ALAN SILVESTRI

I can take as more as possible Powell scores, if they sound like "Z to the rescue", "Phoenix Rises", "Mountain Chase" to "JoJo saves the day" from Horton.

Yeah, throw me a million scores like that, and I can still enjoy them !

That's all cool mate, it really is and i know you, i know you genuinely mean that and that all you care is that you personally enjoy some stuff out there without praising it like the biggest achievement in music ever.

But don't take what James said personally, it's more like a general problem as many people are NOT like you and that they WILL praise composers like POWELL (and not only) while at the same time they will spitefully dig up the graves of other composers like Horner for instance, for doing essentially the same thing, not to mention that latter's contribution to film music is well - respectably enormous.

It's not something that should drive us crazy or anything like that but it is an unfortunate and sad situation for sure.

Good point there. Bloody fanboys ay!?

Well, their sound is obviously tied to the development of the electronic medium itself; the first efforts to really integrate it into a more mainstream approach (whereas it had previously been limited to experimental "incidents" like Stockhausen, the FORBIDDEN PLANET score, sporadic uses of the theremin etc.). These guys exploited these soundscapes into full-bodied, autonomous musical works that had a somewhat broader appeal (although still somewhat outside mainstream popular music). As a consequence, their influence shot off in different directions during the 80's - into pop songs, film scores, even traditionally acoustic genres like jazz and blues. The MV sound was only ONE out of several consequences and developments. So yes, if it hadn't been for these guys, the current MV sound would not have existed the way it does today. While this may sound "good" to some of you, you would also lose lots of OTHER great music in the bargain, OUTSIDE film music. I don't see it as an advantage to have whole parts of musical history "deleted", even if you don't like it or even if it's just an "alternate universe" thought experiment.



Yes, it's kinda redundant (or "butter on fat", as we say up here). I should have said experimental SLASH avant garde instead. And I'm not talking about ACOUSTIC avant garde concert music here, which obviously has its own development, but that type of concert music that incorporates electronics into its compositions (like that whole Japanese "noise" genre). Even our resident modernistic composer in Norway, Arne Nordheim, embraced some of the same soundscapes in the late 70's and onwards that Jarre and others had refined somewhat earlier.

You can't dismiss Zimmer as such mate, put him in the same category; he's done some very impressive stuff which was not even near to being synthesized and other than that, he's a hugely influential film composer, not due to his synths or anything but rather some other musical characteristics of his sound which have more to do with the choice and use of harmony and thematic approach we all know all those years.

I totally agree. It's not Zimmer that I have a problem with, it's the way that he works. It's good that he does give credit to his underlings, but it's sad nonetheless because Zimmer gets all of the glory. And yes, there are composers like Powell and Gregson-Williams who become big solo composers, but some of them become nothing more than programmers or orchestrators. And I also agree with the other sentiments in this thread. There is a double standard held against some composers for being bashed relentlessly for being unoriginal, repetitious, or even plagiaristic (like Debney, Zimmer, and even Silvestri......I would include Horner but he's in a league of his own in that department) while other composers who do seemingly do some of the same and are given a "pass" and given credit as doing a great "homage."

So, so true!

Again I think I should clarify... I don't really care whether they make it or not. As long as they're at RC, they're just being asked to write music in a "one size fits all" approach, it's film music without thought - whatever the project, whoever the composer, whoever the co-composers. On one level it's a noble idea having this "factory" helping out up-and-coming composers - but not when you then stifle all creativity and make them all sound like yourself, so you can charge A-list rates to films and not have to give them an A-list composer.

Yeah, exactly. This holds especially true for Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell. They've got a unique composing style each and myself I cannot detect what they call the "MV sound" in their scores that much, though I have nothing against it either

I thought HGW and Powell only started sounding different from him when they left, and I'd question just how far HGW has actually gone. Does Badelt really sound that different? Could you listen to a Badelt album and say "That's composed by Klaus Badelt" and not "That's a Remote Control score"?

Although he doesn't do it too often, The promise, Time Machine, Rescue Dawn and parts of the Constantine are nothing near R.C.

Well, this Silvestri thread has certainly steered off course, but my view is that stylistic restrictions have ALWAYS existed in mainstream Hollywood film. Even back in the Golden Age studio days (which were even MORE streamlined and "factory"-like than a company like RC) were composers told to write music a "certain way", yet they still managed to let their own unique voices shine through. I don't think there is anything inherent in RC's working method that necessarily prevents originality. And it certainly doesn't prevent great scores from coming out that fit their films like a glove.

Mega formatting problem. Forget this post!

Alan Silvestri (b. March 26, 1950, New York City) is an acclaimed American Academy Award nominated film score composer. He studied film scoring at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Silvestri is best known for his numerous collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone (1984), the Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000) and The Polar Express (2004). He received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score for Forrest Gump, a Best Song for "Believe" on The Polar Express Soundtrack, and two Grammy Awards for the music from Cast Away and the song "Believe" from The Polar Express. Aside from his collaborations with Zemeckis, Silvestri is known for his work in Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990), both of which are considered to be preeminent examples of action/sci-fi film scores.

Silvestri grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended Teaneck High School there.

ALAN SILVESTRI has laid down the scores to some of the biggest action and comedy films ever produced, and has firmly established himself as one of the foremost film composers in Hollywood today. Viewing composing from the perspective of a member of a sports team, and after composing over 40 soundtracks for major motion pictures, Silvestri still creates with the same zeal he had when he started. "There's no doubt that the better the film, the more you are challenged to rise to the occasion," says Silvestri. "You don't get to work on a Forrest Gump everyday. The more that your collaborators bring to the table creatively, the easier it is to bring forth that emotion in the score."

