|
This here thread is for discussing film music and scores in depth, including composers, with a primary focus on new and upcoming film scores and soundtracks. THREAD RULES: 1. All SA/CD rules apply. No  in any shape or form. Links to Youtube clips and legal streams are A-OK, as long as the links are tagged. 2. This is NOT a PYF thread. Try and post about something that's at least relevant to music in new and upcoming films. 3. FILM music only. Don't post about video game music or TV music unless it's somehow relevant. In any case, don't discuss it at length, let's avoid derails. 4. Film MUSIC only. Don't review the movies here, there are other threads for discussing that stuff. For best effect, think of this thread as the music equivalent of the Movie Poster Thread.
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 07:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 19:38 |
|
|
I'll start this off by praising Howard Shore's upcoming score for the new Hobbit film. I was dead set with Zimmer's The Dark Knight Rises score as my choice of best of 2012 but I think Shore's outdoes it by a mile. Dude scored the hell out of the LOTR movies and keeps doing just that with The Hobbit. Some excellent nods to his previous scores in this too. You can listen to it here and I recommend you do. That said, it's taking me a while still to warm up to the Neil Finn song. I'm having a hard time getting over how folksy it sounds. The melody is fantastic though and serves as the "Fellowship" theme of this film. As for worst of the year I'll have to go with James Horner's score for The Amazing Spider-Man. I've said it some other thread, but Horner really is a three-trick pony. He only has a few styles he falls back on every time. His Aliens score, his Braveheart score and his tribal style Apocalypto/Avatar scores. Yet with TASM he provides the film with nothing but generic cues which fall completely flat and fail to be memorable in the least. I know it's Horner, but the source material is pretty ripe for good music; just look at what Danny Elfman did with Raimi's Spider-Man films.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 07:42
|
|
|
Horner's effort was bland but it was FAR from the worst score this year, and in fact Zimmer's DKR is in the running for me. Typical Zimmer bombast. I detect no craft whatsoever, and that always bothers me. Absolutely no diversity in instrumentation or tone over the entire slogging affair. The score has no emotional depth or range as a result. Zimmer steadfastly refuses to engage in it: he wields an orchestra like someone sitting down at a synthesizer: literally everything in it is idiomatic to the piano. Counterpoint? What's that? Woodwinds? What the gently caress are those? No sir, it's unison horns (gently caress you, thematic harmony!) with string pads over the standard Zimmer heavy, heavy bass drones and sound effects. I guess if you like that sort of thing then its fine? Zimmer also fails to evolve his thematic ideas (what few there are) in any appreciable way. His Batman "theme" has remained the same, static theme it was in "Begins". No attempt is made to take it on an evolutionary journey with the character. It exists simply as a signpost that reads "And now: Here is Batman!" It's staggeringly obvious in this entry that James Newton Howard played no part (as he had in the previous two). I remember an interview where Zimmer and James Newton Howard talked about, on Batman Begins, how "You can't tell who did what!" ...yes, you can. You can absolutely tell. Generally, I find the vast majority of Zimmer's scores these days to pretty much fit the description I gave above. There are exceptions, but not nearly enough of them. We agree on Shore's "Hobbit", though. Might as well give him the Oscar right the gently caress now because holy poo poo is that an unbelievably well-crafted score. edit: On another note, awesome idea for a thread, OP! I'd thought about making one in the past but didn't know if it would get any traction. ComposerGuy fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Dec 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:02
|
|
|
I agree to a point that Zimmer has a recognizable style which can sound synthesized, but there was some craft to the DKR score just like there was in the score for TDK; in the latter Zimmer created a really unique sound for the Joker character (evident in the opening track, "Why So Serious?") and in DKR he does the same for Bane with the "Basara Deshi" chant. Indeed the highlights of the score are the things to do with Bane, "Imagine the Fire" being the most notable one. It's very bombastic but it works in the context of the film. The points where the score does fall flat a bit are the more quiet and tender moments relating to Bruce Wayne; there are nods to previous scores with the two note theme very evident in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but in TDKR it's played very weakly almost to signify Wayne's physical weakness due to being out of the game for so long. It's pretty blatant and doesn't cause much of an effect. James Newton Howard dropping out worked largely in favor of the film I think. He's a fantastic composer (the things he did with M. Night Shyamalan stand out in particular) and while his contribution certainly shines through in both the Batman scores he worked on, I felt his and Zimmer's styles didn't mesh all that well in the end. ComposerGuy posted:edit: On another note, awesome idea for a thread, OP! I'd thought about making one in the past but didn't know if it would get any traction.  I hope this takes off though. I got Professor Clumsy's permission to post this in CD with the condition that it won't become a PYF thread.
