posted
Hello everyone. I'm new. I've only read two OSC books, Ender's Game and Speaker, the former being my favorite book, and the latter I'm re-reading but I've been browsing this site for a few days and I love it...so I thought I'd join the forum...
I was wondering if there's anyone here who likes movie scores? I'm obsessed with them...I have about 60 or 70 in my collection and rapidly growing. Any kindred spirits, and if so, what composers / styles do you prefer? I like Williams, Horner, Zimmer and any of his clones / proteges, Silvestri (Polar Express is amazing), Howard, etc...
Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't have enough Elfman to consider myself a 'fan' yet...Spidey 2 is good, and I just ordered Edward Scissorhands...the definitive Elfman I guess.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
And what about The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack? And I notice you mentioned not Talbot. Have you not heard him?
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've not heard much of the Nightmare Before Christmas...and I'm not familiar with Talbot at all. Yet, anyway. Widening my tastes is financially burdensome
Badelt's Time Machine is one of my all-time favorites, and Pirates is great, if cliched....
Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm beginning to write my dissertation on motivic development in film music.
Yes, I like it pretty well.
I will say this, though: as far as musical styles go, you can pretty much paint film music with the broad brush of late romaticism. There are exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of film music has solid roots in the music of Wagner and his contemporaries.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Megan: I will say this, though: as far as musical styles go, you can pretty much paint film music with the broad brush of late romaticism. There are exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of film music has solid roots in the music of Wagner and his contemporaries.
Hmm...on that note, maybe you can answer this question. Given the type of film music I seem to like, what would be some good classical composers to listen to?
Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
You like John Williams and Hans Zimmer? You'd also like Holst, Mahler, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Brucker might be something you'd enjoy, although I don't particularly care for it (he's from that era, but I think his compositions tend to be more about being loud and long than about being interesting).
You might also enjoy some middle-period Stravinsky (things like Firebird, the Rite of Spring, and Petrushka).
Hmm...Verdi and Puccini might also be things you'd enjoy, if you don't have a cultural bias against opera.
Oooh, and thinks like Ravel's orchestration of "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
You might also enjoy symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Borodin.
There's a start, anyway. Let me know if you like any of it.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't listen to movie scores or soundtracks very often, but there are a few that I do really enjoy. The Last of the Mohicans, The Godfather, Donnie Darko, and 28 Days Later.Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The score to the Godfather is excellent; Nino Rota also did the score for the Zefirelli Romeo and Juliet.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thomas Newman is my current favorite...though David Newman (whom I had never heard of until this week) does some delightful work.
Howard Shore is a motivic genius. His themes and melodic work are stunning and moving and they really serve to plug you into a movie emotionally. However, his voice leading SUCKS. I own and regularly listen to all three LOTR soundtracks...I would tell anyone to BUY them, they are delightful. But there are places where I consistently cringe. Oh, the pain of a second inversion chord where there should be a ROOT!
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thomas Newman, David Newman, Randy Newman, Alfred Newman...it's all in the family.
And, I agree with you, Narnia. That's one of the reasons I'm actually NOT a fan of Shore, but will probably end up analyzing some of his work anyway. Although...it may be his orchestrators causing the voice-leading problems, you know. Also, ya know, voice-leading conventions aren't as imposing as they used to be. Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote: Also, ya know, voice-leading conventions aren't as imposing as they used to be.
Witch! Blasphemer! If it was written after 1870 it's rubbish!
The only real reason for imposing voice-leading conventions is to make the music sound good. And on that note (no pun intended) there are definitely moments in the LotR soundtrack which would be improved by adhering to conventions.
And I'd like to add my vote for Elfman. Cheesy though this may sound, I think BeetleJuice (or Betelgeuse ) has some way cool music, and it is quintessential Elfman.
Posts: 270 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Witch! Blasphemer! If it was written after 1870 it's rubbish! [Smile]
The only real reason for imposing voice-leading conventions is to make the music sound good.
Ah, but quite a lot of music written post-1870 sounds absolutely wonderful without adhering to tonal voice-leading conventions in the slightest. Also, quite a bit of the stuff between 1870 and 1900 did, in fact, follow voice-leading conventions. And, some of the more recent tonal stuff that does follow voice-leading conventions is just dull. Conventions in music sometimes work and sometimes don't; it depends on the hands of a skilled composer to make them work (or to make breaking them work!).
Ok, I'll put up my theory-fu now.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
I really do agree with you. I meant to say that I am all in favor of using or abusing (or abandoning) whichever tools or devices will most effectively say what the composer wants a passage of music to say.
Posts: 270 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Jemmy, it's not that I'm smarter than you are; it's that I'm about 3/4 of the way done with a Ph.D. on the subject. I'm used to running off at the mouth on the topic.
Heck, for all I know, you're a professor, and I've just ruined my career. Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I, naturally, am a fan of John Williams. And this reminds me of something I read in E(ntertainment)W(eekly) the other day:
"AFI Names Star Wars Top Soundtrack of All Time Tracks include 'Main Title,' 'Imperial March,' and 'Stop Whining about your D#$@ Power Converters and Go Kill People.'"