Having started to play music at a very young age in Teaneck, New Jersey, Alan Silvestri began to consider a career in music, over major league baseball, at the age of 15. He attended Boston's Berklee College of Music, but had been there only two years when he moved to Las Vegas and began touring with R&B legend Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders band. After a brief trip back to Boston, Silvestri returned to Las Vegas to try and secure work as an arranger, never once considering going to Los Angeles. Naturally, having no desire to go to Los Angeles, Alan ended up there, enticed by an offer to do the arrangements on his girlfriend's album. Silvestri and his companion arrived in Los Angeles to find that no actual recording contract had been issued, and they were stranded.

While staying at the Travel Lodge motel on Sunset Boulevard waiting for a break, Alan met Bradford Craig. As a lyricist for some projects with Quincy Jones, Craig had been nominated for an Academy® Award and a Golden Globe® Award;. He gave Silvestri some arranging assignments, which turned into the break Silvestri had been waiting for. "Bradford received a call from a small production company that had misread his film credit and assumed that he had scored a movie that he had worked on with Quincy Jones," Silvestri recalls. "They asked him if he could put together a score to this little film that they had." As a lyricist who knew nothing about writing music, Craig placed the caller on hold and called Alan. "`There's a movie here, do you want to do it?' I said yes, and just like that, I had my first film. I was about 20."

Having never scored a film and knowing nothing about the process, Silvestri picked up a copy of Earl Hagan's book "How To Score A Film" and read it cover to cover the night before his meeting with the film's producers. "I literally tried everything in the book on this film. I had cues on top of cues, all kinds of things. I thought 'Oh gee, this is what you do,'" said Silvestri. "I mean, I wasn't short of opinion, which was helpful. I had immediate responses and input into the whole film making process."

The film was called The Doberman Gang, and it triggered a succession of low-budget film assignments for Alan until he landed a job with the hit TV series CHiPs. Silvestri scored approximately 120 hours of this popular show, and "had just started to make a living as a composer" when it canceled. "All of a sudden, I couldn't get one episode of anything," he recalls.

After a work drought of some 18 months, Silvestri's phone rang again. This time it was one of the music editors that Silvestri had worked with on CHiPs. "I got this call at about 8:00 at night, and he said 'I'm working on this film, and these guys can't find anything that's ringing their bells yet. Would you be interested in doing something on spec?' Naturally, I said yes."

The conversation that Silvestri had with director Robert Zemeckis that night would prove to be one of the most important of his life. Zemeckis asked him if he could put together three minutes of music that would go with a South American movie sequence in which Kathleen Turner is chased through the jungle, in the rain, by a bunch of machete-wielding maniacs...and bring it in to him the next day. Based on Zemeckis' description, Silvestri stayed up all night in his home studio creating a three-minute demo for their meeting the next day. "I'm standing there in this Calvin Klein white sweater, and all of a sudden Bob walks in wearing the exact same sweater," recalled Silvestri. "Right then, we knew that we were connected for life."

Zemeckis' film was Romancing the Stone, which Alan describes as "incredibly important to everyone involved in it. It was important in terms of Bob's career as a director, it was important to Kathleen Turner and Danny Devito as actors, and it was important to Michael Douglas as an actor and a producer. There was definitely a kinetic energy which existed between everyone involved in that picture, and I think the audience picked up on it."

Seven films later, Alan Silvestri and Robert Zemeckis still bounce that energy off of one another. Their most recent collaboration was the #1 box office hit of 1994, Forrest Gump. In creating the movie's orchestral music, Silvestri set out to develop a score which would reflect the deep emotion of the film while comfortably blending with its classic songs. "Bob told me that he wasn't going to need what he usually needed from me in this film," he says. "He wanted me to put together one or two big themes, that would recur throughout the film. When I first saw the rough cut of the film, I thought 'What am I going to do?' There was so much emotion there, I felt that I needed a fresh environment."

"I started on the first reel, and as each cue came up, if I needed a new theme to fit that situation, I would sit down and write that theme," Silvestri recalled. "The score just came. There was so much content emotionally in the film, that the notes came without tremendous suffering. The suffering came from trying not to second-guess myself."

While soundtracks to every film Alan Silvestri has composed do not exist, there is a wide variety of music available in stores by this magnificent composer. The Quick and the Dead, Richie Rich and Father of the Bride Part II are just a few soundtracks which have been released on CD. Silvestri's distribution label, Varese Sarabande, released a Greatest Hits compilation on the composer, called "Voyages: The Film Music Journeys of Alan Silvestri" in late 1995.

He, he....I appreciate franz's effort to steer this back, but not quite yet.



Well, I think that the RC composers aren't so much asked to emulate ZIMMER as they're asked to adher to a certain musical TEMPLATE or PALETTE. And this isn't really very different from composers back in the day. Of course, I'm only speculating here, but I can't believe that when someone like Powell signed on to MV, there was a point in the contract that said "your music MUST sound like Hans Zimmer's!". You could of course argue that Zimmer is the CREATOR of that template sound in the first place....but hey, so what? He's a very influential composer who combined orchestra with synth in a new, almost prog-like way. And it's really a very flexible sound that allows for all kinds of variations and experiments. Personally, I think RC composers are taking that sound and going with it in their own unique ways, eventually even departing from it altogether when needed.