Stare-Out fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Dec 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:11
|
|
|
I think I've mentioned this on the forums before, but does anyone else see a similarity between the score for Lawrence of Arabia, and the score for Starcrash? Skip to 1:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrKplk8bDDc Skip to 0:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYsCd7OwpCQ Maybe I'm just crazy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:13
|
|
|
I should mention that I absolutely detest what Zimmer has done with film music over the last 10 years or so, so I immediately approach everything he does with that at the front of my brain. He's much more of a "product" in my mind then anything else, especially when dissecting the work of his disciples, most of whom are completely interchangeable (a notable exception being John Powell, who broke away and starting doing MARVELOUS things). I agree that his style and James Newton Howard's don't mesh all that well...but all that did was make me wish JNH had done a solo effort on the films. Edit: I guess I should also admit that in my opinion Trent Reznor has no business scoring films, just because I'm sure that flame war is going to happen. TrixRabbi posted:I think I've mentioned this on the forums before, but does anyone else see a similarity between the score for Lawrence of Arabia, and the score for Starcrash? They're similar in the sense that the melodies share some of the same rhythmic characteristics, but that's about as far as I'd go with it. ComposerGuy fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Dec 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:15
|
|
|
ComposerGuy posted:I should mention that I absolutely detest what Zimmer has done with film music over the last 10 years or so, so I immediately approach everything he does with that at the front of my brain. He's much more of a "product" in my mind then anything else, especially when dissecting the work of his disciples, most of whom are completely interchangeable (a notable exception being John Powell, who broke away and starting doing MARVELOUS things). I do agree that a large majority of Zimmer's Media Ventures disciples (Gregson-Williams, Balfe etc.) sound very much like toned down Zimmers. Reznor and Atticus Ross have yet to win me over; The Social Network score was a total bore (not that I cared for the film either) and the score for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo only worked in the context of the film but utterly fails to stand on its own. TrixRabbi posted:I think I've mentioned this on the forums before, but does anyone else see a similarity between the score for Lawrence of Arabia, and the score for Starcrash? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:25
|
|
|
I actually liked Zimmer's first Sherlock Holmes score, if that helps. Thought it was creative. You basically nailed my thoughts on Reznor and Ross. It's just...so...boring. I can't listen to it at all. Trudged through both scores just to be fair to them and of course listened in context with the films, but there's just nothing to them. It's what I call "Aural/Sonic Wallpaper" and it drives me insane.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 08:28
|
|
|
ComposerGuy posted:I actually liked Zimmer's first Sherlock Holmes score, if that helps. Thought it was creative. On another note, I noticed recently that there was a new release of Elliot Goldenthal's Alien 3 score, dubbed "The Complete Score" with 40+ tracks. Being my favorite Alien score of all time, I only own the 14 track version and I'd love to get my hands on the complete one, but Amazon isn't helping. I think there was also a complete version of Basil Poledouris' Starship Troopers score but I haven't been able to track that one down either, anyone know where I might get those?
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 09:21
|
|
|
You know, I really love the Reznor/Ross scores. Dragon Tattoo is more background-sound-y than Social Network, which I find really actively listenable in a hypnotic, cycling, sort of Glass-Eno way. Cliff Martinez's Solaris score is just as enrapturing but I'm definitely into that sort of thing (see also his Contagion score, which is more thumping and aggro but works along the same lines).
