Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites

I'd asked for it to be stickied just so that it wouldn't get lost if there was not much interest.

We won't go there with the sticky. You remember??????????????

Oops!

1932 - Golden Mountains - Dmitri Shostakovich

Pardon!?

Not a well known movie this one, but it was Shostakovich's first film score for a talkie. Originally released in 1931 but released in the US in 1932 so it counts (remember, my rules!!) He fashioned the score into a six movement suite (Op. 30) and apparently, like today's releases there's music in the suite not contained in the film and some of the music that features in key scenes isn't in the suite.

The suite grabs the listener straight away with some loud brass fanfares but it's the beginning of the second movement (II. Waltz: Andante) that really surprised me when I first listened to it. It all starts off with a delicate acoustic guitar sequence that's such a juxtaposition against what's just gone before.

A lot of the rest of the score is low-key, moody with some piercing intrusions from the hard-working brass section of the orchestra (I have Capriccio's version with Michail Jurowski/Berlin Radio Symphony). The third movement (III. Fugue: Largo - Allegro) also surprises again with the use of a grand organ. And the suite finishes off in dramatic form with an increasingly deranged Funeral March and Finale.

In sure this is one that's not very familiar to most people but it's certainly worth a listen and I'd argue up there with anything else anyone is (sure) to suggest!!

I would hope that others will chime in on this thread with their opinion.

At least listen to the clips from each to see what the music's like.

Tom, I was looking at the track listings for both the Naxos and Capriccio releases and I see the later version is almost 10 minutes longer than the Naxos! I'm assuming that this difference is down to tempo rather than content?

And if you do, let us know what you think.

1933 - King Kong - Max Steiner

This year was the year of King Kong: with both King Kong and The Son of Kong being released this year, both with scores by Max Steiner.

It's difficult to choose anything other this iconic score; a milestone score of quality. Steiner's music is great on all levels: it's a summation of the film in music. The effective title track gets things off to a great start and then we are thrown into a series of low-key and restrained cues that Steiner pulls off very well. (This is a movie that's not over-tracked: I believe that it's some time before the second track here is featured in the film.)

It's a score that has tribal music, the already-mentioned restrained tracks and some excellent action scoring for the latter parts of the film. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have been in the cinema when this movie was released, listening to Steiner's music featured in "Entrance of Kong" and awaiting the spectacle of Kong's final reveal? And Steiner's music captures that anticipation wonderfully well.

A truly - and thoroughly deserved - iconic film score (lovingly recreated by Stromberg & Morgan for Naxos).

Did I get one right?

1934 - Lieutenant Kijé - Sergei Prokofiev

Looking back I've changed my mind from Honegger and chosen this one instead. It's difficult to look beyond the popular "Troika" when this score is mentioned, but there's quite a bit more that rewards the listener.

I believe the actual score isn't available and most people will have heard the symphonic suite that the composer put together that is based on the score. I have the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra/Slatkin version and I remember being really surprised to hear the vocal (baritone?) having always heard the non-vocal version (and more popular) version.

Very Russian in tone (obviously) the suite is a worthy listen.

For 1935 there might be a new kid on the block: since the last time I did this list there's been a significant re-recording of a great score. I need to go back and listen to the two main contenders...

Interesting that there's a specific reference to the use of a Hawaiian guitar - and that I managed to identify it as such!!

The other version you may be referring to may be the version I have (Berlin Radio Symphony) and I have to admit I didn't think "zither" when I heard it but rather I felt that it was a warm acoustic guitar. It may just be down to the version we are familiar with rather than whether it's right or wrong?

A great choice, however I can't compare it with the film which I've never seen, on music merit alone this is superb.

eh?

First part of Zimmer's Earth in Gladiator is a Kije rip off, the Romance movement. Change solo violin for trumpet and you have it.