Film Scores

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DarkImbecile
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Film Scores

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:43 pm

Vanity Fair article investigating “ghost composers” and the shifting financial landscape for the film music business

Unless someone digs up a thread from 2006 that wasn’t showing up on the search function, let this be the thread for general discussion of film scores and composers!

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Film Scores

#2 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:08 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:43 pm
Vanity Fair article investigating “ghost composers” and the shifting financial landscape for the film music business
Uh, might wanna double-check that link.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Film Scores

#3 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:25 pm

Absolutely not changing it! That is the single funniest of the many mistakes I’ve made in almost 10 years on this forum

Here’s the actual link to the Vanity Fair article

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Film Scores

#4 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:42 pm

I'll be honest, I quoted it specifically so it would be preserved in case you did change it. I gave you too little credit.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Film Scores

#5 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:53 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:42 pm
I gave you too little credit.
Much like Hans Zimmer might say to one of his employees, to try to put this train back on the tracks

beamish14
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Re: Film Scores

#6 Post by beamish14 » Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:20 pm

Thank you for that article. I've been thinking a lot lately about film scores and how, along with editors, composers are often perceived as being extremely expendable. Geergely Hubai's terrific book Torn Music: Rejected Film Scores is an incredible look at this topic, and does an extremely admirable job of piecing together how many notable scores were rejected as a result of filmmaker hostility, test audience scores, indecisive producers, recuts, etc.

I may have mentioned this anecdote on another thread, but I audited a "Music in Film" course taught at UCLA that my girlfriend was taking in order to satisfy the requirements of her minor in Cinema Studies. The instructor, Paul Chihara, a notable modernist composer who worked on a number of Sidney Lumet projects, called Zimmer a total hack who had denigrated the art of film composition. He also had some great stories about stepping into John Turturro's very ill-fated Romance and Cigarettes and how the Coen Bros. had to do significantly more than their executive producer credits suggest.

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Re: Film Scores

#7 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Feb 22, 2022 7:10 pm

Greatest score ever…


Image

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Re: Film Scores

#8 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:26 pm

I remember, in 2004, taking a train from my spot of Indiana to Washington DC and back again. I listened to four recent-ish scores of Hollywood blockbusters, while a great deal of Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio went by during that summer evening. Oceans Eleven, Spy Game, Gladiator Road to Perdition and maybe some others too.

The last score that really grabbed me was 1917. There are a lot of guys who work in Hollywood doing great stuff, on every level. But I think Thomas Newman became my official favorite on a subconscious level with the Bond scores he did. Road to Perdition has some okay action cues but they would have stood out as a sore thumb in something like the Jason Bourne movies. I was entirely more fascinated at Skyfall once he was officially announced as the composer, then even the idea of Mendes doing it. But for me (and notwithstanding the fine music for Casino Royale and even Quantum of Solace), he really brought that franchise up to a musical flair that matched everything else around it.

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domino harvey
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Re: Film Scores

#9 Post by domino harvey » Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:31 pm

I’m in the midst of a Reducing My Unwatched Pile initiative and worked my way through my unseen Kenneth Anger shorts the other day and was blown away by Bobby Beausoleil’s score for Lucifer Rising. Definitely one of my favorite scores by a convicted murderer

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Re: Film Scores

#10 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Sep 09, 2022 3:55 pm

Giorgio Moroder’s score for Brian De Palma’s Scarface, in full (with the original songs and soundtrack edits), is on streaming services as of today.

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Albie08
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Re: Film Scores

#11 Post by Albie08 » Fri Feb 17, 2023 2:40 am

One of the best movie soundtracks of all time is the score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, composed by Howard Shore. This sweeping score captures the epic journey of Frodo, Sam, and the other hobbits as they travel across Middle-earth in search of the One Ring. The music has an ethereal, magical quality that perfectly captures the mood of the films and the grandeur of the world of Middle-earth. Shore also incorporates pieces from traditional Celtic and Nordic music, adding to the overall atmosphere of the films. In addition to the memorable score, the Lord of the Rings trilogy also features some of the most iconic musical themes in cinema history, such as the "Shire Theme" and the "Rohan Theme".

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Re: Film Scores

#12 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:28 pm

While there is a healthy influx of new and recent scores say on Apple Music, there are a lot of gaps that I could find on YouTube now as well as being sold by La-La Records and Varese Sarabande among others as far as older films and certain composers who are pretty underrepresented on these services. For example, Michael Kamen’s complete scores for the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon franchises are kind of the big gaps for me, as well as other great scores he did for films like Highlander and What Dreams May Come. I feel like the ease of access these services now have could do wonders with his legacy.

ntnon
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Re: Film Scores

#13 Post by ntnon » Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:51 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:53 pm
The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:42 pm
I gave you too little credit.
Much like Hans Zimmer might say to one of his employees, to try to put this train back on the tracks
beamish14 wrote:
Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:20 pm
Paul Chihara, a notable modernist composer who worked on a number of Sidney Lumet projects, called Zimmer a total hack who had denigrated the art of film composition.
I may not know much about the whys and wherefores of these opinions, but I have nothing but praise for Zimmer's score for The Lone Ranger... I could (and do) listen to it for hours.

