Composers Collaboration

With most of what Zimmer does, there I quite a few other composers working with him. This includes Gladiator and the Rock.
Note: I think Gerrard is VERY over used. :/
I don't think JNH and Zimmer worked together very well. Most of the influence is by Zimmer. Plus, it is quite obvious who the most talented composer of the two really is. :/ It is too bad things came out the way they did.

I agree, as far as "The Dark Knight" concern, James had composed very little music than Zimmer. His most outstanding cue written for "Harvey Two-Face" was marvelous. I think as far as contribution concern, its 70% from Zimmer and 30% from James Newton Howard. After observing each and every track in the album, i couldn't find the uniqueness of James Newton Howard. Most of the tracks just sounded like Zimmer's style.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the info!

Sherman Brothers!

Disney's The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Mary Poppins also Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and loads more. They're songs for Disney are easily far and away the best, not beaten before or since.

The Lives of Others - Gabriel Yared and Stéphane Moucha

I don't exactly know if they collaborated or worked separately but the resulting score is a gem!

Few of the others are even worth mentioning, let alone listening to; but this one - GREAT.

The Menken/Ashman collaboration is nothing short of EPIC, IMO! All those films mentioned above have really wonderful songs which are among my all time favourites!

^
What Martijn said!

( You forgot....forgot!??? Bare Necessities )

Ashman & Menkin, The Sherman Brothers...

It's like comparing Oasis to The Beatles.

I dunno. It's more like comparing chalk with cheese than comparing The Beatles with Oasis, I'd have thought. Menken's Broadway-style songs are absolutely incredible in their own right. To say he hasn't written a song as iconic as those in The Jungle Book is true, but then the Shermans have never written anything (for a Disney film) as serious-minded and dramatically potent as what Menken did on Hunchback of Notre Dame.

And if you want to look at notches on bedposts, then the main songs from Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas would stand up against most competition, I'd say.

But... chalk and cheese, really.

Friedhofer's collaboration with Korngold is a good example, Tom. From what I've read, Korngold would write piano sketches that were panned out on no more than three to four staves. He would then perform the sketches to Friedhofer and make instructions on what the instrumentation should be. According to Friedhofer, Korngold had a remarkable "orchestral" pianistic technique (just hear his piano sonatas!), and hearing him play was what made the intentions obvious, even more so than the verbal aspect of their communication. Friedhofer also said he often made suggestions and had liberty to contribute creative input of his own. There is an interview somewhere with Conrad Pope, John William's lead orchestrator since the early 1990's. Its certainly an interesting read as he discusses their collaboration in detail.

And Winnie The Pooh. (one of my favorite songs as a kid) Also, it's not for films, don't forget It's a small world after all...

Its true they are difficult to compare. And its possible I'm slightly biased by the fact that I was a child of the 90's, but Ashman/Menken's work between 1989-1992 is certainly more ambitous and offers a far broader stylistic scope than the jazz era of Disney the Sherman brothers were a central part of. Ashman, who also was a succesfull playwrite as well as lyricist, came into Disney and basically taught them how to tell a story through music, as opposed to with music. The songs weren't commenting, or even augmenting a dramatic situation, they were simply the key events of the picture and absolutely vital to communicating the story. Of course, by having Menken also write the underscores these key scenes had the possibility to be extremely well prepared, contrary to many previous Disney pictures. The fact that the animators and composer also shared offices during the pre-production fase was also vital in achieving the the kind of results in audio-visual collaboration they were having. In my opinion, Ashman's spirit and legacy continued through Menken after his death and climaxed in 1996 with Hunchback of Notre Dame, a wonderful display of music and images (however flawed their interpretation of Hugo's novel may be). My favourite song of all time would have to be "Out There" from that film.

Of course, the Sherman brothers didn't have the same cards dealt to them in their era, and if I was to rank the songs in their own right independent from the pictures I would have to say I enjoy their music equally!

Yes, surprising nobody mentioned that one yet...


I feel your pain.

In Holland's biggest theme park De Efteling I once got stuck in a ride called Carnival Festival, which consists of puppets who are eerily cheery in a Stepford Wives meets Night Of The Living Dead kinda fashion, "buoyed" by what amounts to the most mind-numbing of Dutch "festive" music (which is second only to German beerfest polkas in melting your brain enough to escape your ear through a straw).

I'm quite certain this is what hell must be like.

Here is HELL!

-Erik-