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 09:44
|
|
|
I loved the Social Network score a lot, and then actively hated the Dragon Tattoo score. I mean, I hated a lot about that movie, but the score was where I had high hopes, and it was utterly disappointing and boring.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 10:11
|
|
|
I like both scores, but think the Dragon Tattoo score suits the kind of visuals and locations and overall atmosphere of the film better.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 10:27
|
|
|
Found Goldenthal's Alien 3 Complete Score on eBay but it's gone.  I'm giving it a listen on Last.fm and it's pretty spectacular. I can't believe it's not in iTunes or something. Also how has he not done anything since The Tempest? How was that score?
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 14:35
|
|
|
I haven't listened to Shore's Hobbit score (and probably won't, because I don't care about hobbits), but his score for Cosmopolis is definitely in the running for my favorite of the year, along with David Holmes' score for Haywire.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 14:52
|
|
|
Shore tends to shine in whatever movie he composes for (the scores for both Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs are amazing and easily some of my favorite film music of all time) but when he does stuff for anything Tolkien it's pretty much out of this world, mostly because he loves scoring Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and it comes through. Whatever you think of Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, the scores do more than just stand on their own out of context and if you enjoy orchestrated classical music or film music it's highly recommended you check them out. Shore's score for Cosmopolis, and any Cronenberg movie he scores, is very appropriate but feels really subdued though that's probably intentional. With The Hobbit there's a real sense of him being allowed total freedom to score the hell out of that movie and that's exactly what he does, as he did with the LotR trilogy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 15:02
|
|
|
I tend to like Shore's stuff with Cronenberg this best. Videodrome is probably my favorite score of his.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 15:10
|
|
|
Shore is one of those rare few who can turn on a dime and go from large, epic-length fantasy score to small, intimate personal score and still sound fantastic at both ends. His range as a composer is enormous, which makes sense for a guy who studied at Berklee College of Music.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2012 15:45
|
|
|
I think Jonny Greenwood's score for The Master should be in contention this year. There Will Be Blood was fantastic work that was somewhat overshadowed by the inclusion of Arvo Part and Haydn, and it was sometimes a little on-the-nose when he was trying to ape Penderecki's style (though admittedly he did a good job of it, and it fit the film fine). In The Master I feel like he really extended his range with what seems like a more limited set of tools, arrangement-wise. While there was a lot of timbral variety in There Will Be Blood, The Master has much more cohesion in it, and I think for the better. I'll have to see it a second time to understand the cues, but I appreciate that there was no developing theme that seemed antithetical to the course of the movie, which in case you haven't seen it, is somewhat meandering (in a good way). If this track doesn't give you chills, well, then you can skip the rest. Does anyone hear Bartok in this kind of pointillism? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyu9yH5rvCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LleYm3HFy0w edit: On re-listening, it's amazing how that second link sounds so much like a Radiohead song without Thom Yorke. You could easily put a vocal on top of that, slide it into Amnesiac and no one would notice. ComposerGuy, the only Powell I've heard was what I imagine was the main theme from How to Train Your Dragon, which has become a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (have not seen the movie). Is there something essential I should check out? Also, I've got to say one of the most under-rated film scores of my lifetime has got to be The Land Before Time by James Horner. I know, I know. But it's fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuoE4l0dAGg I don't know if it's just an association I have with watching a video as a 2-year old, but I really think the motifs in this piece are actually really successful. If you haven't seen the film and can't hear the leitmotifs then it might feel like pure schlock (which it is, in a way), but it's really very effective, and is quite a bit more dynamic than what I think of Horner as today. Jewmanji fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:33
|
|
|
RE: Hans Zimmer I feel that the only score he ever deserved an award for was the one he got the academy award for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aubjzXHYKs4 His scores lately have been unimaginative and indistinguishable from each other. Yet the fanboys will always start rolling out during Oscar season and demand that he wins an award for ACTION SOUNDTRACK Mk. 8 Ver. 12.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:38
|
|
|
