Which epic sci-fi/fantasy score do you consider the best to listen straight through?

[karelm 2,903]

Some epic scores are just fine to hear a cue in isolation.  You might not really feel the need to experience the work as an entire program.  Think of it sort of like listening to a concept album.  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles and Pink Floyd's The Wall are considered pinnacles of concept albums where the artists want you to hear the entire album in a single sitting and experience the songs as part of a whole.  There are many other great examples but those immediately came to mind.  Similarly, in classical music, one must hear Mahler Symphony No. 2 (really every Mahler Symphony) in it's entirety and not just hear the exciting conclusions.  If you just skip to the end, you aren't really understanding the work.  It's sort of like reading the ending of a mystery novel.  You lose the essence of what it is all about when you skip to the end.  

 

In terms of epic sci-fi or fantasy scores, which do you consider the greatest spiritual, emotional, or intellectual experience to hear from start to end?  For me, I have two examples I think are the greatest journey.  First comes with Howard Shores TLOTR Fellowship of the Rings in how Shore gradually and carefully takes us from joyful and innocent shire music adventurous music to dangerous existential music to tragedy.  The story and music becomes far greater than what the characters are experiencing.  By the end, it isn't just about a simple quest or mystery or journey but existential dread!  The music so perfectly takes us on this journey and if you only listen to a cue or two, you lose the essence of the journey taken...the music would lose power if you hear it in isolation. 

 

Another example for me is SW TESB.  The reason why it is the greatest Star Wars score is the emotional, adventurous, and philosophical journey it takes us on.  Sure you can just listen to the set pieces and enjoy a great listening experience but hearing it from start to finish is a tremendous emotional journey that wouldn't really be felt unless you heard it from the start and listened as it progressed and developed. 

 

What other examples of epic scores that really must be heard from start to end to fully grasp their depth and impact?

[Tom 4,640]

Close Encounters really pays off with this sort of approach.  The last reel plays like the final movement in a grand symphony.  

[Ricard 2,244]

53 minutes ago, Tom said:

Close Encounters really pays off with this sort of approach.  The last reel plays like the final movement in a grand symphony.  

 

And it greatly benefits from a 100% chronological listening.

[Datameister 2,037]

E.T. The complete score drags a little for me in the first third or so; sometimes, I'll skip, like, one of the quieter tracks before there, just to speed things along, but it goes without saying that the breathtaking final musical sequence is further elevated by following the whole musical journey that leads to it.

[King Mark 3,626]

The Williams ones are obvious so I won't list them

 

These are the main ones that really stood out over the years:

The Black Hole-John Barry

Poltergeist -Jerry Goldsmith

Star Trek TMP-Jerry Goldsmith

Cocoon-James Horner

Star Trek 2-James Horner

Krull-James Horner

Clash of the Titans (Rosenthal)

Stargate-David Arnold

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow-Edward Shearmur

Tomorrowland-Michael Giacchino

Pan's Labyrinth-Javier Navarrete

 

Scores probably on other people's list I find very overated:

LotR,Hobbit

Conan the Barbarian

Cutthroat Island

 

[Bellosh 3,399]

Close Encounters.  It's a must to listen from start to finish.  It's a UFO Symphony.

[publicist 4,643]

Legend

[Thor 7,478]

I don't think I can answer this question, as it's a premise that doesn't exist to me. In my opinion, ALL scores -- whether they're epic fantasy or otherwise -- should be arranged for listening, so they're as close to a concept album as possible. I don't listen to individual cues of anything, I listen to albums from start to finish. Even compilations. So ALL epic fantasy/sci fi scores arranged as concept albums, and working properly in that format, I listen to 'in one sitting'. I don't listen to C&C releases.

 

In other words, I suppose the only way for me to answer this question, is to say what my favourite fantasy/sci fi soundtracks are, but those are fairly wide parameters, and not really related to what you're asking.

