The Fabelmans - OST Album

[Antonb 119]

I bloody love Mr williams but the score is underwhelming, mainly though because it's so short! So, all the tracks feel kind of unfinished. Like its just a run through to the real thing! However, any new music I get from Mr Williams I will try to cherish! Roll on Indiana Jones 5 ! 

[crumbs 14,696]

I look at the OST as more of a concept album than a representation of a film score. What a gift being treated something this unique in the twilight of his career, even if it's the last Spielberg/Williams collaboration (somehow I suspect not!) 

[GerateWohl 4,972]

At listening to the first piece The Fabelmans I thought, If Williams ever wrote such a simple piece before. And listening again to this theme with its children's song like simplicity and the impressionistic chords it reminds me rather of Hook. And I guess this makes perfect sense, as The Fabelmans is a coming of age story about a boy who is not necessarily aiming to grow up in a traditional way. The grow up type is his father. But the theme appearence in the movie is called Mother and Son. And for the son is becoming a filmmaker probably rather about keeping the child inside you alive with all its fantasy, spirit and imagination. So, the melody is simple, like a melody that you might come up with If you tried to compose your first music piece. But it also has some maturity reflected in the chords, which are not that simple. So this young talented amateur spirit of someone starting to explore an art form like music or filmmaking is perfectly caught in this little piano piece that opens the album. So, Spielberg's young passion for film making and music are well reflected in this piece.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but this is how the music makes sense to me in context of the story.

[blondheim 1,160]

The Fabelmans theme is the most beautiful theme John Williams has written since War Horse. Maybe even since Window to the Past or Across the Stars. It’s stunningly unpretentious somehow.

[Henry Sítrónu 525]

[Holko 10,086]

It probably helped a lot that I put myself in the right mindset by listening to Far and Away, Always, War Horse and AI in the last 4 days.

[publicist 4,647]

3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

At listening to the first piece The Fabelmans I thought, If Williams ever wrote such a simple piece before. And listening again to this theme with its children's song like simplicity and the impressionistic chords it reminds me rather of Hook. And I guess this makes perfect sense, as The Fabelmans is a coming of age story about a boy who is not necessarily aiming to grow up in a traditional way. The grow up type is his father. But the theme appearence in the movie is called Mother and Son. And for the son is becoming a filmmaker probably rather about keeping the child inside you alive with all its fantasy, spirit and imagination. So, the melody is simple, like a melody that you might come up with If you tried to compose your first music piece. But it also has some maturity reflected in the chords, which are not that simple. So this young talented amateur spirit of someone starting to explore an art form like music or filmmaking is perfectly caught in this little piano piece that opens the album. So, Spielberg's young passion for film making and music are well reflected in this piece.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but this is how the music makes sense to me in context of the story.

 

I don't know what kind of up and coming composer would try to come up with a piece like *that* as his*her first piece. Except if your only frame of reference is unassuming Hollywood movies. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

50 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

I don't know what kind of up and coming composer would try to come up with a piece like *that* as his*her first piece. Except if your only frame of reference is unassuming Hollywood movies. 

You'd be surprised 

[petek66 27]

Beautiful theme. I’ll bet this ends up playing under the Oscars’ “In Memoriam” segment sometime, to great effect.

[publicist 4,647]

8 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

You'd be surprised 

 

Trust me, i wouldn't. I listened to enough 'promising' young musicians in this field to know how to level my expectations. 

 

But what we find here is a typical case of reverse engineering gone wrong: people get something simple and unassuming, which has not exactly a lot of layers, and then construct deep meaning via third-hand inferences and sometimes wishful-thinking observations that are completely off-base. 

 

There just isn't enough substance in the short musical contributions by JW that allow for more than the comparably unexciting conclusion that it's not even trying to add something to Williams' familiar idiom - it's just a small parade of familiar strokes passing by (orchestrated with his usual flair, but that isn't saying much when we are talking a few strings, piano and celeste). 

 

Like i said earlier, i find the decision to treat the music as exactly that - a pleasant little souvenir - perfectly fair. But apart from press releases by Amblin/Universal it's hard to tout it as anything of much substance (an Oscar win for this would be exactly one of those sops to sentiment that is rightly criticized, though i have no idea if there even is a more deserving winner, which is a shattering conclusion for something that used to be a favourite art form of mine long ago).

[filmmusic 2,156]

I don't remember if we have this covered, but, to whoever saw the film: is there any unreleased Williams score?

