[Nils Jacob Holt Hanssen]

Great post, Nick! You describe very well how different types of music require different “listening contexts” and various degrees of attention. Totally agree about Mahler (one of my favorite classical composers, too!). You just can’t have Mahler on in the background, and his symphonies needs to be listened to in full (although I might allow myself to give the gorgeous Adagio movement from his 5th symphony a stand-alone listen 😉).

And as you say, things like SOLARIS is something different altogether, and works fine as background music, but I sometimes find it rewarding to give this my full attention, too. With minimalist music even the smallest shifts, like a subtle chord change, become important, and these things can be fascinating to follow.

And indeed, STAR WARS and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE were among the scores that ignited my passion for film music too, and they’ll probably remain among my favorites forever.