• Categories

Vanilla 1.1.4 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

 
  1. Hans Zimmer - The House of the Spirits

    Completely overlooked especially by the post-Batman era kids.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  2. NP: Exile - Luca D'Alberto

    A non film score album, but if you like chamber instrumentation that is neither shy of minimalism or romanticism (how, I hear you ask), seek it out. D'Alberto has the goods, unshackled by the demands of the image. 'Grace' and 'Pianodiscotheque' resonate the most. ('Grace' will almost certainly show up in a future temp track of mine, so maybe that's the score connection.)
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
  3. Harry Gregson-Williams - Mulan

    I think this one is getting a bit underrated, sadly. I like it as it's firmly set in HGW's epic style without repeating the one battle ostinato he always has. Good use of Chinese instrumentation, a very nice theme for Mulan herself.

    And it works really well in the film, methinks. His epic style was always a bit more restrained, but I do dig it. It ain't no Kingdom of Heaven (if a tad more organic than that), but it has its strengths.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeSep 22nd 2020
    Kenji Kawai - every Fate/Stay Night release. Some truly outstanding material, as well as some utterly uninspiring music.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-E40z1TzsI
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeSep 25th 2020
    NP: D'AMORE SI MUORE (Ennio Morricone)

    My Morricone collection has exploded since his passing (mostly in digital format). Probably 70-80 new titles, and mostly lyrical stuff, like this.
    I am extremely serious.
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeSep 26th 2020
    Still, like said, you should pursue the ´beyond traditional´ suspense and experimental music.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeSep 26th 2020 edited
    Joep wrote
    Still, like said, you should pursue the ´beyond traditional´ suspense and experimental music.


    I tried. I think I sampled some 10-15 of those scores in my Morricone walkthrough a few weeks ago. But very few of them ended up in my iTunes collection. There are some that have individual tracks in that territory, though (like the 22-minute last track on THE RED TENT, or the 15-minute track "La Citta" on LE DUE STAGIONI DELLA VITA). And -- surprisingly -- a few that have interesting dissonant textures (most of his dissonant textures leave me cold or annoyed). For example, LA TARANTOLA DAL VENTRE NERO (1971); that was intriguing. And a whole bunch that aren't lyrical, necessarily, but more quirky and odd. Here's my collection at the present time:

    http://celluloidtunes.no/_oldsite/non-w … ricone.jpg

    I'm sure there will come a time when I'm ready to take on EM's avantgarde/modernist scores, but that time isn't now, apparently.

    (I should point out that I have both great tolerance and love of dissonant music; I love my Penderecki, Webern, Stockhausen etc., just not all KINDS of dissonant/atonal stuff)
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeSep 26th 2020
    NP: GIORDANO BRUNO (Ennio Morricone)

    Beautiful, choral religious music. What's not to like?
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeSep 27th 2020
    NP: PLAYING BY HEART - JOHN BARRY

    Thanks to James Southall and his recent review for reminding me that this score exists. I think it must have been Tim (Timmer) who originally prompted me to check this out... years ago.

    What a gorgeous album. cool
  4. James Horner - Windtalkers

    Probably everyone has a few of these scores that you like but everyone else seems to hate. Windtalkers is such a case for me.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2020
    Alberto Iglesias - The Dancwe Upstairs

    Such a masterpiece
  5. Thomas Newman - Tolkien

    There is just something so special about Fellowship.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  6. Yes, it's a most enjoyable score by Newman! I was out of town visiting my mother-in-law for a little bit, so I wasn't checking in here or listening to much recently. Not related to Newman, I was reminiscing about how I used to get so excited for the next James Horner score and was always first in line to buy it no matter what it was - since his score to An American Tail was my first window into the film music world as a kid and what my started my love of it, I was devoted to him the most as a fan apparently - but today, without him, I haven't really found another composer to replace him with that kind of dedication or same feeling of impulsive excitement about new scores coming out or new assignments/movies being made that they're attached to and having to have it. Maybe James Newton Howard is the closest - but I guess I just miss the feeling of having new James Horner scores to look forward to.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAtham
    • CommentTimeOct 13th 2020
    I hear you Filmscoregirl! I miss Horner very much. When his music was exciting it was so good (and so fun). When his music was tender or sad, man, it moved through my very soul! Like no other composer could do really.
    I'm always happy to hear new scores by James Newton Howard, John Powell, Thomas Newman, Bear McCreary etc but we'll never have a James Horner again. I'm so grateful that we did though. Look what he's left us. A vast amount of incredible music!
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2020
    Fons Merkies - De Grot

    I still think the end credits music is one of the most beautiful pieces by a Dutch composer.

    Listen to the end credits:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJlCwzv09a8
  7. NP: Enemy At The Gates - James Horner

    It was recommended to me that I listen to this as it's a Horner score that I had missed hearing at the time of its release and in the subsequent years.

    Now, after having listened to it, I feel no further rewarded than before I had listened to it. It started out well with some desolate strings in the same vein as some of Arvo Part's string - a sound I am quite partial to. But after those opening few minutes the remaining 74 minutes unfolded without much reward (to my ears at least).

