Memoirs soundtrack

[Adam 1]

I know its been discussed a little bit for people who got it early but since today is the official release in the United States it seems like there should be more discussion now. Any thoughts, rankings, etc.?

Its kind of early but I'm enjoying it a lot. I like that he absorbs the Japanese aura so completely. It makes me think of something like Jane Eyre or Missouri Breaks in the sense that he so completely takes on the musical personality of another culture, with some more trademark Williams stylings of course.

The waltz with Perlman is maybe my early favorite. Very pretty and the chord progression and melody for the middle section is something I especially like. I like the way he uses the main theme throughout and the end credits track is another highlight so far. There are parts that drag in relation to these more tonal sections, but even there, its so well composed and atmospheric that I get something from it. I'm anxious to hear it with the film as usual.

- Adam

[King Mark 2,924]

It's beautiful and boring at the same time.

K.m.

[nightscape94 965]

"Confluence" is my favorite and Memoirs of a Geisha is my favorite of the 3 scores he's released thus far.

Tim

[Maestro 57]

It is gorgeous, and honestly never bores me. Even with Seven Years in Tibet, a clearly comparable score, there are parts I would rather skip over. But there seems to be quality here from start to finish. Perhaps a little too early for a better perspective, but this is some darn good music.

[Incanus 5,518]

Memoirs of a Geisha is a beautiful score. I have lauded it as soon as I heard the sound clips and the streaming of the soundtrack from Amazon.com. This is really the kind of music I love to hear from JW after the two bombastic scores he has produced this year. Intimate, emotional, subtle and full of elegance. Sayuri's theme is very beautiful and rather interestingly constructed. It starts as a unassuming little theme with only cello playing it in the beginning and throughout the score it grows untill it receives the most developed version in the end credits. Truly this shows agan Williams' idea of thematic development. One little theme has been largely ignored by the reviewers. It follows Sayuri's theme and sounds more Japanese. It is a graceful melody that is played usually in conjuction with Sayuri's theme and can be most clearly heard on the tracks Going to School (If I am not badly mistaken this is a playful variant of the theme), A Dream Discarded (track is based on it) and End Credits and on other tracks as well. I do not know is the theme part of Sayuri's theme or a different theme altogether but I hope the movie clarifies that.

I love the way Williams utilizes Japanese instruments in this score. He scores both locale and the emotions with the score. The western symphonic music is for the emotion, eastern is for the Japan. Williams obviously studied the range and capabilities of the Japanese intsruments and uses e.g. koto in a good fashion. He does not try to make those intsruments stick out from the orchestral canvas in the more western cues but rather weaves their solos around it.

On tracks where the Japanese instruments take center stage they are magnificent. E.g. Brush of Silk is a very infectuous track. Wondeful performance and rhythms. Dr. Crab's Prize is ethereal and very athmospheric as it probably should be. I do not think it is the greatest cue on the album but adds a nice touch of ethnicity to the score. If some people accuse Williams of fake orientalism let them. To me the score sounds exactly right and balanced between Wester and Eastern music. This is film music after all and film music has to evoke the setting and Williams uses a conventional musical language that audiences understand to do it. Though I find his more Japanese cues totally convincing.

As for the performances of our two star soloists Ma and Perlman I must say they are once again top notch. Perlman has such beautiful style of playing and it sounds more emotional than many violinists' who come out as technically proficient but lack emotion in their performance. Those few tracks he is featured are among the strongest on the album IMO. Yo Yo Ma's performance is soulful as ever and his contribution to the music is significant as he gives voice to the main theme with that cello solo. Williams' cello writing is superb and many of the cues revolve around it. Confluence, A Dream Discarded, As the Water... are all soulful and beautiful tracks that depend largely on Ma's and Steven Erdody's performance.

What can I say. I love the music. It touched me. Williams can write different music than the bombast everybody knows and this album is a proof of his brilliant versatility. 5/5 is my rating.

[Damo 0]

is Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack is worth buying? I mean...should I bother adding it to my john williams collection?

[King Mark 2,924]

All you art house cafe types here were overjoyed by Williams scoring Geisha.He was going to break new grounds,he was going to expand his horizons beyond the Potter and write serious experimental stuff.Nope,Geisha is a variation of Schindler's List and 7 Years in Tibet and his other 90's scores,with somewhat less strong themes.I can't believe Williams left GoF to score a re-hash of some previous scores,something some of you guys accused him of doing for Harry Potter.