[crumbs 14,696]

44 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I don't remember if we have this covered, but, to whoever saw the film: is there any unreleased Williams score?

 

I'm sure we'll find some obscure unreleased 5 second insert to perpetually annoy us

 

[pete 950]

None of the battle music is on the soundtrack. 

[crumbs 14,696]

Of course Williams left the big tornado chase cue off the album 😡

 

I bet he'll leave Moroccan Chase off the Indy 5 OST as well! 

[Richard Penna 4,089]

2 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I'm sure we'll find some obscure unreleased 5 second insert to perpetually annoy us

 

 

Interesting tug of war between factions of JW fans - those who demand a curated, listenable album which completely respects JW's intended score, and those who won't rest until every insert and alternate is accounted for

[Bespin 8,674]

I was listening to the album this morning while drinking a good cup of hot coffee in my bed, that was amazing.

 

I like the whole album with the classical pieces, it's superb.

[Richard Penna 4,089]

To a certain degree the orchestration helps in some places. I sort of like the main theme but not overly in the title track or the guitar-based first half of Mother and Son. However, the second half of the latter made me pay attention with its nice combination of strings, guitar and piano - pretty much my only 'oh wow, that's really nice' moment in the score.

 

The melancholic child-like descending figure is quite nice, especially as heard in Mitzi's Dance - there are definitely a few nice, memorable ideas in the score. The problem for me is that taken as a small chamber score, those ideas are surrounded by a lot of functional but non-lingering emotional-drama material. Sort of reminds me of parts of Home Alone with glockenspiel (or whatever it is) with a bit of more grown-up material. There has been far more memorable material written for film this year than this.

 

One major positive thing though - the album cover is one of the best score covers I've ever seen 

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

6 hours ago, publicist said:

 

Trust me, i wouldn't. I listened to enough 'promising' young musicians in this field to know how to level my expectations. 

 

But what we find here is a typical case of reverse engineering gone wrong: people get something simple and unassuming, which has not exactly a lot of layers, and then construct deep meaning via third-hand inferences and sometimes wishful-thinking observations that are completely off-base. 

 

There just isn't enough substance in the short musical contributions by JW that allow for more than the comparably unexciting conclusion that it's not even trying to add something to Williams' familiar idiom - it's just a small parade of familiar strokes passing by (orchestrated with his usual flair, but that isn't saying much when we are talking a few strings, piano and celeste). 

 

Like i said earlier, i find the decision to treat the music as exactly that - a pleasant little souvenir - perfectly fair. But apart from press releases by Amblin/Universal it's hard to tout it as anything of much substance (an Oscar win for this would be exactly one of those sops to sentiment that is rightly criticized, though i have no idea if there even is a more deserving winner, which is a shattering conclusion for something that used to be a favourite art form of mine long ago).

I was referencing more that there's a large crop of "up-and-coming" composers that set out only to make unassuming derivative Hollywood music

[King Mark 3,679]

oh no, so the tornado chase is unreleased?

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

1 minute ago, King Mark said:

oh no, so the tornado chase is unreleased?

Wait that's an actual thing??

[Jay 39,162]

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

I looked it up though and there is a tornado chase in the movie

[Brando 2,077]

6 hours ago, crumbs said:

Of course Williams left the big tornado chase cue off the album 😡

 

I bet he'll leave Moroccan Chase off the Indy 5 OST as well! 

Tuk tuk overlay - unreleased 

 

4 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

and those who won't rest until every insert and alternate is accounted for

But it’s those little inserts that sometime makes the moment special. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the design behind OST’s to give you a little taste of different components of the score, but wanting the entire feast is also understandable.

[crumbs 14,696]

1 hour ago, Brando said:

Tuk tuk overlay - unreleased 

 

It's the unreleased Escape from Venice sweeteners all over again! 

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

@Disco Stu your silence is deafening 

[Disco Stu 15,501]

45 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

@Disco Stu your silence is deafening 

 

On 8/11/2022 at 9:49 AM, Disco Stu said:

I've decided to not listen to samples or even the OST itself until after I've seen the film.  I admit to being a mite jealous of all the fun everyone's having, but I'm going to stick with it and not read any of the Fabelmans score threads.  Looking forward to catching up with the threads in a few weeks, and all the "tempest in a teapot" dramas that rise and fall between now and then 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,892]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I've decided to not listen to samples or even the OST itself until after I've seen the film.