 

I did, however, do this (English-language) podcast episode some 8 years ago, which lists some of my favourites in the fantasy genre:

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-10-the-great-fantasy-adventure-episode-3rd-international-edition/

[GerateWohl 4,343]

The problem I have with this question is, that for many science fiction fantasy scores I like I just have either the original album or an expansion (Legend, Krull, Poltergeist) but not the complete score in sequential order available, so I cannot tell if it would be a great experience from beginning to end.

 

Even in the Empire Strikes Back there are some sequences where I am just waiting for the next action pieces, for example the sequence before the Hyperspace track on the complete score. Not so much happening there.

 

Also when I listen to the complete Alien score there are some sequences that I usually skip.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Roy Budd's retrospective score to The Phantom of the Opera.

[Holko 9,499]

6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Even in the Empire Strikes Back there are some sequences where I am just waiting for the next action pieces, for example the sequence before the Hyperspace track on the complete score. Not so much happening there.

 

That's the best part, all that buildup! Hyperspace works a billion times better as a payoff to all that than as a standalone!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

5 hours ago, Bellosh said:

Close Encounters.  It's a must to listen from start to finish.  It's a UFO Symphony.

It could be called an "Arriving U.F.O." symphony 

[Quintus 5,399]

5 hours ago, publicist said:

Legend

 

Eh it's a decent thread, but karelm has made better. 

[publicist 4,643]

I like neither SW nor LOTR that much, to my own regret.

[Quintus 5,399]

For me it's a toss up between ET and LotR. More than likely the latter, because the middle of the former is pretty boring (yes LotR has its own king's banquet of languid parts, but come on), but then again ET makes up for it with the greatest final act in the history of film scoring. So it isn't clear cut. But overall, LotR is the greater emotional rollercoaster of the two. For me it's the musical equivalent of a spring morning funeral, a wedding in the afternoon and then a full body Thai massage in the evening, with a happy ending. 

[publicist 4,643]

I still don't think there's much to it, considering its mammoth length. The tonal parts are very conventional, the more interesting textures and soloists too sprinkled throughout. ET is nice, but sounds exactly like the American suburbia it portrays and is, I guess, also a bit too Spielberg-ian literal for me (I wouldn't describe it as epic).

 

I probably would add the Indys rather than the SW'ses, tbh.

[Quintus 5,399]

ET is at once personal and enormously epic. That's one part its frickin genius. 

 

Shore's Lord of the Rings is the soundtrack to an entire history of another world. 

[publicist 4,643]

A boring, monochrome world with too much chorus.

[Quintus 5,399]

Your mom! 

[karelm 2,903]

4 hours ago, Holko said:

That's the best part, all that buildup! Hyperspace works a billion times better as a payoff to all that than as a standalone!

This.

[Jay 37,322]

4 hours ago, Holko said:

That's the best part, all that buildup! Hyperspace works a billion times better as a payoff to all that than as a standalone!

 

yes.

[Corellian2019 384]

The Fifth Element

Total Recall

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

The last act of A.I. it's a perfect symphonic poem, it should really be part of Williams' concert repertoire.

[Holko 9,499]

The entirety of AI fits well in here actually.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

43 minutes ago, Corellian2019 said:

The Fifth Element

Total Recall

Both great scores, in their own, individual way.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Fitzwilly.

[Richard Penna 3,676]

I'd endorse the previously mentioned FotR. Works brilliantly in both OST and complete form.

 

Also HTTYD 3 which feels like it has a nearly perfect album, listening-wise.

[Corellian2019 384]

How could I forget A.I.??? I would also add Minority Report, but I need to revisit it first in one run-through

[Bespin 8,480]

That's a hard question and I have no answer.

 

- Thanks.

[Tom 4,640]

While more of a mini-score, The Mission (Amazing Stories) is a textbook example of introducing a theme, running it through quick variations, and then having a very satisfying dramatic payoff. I love the soft winddown statement of the theme at the end.  

[Falstaft 2,132]

ESB, of course, and Close Encounters. 

