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Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites
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- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Happy to see some love for Jablonsky's TRANSFORMERS. It's a very catchy score despite the influences (Zimmer in the power anthem, Thomas Newman in "Sam by the Lake").
Honourable mentions for 2007 would be: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (John Powell), THE KINGDOM (Danny Elfman), PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (Hans Zimmer), NOBLE SON (Paul Oakenfold), MEET THE ROBINSONS (Danny Elfman), THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Johnny Greenwood), ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (A.R. Rahman and Chris Armstrong) and the aforementioned TRANSFORMERS (Steve Jablonsky).
But for me, the favourite is a mellow, beautiful, atmospheric score that is a cousin to Isham's own CRASH, perhaps:
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (Mark Isham)I am extremely serious. -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012 edited
2007.....more bad than good. Here's my favourites, as usual for me it's all about how enjoyable an album it is rather than whether it's a great film score.
BEOWULF - Alan Silvestri
Very close runners up include Alexandre Desplat's THE GOLDEN COMPASS, Dario Marianelli's ATONEMENT, Klaus Badelt's RESCUE DAWN, John Powell's THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and Marco Beltrami's LIVE FREE, DIE DARD.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Martijn wrote
Oh damn. I didn't get to respond to 2006.
Hope I will have some time to check 2007 ore thoroughly.
Sounds like a good choice for the top contender though!
Do both 2006 and 2007. I'll read it.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Yeah, just post 'em together. -
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Timmer wrote
Martijn wrote
Oh damn. I didn't get to respond to 2006.
Hope I will have some time to check 2007 ore thoroughly.
Sounds like a good choice for the top contender though!
Do both 2006 and 2007. I'll read it.
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 -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Thinking about it maybe it would be nice to give at least one days breathing space between years Alan?On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeSep 26th 2012
Timmer wrote
Thinking about it maybe it would be nice to give at least one days breathing space between years Alan?
I am being asked to slow down my years!!
I will try and find a happy medium.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 2nd 2012
I waited for long enough I think...
2008 - The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
The Dark Knight represents the culmination of the music for Chris Nolan's Batman films, with the score building on the "sound universe" of what came before in Batman Begins before (in my opinion) losing its way in the most recent incarnation of The Dark Knight. Right from the outset the grinding soundscape of a score grabs the attention and doesn't really let-up at any point in the film. For me, it's Zimmer's contribution that is the most interesting. Newton Howard's passages do offer a nice contrast to Zimmer's bombast but I usually find myself itching to get back to Zimmer's bits.
Paul Leonard-Morgan's score for the BBC documentary A History of Scotland comes a pretty close second to my top choice. The composer manages to limit the "Scottishness" of the score, focusing more on general themes of drama, romance and the trials of a nation. I think that the score does suffer a bit when heard in the programme itself by being a bit too prominent and there does seem to be a lot of tracking of specific segments of the score for when the aforementioned drama, romance and trials-and-tribulations are needed. But it's a very worthwhile score and would recommend it to everyone. Thomas Newman's WALL•E is a top score for 2008 as well. Typically Newman at its quirkiest but there's also an emotional heart (common in a lot of Newman's scores) that offers variety. A bit of a dark horse - and a score I only recently came upon - is Eric Babak's score for Die Eylandt Recherche: powerful choral work and dramatic orchestral support in several of the tracks made this score stand out for me. Though, a bit like A History of Scotland, what I have seen of Die Eylandt Recherche suggests that the score is a bit over-the-top - but I have not seen much of the film for which the music was composed.
Other scores worthy of a "mention in dispatches" are Theodore Shapiro's grand - seemingly tongue-in-cheek - score for Tropic Thunder, Jeff Rona's Songs of The Sea: The Regatta Suite, the in-your-face score for the video game BattleForge (Alex Pfeffer / Alexander Röder / Tilman Sillescu) and Danny Elfman's hypnotic score for Standard Operating Procedure.
