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What's Your Favourite Fantasy Score?


Unlucky Bastard

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For me, there's no comparison to Jerry Goldsmith's Legend. This is a landmark score filled with beauty, ambition and experimentalism presented wonderfully throughout each and every cue. However, I feel it works much better on album than it did within the film. I saw the 94 minute international version on cable, unfortunately it seemed like a jumbled up mess. Goldsmith's score was watered down so low, I could barely make it out. I've yet to see the 113 minute Director's Cut, since it's unavailable in Australia, but I'm willing to give it a chance if it is eventually released here.

Cues such as "My True Love's Eyes", "Bumps and Hollows", "The Ring" and "Reunited" are some of the prettiest and most heart melting pieces of music I've ever heard. The mixture of 80's synths, vocals, live orchestra and ingenius compositions create a powerhouse of a score that was so ambitious, I don't think I've heard another fantasy score even approach its level of ingenuity.

The next one down on my list of favourites is John Williams' Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm not going to compare it to Legend, they're apples and oranges. I love this score because it has heart, angst and playfulness mixed with a unique blend of action scoring and atonal passages, which remind the listener of similar cues from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Some whinge and complain that POA is disjointed, dizzying, and at times, bland and generic, but it's really the highest level of creativity Williams displayed for the Potter franchise and I reckon Potterdom's new hero Patrick Doyle would be hard-pressed even going near Williams' high point in the series.

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I like 'Legend', but there's one fantasyscore that beats them all IMO:

Trevor Jones' The Dark Crystal. The main theme/overture is about as beautiful as filmmusic can get.

Does anyone have the newly released double cd release? I own the lp, but the cd - which is hard to find - seems to feature some bonusmaterial.

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I've never heard Legend described so enthusiastically...I may have to check this out. Is there a readily available release?

My favorite fantasy scores are the first and third Potter scores (it fluctuates between the two continuously), and of course the highlights of the second. After that, HGW's Narnia and JNH's Peter Pan are just the type of fantasy scores I love. Also, Horner's The Land Before Time, if it counts as fantasy.

Ray Barnsbury

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Is SW a fantasy score or in what catergory that music must be placed or is it a category of its own??

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Well my favourite fantasy scores are the SW hexalogy, the LOTR trilogy (a huge surprise I am sure :angry: ), HP scores, Krull and a whole legion of others. I have not heard Goldsmith's Legend but after I read that praise from Drax I thin I should look it up.

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As far as the LOTR music goes, TTT is my favourite. I'm really fond of the old English inspired Rohan theme and the wide variety of darker material. It also has the best CD soundtrack that doesn't drag like the other two. It seems somewhat underrated compared to the others.

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JNH's Atlantis is an excellent fantasy score. The choir work is amazing and the themes are wonderful.

Shore really captures the Rohan culture with his music in TTT. I view it as the second act of a big work that naturally follows FOTR and expands and evolves the LOTR music. I also think that the OST album is the most balanced of the three.

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I think I might go with Conan the Barbarian, too. Legend's a close second. Willow's definitely third.

Conan's just a good score. "Battle of the Mounds" just can't be beat. The ballet-like "The Kitchen/Orgy" is awesome before the reprise of "Anvil of Crom".

I agree with everything everyone else said about Legend. "Darkness Fails" is probably Jerry's best mid-80s track (although Lionheart's pretty good too).

Willow's just a typical Horner score, IMO. Krull's way better.

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And the Uruk-hai music sounded beefier and more robust in TTT.  It's actually my favourite theme in the trilogy.

The Isengard theme and the Orc Five Beat Pattern have very powerful variations in FOTR too. The Great River and Amon Hen sequence contain my absolutely favourite versions of the themes. TTT contains many agressive variations to be sure but I would have wanted to hear even more of the theme in the movie since half of the movie is about Isengard's war against Rohan.

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And the Uruk-hai music sounded beefier and more robust in TTT.  It's actually my favourite theme in the trilogy.

The Isengard theme and the Orc Five Beat Pattern have very powerful variations in FOTR too. The Great River and Amon Hen sequence contain my absolutely favourite versions of the themes. TTT contains many agressive variations to be sure but I would have wanted to hear even more of the theme in the movie since half of the movie is about Isengard's war against Rohan.

True, there are powerful statements in FOTR, but in TTT the theme comes to prominence, especially evidenced in the powerful statement in "Isengard Unleashed" (Not the album track, the cue in the movie when Saruman adresses the Uruk army.)

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True, there are powerful statements in FOTR, but in TTT the theme comes to prominence, especially evidenced in the powerful statement in "Isengard Unleashed" (Not the album track, the cue in the movie when Saruman adresses the Uruk army.)

That happens to be my favourite Isengard theme appearance in the whole TTT. :angry:

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I don't know if Star Wars counts as fantasy.

Howard Shore's LOTR scores, Conan, Legend (Goldsmith's), Jason and The Argonauts, 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

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True, there are powerful statements in FOTR, but in TTT the theme comes to prominence, especially evidenced in the powerful statement in "Isengard Unleashed" (Not the album track, the cue in the movie when Saruman adresses the Uruk army.)

That happens to be my favourite Isengard theme appearance in the whole TTT. :)

Indeed. When I saw the scene in theatre, I was :wave: about the army itself, and then heard the music and thought "Holy ****!"

Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, my answer to the thread question is LOTR...

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