 

The LOTR scores do come to mind, but FOTR has some serious longueurs, especially the Extended Edition. I would think ROTK makes for the more involving listen, start to finish, though the longer I listen, the more Shore's orchestrational tendencies might start to grate on me.

 

Maybe I'm a minority, but I think start to finish, Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture is about as satisfying, continually gripping a long-listen as you can ask for. Even as highly rated as ST:TPM tends to among film score fans, it's not rated highly enough. 

 

 

[karelm 2,903]

9 hours ago, Holko said:

The entirety of AI fits well in here actually.

You're not wrong.  I think AI is quite unique in Williams' oeuvre in its gradual descent from innocence to pessimism.   The last cue is bittersweet since David's wish being fulfilled damns his mom eternally.   I think this along with WOTW are JW's most pessimistic scores.

[Faleel 5,341]

3 hours ago, Falstaft said:

ESB, of course, and Close Encounters. 

 

The LOTR scores do come to mind, but ROTK has some serious longueurs, especially the Extended Edition. I would think FOTR makes for the more involving listen, start to finish.

 

 

Fixed

[Richard Penna 3,676]

All three LotR scores have areas that drag to some extent, but I think FotR has the least of the problems. I don't find myself listening to the Bag End and early Ringwraith bits much, due to the tracking in the former, and the endless choral material in the latter. RotK has that issue, but magnified, as it has a lot more emotional material later on where Shore's music is wandering a bit.

 

I think the ideal listening experience for RotK is somewhere between the OST and CR, but I'd only say it about that score - I think the other two mostly hold up.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Yeah blaah blaah shore snorefest😜😜 but it is between ESB and CE3K

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

JW's Dracula.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Yes!! 15 times the same ol' same🤦‍♂️

[SteveMc 2,674]

Rozsa's Ben-Hur fits in the criteria here in a way.  Most of the more fitting scores have already been mentioned.

 

Oh, except for Horner's The Land Before Time.

That's pretty much a symphonic work right there.

[Holko 9,499]

4 minutes ago, SteveMc said:

Rozsa's Ben-Hur fits in the criteria here in a way. 

Hmm, the fantasy elements enter a bit too late and out of nowhere for it to really be considered sci-fi/fantasy.

[SteveMc 2,674]

2 minutes ago, Holko said:

Hmm, the fantasy elements enter a bit too late and out of nowhere for it to really be considered sci-fi/fantasy.

Yeah, and many would not consider them fantasy at all, but the way the score works, with its epic and supernatural modes, does serve as a kind of predecessor for stuff like LOTR more so than many other epic scores of the era.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

11 minutes ago, Holko said:

Hmm, the fantasy elements enter a bit too late and out of nowhere for it to really be considered sci-fi/fantasy.

 

It all depends on what you believe in.

[Holko 9,499]

True. If you don't believe Rome existed, it's all fantasy!

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Or if you don't believe that Charlton Heston could act.

[SteveMc 2,674]

4 minutes ago, Holko said:

True. If you don't believe Rome existed, it's all fantasy!

Ancient Rome is a hoax perpetuated for centuries by the Italians to attract tourists!

[Tom 4,640]

I listened again to The Mission due to this thread, and then revisited Ghost Train.  What a charming piece of music--it plays like one long cue.  The perfect suggestion for this tread to the ADHD JW Fan.  

[karelm 2,903]

9 hours ago, SteveMc said:

Rozsa's Ben-Hur fits in the criteria here in a way.  Most of the more fitting scores have already been mentioned.

 

Oh, except for Horner's The Land Before Time.

That's pretty much a symphonic work right there.

 

Excellent suggestions.  I think Ben Hur is a fantastic example because it does grow in emotional heft as it proceeds to the redemption sequences.  I once had lunch with Rozsa's granddaughter.  I was so amazed by her recollections of him from her youth and she was just adorable.  She commented how joyful she was that we were so interested in her grandfather and took special delight in my familiarity with his rarely performed concert music.

[Bespin 8,480]

Give me a break, I thought Ben-Hur was a biopic!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

 

 

Nuff said!