Nils Jacob Holt Hanssen
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Some more Chris Young. This is Intrada’s expanded 2 CD release (sorry, Thor 😉 ) from last year.
It’s less dense than you might expect from a “creature” horror score by Young, and while there is some dissonance and angry orchestral and electronic outbursts, a lot of it is actually quite beautiful and haunting.Sounds nice, but drinks, Nils, what about DRINKS?🍷🍻🥃
He he.. nothing this weekend, probably, but when I do have some, it’s usually red wine – that’s definitely my favorite.
No big plans here, but I really enjoy such weekends, as I can spend them doing some my favorite activities, like go for a run or a hike, listen to music, read, and watch a movie or a couple of episodes of my favorite TV shows. There’s usually not a lot of time for this during the weekdays. And being somewhat introverted, it’s fine if there aren’t social happenings every weekend. I need that too, of course, but lots of it many weekends in a row can actually make me tired.
I’ll also need to practice a bit on the clarinet, as my orchestra is having a Christmas concert in a few weeks. Music from HOME ALONE is on the program. 🙂
I have the old Cinema Septet CD by Young, which also has the first two on that disc, if memory serves. I’m guessing they reused that? (THE TOWER, I have on its own digital album….great score).
That’s right, both VIETNAM WAR STORY and THE MINSTREL’S SONG are on Cinema Septet, but on that release they were one each long track; now both have been split into six or seven separate cues. The liner notes also say that VIETNAM WAR STORY has been “revised”, but I’m not sure if that means anything more than the division into tracks (I haven’t compared them).
Ranges from Goldsmith like (DEF CON 4) some action stuff that reminds me a bit of Horner’s 48 HOURS (AVENGING ANGEL) some light Jazz (TELEPHONE) to atonal (TORMENT).
Yes, that release sure covers a lot of styles!
Three suites, each 15-20 minutes in length, from various Young projects.
VIETNAM WAR STORY (TV series from 1987-88) is a typical Young mix of electronic, acoustic and vocal elements, the latter being mostly Japanese percussion and wind instruments. While not quite musique concrète, there’s not a lot of melody, but the timbres and soundscapes are quite captivating.
THEN MINSTREL’S SONG (a short film from 1981) is lighter and more melodic, but your enjoyment of it will depend on your acceptance level for medieval instruments that are often (and I would guess intentionally) out of tune. Mine, it turns out, is pretty low. 😉
THE TOWER (2002) had an earlier, full score release from Intrada, here we get a newly reworked 18 minute suite. It’s beautiful and soothing, with strings, piano, harp and vocals (with lyrics), wonderfully sung by Alžbeta Korcáková (who..?)
Yes, possibly. But not only did I mix Jones with Grusin, I also mixed Grusin with Earle Hagen for I, SPY! 😀
(They’re next to each other on my CD shelf, and are quite similar in style, so I guess that’s my excuse for that. 😉 )On to THE LOST MAN (1969) now, and am I crazy or does the main title remind you of John Williams’ “Yub Nub”/”Celebrate the Love” ewok music from RETURN OF THE JEDI a little bit?
Ha! It sure does! Whether it’s an “inspiration” or coincidence is hard to say. To me they sound close enough that it could actually be the former.
I don’t have a lot of Grusin albums, but I got some of those that FSM released back in the day: THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, THE YAKUZA, and the I, SPY TV scores (two releases, one single CD and one 2CD). I don’t remember much of THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, but the two others have a lot of his very listenable, smooth fusion style, with YAKUZA being my favorite. One disc of FSMs “TV OMNIBUS” release has Grusin’s TV scores for ASSIGNMENT: VIENNA, which is also good.
Yes, I’m sure the “Jante law” will seem like a very strange concept to Americans, and probably many other non-Scandinavians as well. But come to think of it, doesn’t John Williams himself actually represent it, to a certain extent, with his humble and unassuming personality, and annoyance with too much attention? As I mentioned in the review, it looks like this is not an act, but actually how he feels. But of course, in his case, it’s probably just that – a part of his personality, and not caused by any cultural conditioning, as would often be the case in Scandinavia.