 

I'd like to do the same (it may be the last time to see a new Spielberg film without already knowing the Williams score), but the Austrian release date of March 2023 makes that rather unrealistic. I'm still tempted to wait for the actual CD though, although the fact that Amazon doesn't even list a release date for that anymore complicates that as well…

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

I really love John Williams' (?) piano playing in The Fabelmans and in his other recent scores.  He has a really distinct, stripped back style of playing 

[Jay 39,162]

Joanne Pearce Martin played piano in this score

[pete 950]

1 hour ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I really love John Williams' (?) piano playing in The Fabelmans and in his other recent scores.  He has a really distinct, stripped back style of playing 

 

I think that could be said of his piano writing, especially for certain films: JFK, Lincoln, The Book Thief, Schindler's List, The Post, War Horse (but not ET) - they all have beautiful and sparse harmonies. Just the right amount of notes that enables me to kind of play them if I spend weeks practicing. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

22 minutes ago, Jay said:

Joanne Pearce Martin played piano in this score

For the classical pieces but the JW stuff sounds more in line with his playing in piano driven scores like Lincoln

[artguy360 1,889]

2 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I really love John Williams' (?) piano playing in The Fabelmans and in his other recent scores.  He has a really distinct, stripped back style of playing 

I didn't know JW played piano on any of his recent scores. Is this info confirmed?

[Quppa 136]

Early days obviously, but I think it's a great score, despite its brevity. I'd place it above the similarly restrained Stepmom and The Book Thief.

 

Selfishly, I wish Spielberg's movie had called for more music, and I hope this won't be their last collaboration.

[GerateWohl 4,972]

20 hours ago, publicist said:

Trust me, i wouldn't. I listened to enough 'promising' young musicians in this field to know how to level my expectations. 

 

But what we find here is a typical case of reverse engineering gone wrong: people get something simple and unassuming, which has not exactly a lot of layers, and then construct deep meaning via third-hand inferences and sometimes wishful-thinking observations that are completely off-base. 

 

There just isn't enough substance in the short musical contributions by JW that allow for more than the comparably unexciting conclusion that it's not even trying to add something to Williams' familiar idiom - it's just a small parade of familiar strokes passing by (orchestrated with his usual flair, but that isn't saying much when we are talking a few strings, piano and celeste). 

 

Like i said earlier, i find the decision to treat the music as exactly that - a pleasant little souvenir - perfectly fair. But apart from press releases by Amblin/Universal it's hard to tout it as anything of much substance (an Oscar win for this would be exactly one of those sops to sentiment that is rightly criticized, though i have no idea if there even is a more deserving winner, which is a shattering conclusion for something that used to be a favourite art form of mine long ago).

Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean to say, I know, exactly what Williams intended. I just tried to make sense out of the unusual simplicity of the piece and my realization, at trying to compare it with other scores of Williams this reminded me most of Hook. And the assumption that a composer with the background and experience of Williams actually makes up his mind about how to support the story and even the story telling musically and not just thinks "Oh, what a lovely picture, I will just write some pretty music to it." is as fair as yours, I would say.

2 hours ago, Quppa said:

I'd place it above the similarly restrained Stepmom and The Book Thief.

Definitely not, at least on my end.

But I might place it above The Accidental Tourist.

[Will 2,230]

Maybe it's just me, but JW's beautiful main theme reminds me of Silvestri's melodic style (I mean that in a good way!) I don't know the formal musical analysis but the melodies share such a wholesome quality:

 

 

 

[publicist 4,647]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

And the assumption that a composer with the background and experience of Williams actually makes up his mind about how to support the story and even the story telling musically and not just thinks "Oh, what a lovely picture, I will just write some pretty music to it." is as fair as yours, I would say.

 

It was not *his* decision, anyway. Eventually, all this semantic beating-around-the-bush just conceals the simple fact that this very short and rather inconspicuous score doesn't invite much discussion. 

 

To frame it in a bigger context, Spielberg's movie feels like something that would be a perfect fit for one of the current streaming providers (whatever he may preach about communal experiences), and the music is like a last whisper of Old Hollywood, namely what modern viewing habits allow to remain of it. Which is neither good nor bad, just a statement that the editorializing scoring approach Spielberg brought back into the mainstream and which allowed composers a big playground (and this board to exist) is on the verge of extinction. I can live with that, but i'm also surprised that i feel more urge to make myself familiar with a Marvel score (Wakanda Forever) than with a Spielberg/Williams one. Go figure! 

