Recent Purchases: Scores - Part I

Just arrived:

A History of Scotland - Paul Leonard-Morgan

I've been waiting for this - it seems - for ages. And I predict that at least a few of these are going to feature in my final "cues of 2008" list. And this score may even feature in my finalised "scores of 2008" list.

Leonard-Morgan's music accompanies a recent BBC Scotland documentary series. I've only seen a couple of episodes so far (one from the original airing it had on BBC Scotland and the recent repeated first episode on BBC2) but I was immediately struck by the beautiful music.

Head over to Paul's website for details on the release and some audio clips: http://www.paulleonardmorgan.com/ and here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Scotlan … amp;sr=1-1

And here's a taster of the series: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=V5GwV2Yrlmg

BTW, the footage of The Old Man of Storr from ~0:45 is breathtaking - I wish the weather had have been that good the day we went up there!!

I though Alan loathed and detested the Celtic sound?

I do - most of the time.

I'm not even sure myself what distinguishes the scores where it - for me - works or doesn't work. I need to think about this.

I can say exactly the same for the middle eastern sound Alan, wailing women and duduks etc, sometimes I find it elating and other times it makes me cringe and yet sometimes you could barely get a piece of paper between two similar sounding pieces.

Not really, I just found it on some site ages ago. I kinda like it too.

Discovered that some Spanish JMB releases are now available to buy as downloads:

El Año del Diluvio - Carles Cases
Le Cou de La Girafe - Pascal Gaigne

and

Il Sole Nero - Wojciech Kilar

I've been thinking about this "Celtic sound" thing and I'm just going around in circles. What makes it "work" in a score seems to be, for me, a very tenuous thing. And what affects my feelings about the use goes beyond just the music.

I think that part of what's going on is my feeling about the sincerity with which a composer uses the whole of the "Celtic devices" as well as the situation/movie that these devices are used in. I have to say that, on the whole, I find that the whole Holywood usage is very manipulative - but then that's what a composer is trying to do a lot of the time with their music (at whatever level you care to examine things.)

Received them today. Such a friggin cool gadget! Granted, I look like someone from Doctor Who or Torchwood when I wear them, but they're not as clunky as I thought they'd be.

Chunky headphones are much better for sound quality, but when it come to being outside or on your bike, there's no match for these babies. They sound amazing for earphones.

I love me gadgets. (As Lee Evans once wonderfully lampooned.)

Just received: Georges Delerue - Music from the films of Francois Truffaut
(Hugh Wolff conducts the London Sinfionetta)

I really liked it - it's very typically Kilar and Agata's Theme is lovely.

The release is a bit short - at just under 14 minutes - and there is a bit of repetition (a couple of tracks with 2 versions).

Tindersticks? The band??

They caught my eye in an interview because they mentioned how much they loved John Barry's music, from the little I've heard I don't detect any influence.

Ordered!

Dinosaur - JNH

Nino Rota - The Godfather
Vengo - various artists cd with brilliant music used in the film by Tony Gatlif
Michal Lorenc - Przedwiosnie
Jean-Louis Roques - Germinal
David Sinclair Whitaker - Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien