[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, I can see that… flea markets, garage sales, etc. are probably your best bet to find a bargain. Lukas of course is currently selling of lots of used film scores for good prices (as far as I can see… I haven’t bought anything there… because I bought most of the stuff I wanted back when it came out… few CDs nowadays that I missed), but of course these are still regular “collector’s prices”, not “garage sale prices” from people who don’t know what they’ve got.
I lucked out recently and found the “missing pieces” in my Ligeti collection… I did have already all the Teldec recordings, but only some of the “Ligeti Edition” from Sony… now it’s complete.
Not sure, but I almost think that was the last major “gap” in my collection that “needed” closing. (It was irking me… as I bought the first of these 20 years ago, and by now this was “almost complete” but not quite, so there were a couple of CDs missing… and now I finally got them.)

I have not bought and sold anything via Facebook groups, but I know that there is some trading of film scores going on.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I have replaced jewel cases, no problem, though I do not tolerate scratches on CDs. I suppose most people would go up the wall if their CDs arrived just flimsily put into an envelope. (I think I would too.)

When I started to buy music, there was a large record store here in Cologne, the Cologne Saturn Music Dome. It claimed to be the store with the largest record collection in the world. I don’t know if that was true, but I have never seen a larger one. At their height in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the classical music selection alone was on two department store floors, floor one was opera, choir, vocal, solo recitals, floor two was orchestral, chamber, modern/avant-garde etc. Their soundtrack section was huge too. If something was out on CD, they had it. Even in their later days, when they started to “size down” on CDs, they still had a large soundtrack selection where you could even find Intrada and La-La Land special releases (like the 3CD CONAN or the John Williams Harry Potter Box from LLL) next to “regular” soundtrack releases. Over the years, though, I saw the store shrinking… some floors were diverted to other business or rented out, and in the final years, all of the CDs were on one double sized floor, … and even that floor space was shared with a (considerable) selection of DVDs and Blurays and Vinyls and Posters/Memorabilia. But a few years ago, that all stopped. Nowadays, the former record store is a gamer location, “Xperion”, the rest of the floors are office floors. They don’t sell any CDs anymore in that store (they do still sell some CDs in their regular electronic chain stores).
CDs are like vinyl now… there are a few dedicated collectors who still buy (and sell) stuff, there are labels who still print LPs and CDs and cater to that niche, but it is no longer a mass market with mass market overflow (that then ends up on the used market). This will never going to change back. Quite the contrary, I’m actually quite amazed how resilient CDs are and how persistent the niche is. But it’s a niche, and even when it is a persistent niche, it is nevertheless a niche that is still shrinking. So you are right, I don’t see how you will ever get a vendor like OneCentCDs, I guess they had their time and then it was over.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

It’s a new entity like ‘onecentCDs’ that I need to step forward

Interesting story, never heard of them… but the story suggests that they eventually discarded the business because there was no longer money to be made in used CDs and were likely being even stuck on surplus inventory. I don’t think those times are comin’ back. 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Because shipping a CD without jewel case without being tracked… I don’t know. I guess most buyers would not want their CDs sent way (the danger that the CD becomes scratched or just gets lost is enormous). Often times, when CDs are in a jewel case, the jewel case arrives cracked; you know of people are irked just because of scratched jewel cases. I imagine it would be worse if the CD gets scratched.
So usually, people want their packages tracked and their CDs in jewel cases and securely wrapped.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

You say that as if Discogs’ Shipping rates are “ludicrous”, though I don’t know what you mean… they just list what it costs to ship from one country to another. (As far as I can tell, just sampled.) I don’t see how they can ship any cheaper? I mean, how’d you ship? What does it cost to ship a CD from Norway to the EU or the US? Is that so much cheaper? The cheapest I could send a trackable CD to Norway (DHL) would be €16.-

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

To get back on-topic, I have this feeling that an online store exists out there that is what I’m looking for. I just don’t know where.

Let us know when you found it.

In Germany, there is Medimops, where you can find good deals on used CDs, with free shipping (in Germany) when you order a certain amount, but I have not checked out their international shipping.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

The thing is, CDs are no longer a mass market article. Years ago, Intrada or La-La Land releases might have been “limited editions”, but nowadays, all CDs are basically limited editions. It’s a niche market to begin with. Last time I checked, CD sales were down 98%! So that means nowadays the market has shrunk to 2% (or even less? Don’t have the latest figures.) of what it once was. Of course that effects pricing and availability on second hand markets.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

The John Williams concerts, live in Berlin, Vienna, etc., are actually available directly from Deutsche Grammophon. (And vendors like Amazon, JPC, etc)

Deutsche Grammophon: John Williams Live in Vienna

I guess it becomes trickier these days to pick them up used, especially if you’re looking for something specific, as far fewer copies are produced and sold these days, so the ones who buy them really hold on to them.
Years ago, people dropped their CDs by the boxload at second hand stores or replaced film soundtracks with expanded releases, but that happens far less nowadays.

Shipping alone usually costs more than $10.-, so I don’t know how a store that sells CDs for $10.- and offers worldwide free shipping could stay in business. They’d give the CDs for free basically, and probably even pay on top.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

When I don’t order from the US (Intrada, La-La Land, Varèse Sarabande), I usually order directly from Quartet or Music Box Records. (Quartet like LLL features only Quartet title, Music Box Records like Intrada also other labels.)

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, I hear you. I don’t rebuy all these things either; there are some soundtracks I have bought several times, and in some cases I cannot resist, but I weigh individually when I do this and if it’s worth it. In case of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS I make an exception though, as it may be my favorite John Williams score. When it comes to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and E.T., I have the original album releases (on LP and CD), the original expansions (Arista/MCA) and the La-La Land 2CD sets. I think the earlier expansions were certainly fine and sufficient. I do like that the La-La Land E.T. contains the mysterious, spooky “Main Title”, I think that’s the only album which has that included, but it’s only a minute long, so only fanatics would buy the album for that. All CLOSE ENCOUNTERS expansions play slightly differently, but they are all great. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is perhaps my favorite John Williams score, and I do have every single version of it. The original Arista expansion plays fine and is great, I was very happy when that was released. The La-La Land 2CD set offers basically two expanded versions of the score: on Disc 1, the tracks are selected to reflect John Williams originally intended 2LP soundtrack album at the time of release (but which never happened, as we all know only a single LP version with a “pop single” was released), and on Disc 2 basically another version of the score made from versions of cues not on Disc 1. So all three “Close Encounters” expansions released offer a somewhat different listening experience.

ROSEWOOD as presented by La-La Land is not so much an “expansion” (as that implies it’s a sort of original album plus additional cues, or a longer presention), but a different presentation altogether. The film score as presented on Disc 1 is more dramatic, instrumental, less choir, the OST as presented on Disc 2 is a beautiful, introspective dramatic “Gospel” album. Both are very good and worth listening to, but “expansion” doesn’t really fit the description.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

John Williams is interesting, as there are some scores by him I prefer on the original album edit, some I prefer as full film scores, and some where I find I continue to enjoy both.

For example, E.T.-The Extra Terrestrial is a great soundtrack album, flows well, so I still enjoy that. However, it omits some of the darker material Williams composed for the movie, so I like the full score as well. I play either. On the other hand, the original album for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was quite a disappointment, it’s much better presented on the expanded Arista or La-La Land albums, so I don’t play the original album cut at all anymore. I don’t play the OST for JAWS anymore either; I know it has its adherents, and that’s fine, but I far prefer the full film score for that one. It is much more savage, brutal, more Stravinsky-like, and so I much prefer that. Adios, album edit. Same with A.I., that was an awful album, not just omitting much substance of the composition, but instead including one track twice (which of course reduces re-use fees quite a bit), and putting the (more or less) same pop song twice on the album, once even in the album flow.
In case of MONSIGNOR, Williams rearranged his material a bit for the album, but it’s mostly there. Both the film score and the album are just fine the way they are, but I prefer the album arrangement Williams did for listening purposes.
One of my favorite Williams scores is ROSEWOOD, and here you have two very different albums. The original Sony OST was basically a Gospel Choir album with orchestral interludes, I enjoy that very much. The film score has far less choral songs and is more dramatic in tone, I very much like that as well. So that’s one case where the expanded film score edition La-La Land put out is not a mere “expansion” as in “longer”, but both albums have a very different tone. That was quite a revelation when La-La Land put the film score out, I’m very happy to have picked that one up.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

A few, I’ve seen composers like John Williams, James Newton Howard, Ennio Morricone live in concert. Sadly, not Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner.

I saw Philip Glass live in concert — must have been in 1987, long before these things became fashionable — perform his score for KOYAANISQATSI live to picture, that was pretty cool.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Film music has been an important part of the music that interests me for as long as I can think back, though I only started to seek out film music on album in my early teens. Not sure my “origin” story is particularly interesting… since I’ve always noticed the music, even in the TV shows when I was a kid. I remember actively starting to tape music of the TV as early as elementary school, and, well, yes, that was the only way to get that kind of music. I didn’t even know one could actually get film music on albums until I was in my early teens.

There was always music in our household, though my parents weren’t actual musicians. But we had a piano at home, and I heard a lot of classical music as a kid just naturally growing up. I also fondly remember an excellent music teacher I had when I was in second grade, who taught us well how and what to listen for in music, and inspired us elementary school kids to check out Bartók! How cool was that in retrospect.

As I said, I always notice music when it is playing. Even when I watch a movie, and there is dialog, sound, and music, my ears’ attention tends to focus on the music. It did that even before I started to listen to film music on its own. So there were movies (and TV shows) I had audio taped off the TV set (fortunately, I could connect my radio tape recorder with the TV with a cable, not via mic, so that I could get the TV sound without any “room noise”), stuff like HIGH NOON, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE BIG COUNTRY, LAWMAN… I played those audio tapes and was fascinated by the music of these movies. I thought it would be great to really get this music apart form the dialog and sound effects…

First thing I told my dad when I had seen STAR WARS for the first time and he picked us up at the theater, asking how it was: “Wow, you’d have loved the music! The music was great!”. So I was a kid who just saw STAR WARS for the first time, and the first thing I could think about when I came out of the theater weren’t the special effects, the light-sabers, the story, but the music. (My father was a movie and (classical) music buff himself (his favorite film composer was Dimitri Tiomkin).)
When I see a movie, I often tend to follow the music more than the images or the dialogue. Sound trumps image for me.

One day, a friend lend me two soundtrack albums: John Williams STAR WARS and Jerry Goldsmith STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE; I audio taped them and must have listened to them up and down. That was a pivotal time, no question, because from then on, I was hooked, and soon, I had some Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, and Morricone albums of my own. Never stopped to this day. In school, I had lots of friend with various interests in music, and we learned from each other. No one (in my friend circle) thought interest in film music, in classical music, in jazz, in rock/pop/prog-rock, etc. was “odd”, we really liked to exchange “our special interest music” with others.

I have always been a more “composer” oriented listener though, so once I am interested in a particular composer, I seek out more of his (or of course her) work. (Instead of buying film music based on movie or movie genre…)
That’s why in my CD shelf, film scores are grouped by composer, not by film title.

One side note of interest: looking back, I remember the first “John Williams” music I really loved was not STAR WARS, or SUPERMAN, it was much earlier, it was his theme for the movie THE COWBOYS, which I knew from an old short lived TV series (based on the movie) I watched when I was still in elementary school. Of course, back then I didn’t know or remember the name “John Williams”. Many years later, when Varèse Sarabande released John Williams’ music for the movie THE COWBOYS, it put a smile on my face to finally hear that great old “cowboy theme” again, because I have never seen any snippet from the TV show again… it’s pretty much forgotten.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Well, those two are very good ones for sure, both of the recording you mention I have and would highly recommend. The Salonen recording of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune may be the one I would pick if I could keep only one of the recordings I have. I’ve got more Salonen (Mahler, Bartók, Lutoslawski, etc.); of all the recordings of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps I have, I think Salonen’s is my favorite (packs a lot of whop).

My first encounter with Salonen as a composer was an album with five of his compositions, which I picked up in 2001: LA Variations, Five Images After Sappho, Giro, Mania, Gambit
I don’t think I ever listened to them all at once in a row, as I like to let them sink in, I started with “L.A. Vartiations” and then “Gambit”, and the others at a later time (even after I had some other Salonen albums). The last was “Five Images after Sappho”, which was beautiful when I finally listened to it, I just had to wait for the right moment. It’s a great album if you are interested in contemporary classical music by a great composer/conductor. Top album. That was my start with Salonen as a composer, I have since picked up most of what is officially recorded/released (violin concerto, piano concerto, etc.)

Salonen: LA Variations, etc./Salonen

As a starting point, the album “Wing on Wing” may be a good album for those with a film music background, it contains very “filmic” orchestral pieces, such “Foreign Bodies” and “Insominia”.

My most recent acquisition is his cello concerto with Yo-Yo Ma (released on Pentatone), but I haven’t yet listened to it.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Salonen is a superb composer. Like Mahler in his day was more known as a superb conductor, so it is with Salonen, but he is a very original, fascinating and modern composer. Salonen actually only became a conductor so he could ensure at least someone would perform his music.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

My favorite current “Nordic” composer is hands down Esa-Pekka Salonen. What a terrific and unique composer. He has not actually composed any film music, though he has conducted some.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Jóhann Jóhannsson was terrific, enjoy a lot of is work.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I normally don’t use playlists either, nor do I re-sequence or edit albums. I expect albums to function as a musical listening experience on their own. So unless the release screwed up and sequenced the album in a way that that makes no sense (musically…. soundtrack albums were often sequenced “commercially” rather than “musically”), as in Morricone’s THE UNTOUCHABLES. Or if the cues just don’t fit, as in “That’s real music” from the Prometheus BASIC INSTINCT. The latter is presented chronologically, when it should have been on there as a bonus track, as it just is not part of the actual “BASIC INSTINCT” musical fabric.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I don’t think it has ever happened that I started to dislike anything that I once liked, but I have started to like some things that I once disliked.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Not so much a “composer”, but the type music I disliked and loathed the most before all others was “easy listening”… anything that was in the direction of Lawrence Welk or Ferrante & Teicher or Bert Kaempfert… you know the style… and that included most of Mancini’s soundtrack albums of the day and what not. When I seriously started listening to music as a teenager, you could give me Stravinsky, Ligeti, Boulez, Schnitte, anything with thorns and spikes, but if you gave me “easy listening”, and you ensured my disdain.
I’m much more mellow about that type of music nowadays and can take it for what it is.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Or is it a constant negotiation to have your physical media out and about in the general area of the house/apartment?

Sort of… I got my wife drunk one evening and had her sign this:

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, it’s a Weißbier; I don’t think I ever had that particular one myself… I just bought a mixed crate of weißbier and picked that one.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

CLOUD ATLAS has a great score by Tom Tykwer & Co and is probably the most expensive German movie ever produced. I love the movie (it is based on my favorite novel of this century) and the music fits.
I also like Terrence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE AS, which was a German/US co-production I think, with an excellent score by American composer James Newton Howard.
I guess we need to distinguish… Do we mean film scores by German composers (such as Zimmer, which we excluded because everybody knows him anyway), or German movies, which of course may have non-German composers (like THE NAME OF THE ROSE). I guess it’s more German composers for now.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I thought THE NAME OF THE ROSE worked very well, I thought LADYHAWKE did not (as a film score for that movie). I’ve come around to enjoying it on its own since though.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Along with John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone was certainly among my “initial” film composer interests, among the first composers who I knew by name and whose records I bought. His music for the Italian western was of course legendary, and he was a “big” name, probably the most famous film composer in his day. My first Varèse Sarabande album of all time was the soundtrack LP for THE ISLAND. Now at that time, I knew Morricone from some of his western scores, and from the cover (I had not seen the movie), I expected the music to by more “twangy”, perhaps with guitars, horror style. Instead, the music opened with warmth and lyrical beauty. It was totally unexpected at that time, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, it became a Morricone favorite. The whole score is not very long (just about 35 minutes), but it’s quite diverse: next to the lyrical main theme, it’s got suspense (“Boarding Party”), action (“Tue-Barbe Hunts Maynard”), pop (“Beth”) and more. The five minute “Island Magic” is quite a set piece.
I was shocked when Varèse Sarabande finally released that on CD, and it was SOLD OUT before I had a chance to get a copy! Fortunately, I was able to trade in a copy at the FSM board some time after that. So now I’ve got the LP and the CD (here they are today):

I always enjoyed Ennio Morricone, I like his inventiveness, he was very good at all kinds of styles.

Apart from THE ISLAND and all the “classics” (Leone Collaborations, The Mission, etc.), other favorites include UN UOMO DA RISPETTARE (a recent favorite), UN GENIO, DUO COMPARI, UN POLLO (one of the most joyful Morricone scores), LOLITA (just beautiful), RED SONJA, and MOSES (the latter is one I often mention as my “favorite” Morricone score, but I like them all. Oh yeah, NOSTROMO is another favorite.

I have over 200 Morricone albums, by no means all, but at least it’s a sizable portion. Included in these are several multi-disc compilation sets, so I should have for quite a few of his movies at least a few tracks.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Not so much a score per se, but I really disliked Terrence Malick’s use of music in A NEW WORLD, that was all over the place… snippets of Wagner, Mozart and Horner, that were like oil and water, they neither mixed, not did they contrast with each other, not sure what Malick wanted to accomplish or say with that, worse, I didn’t even know if he wanted to say anything at all with that, so I found the music in that film both distracting and annoying. (Even though I love all the music used in that movie, just not how it was used in the movie.) I remember I especially disliked how Mozart was used, constantly more or less the same snippet from the piano concerto repeated instead of actually PLAYING the piece, at least the movement, that was really, really annoying. I thought while I was watching this “I dare you to do that one more time”, and there it was…

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Today, it’s a beer… because it’s a tradition in our home (from my wife’s side) to start BBQ season, so we have guests (like my mother-in-law, neighbors, etc.), I get to grill and have beer. My wife baked fresh bread (in the background) and made salads… and I in between sneak into my office to do some “important” stuff, like posting here. 🙂
That’s my Easter Weekend Saturday.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Nothing yet… but later on this special evening, it will be a Whisk(e)y… most likely be a piece of the Devil’s Cut Bourbon, as that is already open. 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

While it would be possible for me do do a wireless setup, I actually don’t stream “wireless” either. My streamer is connected via Ethernet(LAN), so it’s not going over WiFi. Just the operation is via WiFi (Tablet or Smartphone).

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