… nunsploitation films …
Umm.. this is a thing?? As they say in Sweden: “Det finns mycket”.
But the term itself creates some images in my head, so I think I get the idea. 😉
Concertos based on film themes;
– Elegy for cello and orchestra
– Stargazers for harp and orchestra
– Memoirs of a Geisha suite for cello and orchestraOh yes, I forgot about those! They are of course great choices if you’re mostly familiar with his film scores but want to start exploring his concert works.
Thanks for your feedback and interesting viewpoints, Thor! Some of it I actually planned to touch upon in my review at one point, but it’s already more than long enough as it is. 🙂
Cool that you supplied some aid to Greiving! Are there facts/tidbits in the book that Greiving got from you, or was it mostly putting him on the right track in some of his research? Nice to see you mentioned in the acknowledgements, anyway!
Structurally, it’s an interesting approach to divide each chapters into segments that touch on different things. One could argue for an approach that was more chronological, i.e. year by year. But with a composer like Williams, it’s difficult to organize the different aspects – the personal life, the concert works, the film work etc. etc.
Hmm, my impression was that it’s pretty much chronological. But yes, he does jump a bit back and forth here and there, when it’s thematically relevant.
The ongoing zingers coming from his pal and contemporary Andre Previn were something else.
Yes, those “Start writing concert music instead!” comments from Previn are another recurring theme in the book. Someone more easily insulted than Williams would probably have found this very annoying, but he seemed to take it in stride. Although Previn did seem to be less than half joking, I guess it helped that, as you say, it was done in a non-confrontational way. And the fact that they were very close friends must also have made it easier to swallow than if it were some grumpy critic that kept harping on it.
As I touch upon in the review, his concert music can be a little tougher to get into than his film scores, but I still find much of it to be quite rewarding listening. In his concerts for specific instruments, it’s often the solo parts that are most challenging for the ear, while the orchestral accompaniment is usually more consonant and somewhat closer to his film work. Still, not a lot of it sounds like E.T.! If you want to check out some of it, I think something like his trumpet concerto or bassoon concerto (“The Five Sacred Trees”) can be good starting points. Some sharp edges in those too, though!
The way he gets inspired to write something specifically for musicians he admires says a lot about his personality, I think.
For my part, it’s actually the Irwin Allen and other TV stuff from the 60s, which was your Williams “starting point”, that I really haven’t deep-dived into yet. I do have most of what’s been released of it, so that’s something I should explore more thoroughly!
Thank you, Nils, for that fine summary.
And thank you for your feedback, Howard!
I’m glad the Google translation turned out mostly OK. Although JAWS becomes both “Shark Tale” and “Shark Summer”. 😀 That last one is at least somewhat understandable, as it’s the literal translation of its Norwegian title, HAISOMMER.
I have also enjoyed that FSM thread (although I haven’t contributed yet). And I’m still trying to get used to the new board format. 🙂
Yes, Barbara’s death is mentioned or alluded to numerous times in the book, and it clearly had a profound impact on Williams. And despite his reluctance to go into deeply personal matters, this is something he has talked about on occasion, both in the interviews with Greiving and elsewhere, including the Bouzereau documentary – where he does admit that it is “very difficult to talk about”.
Thor was the first Norwegian with this peculiar interest I got to know – also some 25 years ago! Although I did have contact with some other fans in other countries before that, mostly in the UK, and especially after going to the Williams concerts in London in 1996.
Another note: For the quotes there is an actual semantic html element named “blockquote” which is avaiable in WordPress of course.
Yes, I was struggling to get those quotes at the top and bottom to look nice, and I wasn’t aware of the blockquote feature in articles, so thanks for the heads-up. And thanks for fixing it, Thor. (I made another small change, moving the names to the line below).
