MARC STREITENFELD

i have bought the ROBIN HOOD score on saturday and i have to say for me it's a very good composition. streitenfeld composed an orchestral score with lots of solo instruments and solo vocals. the music is no "happy adventure score". it sounds dark and harsh with a celtic touch. the score is no gladiator/RCP rip off. the music is epic but not bombastic. it's more like kingdom of heaven. streitenfeld wrote several themes for the characters and situations. the most interesting theme is the villain theme. robin's theme is also very good, especially in the "celtic" version. i think the tone of the score fits perfect to movie and i'm glad, that i bought this score.

i haven't seen the movie yet, so i can't say for sure that the music works with the pictures but i think for me the score will work. i also have to say that the action tracks aren't that spectacular but i am happy that the music is performed by an orchestra and you can hear that. there are no electronics. i also like the themes, which marc has composed. i like the orchestration and the instrumentation. here is no bombastic gladiator/king arthur score. there is no mish mash of orchestra and electronics. you can hear the orchestra and you can hear every single instrument. i really like this score and on cd for me it sounds amazing.

This is everything but wallpaper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tqEnKbQ6RA

Come on, every second irish tune sounds like that.

It's much better than I thought it would be, at least from what I've heard of the album. I like "Merry Men." Not incredible, but enjoyable. I still think Marc was a strange choice for this film, but he did better than expected.

Agree.

Btw, when you wrote this:

"In fact, if you look at the career of Streitenfeld, it's surprising to discover he has been scoring almost nothing but Ridley Scott Movies since then. The only exception is Welcome to the Rileys of 2010."

I made this observation:

Welcome to the Rileys......."Rileys"........."Ridley"

Seriously though, we had Haslinger and Bates (thankfully moved onto lower, b-movies and / or relatively vanished compared to the spree of new scores a couple of years back) and now we got the Djawadis and the Streitenfields. I say time to move on too, give place to people who are perhaps musically better equipped.

Or Zimmer. What was wrong with that collaboration? Of course he wouldn't be the top choice among all those excellent and overlooked composers like Edward Shearmur for instance, but still anything he'd write would most probably be far more interesting than SF at his best (which best btw?).

Well, Welcome to the Rileys is directed by Jake Scott... jup, "son of..."

I picked Kamen because he wrote one of the greatest Robin Hood scores, I pick Goldsmith always because even his inferior scores held much more esteem than this one

problem is, once you pair Scott and Crowe in an epic action movie like this, you'll always get referrences to Gladiator, that's the way I approached it

anyway, Streitenfeld's score is simply simplistic if you compare it with so much that was written before it

Ah, the smell of smug in the air

You aren't free of hyperboles either, with the 'burst out laughing' comment and the third person references That someone is right here and you can also address me directly You're overestimating the movie my friend, it's a Ridley Scott swords and scandals epic; it's inferior to Gladiator. It didn't need a composition of higher values (in any case i don't think Streitenfield goes beyond dry chord repetitions and simplistic orchestrations / arrangements in any part of the score anyway) but something that would at least elevate it via strong and bold themes, which Gladiator did have. Yes, it might have been rough at points and the action cues weren't exactly refined, but Robin Hood even lacks the bold thematic statements that helped elevate that movie and make it something people remember.

As for Brian Tyler, yeah, i do believe the general feeling here is that he delivers much more interesting stuff than Streitenfield usually, and especially his Children of Dune score or something similar at least, although unoriginal, would fit such a movie, imo.

Although I don't agree that it's stronger than Gladiator (there's nothing nearly as fun and exciting as 'The Battle' nor beautiful as 'Now We Are Free', to me at least), I do agree that it's not bad at all. Not great, certainly, but not bad either.

Also, I used to think that Tyler could be a composer to follow with keen interest - that is until he started to produce more scores.

I did actually - in an ideal world.

I am also of this experience.

when it comes to actual depth and development, Tyler is for me way better than Streitenfeld. Sadly Tyler has become a clone of his own work and rehashes everything time and time again (several strong dramatic works notwithstanding)

the problem with Robin Hood is, the more you hear music in general, the more you want to be inspired, surprised, wowed, and Robin Hood is so generic and simple it's hard to find even one of these 3

I'm glad you like it, but I think it's another wasted opportunity

FACT. Tyler seemed bored for a while with the musical style he kept being asked to deliver, but he's refound himself with THE KILLING ROOM. Either this is once again one of those few scores that keep slipping in between that's completely different before returning to his usual style Ilike what happened with BUG), or he really changed. He also started producing films lately, which might trigger a new passion in him and make him score films he really loves to score. Can't wait to see what's coming out of that.