Malte Müller
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Seems like an answer of mine is once again in digital limbo…
Was that the one with the images? The spam filter seems not to like more than one link (an image is technically kind of link)
Right, Kaczmarek needs to be on this list. Kaper for me is also a Hollywood composer. Just like I hardly consider Waxman or even Zimmer really as “German” composers anymore.
AI means “all invented”, right 😉 Embarrassing that people start to rely on AI now without actually thinking. The term “I just google that” seems to have been replace by “AIwhatever told me that…”… But that’s beyond the scope of this forum 😉
The obvious ones come to mind right now: Kilar primarily and Preisner I do like but are not that familiar with the general work. I like Debski’s Ogniem i mieczem but that’s also the only score I know. And also Komeda needs to be mentioned although he is not really favorite of mine.
Yeah, the first three Alien movies are classics. They lost me a bit with the later parts and when they started to crossover with Predator.
ROMULUS I didn’t see but PROMETHEUS und COVENANT didn’t grab me.Read that the series got quite good reviews. But as I also don’t have D+ – currently have Netflix only and my watchlist is full enough anyway 😉 –, I am not watching it for the time being.
(Feel free to spoiler, I will have forgotten about that if I ever watch it. Probably never will because it then already has several seasons ;-))
Though “Expanded Editons” vs. OST isn’t necessarily the same topic as re-buying a recording.
But in our crowd there are certainly lots of crossovers 😉 The JAWS Intrada or Schifrins DIRTY HARRY album on ALEPH compared to the older DIRTY HARRY compilation with some tracks. That was significant difference especially in direct comparison but often I am literally not that convinced. And I have to be picky. If I had endless fund I probably would be less.
But maybe back to topic before Thor complains 😉
Don’t want to hijack the topic with side ways. Probably we need our special topic about pro and contra of expansions and re-buying 😉
On Superman I like it a lot and I have the old CD as japanese version forever (wasn’t that having one or two extras tracks at that time?). I also have the Rhino one digitally. Somehow I am content with that.
One film score I love where I was always dissatisfied with the previous releases was Jerry Goldsmith’s PAPILLON. The Silva Screen release lacked substantial moments of the score didn’t sound too well, the Universal France added the missing music, but still didn’t sound good (though differently bad than the Silva Screen), and the Quartet… voila, everything fell into place, full program, great sound.
I like that score a lot and have that Silva Screen one forever. Bnever had any problems with it. I listened to the samples of the newer editions but somehow it never urged me to “upgrade”. For example with the Tsunami SAND PEBBLES I felt that urge to buy the Intradas (skipped the Varese one) 😉
After the great success of JACK HOLBORN awhile back, I’m finally giving Christian Bruhn’s famous CAPTAIN FUTURE a go. Wasn’t aware it was funky space disco! I dig it.
Yeah, great fun score. I heard the original japanese version and while its not bad it cannot compete childhood memories 😉
Maybe worth mentioning is the soundtrack that I bought the most often.
If I count more than two times as that happened more often with some expansions by Williams or Goldsmith scores primarily it is probably these:
- Rozsa’s Ben-Hur: First the 2 CD Sony release and then the longborad 2CD from Rhino. I then sold the Sony because I thought I now have the “original”. Regret it a bit because that two albums were of course different re-recordings. Then the Tadlow re-recording.
- Jaws: Had the original album for ages, then bought the 20th anniversary one and then the first new Intrada edition because of the really significant better sound. No plans to buy the latest “even better sounding” edition.
- Star Wars: I think I first had a Philips sampler by Williams with excerpts also of other of his scores. Then original albums and then the 4CD box. Then I do have the first DoCD releases of each digitally. But if I really want to listen to it I use the 4CD box
Quickly looked at soundtrackcollector and I think most parts of it debuted on the 4 CD box already with some tracks on the 4th extra disc. Some track titles are not there like “The Heroics of Luke and Han” or “Rebels At Bay”. Not enough expert on this where these might be hidden if at all.
I sort CDs generally by soundtracks, classical and pop/rock/jazz and by artist/composer within. Digital files also primarily use these general genres, soundtrack sometimes with additions like TV score or something. But scores have no actual genres like symphonic, jazz or whatever.
I don’t have any Williams or Goldsmith albums in my collection.
Please leave this forum or do we have to ban you? 😉
I don’t think I don’t have at least one track by every “major” composer 😉 (I do like Zimmer and – primarily the earlier – Giacchino)
I have a collection of TV themes – self recorded via TV via cable back then and from other sources, generally not just from some CDs – that would run 1,2 days 😉
Yes, I meant Herrmann’s thorny (often rude) personality, but I realize that’s a different thing than having troublesome political or religious convictions.
I think that are really two different things. If someone is just not an easy person like Herrmann I don’t care that much (Goldsmith is said not to be that easy at times, too). There is a saying that you should never meet your idols as you may be disappointed 😉
If I like a work by someone new I certainly read about that composer in general.
Take Richard Wagner, by all means a “problematic” personality. Yet the problems are not manifest in his music, which is glorious.
It seems the Wagner researcher in general have no agreement if or if not. I don’t know his work good enough. I basically can only listen to the instrumental parts which are glorious (as I am not a big fan of opera singing in general)
Interesting question… Quite some artists – especially those who don’t only work for hire – seem to be or have been complicated personalities. While I feel the same regarding your examples especially since I don’t know any composer personally, its hard to separate the artist from its work since the work transports a message. Maybe it is different on more “commerical” or work for hire artists.
