Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites

Well, people who talk about film music define it too, to make common frames-of-reference. However, I'm also basing it on the MOST COMMON DEFINTIONS in film music literature. It makes no sense to use the word as it applies to the musical score sheets in classical music history. In film, the word has a DIFFERENT meaning.

A song score and an orchestral score are both scores, and that's the end of it.

Incidentally, in musicals, people also talk about the 'score' as a word that envelops BOTH songs AND instrumental score, if there is any.

Why am i even bothering :sigh:

Beats me. I must admit that this is the first I've encountered someone who did NOT define song scores as scores. Totally

And this is the first time I've ever heard anyone define it like you. Even wikipedia agrees with us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score

I'd agree that it can be a grey area between song and score though, so it might not be the best definition. But that's how I've always heard it defined.

Peter

It's Saturday night and I've had a bit of wine so the juices are flowing (BWT, not those juices) and I was pleased to see that there was so much interest in this topic!

And, Erik, I'll have that nut - song scores are not included in this list.

When I rip a CD that contains both songs and orchestral tracks I will not rip the songs. Personally, I think that they are robbing an opportunity for a film score composer to create something wonderful. I can see why people choose to select a playlist to adorn their movies: everyone, including me, has a list of songs that illustrate their lives. But, I'd never buy a CD featuring a compilation of old songs for a movie. Songs that are composed specifically for a film (e.g., Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Legend Trip, etc) I'll listen to if I like the track as a song but have no meaning for me as part of the movie.

D, and the rest of the world.

Peter

Seriously, man, the word has probably between 5-10 different meanings in and of itself. You have to limit it to the FILM medium and how the word is used there. No one - and I mean no one in my 20 years of being interested in film music - has ever suggested that a film that uses original songs as its music does NOT qualify as a score. Neither in film music communities nor in film music literature. Untill now. It's just absurd. It's like saying apples aren't a type of fruit.

If Alan doesn't want to count those scores, though, then that's his prerogative. No problem. However, that doesn't make them something other than they are. That's an important point.

Believe what you will, Thor; definition discussions are a bit silly after all, and perhaps people are getting a bit carried away in this thread, with what is essentially a rather pointless discussion. As long as I understand what you mean when you use the word "score" that's all that matters, and now you know what I, Erik and D mean when we use the word.

It's curious though that we have so dissimilar experiences, as I can use the same words you used, i.e. "No one - and I mean no one" in my experience has ever suggested the definition you use either. In any case there are probably varying opinions about the word, even among professionals, and it would be an absurd suggestion to say that a word has a true, objective meaning.

Peter

Sure. I hereby register the quite different way we define a 'film score' (as I said, it's the first time I've encountered this discrepancy, which is why I've dwelled with it a bit), so let's just leave it at that and move on with Alan's Favourites (sounds like a dish on a menu!).

1969 - La Battaglia del Deserto - Bruno Nicolai

I'm definitely going to come in for a lot of stick for this choice. Especially, when you see what other scores were released this year - and when you hear my main reason!

Looking down my list there's a whole raft of wonderful scores: Once Upon A Time In The West, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (sorry Tim), etc. As well as a couple that are more personal favourites (Bernstein's The Bridge At Remagen - a great theme, Fred Karlin's The Stalking Moon - one of the greatest tracks never used!) And some wonderful TV themes: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Department S, etc)

But Nicolai's Desert Battle is a score that I go back to again and again and I invariably listen to it from start to finish. It has to be one of my top 10 themes - and it's featured again and again throughout the score. And in a variety of different guises. From the grand statement of the main title theme, through the delicate rendition in tracks such as "Sosta" and the reflective "Reminiscenze". Just brilliant!!

Coat ... ->

Last time round it was Morricone's Once Upon A Time In The West that I chose for this year, and I'm sure that Barry's On Her Majesty's Secret Service would have been chosen several years ago. But I was thinking about what I'd want to listen to if I had to choose and I couldn't get away from the fact that I'd choose Nicolai's score for that wonderful theme.

I've not heard Nicolai's score but I want to.

Gulp I actually agree with Thor on the Reivers.