If you want to get all music nerdy about Shore's Lord of the Rings scores, then I highly recommend you check out The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films by Doug Adams. It goes into real detail about the various uses of instrumentation and leitmotif that Shore used to give each character it's own distinct theme, but totally interconnected with everything else in the score - like Gollum's theme, which shares some of the instrumentation of the Hobbiton music, but is melodically linked with the ring theme. It really goes to show how much thought and effort he put in constructing the music for those films. It also comes with a really good CD of unused and early versions of some cues. Tomtrek fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:44
|
|
|
Can anyone tell me if they've heard this piece in any film other than Sin City before? It's a super famous piece by Silvestre Revueltas and I'm convinced it's some iconic classic film (i.e. not Sin City) but can't for the life of me figure it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjfE2pUPKrU It's kind of amazing this hasn't found its way into more films actually, it's quite memorable.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:48
|
|
|
Jewmanji posted:ComposerGuy, the only Powell I've heard was what I imagine was the main theme from How to Train Your Dragon, which has become a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (have not seen the movie). Is there something essential I should check out? The whole of "How To Train Your Dragon" is fantastic, and I believe his best work to date. Nothing guilty about it for me. There's staggering attention to detail in the structure of the cues and his melodies and counter-melodies just weave together perfectly. You can catch glimpses of what's to come in earlier work from him like "Robots". That was my first real indication that he was going to break away from the "Media Ventures" mold.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:50
|
|
|
Stare-Out posted:On another note, I noticed recently that there was a new release of Elliot Goldenthal's Alien 3 score, dubbed "The Complete Score" with 40+ tracks. Being my favorite Alien score of all time, I only own the 14 track version and I'd love to get my hands on the complete one, but Amazon isn't helping. I think there was also a complete version of Basil Poledouris' Starship Troopers score but I haven't been able to track that one down either, anyone know where I might get those? It's possible they both might be bootlegs - complete score bootlegs are very common. From what I've heard though, the master tapes for Goldenthal's Alienł are in too bad a condition to make a proper complete release.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:54
|
|
|
ComposerGuy posted:You can catch glimpses of what's to come in earlier work from him like "Robots". That was my first real indication that he was going to break away from the "Media Ventures" mold. Powell's score for X-Men: The Last Stand was easily the best part of that movie, too. The music of the X-Men films is interesting. Kamen was brought onto the first movie at the last minute when John Ottman backed out, and he had no time to write the score -- "Logan & Rogue," which is often cited as an excellent piece of scoring, is really just Kamen's Highlander theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmaJea4ZoU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCkV0qSJRkk
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 01:57
|
|
|
Jewmanji posted:
As CG said, the entire score is fantastic. To sell it to the good folks reading this though, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IBlQj2U5kU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9D8pdDyw44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5KOERF_akc Getting away from PYF, what did you guys think of Skyfall? I found the soundtrack jarred horribly with what was happening on screen - especially with the timing of the crescendos - and detracted quite a bit from my enjoyment of the film. coffeetable fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 02:14
|
|
|
Timby posted:Powell's score for X-Men: The Last Stand was easily the best part of that movie, too. He actually uses it in a 3rd film, as well. It's used in Mr. Holland's Opus, but much more subdued and not driving. As for "Skyfall" above...I'm in the same boat as you. I was HIGHLY disappointed with Thomas Newman's output for the film. It just didn't mesh well at all.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 02:44
|
|
|
If we're talking scores from all time and not just this last year, Michael Nyman's scores for the films of Peter Greenaway are absolutely vital at capturing and accentuating what made the movies work with to begin with. From the playfulness of The Draughtsman's Contract https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XDkyT2QU6k To the sweeping examination that is Prospero's Books https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WAxyU2CV5s And the brooding menace of Cook Thief Wife Lover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYbEWxnJhE
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 04:26
|
|
|
The Bourne Supremacy is an essential listen from John Powell. Re: Skyfall - I was really looking forward to this score as I'm a huge Newman fan and was psyched to see him do an action film. I really enjoyed a lot of his work for the movie, but every time it moved into the traditional Bond themes/motifs felt extremely forced and unnatural. It really took me out of a score I was otherwise enjoying.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 04:49
