[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I actually follow Thor here. In Opera or ballet the music is a much the central or equally important part. Everything else is primarily made around the music. Music in films is generally only one part of the overall work and competes with everything else. Of course depends on the type of film (and silent movies are as special case additionally but the majority does not watch these). Fact is that film music is not concieved to be listened as a standalone work. Think of image and music counterpoint usages (yeah, probably rare nowadays…). That is a conceptual quality you cannot directly hear in the music itself (e.g. a sad scene scored with funny music).

None of what you say is in any way contradictory to anything I said though. In fact, I mostly agree with you. (Which, logically, means if you agree with Thor and I agree with you, it logically follows that Thor and I agree… yet Thor says he does not agree with me… now this gets complicated!)

However, and that is more my key point, even if what you say here is true, the fact that film music is not, as you say, conceived to be listened to as a standalone work and sonically “competes” with everything else, does not mean some of it gets a pass as being “great” even if it doesn’t hold up as pure music, quite the contrary, it serves more as an explanation for why a lot of film music gets away with a lack of quality, for why a lot of it is (barely) serviceable, but not great.