This score is no more original than a new Potter score would have been,only much less exciting.

K.M.

[publicist 4,484]

This score is no more original than a new Potter score would have been,only much less exciting.

At least for you.

But since Williams decided to leave Potter, it's a somewhat moot discussion. It's not like Alex took it away from you.

[Sandor 459]

Nope,Geisha is a variation of Schindler's List and 7 Years in Tibet and his other 90's scores,with somewhat less strong themes.

I somewhat agree with the "less strong themes" remark, but why is everything Williams writes with a violin/cello solo all of a sudden a variation on Schindler's List?

Back in 1997 Seven Years In Tibet was refered to by many as very similar to Schindler's List. I never understood why.

The same is now being said about Memoirs of a Geisha. Sighsha. Memoirs of a Geisha is the most ethnical score Williams ever wrote (much more so than Tibet) and in that lies its strength and beauty. A track like Brush on Silk doesn't just sound like an American composer attempting to write oriental flavored music, no it sounds like an American composer actually achieving something where others would just fall into stereotypic and cliched writing.

Williams really studied the instruments he was writing for, actively worked together with the soloists and wrote a score that is pure and true to the Japanese spirit.

This is an amazing achievement. Truly outstanding. I love the score. It's not the score I hoped it to be, but its uniqueness impresses me every time.

[nicholas 1]

I welcome a fresh opportunity to discuss this.

I bought the soundtrack last night. I must say my initial impression was rather muted. Nothing particualarly grabbed me. But then the score suddenly seemed to take off in the last three tracks, particularly the finale. There's a thrilling section of string writing which is very similar to the end of John Adams' violin concerto - in fact I am sure Williams could not have written it without the Adams in his mind.

I know it is going to be a score that will grow on me.

[Incanus 5,518]

Nope,Geisha is a variation of Schindler's List and 7 Years in Tibet and his other 90's scores,with somewhat less strong themes.

I somewhat agree with the "less strong themes" remark, but why is everything Williams writes with a violin/cello solo all of a sudden a variation on Schindler's List?

Back in 1997 Seven Years In Tibet was refered to by many as very similar to Schindler's List. I never understood why.

The same is now being said about Memoirs of a Geisha. Sighsha. Memoirs of a Geisha is the most ethnical score Williams ever wrote (much more so than Tibet) and in that lies its strength and beauty. A track like Brush on Silk doesn't just sound like an American composer attempting to write oriental flavored music, no it sounds like an American composer actually achieving something where others would just fall into stereotypic and cliched writing.

Williams really studied the instruments he was writing for, actively worked together with the soloists and wrote a score that is pure and true to the Japanese spirit.

This is an amazing achievement. Truly outstanding. I love the score. It's not the score I hoped it to be, but its uniqueness impresses me every time.

I could not agree more with you Roald. It is nice to see that you got over your initial disappointment over the main theme. I ranted above what I think of the score so I am not going to repeat myself here. A wonderful and touching score.

I do not understand why this score is said to be similar to Schindler's List or Seven Years in Tibet. It is surely Williams music but there are not very many uniting features with 7YIT except for one string motif which I do not mind one bit. Only link to Schindler's List is Perlman and the fact that there are violin solos on the soundtrack. The music in itself does not sound like either of the scores. The theme is original and I do not hear any links to past Williams themes (please point them out for me if there are such connections). And what about Chairman's Waltz or the secondary theme for Sayuri? Are they not original?

But fight all you want I am going to enjoy this score

[Bowie 45]

Cinque's Theme makes quite an influence on the intervalic gestures in Sayuri's Theme, and, in fact, Battle of the Heroes, Cinque's and Sayuri's are all interlinked.

[Incanus 5,518]

Oh you are right to a degree. Thanks for infroming me. For me that still does not lessen the impact fo the score. I never actually heard those aforementioned themes there. But to say those themes are interlinked is presuming Williams made those links consciously which I think was not his intention.

[Jeshopk 8]

Cinque's Theme makes quite an influence on the intervalic gestures in Sayuri's Theme, and, in fact, Battle of the Heroes, Cinque's and Sayuri's are all interlinked.

Cinque's theme and BOTH, I hear what you mean. Cinque's and Sayuri's? That's a leap and kind of sounds like you don't know what minor key is.

[Jeshopk 8]

is Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack is worth buying? I mean...should I bother adding it to my john williams collection?

Once you start thinking like that, you might as well just get the scores that make an immediate impression. Because every Williams score is worthwhile if you get to know it.

