FalkirkBairn01
Forumsvar Lagt Inn
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Innlegg
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Ennio Morricone’s The Battle of Algiers
Music from the music Wendy Carlos created for A Clockwork Orange
John Tavener’s Children of Men
I might have misread the topic.
I read “favourite” when you meant “must have”. But, as my favourites are must-have I left my list unchanged. 😉
One of the things I always have plans to do is divide up my score into different groups such as synth scores, piano-led scores, etc. Maybe one day!
You remember correctly Thor, mostly. I think that the emphasis was more on television because the TV was always on in the house. Cinema-going was a much more infrequent experience for me growing up: maybe I would go to the cinema (“the pictures”) once every one or two weeks, depending on if there was anything I wanted to see (usually the most recent blockbusters).
Although GET CARTER (1971) would be bit of a adult movie for a 7-year-old, when I was old enough it’s not a genre of film that I would be interested in. Any British “gangland” movie from the seventies – or any era – had/has little interest for me.
And Roy Budd was a composer who was never really on my radar – too many other composers! I did have a copy of the 2xLP set “The Fantasy Album” with Budd conducting the LSO playing selections from movies from the likes of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL, ALIEN, as well as suites from STAR WARS, and STAR TREK (the “staples”). As Budd was conducting there was also a track with music from his SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER. The album was released in 1984 and that was the extend of my experience with Budd. I later acquired much more of his music when I tried some of his filmography, but I have never really warmed to his music.
I definitely prefer Horner’s earlier stuff, preferring more the style he had when he first started out over his meandering later scores:
1. Aliens
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
4. Brainstorm
5. KrullHere’s my edited history:
First off, my experience with music for film and television is a very personal – perhaps some would say solitary – experience. I had no influences growing up from family or friends with me getting into listening to scores. And, even today, I very much keep my score-listening experience pretty much to myself: always on headphones, or when I have the house to myself. I’ve had too much ridicule over the years to want to share it with anyone (other than like-minded people online).
Probably, my earliest experience of scores was as part of my television watching. TV theme tunes were what first attracted me. And sometimes, when music teachers at high school had a lesson to fill, there would be TV theme tune competitions where the class had to identify the themes played. Those were great lessons! These quizzes tended to be from compilation tapes of Geoff Love and his Orchestra albums. And, these LPs were a great introduction to TV themes and later film scores.
TV was really my first exposure to film scores as well. Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one film score that sticks in my mind as one of the examples where I would tape the score off the television (we’ve all done that!). I didn’t do that too often as most films had too much dialogue. Taping things off the TV tended to be themes.
The original Star Trek and old Laurel and Hardy short films are other early examples of music that I grew very familiar with (because of the endless repeats on TV).
Probably my earliest film score purchase was John Williams’ STAR WARS, and it was that that got me into film music soundtracks. I can’t remember which came first the film or the soundtrack (bought because of the hype surrounding the film, and the clips that would be shown to promote the film – the TIE fighter scene was always being shown on TV and it had a great piece of music associated with it). Probably between the late 1970s and mid-80s I would buy soundtrack albums from films whose music I liked when I was watching the film. And this period probably represents film music that I am most familiar with: a combination of a limited number of albums in my collection, and constantly watching the films (on video) to see how the music fitted meant that I got to know the music on these albums really well.
Unlike a lot of people who enjoy film music, I have no real interest in the craft of film-making. My listening experience of film (and TV) music has never been tied to any great extent with the films (except for the early part I mentioned before). So, my experience with film and television music became more and more about whether or not I enjoyed the music as I heard it on the albums. Were there themes that I liked? Was there lovely romantic music? Was the action music exciting? The genre of film and television music gave composers a way of writing lots of music across a wide range of styles and genres. And I was interested in hearing all there was to see if I liked any of it. I wasn’t really bothered about how it fitted to the film. Except in a few, rare examples. Hearing Elliot Goldenthal’s music for TITUS is a good example of where I heard the music and just had to see the film to understand (at least partly) what on earth inspired him to write the music I had heard.
My favourite composers are also down to their styles of music writing rather than being anything about how they approach writing music to picture. Composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Howard Shore, Jerry Goldsmith write music that tends to speak to me. But I will always be grateful to John Williams and his score for STAR WARS that gave me a way into this rewarding music experience I’ve had. And continue to have.
Back in 2011 I attended a PSYCHO “live-to-picture” “concert” in Glasgow. That was excellent, and I wrote a bit about it at the time:
But, these live-to-picture events are probably not what you are meaning, Thor.
The Brian Tyler concert at the Royal Festival Hall a few years ago was an excellent experience. I like enough of Tyler’s music that I was bound to like the majority of scores sampled. That’s the main thing for me…I tend not to go to concert because there tends to be too much on the program that I am not interested in, and I don’t really enjoy when a live orchestra does their own interpretation of a piece. I want to hear a live version of what there is on the original score.
I assume that you’re talking about synth scores that are designed to sound synth/electronic? Not orchestral-sounding scores that have no live musicians? 😉
Yes, I like synth scores if there’s something there that I find appealing (e.g, at its broadest sense, “sounds like early Jean-Michel Jarre and not Vangelis”).
As you say, one per composer is a tough. But, today, my list would be:
Bernard Herrmann – THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR
David Raksin – LAURA
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – THE SEA HAWK
Franz Waxman – THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Gottfried Huppertz – METROPOLIS
Herbert Stothart – THE WIZARD OF OZ
Max Steiner – KING KONG
Miklós Rózsa – SPELLBOUND
Ralph Vaughan Williams – SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC
Sergei Prokofiev – ALEXANDER NEVSKYI would always want a C&C option for all scores.
OSTs are rarely “good” listening experiences: there’s always some tracks to skip. I don’t want someone else deciding what I should be listening to.
Give me a C&C and let me decide what is my own playlist.
I’ve always had a happy experience at Soundtrack Corner. But, one thing they could improve is giving an indication if what’s listed is in stock. I am not sure there’s much stock at Soundtrack Corner, and their process is to list everything and then order things once they receive an order for a specific CD.
My thumb is going to be worn down doing this from my smartphone. Will write something when I am at a keyboard.
Can’t think of any new online vendors. Although my main route to music is digital my limited CD buying habits have changed over the years.
I used to buy everything via SAE regardless of the label or whether it was US/Europe released. Convenience of a bulk purchase and knowing I could rely on them were my main drivers for using them. And back then shipping costs were ok.
Now I shop around, looking for the best (cheapest) shipping costs. I mostly buy from Europe stores, even own labels. Quartet, Chris’ Soundtrack(?) are two examples.
Right this minute is my favourite tracks playlist (currently running to 1,534 tracks), and it’s playing “Chris” from Pat Metheny’s The Falcon and the Snowman.
A recent show that’s probably obscure to most outside the UK is an ITV show, “Patience”, that is a remake of a recent European cop show called “Astrid”.
The UK show has music by Hannes De Maeyer and Ruben De Gheselle. I really like the title theme and how this theme is used in various guises throughout though much of the remainder isn’t as memorable to me.
Silva Screen are releasing a digital album on Friday, 14th March.
