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Shore still in KONG


ChrisAfonso

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I don't know if this is major news or unexpected, but I think it's nice to have it confirmed:

The score, done last minute by James Newton Howard, served the movie well. While it isn't immediately memorable, it adds texture at all the right moments. It is interesting to see Howard Shore, original scheduled to score the film, make a lengthy cameo.

(source: "]http://www.kongisking.net/perl/newsview/17...1133443854)

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If true, its good to know that things are at the very least amicable between Shore and Jackson.

Their partnership on LOTR was too memorable for them to have a falling-out or other such nonsense.

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Is Jackson doing "The Hobbit?" Surely that would be a reunion. I get the sense that Shore had a better idea for the Kong score than Jackson. If it is control over the quality of the score that Jackson wanted then I don't understand how he could have pulled it off by hiring JNH and giving him a few weeks to finish.

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There's been more and more leaked scenes on KONGISKING.net including a thrilling battle between Kong and 2 T-rexs amidst some vines in a canyon. The music editing is pretty shabby though since it's in for a moment, then out, and the inclusion and absence of music underscore really calls attention to itself.

As for Howard's music, the "heroic" motif/theme is good JN Howard material but seems dreadfully out of place for this period film. I actually like more JN HOward scores than Shore but I still really want to hear what Shore's music would have sounded like underneath this epic battle. BTW- everything I've seen from the film POV is very impressive. It's just the music that fails to completely engage me. I wonder how many other viewers will have this reaction, if not unconsciously.

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The music is just a temp track which uses music from Silvestri's Van Helsing and JNH's Dinosaur.

Uh Oh! Now I know why they dropped Shore. Bad Taste.

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Some of Dinosaur is okay but it's not my favorite JN Howard. Of course, to my ears, most scores these days don't seem to interesting. I've rediscovered works of Sam Barbers (listening to his 2nd Symphony, 2nd mvmnt) and Howard Hanson's MOSAICS. Both underrated American composers.

p.s. I love Shore's AVIATOR score. I still wish to hear his Kong material. From the little I heard of it from the Kong Diaries, his musical ideaology towards Kong was more along the lines of the tone of the picture (big surprise there). Much more primieval sounding. JN Howard's score follows the dictum of current Hollywood: overwrought, emotional manipulative music to tell the audience what and how to feel at key moments. I prefer Shore's approach which doesn't cater to this philosophy. At least before his LOTR scores.

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Of course! I love his 2nd Essay for Orchestra (the 1st is all right but I love the alto flute line opening from the 2nd, it's haunting). Also think his 3rd Essay is great. And his Knoxville 1915, and Overture to the School Of Scandle....

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Yeah, there's so much great stuff :)

The first essay is kind of meh, good structure but I find the themes lacking... but in contrast those of the 2nd essay are great, I even like the second theme more than the first one :P and introduced in the violas, doesn't happen often ;)

A piece I find really chilling is Music for a Scene from Shelley... and I'm trying hard to get it onto one of the next programs of the youth orchestras I'm playing in, it's not as technically challenging as much other Barber stuff but still a gorgeous piece of music (perhaps somewhat comparable in rough structure to Rachmaninov's Island of the Dead).

And lately I found much admiration for his larger vocal/orchestra works, I got the cd with Prayers of Kierkegaard and The Lovers, and have begun to really dig into Antony and Cleopatra (I did a presentation of it for university, in relation to the original Shakespeare work).

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I quite like those clips... I think he's captured the king kong feel quite well... Especially with those tritones in Head towards The Animals... They are almost cliché, but somehow fitting.

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Eh, having listened to the clips and the music in the 4 min clip on NBC it sounds like music written in 2 weeks. Kinda bland so far if you ask me.

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I think some of the examples are nice. Good music just not necessarily what I would have expected to hear in a Kong film. But the Empire State Building track sounds nice. And the wind writing on A Fateful Meeting is also quite nice. But the chord progressions are standard JN Howard. Not that I didn't expect this. With 2 weeks, you have to grab whatever you can compositionally speaking. Once again, 5 months vs. 4 weeks does have a big impact on the originality and quality of the score. I don't care who says differently. Those who refute this obviously aren't composers themselves.

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What I've heard is standard type movie music without a fingerprint. It shouldn't interfere with the enjoyment of the movie, but I doubt it will add any depth to the story. We'll see. It sounds like a good breakout score for Chris Bacon. ;)

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I listened to the clips, and I like what I hear. Maybe it's not the absolute greatest. The problem Howard will have (in my opinion, and I haven't heard a lot of his scores) is that he repeats himself. He doesn't develop (in the scores I've heard) several themes. He has one that he repeats over and over and over and over and over, with no variation in the way it's played. One would think a film like King Kong would require a few themes and variations, and from what I heard from the site, it has a good base. The problem is, 30 second clips are no way to preview music and judge it. I'm going to give the score a chance. Shore would probably just rehash LOTR anyways, judging from the rest of his work since then. ::coughHistoryofViolencecough::

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I think History of Violence has some very engaging tracks. But this to my knowledge was a quickie for Shore, in between working on KONG. I think KING KONG would have revealed another side of Shore we hadn't heard yet and it's a pity we'll never hear it. Did the Aviator sound like LOTR? NOPE. Shore has more originality than that. Please accord him the respect he deserves.

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I admitted to not hearing a lot of his scores, and I've never seen the Aviator. I just consider it bad luck that out of all the films I've seen that he did they just happened to sound identical. History of Violence music was a little overblown for that type of film, but as a stand-alone, I'm sure it is decent. But it was still a carbon copy of LOTR.

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I admitted to not hearing a lot of his scores, and I've never seen the Aviator. I just consider it bad luck that out of all the films I've seen that he did they just happened to sound identical.  History of Violence music was a little overblown for that type of film, but as a stand-alone, I'm sure it is decent. But it was still a carbon copy of LOTR.

Well Shore has obviously not left Middle Earth just yet :P I heard the History of Violence and Tom's theme sounded very much like Shire theme and there were many other elements in the score that had the LOTR sound in them. On the other hand I have been listening to Shore's older scores and I can hear that the sound we are hearing in LOTR scores is just Shore's personal sound. It existed before LOTR and will exist after it. Its his own compositional voice. It is funny how a composer's own sound can turn against him as it becomes recognisable and people consider it unsuited for other scores after that movie. But I have to admit both Aviator (to a lesser degree) and History of Violence were audibly Shore still in his Middle-Earth mode.

But listen to Looking for Richard, Fly, Dogma and other scores and you hear where the musical ideas for LOTR come from.

I for one am waiting with great interest how JNH pulled the King Kong scoring assignment off. It surely was not an easy one.

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