I just found this elderly article on Zimmer.. any thoughts or critiques?

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Film Scores

#14 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:24 am

Two film scores which may, or may not, but probably may, be underappreciated, that I heartily recommend: first, Pete Rugolo's fabbo soundtrack for This World, Then the Fireworks. The essence of Jim Thompson. Should've won an Oscar!! And second, Maurice Jarre's wonderful theme, that sort of sounds like the musical equivalent of a Rube Goldberg contraption to me, for Jacques Demy's short film of Cocteau's little playlet thing Le bel indifferent.

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jazzo
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Re: Film Scores

#15 Post by jazzo » Wed Apr 12, 2023 11:49 am

Two modern scores I keep coming back to are Alexandre Desplat's hypnotic Birth, and Michael Nyman's heartbreaking Wonderland. Both fit their films like emotional gloves.

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Re: Film Scores

#16 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Apr 12, 2023 1:22 pm

ntnon wrote:
Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:51 pm
I may not know much about the whys and wherefores of these opinions, but I have nothing but praise for Zimmer's score for The Lone Ranger... I could (and do) listen to it for hours.

I just found this elderly article on Zimmer.. any thoughts or critiques?
I like him very much. He’s surely pretentious but for as much chicken salad he’s made out of chicken shit with the bad films he scores, when he truly succeeds you can tell that for that time him and the director he’s working with are on the same page. It’s as much true now with Villeneuve as his work for the Dune franchise will be a triumph in a career with certain landmarks that changed perceptions of what he does.

ntnon
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Re: Film Scores

#17 Post by ntnon » Wed Apr 12, 2023 7:19 pm

Zimmer's music for Pirates, Sherlock Holmes and Batman are also extremely memorable and well-matched. Surely the fifth most-known film music after John Williams, John Williams, John Williams and Morricone.

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MichaelB
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Re: Film Scores

#18 Post by MichaelB » Thu Apr 13, 2023 4:13 am

ntnon wrote:Zimmer's music for Pirates, Sherlock Holmes and Batman are also extremely memorable and well-matched. Surely the fifth most-known film music after John Williams, John Williams, John Williams and Morricone.
I believe the ghost of Bernard Herrmann may have something to say about that.

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Film Scores

#19 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:30 am

According to my research, the four titans of film music are Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Williams of course (although Bad John Williams is truly dreadful, so pompous and fluttery and annoying), and Herrmann. There's also Maurice Jarre and Georges Delerue, who can be pretty great, in terms of film music composers who have done more than about ten scores that are truly worth listening to. It's hard to do a good score! All the people i've mentioned have done lots of bad scores of course. And there's also little Elmer Bernstein, who's done exactly ten scores that I really like (one of them is Airplane! haha). And I guess Desplat has done more than ten good scores, but he's not as good as the others I mentioned.
*EDIT: In terms of modern film music, I do really like Carter Burwell, and he's written about 11 or so that I really like.

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Re: Film Scores

#20 Post by MichaelB » Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:53 am

And of course the mighty Zdeněk Liška, who should be up there with the all-time giants, but I concede that his exclusively scoring films made in his native Czechoslovakia might not have helped his profile overmuch. (I warmly recommend this eleven-minute profile made to accompany a concert performance of one of his greatest scores.)

Similarly, Wojciech Kilar is pretty much exclusively known outside Poland for Bram Stoker's Dracula - a magnificent score, but the merest tip of a pretty massive Polish film-scoring iceberg.

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Film Scores

#21 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:58 am

MichaelB wrote:
Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:53 am
Similarly, Wojciech Kilar is pretty much exclusively known outside Poland for Bram Stoker's Dracula - a magnificent score, but the merest tip of a pretty massive Polish film-scoring iceberg.
If you ask me, his score for The Ninth Gate is even better, but you're right, these are the only two I really have heard anything about. Komeda also seems pretty great, but he of course died before he could build up a really large catalogue :(.

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Film Scores

#22 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Apr 13, 2023 6:19 am

There's also Jerry Goldsmith, who's written maybe 12 listenable scores and at his very intermittent best is more of an artist than your standard prominent film scoring hack (Howard Shore, John Barry, Miklos Rozsa etc.) who have at best 6 or 7 quality scores to their name. Chinatown and The Russia House are pretty goddamn wonderful, and I also really love Goldsmith's work on Six Degrees of Separation, though it seems i'm pretty much alone on that front. Although he is usually just a hack.

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Altair
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Re: Film Scores

#23 Post by Altair » Thu Apr 13, 2023 6:24 am

Calling John Barry a hack is certainly... a bold opinion.

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Roscoe
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Re: Film Scores

#24 Post by Roscoe » Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:55 am

So what's the criteria for not being a hack? Ten great scores? Five? Three?

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Film Scores

#25 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:59 am

Not primarily a film composer, but Toru Takemitsu has to rank as one of the greats. His scores for the Teshigahara/Abe collaborations are weird, brilliant stuff.

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