But at the moment, I'm humming the end Pirates theme.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Megan, I heard somewhere (and I think it was on the LotR DVD extras) that Shore does ALL of his own orchestrations. So it really is all his fault.
Speaking of orchestrations, I remember being bummed when I found out that John Williams doesn't do all of his own orchestrations. He does a lot of them, but not all. In all honesty, his scores are brilliant. He's gone through periods of 'sounding like himself,' but he's come out of that even lately and done some fantastic work. (Harry Potter 3 and Revenge of the Sith are amazing scores. I love the use of baroque instrumentation in Harry Potter 3...and I'm a huge fan of the Imperial March.) Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Raia: Winder, you mind if I come raid your house?
Well, I don't mind sharing, but I would be very sad if I came home one day to find my most precious worldly posessions gone... Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Voice-leading is a term that describes how melodies are put together in tonal (and sometimes in atonal) music--how they are constructed, and how they relate to each other. It describes how the music moves from one chord (sonority) to the next.
And, you should say "soundtrack" instead of "score." I keeping wanting to ask you where you're so lucky as to get all these scores, considering how deucedly hard film scores are to get hold of.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Could you give me an example of voice-leading? I'm still not sure exactly what you mean...I don't have enough background in music...even though my brother is a prodigy.
Defining my terms: Soundtrack - any CD of music from or inspired by a movie, including song-only CDs
Score - CD with exclusively, or almost exclusively the film music rather than songs. I'm not referring to the actual sheet music.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Winder, I believe Megan is used to using the term 'score' in reference to the written music -- a full score contains in one document the music for all the instruments in the orchestra(pretty fun reading, actually).
Oh, and hi Mom. Posts: 270 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ok, then I will retreat to my little corner of unimportance and unknowledgeableness where I cower in awe of the people who actually involve themselves in making music.... Posts: 25 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
[aside] QueenBee, the job is consuming my life. It's going great though, we're having a mini retreat this weekend (just on Saturday). I'm rather terrified. I'll probably call you before then.[/aside]
Back to your regularly scheduled topic. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Check out the score to an old movie called "The Lion in Winter." I fell in love with it years ago--it is young John Williams--before anyone knew his name, and much different from what he writes now.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
I've seen the movie, but I don't remember the soundtrack. I'll have to rent it. You can't beat Peter O'Toole and Kathryn Hepburn together. And a very young Anthony Hopkins.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Winder, I believe Megan is used to using the term 'score' in reference to the written music -- a full score contains in one document the music for all the instruments in the orchestra(pretty fun reading, actually).
Yes, that's what I meant. It's easy enough to get fake books with themes, etc., but to get hold of the actual orchestration used is actually relatively difficult, unless you're lucky enough to be at a place that has a nice archive of film music. Score nearly always refers to written music, whereas sountrack usually refers to both types of recordings you mentioned.
As for voice-leading...well, I'm not sure what you know, so I don't know how much to include in the explanation. Music with more than one voice (that is, more than one instrument, or a instrument that can play multiple notes at a time, like piano) is made up of chords. Voice-leading describes how melodies in individual instruments/voices move in the context of those chords.
A very basic example:
In the key of C major, the C chord (CEG) is I (roman numeral 1) and the G chord (GBD) is V (roman numeral 5). Let's say you have three instruments, and you want to go from I to V to I. The voices might look like this:
Voice 1: G G G
Voice 2: E D E
Voice 3: C B C
Voice-leading describes how each of the members of each of the chords above move: GGG for the first voice, EDE for the second voice, and CBC for the third voice. There are specific rules that govern how you can move from chord to chord. They take a while to learn, so I won't go into them here, but the basic idea is that you have to create melodies that are singable and make sense within the realm of tonality (at least, for conventional tonal writing).
Does that help at all?
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Megan, that post gets a healthy snort coming from my general direction. *snort* I'm impressed that you wrote all that out. It reminds me of when I would solfege songs in email to my music major friends (*coughJemmyGrovecough*) but instead of being decipherable (like your explanation is), my emails had no apparent rhythm system...so it looked something like this:
posted
It sounds very familiar...but I think it's vocal lit., in which case I'm MUCH less likely to recognize it.
Regarding the explanation, I just LOVE to talk about theory. That's why I'm majoring in what I'm majoring in. What you just saw above was me geeking out at a very basic level. I really enjoy teaching it, and that's why, "What's voice-leading?" is probably a dangerous question to ask me. Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I love it. There aren't enough music theory geeks in this world....but you might disagree with me seeing as how you're in Bloomington and I'm not.
(That was the Flower duet from Lakme by Delibes, just for info sake. )
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:(That was the Flower duet from Lakme by Delibes, just for info sake. [Smile] )
Heh...that's why I didn't recognize it, I guess. French kleinmeisters! W00t!
Nah, I like that there are other music theory geeks. I just hope there aren't TOO many of them, cause that would make getting job very difficult.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Has no one mentioned James Newton Howard yet?
If you're into impressive brass / percussion pieces (if you like Zimmer, odds are you are into such things at least a little), check out the Waterworld score.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Party]](graemlins/party.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