I once read a book about film music on “famous” films from the dark NS times in Germany and lots of composers did work for propaganda movies. According to the book they even musically/technically actually quite good but of course the message they transported was not. Not sure if you can listen to that without context…
It’s always hard to judge if people “arrange” within a political environment. Regarding McCarthy and Trump. Maybe it was just a work of hire, he needed money and/or he believed in it to some extent, too. Don’t know. In general US americans seem to have a totally different relationship to their country and patriotism than Europeans. Hollywood movies and series certainly are full of that since for ever with more or less extend. And even Goldsmith scored Rambo 2 + 3… I somehow just take it as it is often…
For me it was Mike Post I knew by name early. Or from Bond specifially John Barry. I think Williams was the first other composer I really knew – if you don’t count Faltermeyer when “Axel F.” was a hit single ;-), Goldsmith came later for sure.
And over here they often edited tv series. Season had long delays, often the same intro although each season had different ones or similar (Magnum for example, here they even cut all Vietnam refrences in the original broadcast!)
But you, Malte and Nick, seem to have had a quite safe and constantly progressing journey through the wild oceans of music to have never experiecned anything, that made you revise your one or other oppinion on any musical piece.
Not revise I wouldn’t say. The general view on some scores sometimes can change of course, too. But it never got so far that I don’t like them anymore. I even more get to like thungs I didn’t previously, sort of re-discovering.
Like Nick TV themes had a huge impact, especially the groovy 70s/80s stuff, although we over here were a few years behind always (Mike Post specifially was all over the place. Someome should convince him to get a bit active with releasing…).
As many I got to film music via the catchy hummable themes and even more pop orientated things via the 80s as discussed on our “origin” topic. The more dissonant/atonal music I had to work on to get into. It’s still challenging to listen to but it can be rewarding. I think my musical sensitives just broadened over time but I never stopped liking what I liked before.
And the movies of that director were even successes. Which also proofs my general point that luck has a lot to do with that 😉
We can probably say that it is not that easy to become/write a classic. Just as writing a real hit song is no save thing either. Otherwise everyone would do it 😉
I agree, that Williams was lucky in many ways. But it’s not just luck.
Of course it is not just luck. If his music wasn’t that good it would not have become classics. We see this on lots of more recent films that were huge successes but their scores hardly will become real classics.
I still think that WIlliams just had luck and it is not the music itself completely. Because of the huge successes of the movies he got more oportunities to write other themes like Olympics. Also he was conductor of the Boston Pops and had a “platform” for also presenting his themes. And he was much more active in the concert field in general (both activity and writing concert music).
There are and were always a lot of great artists our there – of all genres beyond music – that just were not on the right place at the right time so their works never got the chance to become classics at all. Williams is great but he had a lot of luck.
I think depends largely on the target audience what is considered a “classic” by whom. Geeks of a specific genre consider other things “classic”.Of course if knowledge to the “general crowd” is the guide it probably largely remembers and considers the catchy melodies. But also if the movies itself are classics. It also does not always have anything to do with quality.
If Williams wouldn’t have been so lucky to score Spielberg films and most of these huge successes, he might not be known as well as he his. Even if we wrote exactly the same music for lesser films.
Take Goldsmith who quality wise is more than up to Williams but has surely less of these “classics”. His Star Trek theme might be his top classic everyone knows and that probably owes a lot to Star Trek being famous and also being re-used for the TNG series.
Was not really direct fan but always liked Dire Straits, had and have a best of LP of them (around Brothers In Arms times I think). Don’t know this album but I always liked his LOCAL HERO score (and the movie, too) although it is a bit mixed in structure (besides having one central theme). The other scores never grabbed that much – remember WAG THE DOG had a nice theme but that isn’t on this album I think. Probably I should revist them at some time…
I also still use “iTunes” (it’s called simply “Music” now on macOS since they limited it to music now). I looked around and I didn’t find – at least for Mac – any alternative that let’s you manage a collection as conveniently and with custom playlists and such. Lots of player are just very limited. For inbetween quick lisitening I either play single files directly via the Finder or use VLC.
(or rip CDs, now mostly with EAC, since I have noticed that iTunes is a terribly unreliable ripper)
It can work well but I also use another tool named XLD (X Lossless Decoder). I also use lossless because if I do that work of importing I want to do it properly once 😉
Interesting in my tests such artifacts were most audible the more complex music is and especially orchestra and especially strings. But that only applied only to lower res MP3s (or AACs) like 128kbps. If they are at 256 or 320kbps I am not sure I think I hear a difference.
On lots of pop music (charts stuff) it all does not matter that much since that often is dynamically “compressed to death” anyway.
I also rip lossless at CD quality, in Apple Lossless since I am on Mac. But that’s basically a FLAC derivate.
However, the Cacavas AIRPORT 1975 album is not on sale, and costs as much as a full price new CD would cost, which is why so far I have not picked it up.
qobuz with € 15,59 and 7digital with € 13,59 are both a little more expensive downloads (they got more expensive anyway). But nowwhere what a LLL CD would cost. A single LLL CD costs around € 28 over here.
Of course I only looked at standard CD quality lossless and not HiRes. I like to buy lossless unless it is way too expensive. But I really don’t care for HiRes as I actually cannot even hear the difference to good MP3/MP4 anyway and HiRes my system and also ears probably just swallow…
