The secret sauce in a great Goldsmith theme

Thanks for posting this. Nice title for a blog too. I don't know enough to say whether you're onto something, but it is funny that I share your taste in melody, so it does look to me like you might have something.

(Just watch out for confirmation bias -- where you only take note of the melodies that you like that flow, rather than the ones you do like that don't flow, or the ones you didn't like - until now - that did. )

Hey franz_conrad! Nice - it hasn't been easy finding people with similar melodic tastes. I feel like I'm in the minority when I say Williams isn't my favorite melodist. After thinking about it more, I think I'm sort of on to something and sort of not. For me, Indiana Jones has to be one of the most obnoxious melodies of all time, but it has good down beat pitch variety. But then again, I guess my complaint with it has never been that it's too static, like, say for example Star Wars.

Hey scribe,
That's a really neat tidbit. Now that you mention it, I can totally see how Williams applies that principle in Star Wars and Indiana Jones with his big leaps to the high notes.

No shit! These days it's much easier to name many who can't.

Hey Christopher! Thanks for reading - and you pose a lot of interesting questions. I'm kind of realizing I wasn't too clear in my writing in making a distinction between melody and theme. There are so many more elements that go into building a great theme - orchestration, rhythm, structure, harmony is a HUGE one. I just wanted to look specifically at one component of melody and why, separate from the other elements of a theme, certain melodies don't appeal to me (the melody from Total Recall is one I wish were "better," and I sort of find the string line after the fanfare in Clear and Present Danger somewhat atrocious).

Ahh the memorability question! I definitely do believe a big part of it is the popularity of the films, unfortunately. If John Williams scored Supergirl, I doubt the general public would be very aware of his work for it.

But, I do think Goldsmith's melodies are as a whole more difficult to remember. The Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Superman melodies stay in the same key, but a trademark Goldsmith device is this B section that modulates all over the place. I absolutely love these B sections because I think it's these modulations and loss of a sense of where do-re-mi-fa-so is that makes them so soaring and emotional. But the downside of course is without knowing where "do" is anymore, they can be a lot harder to understand without harmony, therefore more difficult to sing, therefore not as memorable.

As for his A sections, I think they're as memorable as anything else, but I run into many people who disagree. I'm not sure of this, but I think his A section phrases tend to be longer, which I like because they take you on a journey, but which also means you have to remember it in larger chunks (I'm thinking of the themes for Air Force One and Star Trek First Contact).

I'm curious, what are some of your favorite melodies?

Oh gosh, yeah "The Trees" is excellent. I don't own the soundtrack to Powder, but I've listened to the theme on Youtube and quite like it. I don't know much about Mark McKenzie other than that he wrote the additional music on Looney Tones Back in Action. I'm checking out the Prelude to Greatest Miracle, and there's a lot to like there!

You know, I don't listen much to Thomas Newman's early big orchestral stuff - thanks for the reminder. I'm almost always listening to his weird sound design-y stuff when I'm in a TN mood.

Ahh that's a shame, I could listen to his action music all day! But it is admittedly not for everyone. Total Recall is one of my favorite scores, but it took me a couple years to come around to it. I think after having had to listen to lots of 20th century art music, Goldsmith's more abrasive stuff becomes less challenging to the ears by comparison.

Planet of the Apes is still too weird for me though. "The Hunt" being an exception.