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

I really like the main theme.  Reminds me of anime music 

[BB-8 3,877]

11 hours ago, Will said:

Maybe it's just me, but JW's beautiful main theme reminds me of Silvestri's melodic style (I mean that in a good way!) I don't know the formal musical analysis but the melodies share such a wholesome quality:

 

 

 

It's not just you.

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

On 12/11/2022 at 3:34 PM, Henry Sítrónu said:

I really love how the melody keeps coming back to the first note. 

The descending line at measure 6 adds some nice rhythmic variety.  One of those classic JW moments where he establishes a fairly simple idea but twists it in an unexpected direction. 

 

That particular descending major key chord progression is one that almost always works for me. The BFG and Home Alone usw something similar but it reminds me most of the "Homecoming" motif from Born on the Fourth of July

[Damien F 1,773]

Despite the shortness of the album, I love this new score for what it is. Once the album duration was revealed, I had come to expect a low key score similar to Saving Private Ryan sans Hymn To The Fallen. The shortness and relative lack of diverse music has kind of denied us the usual ritual of analysing and discussing a new Williams album with about a dozen tracks comprising of multiple new themes and various action, dramatic, and romantic moments. 

 

So I'm coming to this score in the same way that I approached The Adventures of Han or Obi-Wan's theme - as a fairly discrete and small scale self-contained piece of music rather than a full new score. I've made a playlist of my favourite tracks which I find to be a very enjoyable, sweet, and beautiful listen. I'm definitely glad we have it.

[TheUlyssesian 2,566]

I've been listening to this and some portions almost suggest Lincoln of all things to me.

 

Like Mother and Son seems like it could get into a rendition of With malice towards none anytime.

 

I think the obvious point about this score is the very obvious quality. It's modest but clearly written by a master. 

 

I'll be honest. Do we perceive a high quality because we know it is Williams? We will never know the answer to that.

 

But to me this represents craftsmanship and a finished sound quality that I expect from him even though this is a really tiny score - in scope and execution. 

 

EDIT: Let's put it this way - do you think I am putting it on my list of the 5 best scores of the year? You bet I am.

[Brundlefly 2,393]

14 hours ago, publicist said:

a last whisper of Old Hollywood, namely what modern viewing habits allow to remain of it

This is a perfect description of the movie La La Land.

[Muad'Dib 1,852]

6 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I really like the main theme.  Reminds me of anime music 

 

Yeah! It sounds Ghibli-esque

[Not Mr. Big 4,729]

Just now, Muad'Dib said:

 

Yeah! It sounds Ghibli-esque

Major slice-of-life anime vibes (maybe it's just what slice of life music sounds like).

 

[TheUlyssesian 2,566]

3 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

This is a perfect description of the movie La La Land.

 

I actually think La La Land is extremely millennial. 

[Edmilson 8,688]

7 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

I think the obvious point about this score is the very obvious quality. It's modest but clearly written by a master. 

 

I'll be honest. Do we perceive a high quality because we know it is Williams? We will never know the answer to that.

 

But to me this represents craftsmanship and a finished sound quality that I expect from him even though this is a really tiny score - in scope and execution

Exactly my opinion. It's short, but clearly the work of a master, even if in his Twilight years

[filmmusic 2,156]

To anyone who has seen the film:

Were there other opportunities for John Williams to score a scene, or the film as constructed didn't leave room for any other music?

I have listened to the score like 20 times already, and I'm still baffled by the shortness of it.

[crumbs 14,696]

I've gotten used to the OST without the first two classical pieces and I have to say I much prefer this listening experience. The third classical arrangement works nicely with the original score though, so I left that in the program. 

 

I'm really curious if the film has any cues whatsoever that aren't on the album. With luck the FYC ticks those off. 

[Tom 5,025]

9 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

To anyone who has seen the film:

Were there other opportunities for John Williams to score a scene, or the film as constructed didn't leave room for any other music?

I have listened to the score like 20 times already, and I'm still baffled by the shortness of it.

Just think how much easier it is to listen to this score 20 times.  

[filmmusic 2,156]

11 minutes ago, Tom said:

Just think how much easier it is to listen to this score 20 times.  

Hehe. True. That's why I have listened to it so many times.