|
|
|
I will second the love for the How to Train Your Dragon score. That thing is the closest thing we've had to John Williams quality thematic scoring in years. Powell's Bourne Supremacy score is really good too, as is his work on Face/Off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK3qXjcxTKI bullet3 fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 06:01
|
|
|
^^^edit for the above: I'd counter with At World's End (the other two scores aren't all that good in themselves): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtsJ-p6yt_A I love love love the "flight" theme from How to Train Your Dragon, but my favorite of the last decade or so is still the main theme from At World's End, which combines with the other themes in the films to provide the only best of Williams quality multiple theme credit music I've heard in the past year or so. ComposerGuy posted:Horner's effort was bland but it was FAR from the worst score this year, and in fact Zimmer's DKR is in the running for me. Typical Zimmer bombast. I detect no craft whatsoever, and that always bothers me. Absolutely no diversity in instrumentation or tone over the entire slogging affair. The score has no emotional depth or range as a result. Zimmer steadfastly refuses to engage in it: he wields an orchestra like someone sitting down at a synthesizer: literally everything in it is idiomatic to the piano. Counterpoint? What's that? Woodwinds? What the gently caress are those? No sir, it's unison horns (gently caress you, thematic harmony!) with string pads over the standard Zimmer heavy, heavy bass drones and sound effects. I guess if you like that sort of thing then its fine? For an art comparison, you remind me of what a lot of fine artists do, where they overly focus on the depth, layers and mixture of the paint itself, and deride people that focus on form and utilize digital techniques/painting in conjunction with standard painting. Because of traditionalism, and not working with much on the digital end, it is assumed that it is by default inferior to the traditional, as it's "easier" and "cheating" or doesn't contain as much "depth." For instance, while you go on and on about counterscoring (which I love as well, don't get me wrong), you say nothing about the creative usages of synth, modulation, and mixing that other modern composers do, which takes as much skill and effort as writing am effective running counter to the main score. And your statement about the Batman "theme" is completely wrong. First of all, Zimmer focuses on mood based motifs as opposed to overriding main themes. There is no one "Batman" theme - there is a heroic motif, an arrival motif, and an action 'score' that goes along with the Batman character. Newton Howard, on the other hand, did the actual "themes" (Dawes, Gotham, and Dent). Not only did the motifs gradually evolve by being expanded and given different links and bridges between them (the expansion of action sequencing into A Dog Chasing Cars in TDK, to the culmination of everything in No Stone Unturned in TDKR), Zimmer creatively used various parts of each one to symbolize the villains. The Joker, being an inverse of Batman, reverses the "arrival" motif on HIS arrival sequences. Bane, being one aspect of Batman takes the bass and expands with heavy percussives behind it, Selina takes the percussives and turns it into a staccato for the motiffs when she is Catwomaning it up. There are only like two other composers that even think of doing stuff like this. If you look at any dual Powell-Zimmer scores, ie. Kung Fu Panda, you pretty much see the same thing. The scores are richer in that they're better at telling a story in themselves with all the callbacks and motifs, which is the Zimmer side, while normally having more flowing counterscoring and long, extended thematics for sequences, which is the Powell side. both are highly creative, and it's rather short-sighted to demean one end in favor of overly praising the other, when both take around the same amount of skill and creativity to do, overall. I dislike that a lot of Media Ventures spawn have taken Zimmer's mix of orchestra and synth and did "nothing" with it, outside making every film sound the same - but that doesn't take away from the ridiculous amount of skill and creativity that Zimmer uses on a consistent basis either. You seem to over-favor the John Williams styled heavy-theme orchestration while downing the motif-modulation-sample-mix style that Zimmer does (which is just an extension of Jerry Goldsmith's more experimental stuff (and why I actually prefer Goldsmith to Williams now, since he provides the best of BOTH worlds). Also, there is no current composer better at the "layering build to crescendo" right now, even if he cheats like hell in doing it (since he's basically been building on what he started with Thin Red Line): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvM4EM0lO8 Darko fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 07:01
|
|
|
I agree with what you're saying, but it's easy to hate on Zimmer's style of film-scoring because it's almost completely taken over the film industry, and the John Williams theme-based scores have almost died out, which is tragic. It's not his fault at all, and he's great at what he does, but we're in desperate need of another Poledouris or Goldsmith.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 07:25
|
|
|
