Which composer is at his best in "Expanded releases"?

[Bespin 8,480]

Because sometimes, the OST is superior....

 

What do you think?

[WampaRat 1,105]

Hmmm...

I’d have to say a Goldsmith expansion in most cases is superior to the 30 minute ost he normally released (IMHO)

 

On the flip side, I’d say Horner was terrific at getting most of the great cues on to a single OST -great “narrative flow”- and the expansions don’t really add a ton of new material. 
(*The inevitable “Willow” expansion being an exception;)

[blondheim 1,157]

Horner's OSTs are perfect, I agree. I would say Elfman's releases benefit a lot from expansion. They are must-grabs for me.

 

I am not mentioning Williams because it feels redundant but obviously.

[Bespin 8,480]

Well, for me John Williams is a "builder". He really cares about the construction and evolution of the music in a movie... So I always believed that JW, and it's truer for his last scores, is better in a C&C format.

[Jay 37,352]

My honest answer is John Williams. The way he builds a narrative through a score is one of his biggest strengths as a composer 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Morricone.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

David Arnold for his Emmerich scores.

 

Some of Goldsmith's ones too, but like Williams, I'm fascinated by his editorial decisions in album arrangements.

[crumbs 14,306]

11 hours ago, Jay said:

My honest answer is John Williams. The way he builds a narrative through a score is one of his biggest strengths as a composer 

 

Yeah, I know it's the cliched answer, but it really has to be Williams.

 

His writing is so fantastic from start to finish that it works just as effectively in expanded/complete form, as it does in a curated/listening experience assembly. Rarely does a single cue not have some highlight worth listening to.

 

He also has a frustratingly innate ability to omit sought-after cues from those soundtracks, which make them more frustrating than anything.

 

Whereas most other scores you can easily condense into 30 minutes of highlights and not miss anything.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

44 minutes ago, crumbs said:

He also has a frustratingly innate ability to omit sought-after cues from those soundtracks, which make them more frustrating than anything.

 

The practical reason is he would prefer listeners to appreciate his more dissonant and atmospheric writing over the thematic stuff.

[1977 1,743]

I tend to avoid expansions (and any score releases for that matter) that feature numerous "bitty" cues as I find them unlistenable. 

 

For most composers, other than JW and a handful of others, I would prefer a "happy medium" approach, that is an expansion that highlights the best cues over an extended playing time, while still eliminating the "filler" and bitty cues. 

[Richard Penna 3,686]

JW, simply because his OSTs almost always leave out multiple highlights that other composers rarely do.

 

It's why I feel that Potters 1-3 are at their best expanded, but 4-8 are best in OST form. Doyle, Hooper, and Desplat generally made good albums. JW made deficient albums.

[1977 1,743]

58 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

JW, simply because his OSTs almost always leave out multiple highlights that other composers rarely do.

That's because JW's scores have more highlights than most other composers'

[Richard Penna 3,686]

Nah, others just realise they're highlights and put them on the album  

[Smeltington 1,440]

In the case of HP1 I don't think the highlights could possibly fit on the album, and that's one of his better OST arrangements. And I agree that Williams is the best example of a composer whose scores benefit from expansion. He rarely repeats himself within a single score... he writes endless variations on his themes, and they're all fascinating to hear. Just look at the Force theme, or Rey's theme, he used them ad nauseum but never ran out of ideas.

 

Another good example is Attack of the Clones. The OST has just about all the big highlights, but those highlights breathe better when the score is expanded.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

15 minutes ago, Smeltington said:

Another good example is Attack of the Clones. The OST has just about all the big highlights, but those highlights breathe better when the score is expanded.

 

But there's no expansion yet.

[Smeltington 1,440]

On my hard drive there is.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

I'm tremendously looking forward to RotS being expanded. Based on the selections I have from one of the boots, it's like a whole new score.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Mehh I've simply come to accept the OSTs as the whole score.

[Corellian2019 386]

I would say Williams, followed by Kamen (so much good music left off of Lethal Weapon 2 and the Die Hard sequels in particular), followed by Goldenthal