    I didn't find much of the music very memorable and the recurrence of the "danger motif" throughout the score just seemed so inappropriate and done without much thought. But more distracting was the theme that sounded too much like John Williams' Schindler's List theme. It wasn't exactly like it but it was close enough to remind me of Williams' theme each time Horner referenced it.

    I'd looked online for the messageboard discussions posted at the time, discussing this score and it was interesting reading the complaints and defending of Horner's use of this theme. One laughable article suggested that the Schindler's List-like theme had been arrived at independently by Horner as a development of an original theme over the course of 2-3 movies.

    Anyway, one of Horner's scores that is unlikely to get a replay anytime soon (but that's true even for my favourite scores too).
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
  8. Horner is actually referencing Mahler's 8th, as he did in, indeed, Balto, Apollo 13 and Titanic before that. I never took much stock in the Schindler's List reminiscence as Horner is basing his theme on alternate thirds, while Williams is using alternate fifths. The interval is different, therefore it's not much of a reference in and of itself.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  9. PawelStroinski wrote
    Horner is actually referencing Mahler's 8th, as he did in, indeed, Balto, Apollo 13 and Titanic before that. I never took much stock in the Schindler's List reminiscence as Horner is basing his theme on alternate thirds, while Williams is using alternate fifths. The interval is different, therefore it's not much of a reference in and of itself.


    You can get all music theory on me but when I hear it it sounds like Schindler's List. Do you think that the filmmakers - or even Horner - wouldn't have heard the similarity?
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
  10. Depends on what was in the temp, to be honest (Michael here claimed that the Thin Red Line temp is very clear here, but I don't hear it myself). Generally speaking, if I have both a film score and classical connection, I tend to go with the classical first, rather than a similar score. In this case the interval difference (a much discussed one at the time, too) makes even a "semantic" difference as well. There was an "old Jewish melody" mention as a source, but I think with Horner it's the Mahler, who always expanded upon the original piece.

    Also, there's the fact that, indeed, Horner did use a similar motif (twice per score, even, in a single cue in all cases, no less!), in three earlier scores, Balto (Heritage of the Wolf), Apollo 13 (Re-Entry & Splashdown) and Titanic (Death of Titanic), where I don't think a literally passing motif was in any way inspired by Schindler and it's actually way closer to the original Mahler piece (if developed, because in Mahler that bit is almost an afterthought) than the development it goes through in Enemy.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  11. Joep wrote
    Fons Merkies - De Grot

    I still think the end credits music is one of the most beautiful pieces by a Dutch composer.

    Listen to the end credits:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJlCwzv09a8


    That is very nice. Thanks for sharing!
  12. I feel like I’ve under-appreciated The Missing by James Horner over the years. I was listening to it yesterday, and it’s way more interesting than I remembered. Something about the track “A Rescue Planned” really stuck out to me. Something about the mix of the strings, cry of the shakuhachi, with something like a bull roarer and didgeridoo in the background. It has so many colors and things going on that I wouldn’t think would work so well together, but they certainly do. An enjoyable listen!
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 22nd 2020
    Filmscoregirl wrote
    I feel like I’ve under-appreciated The Missing by James Horner over the years. I was listening to it yesterday, and it’s way more interesting than I remembered. Something about the track “A Rescue Planned” really stuck out to me. Something about the mix of the strings, cry of the shakuhachi, with something like a bull roarer and didgeridoo in the background. It has so many colors and things going on that I wouldn’t think would work so well together, but they certainly do. An enjoyable listen!


    Yeah, it's pretty good in all its bleakness. Stay away from the film, though!
    I am extremely serious.
  13. Why is the film so bad? I kinda did like it. The score's great.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 22nd 2020
    I can't even remember anymore. I just remember disliking it.
    I am extremely serious.
  14. It wasn't very memorable for me either. I remember having my hopes up because Ron Howard is one of my favorite directors, and his pairing with Horner is perfection - and the movie overall was just a dud.
  15. PawelStroinski wrote
    Thomas Newman - Tolkien

    There is just something so special about Fellowship.

    The best World War 1 related Thomas Newman score of 2019!
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 23rd 2020
    Great score. I believe I shared my review awhile back, but here it is again:

    http://celluloidtunes.no/tolkien-thomas-newman/
    I am extremely serious.
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeOct 25th 2020
    Bob Zimmerman & Nando Eweg - Süskind

    Great score. Listen to Summer 1945 (feature Janine Jansen)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wug9k9Iumg4
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2020
    christopher wrote
    Joep wrote
    Fons Merkies - De Grot

    I still think the end credits music is one of the most beautiful pieces by a Dutch composer.

    Listen to the end credits:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJlCwzv09a8


    That is very nice. Thanks for sharing!


    Glad you liked it. Actually this is my absolute favorite.
  16. I’ve been listening to Rachel Portman’s Grey Gardens, and I think it’s one of the best themes that she's written. It’s super lovely, yet extremely catchy that it really gets stuck in your head! smile