I think we're starting to get that a bit with Giacchino, if only because he's started to ape John Williams even more with his John Carter and Super 8 scores, both of which were great (I think Sab Than Pursues the Princess is one of my favorite bits of scoring in 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKtg2nJa1to
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 07:34
|
|
|
bullet3 posted:I agree with what you're saying, but it's easy to hate on Zimmer's style of film-scoring because it's almost completely taken over the film industry, and the John Williams theme-based scores have almost died out, which is tragic. It's not his fault at all, and he's great at what he does, but we're in desperate need of another Poledouris or Goldsmith. Not just film - let's not forget that every current big-budget video game sounds like Zimmer too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8t4hWZRfZw The issue is obvious, really. Most directors say "I want my movie to sound like <this movie>." If you're saying, "I want my film to sound like Star Wars," you're probably going to get a fully orchestrated bombastic theme with a certain structure type. If you're saying, "I want my movie to sound like The Rock," you're going to get a heavy string+horn section in front of some heavy percussion played at high tempo. The latter is going to sound more "samey" by far just due to the lack of variety in general. It would be like if every director wanted everything to sound like a James Bond movie in the 80s, so everything sounded like John Barry - play section, repeat section higher, french horn, where you got tired of everything sounding like a James Bond movie. But that's where we are now, unfortunately. I kind of remove Zimmer from this, for the most part, because he has the freedom/clout to experiment, whereas a lot of the spawn don't. He can do stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSDAEAQptE ...and then go to stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1wTdFSYK9c ...and then do stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOz68UWknv0 ...and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVKdgs44bRY Which goes beyond the "make it sound like Crimson Tide!" trap that others get caught in. Poledouris is awesome because he brought back a lot of the classic style of film scoring that was kind of phased out by the 80s. His stuff ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhvd9twPEIo ) was often very reminiscent of the Miklós Rózsa era of scoring ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKzGnSho1_0 ) which is SORELY missed. Darko fucked around with this message at 08:00 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 07:57
|
|
|
While I agree to a point that the "Williams" style scoring might very well be dying out, we still have John Williams.  And on that note, his Lincoln score is really good; it's like the scores for Saving Private Ryan and Amistad had a secret lovechild. It's Williams largely in his comfort zone apart from a couple of notable tracks which feature period tunes with fiddles and spoons(!). I haven't experienced it in the context of the movie but it's Williams so I doubt there'll be many surprises as to whether or not it works with the movie. Still, it's kind of a bummer that he hasn't done anything particularly out of character for a while now; Catch Me If You Can had a score which was light, jazzy and awesome and Munich's "Encounter in London and Bomb Malfunctions" is goddamn masterful and I'd hardly recognize it as Williams if it weren't for a few brief moments I'm sure are easy to pick out. Whenever this track plays on my iPod I get an urge to look over my shoulder in case someone's following me or something.  Darko posted:Poledouris is awesome because
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 08:20
|
|
|
Stare-Out posted:
James Horner's 'danger cue!' fucks me off so much. You know the one. Four quick notes, usually brass. It's played lots in Troy (probably due to time constraints, I understand he was drafted in pretty late after the previous score, despite being quite beautiful in places, was scrapped) and makes an appearance in Avatar, specifically "the destruction of Hometree". Lazy, lazy writing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 11:06
|
|
|
haakman posted:James Horner's 'danger cue!' fucks me off so much. You know the one. Four quick notes, usually brass. It's played lots in Troy (probably due to time constraints, I understand he was drafted in pretty late after the previous score, despite being quite beautiful in places, was scrapped) and makes an appearance in Avatar, specifically "the destruction of Hometree". Lazy, lazy writing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 13:44
|
|
|
