FSM # 12: My collection is too friggin’ bombastic!
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My film music interest got really serious in the early 90’s, and I was still just a young teenager at the time. So the most exciting thing was to get big and epic scores with lots of bombast and adventure; childhood glee and impatience still shining through. This lasted for many years, well into my 20’s, and the collection grew larger and larger. However, some time in my LATE 20’s, I began to veer more and more towards calmer scores and soundtracks that STAY calm throughout. However, by then I had already wound down my soundtrack purchasing considerably and I was stuck with this teenage-acquired, bombastic collection of stuff that I hardly had the stamina and mood to listen to anymore.
So there I am today, constantly listening and relistening to the few soundtracks I DO own that stay in a calm, relaxed mood throughout (whether they are melodic or textural or powerful in a subdued way) – Delerue stuff, DA VINCI CODE, PASSION OF THE CHRIST, FORREST GUMP, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY, LOS BORGIA (practically all of Illaramendi’s stuff), SOMMERSBY, S.O.P., TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, MALENA, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (Morricone’s rejected), BEYOND RANGOON, THIN RED LINE, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, UNDER FIRE, THE LAST RUN, LOVER’S PRAYER, the calm Williams’es (ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, A.I., STANLEY & IRIS, ANGELA’S ASHES, STEPMOM etc.), THE DIG, THE SECRET GARDEN and so forth. You get the idea.
So….what I’m looking for are recommendations of CALM soundtracks that stay calm throughout and that have been arranged as “concept albums”. Not cheesy “New Age” music or John Barry (whose particular approach to “calmness” I cannot stomach), but anything else!
I just want to point out, 16 years later, that I now fully embrace the virtues of socalled “New Age” music, and I think a lot of Barry’s sweet, sweeping, emotional, calm music is wonderful. And the collection of calm music has grown considerably since then, but I’m always looking for more recommendations.
I wonder that you didn’t put Twin Peaks on that list above as I know, it’s one of your favourites.
Worth mentioning one of my absolute favourite calm scores is Marianelli’s Jane Eyre.
In general as an album of calm soundtrack music Night By Night of James Newton Howard might be on top of my list.
Apart from that I don’t think, that I could name anything that you don’t already know.
Honorable mentions might be Bernstein’s Far From Heaven, Hisaishi’s Hana-Bi and Brother, Chris Young’s Murder In The First (if only there weren’t these two marches) and Williams’ Schindler’s List and Angela’s Ashes, Thomas Newman’s Meet Joe Black and Horner’s Iris.
Good selections, Gerate!
I suppose beyond recommendations, the thread was resurrected from the FSM archives now to talk a little bit about calm music vs. action music, and if your preference has changed since you were a young person.
My collection is too friggin’ bombastic!
My music collection is probably not too bombastic, I suppose it is rather fine in size, except for the lingering sense that I should probably double or better yet tripple size it. Other than that, it’s fine. 🙂
But would be interesting: what is the most “bombastic” album you have, what is the most “calm” album you have, your most exciting, your most dramatic, your most lingering, your most ambient, your most static….
It’s interesting because music can be all these things. And yes, of course, at times we veer more towards one or the other, though I never ever had any doubts whenever I veered towards one side that I would come back towards the other side… then again, I love ships and boats, and rough sea. Always did.
But would be interesting: what is the most “bombastic” album you have, what is the most “calm” album you have, your most exciting, your most dramatic, your most lingering, your most ambient, your most static….
It would, but even more interesting than that, I think, is the bit about our preferences changing over the years.
It’s not black and white, of course. It’s not like I don’t listen to upbeat music anymore. When I clean my apartment, for example, I still put on upbeat 80s synthpop or Rammstein to keep the physical energy up. And I can still take an orchestral adventure score or two. But I’ve veered more and more towards the calm and textural. That is — I DID do that until the tinnitus worsening in May. After that, I’ve found that the best option is somewhere inbetween. Not too calm and vague, but not too action-oriented either.
I read an article quite recently (can’t remember where, annoyingly) about the chemistry of our brain changing as we get older, wherein energetic music can feel aggravating now, while soothing music is more in line with pleasure and a feeling of balance.
You can hear it in artists’/composers’ works too. When I was a teenager, I didn’t understand how Bruce Springsteen could release such a slow album as THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD, or Mark Knofler with GOLDEN HEART. Why couldn’t they just release the kind of tuneful, dance-able music of their earlier years? Now, of course, I can understand musical evolution or maturity in a whole other way. Love those albums now.
Over the years I somehow seem to have become more sensitive. I think, I mentioned it in the horror music thread. When I was younger in my Sturm und Drang times music couldn’t be dissonant or complex and wild enough. Nowadays when I listen to it I still find it good and I understand why I liked it, but it can quickly go on my nerves. So, I rather tend to play calm albums these days. Still I require a certain degree of complexity in the music. When it is too simple and I don’t find it in some way original, it just bores me.
Which means, it still must be good music, it still can be challenging musically, but it rather doesn’t have to be “wild”.
Yeah, you get more sensitive for details and subtlety with age, too. Also, when I was younger I could listen to all kinds of music while working or doing other things the whole day. Nowadays it far more distracts me often and I noticed there are often days I basically don’t listen to anything at all… Which still does confuse me. But partly has to do with having to many stuff at hand so there is a kind of decision overload at times.
Yes, I can relate to that. And I would add, you can still be an industrious music collector when you are in a relationship or even have kids, but being an extensive music listener is rather something for singles. At least when I look at my biography.
Yes, I sometimes are just not in the mood to listen to something although working from home I could do all day. What got much less is the pure listening to music only which I actually love to do.
I also would say my taste also didn’t change or got limited, it rather widened. I still like the stuff I always liked although I might have listened to it a little to often so I listen to it a little less than before.
I also would say my taste also didn’t change or got limited, it rather widened. I still like the stuff I always liked although I might have listened to it a little to often so I listen to it a little less than before.
Yeah, same here. I never stopped liking any piece of music, my taste only widened with time. Of course, like most, I listened more to my “initial” recordings… I mean, when I started out collecting music, I just did not have that much music to choose from.
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