[Luke Skywalker 1,284]

Geisha is great.

And KM, i think Williams has done his first japanese sounding score. And that is what i expected him to do.

[Justin 2]

I really like the score so from 1 and 1/2 listens. My favorite tracks are,

Sayuri's Theme is definatly recognizable unfortunatly the cue is so short that you just get a taste of it and it's over.

Going to School and Brush on Silk are two very fun ethnic cues. Very enjoyable.

Becoming a Geisha has some wonderful performances of Sayuri's Theme and ends with some great drum work.

The Chairman's Waltz features the secondary theme which isn't as recognizable as Sayuri's theme perhaps more listens will help.

Destiny's Path is a woderful rythmic cue which is very diffrent from the rest of the score.

In Confluence we finally get to hear a larger fuller version of Sayuri's theme.

Sayuri's Theme and End Credits is definatly my favorite track. I love the parallel motif which runs through the whole cue it makes Sayuri's theme so much more interesting and his alterations of the theme are great. Finally a good end credits suite!

I personally thought the score was a wonderfull score where Williams actually devolped a theme to it's full potential. Something that was lacking in his lackluster WOTW. I find no problem with Williams trading this score for GoF. Doyle provided a good score GoF and I wouldn't have purchased Memoirs if Doyle had scored it.

Justin

[Orson 1]

I got it this morning and have only had time enough to listen to it once. Kind of a mix between Minority Report and Seven Years in Tibet. I like it, but I was hoping for a bit more. However, I'm sure with a few more listens, my appreciation will grow.

Favorite track is easily Going to School.

[Deinonychus 0]

I like it. But I have to spend more time with it.....

[Bowie 45]

I'll point out the similarities between Cinque's and Sayuri's Themes later tonight. I hope I know what a minor key is, otherwise my music degree is useless.

[nightscape94 965]

I'll point out the similarities between Cinque's and Sayuri's Themes later tonight. I hope I know what a minor key is, otherwise my music degree is useless.

Still has to be better then a Philosophy major.

Tim

[Hlao-roo 388]

This score is ethnic, haunting, and sweeping. It haunts you with its ethnic sweep. And it sweeps you away with its haunting ethnos. Furthermore, Yo Yo Ma's solos are hauntingly sweeping, and Itzhak Perlman's are sweepingly haunting, as always.

[nightscape94 965]

This score is ethnic, haunting, and sweeping.  It haunts you with its ethnic sweep.  And it sweeps you away with its haunting ethnos.  Furthermore, Yo Yo Ma's solos are hauntingly sweeping, and Itzhak Perlman's are sweepingly haunting, as always.

But does it sweep?

Tim

[APBez 0]

I really like this soundtrack. Still discovering new stuff even having listened to Amazon's streaming frequently for the past fortnight.

Love the main theme, especially its statement towards the end of 'Confluence'.

I'd say the best of JW's three soundtracks so far this year.

[nightscape94 965]

I finally picked up the actual album CD today, so I can listen to it in better quality.

The Sayuri theme is magnificent, and its amazing how many different ways he plays it throughout the score. Different instruments, different tempos, and different layerings. The only thing I kind of miss out on is more Perlman.

Tim

[David Coscina 3]

I'm glad Williams tried his hand at this rather than score another Potter film. I think the score has so many beautiful moments, but I agree that Confluence has the nicest presentation of Sayuri's Theme.

Now, I wonder what MUNICH will sound like????

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Just bought the score today. I definitely need to give it more listens, but I did enjoy it to an extent this first time. "Sayuri's Theme" is nice, although I was very disappointed the first track wasn't a fully developed concert track. The end credits somewhat make up for this, though, and are very compelling. There is some very beautiful playing, obviously, by Perlman and Ma, throughout the score. But it seems like the theme isn't often harmonized...just played straight, with no chords underneath. Not something I'm used to, but not necessarily bad. "Confluence" was the first track which really stood out as having more typical, emotional chords. I adore the lovely oboe line, I think in that track. As of now, the most enjoyable piece for me is "Going to School." So infectious and catchy, and yet so wonderfully ethnic. I'm looking forward to more listens, and getting a better feel for the score as a whole.

Ray Barnsbury

[JMan 0]

I love it. It's all very interesting to me. The closing track is very nice, the build to the end is something I especially like. The Going to School track is easily whistleable and I like that one 2nd best. OVerall a fantastic album.