are we allowed to talk about TV scores here? 'Cause Bear McCrearys scoring for the Battlestar Galactica reboot is absolutely marvellous. For a TV show that was producing 15-20 episodes a year there's a hell of a lot of quality music in there, almost every major character has their own set of musical motifs with interactions BETWEEN characters given their own themes which often lift elements from both. It's a lot richer and more varied than most TV show soundtracks. What's more, the composer made a series of incredibly rich and detailed blog posts about the process of composing for the show http://www.bearmccreary.com/#page/10/?cat=1 (spoliery). I don't know much about score composition but these blogs are a fascinating insight into the whole process and how much thought and care is put into the music for an show or movie. For example, in a particular episode a character is developing a rapidly growing anxiety and paranoia. In the blog the composer talks about how a repeated musical motif in that episode is shifted up by a semitone in each new scene where it features to really drive the tension, it's something you're unlikely to notice on the first viewing but once you've been told you realise how the music complimented the action on the screen. EDIT: gently caress, missed the rules in the OP. I can delete this if people want, though the blog posts are relevant to scoring any scripted work not just TV (and the composer does work in movies too) Fatkraken fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Dec 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 14:03
|
|
|
Stare-Out posted:Metallic percussion is another one of his that he's really clinging to ever since Aliens. Also listening to "The Destruction of Hometree" now and it really is in large parts "Death of Titanic" Mk.II, isn't it? There are moments in nearly every score he's ever done that come really, really close to being good and memorable and then just falls back to one of his gimmicks. Some tracks from Braveheart and Titanic are downright interchangeable. I'm not as harsh on the ASM score, but that's because a decent theme gets me a long way. Listening to the rest of the score, though, it does all sound very Samey and inappropriate. I still manage to hum the theme, however.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 14:36
|
|
|
Darko posted:For an art comparison, you remind me of what a lot of fine artists do, where they overly focus on the depth, layers and mixture of the paint itself, and deride people that focus on form and utilize digital techniques/painting in conjunction with standard painting. Because of traditionalism, and not working with much on the digital end, it is assumed that it is by default inferior to the traditional, as it's "easier" and "cheating" or doesn't contain as much "depth." This runs to taste (though I take serious issue with your assumption that I dismiss digital and synthetic scoring out-of-hand, which is certainly not the case: I work in that medium often. I take issue with Zimmer, not his medium). But suffice it to say that I find Zimmer to be smoke-and-mirrors the vast majority of the time and he does the one thing that, in art, I can't find a way around: he bores me. Whether I love something or hate something, I have at least engaged in the music and had a strong reaction to it. I don't hate what Zimmer does, I just don't find it the slightest bit interesting.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 15:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 19:38 |
|
|
I can't stand Horner at this point - he's ridiculous. If you take any of the composers that popped up from the same era, ie. Zimmer/Elfman/Silvestri, etc., you see some gradual progression and evolution. They might go back to favorites or callbacks from time to time for stuff like action fills, and have a recognizable style, but you can post instances from ANY of them where they sound COMPLETELY different. Horner just does the same exact stuff over and over again and has actually REGRESSED since the early 90s. With not a single thing he's done going outside of that recognizable style or sounding "unique" in the slightest. He doesn't get creative wit hthe soundtracks, he doesn't experiment - he just copies and pastes bits of one score and another to create a new one. It's ridiculous. Fatkraken posted:are we allowed to talk about TV scores here? 'Cause Bear McCrearys scoring for the Battlestar Galactica reboot is absolutely marvellous. For a TV show that was producing 15-20 episodes a year there's a hell of a lot of quality music in there, almost every major character has their own set of musical motifs with interactions BETWEEN characters given their own themes which often lift elements from both. It's a lot richer and more varied than most TV show soundtracks. My only problem with McCreary is that he tends to go as far as lift basically entire songs from other composers for some reason. You can easily do that by accident; I know that I've composed some "awesome sounding songs," only to realize halfway through that I'm just recreating music from Golden Axe or something and not realizing it - but you shouldn't really get to production without realizing what you're doing. Every composer either lifts, homages, or liberally borrows from classic composition to some degree, but doing it with contemporary composers is just weird. He says it's "coincidental," but... The most blatant example: Black Hawk Down - Leave No Man Behind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxQfCZ_9V8 BSG - Roslin and Adama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-Js_rMEV4 I'd say that video game composition is far closer to film than television at this point, especially since, obviously, film composers do video games now and people like Michael Giacchino come from video games. Television is still (mostly) stuck in "play a song when something happens" while the "dramatic action cutscenes" in games are more often completely scored. That's why I don't feel that television stuff is really relevant to go in the same context, unless you're talking miniseries.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2012 15:48
|
|