next task is to work out how I'm going to get hold of the forthcoming Day the Earth Stood Still score from Neumation next month, as their promotional image says that it will be available everywhere except Europe... Had to go without Willow and BTTF for the same reason, which is annoying, although I understand the licensing issues involved.

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  • 3 weeks later...
The rumours are true! During our live stream tonight a teaser was indeed dropped!
 
Whilst we're currently tightening the last few nuts and bolts and polishing The Iron Giant to a mirror shine, production on "Book 3" will be following hot on his heels as we attempt to keep to a gruelling schedule and target release date.
 
Whatever happens, we will not go quietly into the night!
 
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I just got in my hands my Aliens score.

One question:

 I don't understand those clusters on page 16, bar 29, vla and celli. (and page 15, bar 28, basses)

I see the instruments play upward chromatic scales. Where does the cluster fit in?

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2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I just got in my hands my Aliens score.

One question:

 I don't understand those clusters on page 16, bar 29, vla and celli. (and page 15, bar 28, basses)

I see the instruments play upward chromatic scales. Where does the cluster fit in?

The cello notes are not C but a cluster starting on C, C#, D, D#, E (divided in 5) all starting on their respective notes glissing up the string.

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2 hours ago, karelm said:

The cello notes are not C but a cluster starting on C, C#, D, D#, E (divided in 5) all starting on their respective notes glissing up the string.

I see. And they all end up on E? or on a cluster of E to G#?

edit1: oh, now i saw the appendix!

 

edit2: another question:

i don't hear any synth (engine room) in 9m1.

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8 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I see. And they all end up on E? or on a cluster of E to G#?

edit1: oh, now i saw the appendix!

 

edit2: another question:

i don't hear any synth (engine room) in 9m1.

 

I assume @chrissiddall had access to the score but the final score in the film had clear alterations as I heard other differences between score and recording which must have happened on the stage as is very common.  Director pulls composer aside and asks for something different and composer dictates changes on the fly that make it into the film but aren't in the score.  Usually an assistant or copyist keeps track of the changes to revise the score later but if the cue is "in the can" that might not happen.  Plus some composers are very manic and might try lots of different approaches and no one knows what piece from what take makes it in to the film.  Plus in post they might add more sound design (often without composers knowledge) that wasn't in the music but is in the film.

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I really want the Star Trek: The Motion Picture book. But $50 for shipping!!! :o

 

You can fuck right off.

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Those shipping charges to Europe are really prohibitive. I am interested at Star Trek, Train your Dragon and Aliens, but will wait in the hope for more reasonable shipping. 

 

Of course, should Something like Star Wars be announced, I might reconsider :-)

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