A couple of lesser-known scores that are highlights of this year are Stefan Maria Schneider's atmospheric score for the short Aqua Ad Lavandum and Marco Antônio Guimarães' minimalist score for the film Blindness.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 2nd 2012
2008 was a pretty weak year, I thought. I though John Powell's BOLT was fun. JNH's DEFIANCE was good. There aren't any other scores from that year that I would recommend entirely, though the last handful of tracks from THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL are excellent, and "Eli's Theme" from LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is one of the greatest pieces of music from the last decade. That was a 2008 film, right? -
- CommentTimeOct 2nd 2012
I really like Nolan's BATMAN films and love how the score works in them -- especially THE DARK KNIGHT -- but for some reason I haven't yet connected to them as soundtrack listening experiences. And throughout this thread, that has been one of the most important criteria for me.
For me, the honourable mentions of 2008 are: MILK (Danny Elfman), THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (James Horner), WALL-E (Thomas Newman), INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (John Williams), WANTED (Danny Elfman), HANCOCK (John Powell), THE DARK KNIGHT (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard), CITY OF EMBER (Andrew Lockington), QUANTUM OF SOLACE (David Arnold), DEFIANCE (James Newton Howard) and KUNG FU PANDA (Hans Zimmer & John Powell).
But ultimately, it would be have to be:
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (Danny Elfman)
Maybe my favourite Elfman score -- at least very near the top -- in the 2000's. Love the Philipp Glass, love the appearances of the "Serenada Schizphrana", love the moodiness.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeOct 2nd 2012
I too think of this as one of Elfman's finest moments of recent times.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 -
- CommentAuthorPawelStroinski
- CommentTimeOct 2nd 2012
Ditto.http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website -
- CommentTimeOct 19th 2012
I'm looking forward to getting started although I will start with 1922.
Tomlisten to more classical music! -
- CommentTimeOct 23rd 2012
sdtom wrote
I'm looking forward to getting started although I will start with 1922.
Tom
I will finish soon Tom! I had planned on putting a big emphasis on finishing within a week but there was a request to not be so quick in order to let less frequently-visiting people comment - and that (cliché alert) blew the wind out of my sails.
I will try and get back on track again quickly.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 23rd 2012
sdtom wrote
I'm looking forward to getting started although I will start with 1922.
Tom
Looking at my list I only have one title from that year. So we may be in agreement.
We shall see!!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 -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeOct 23rd 2012
2008, a very underwhelming year.
I think my top score for that year is David Arnold's QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
Others that I liked were DEFIANCE, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, HANCOCK and ( you were right Thor, I do like it ) STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE.
I also agree with Alan on A HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, great stuff.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeOct 23rd 2012
I've got choices lined up for 1922, 1925, and 1927
Tomlisten to more classical music! -
- CommentTimeOct 23rd 2012
I will finish my list this week.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2012
2009 - Jeneraru Rûju no Gaisen - Naoki Sato
"What?" I hear you ask.
The Triumphant Return of General Rouge is a "comedy/drama/mystery" set in a Japanese hospital apparently. But what makes this stand out above the rest of the scores this year - a strong year in my book - is again something very personal and may be difficult to grasp for people who know of this score. I love rhythms and ostinato in my film music, particularly when it is strings dominated. And this score has that quality by the bucket load. At its height, the various sections of the strings play off against one another. And after all that Sato changes tack completely and brings the score to a close with some very emotional string writing. Percussion and piano add a bit of colour to the score. It's a great score that is likely to be contested by any of the worthy scores from this year (some of which are mentioned below).
A close runner-up for 2009 is Michael Giacchino's Up. I remember mention being made at the time this film came out that you really had to see the film in order to really appreciate what the composer has done with this score (Erik, I think that this may have been you who pointed this out). And it is true. Giacchino's theme is malleable to a lot of different situations, most effectively seen in the often-mentioned montage scene near the beginning of the film - "Married Life" - which is in turn happy/nostalgic/heartbreaking. Also a great score but just misses out. Marco Beltrami's Knowing and Chris Tilton's Fringe (Season 2) also rate highly in my book: particularly Chris Tilton's music for Fringe which seems to have found its musical feet by this second season.
Abel Korzeniowski's output in 2009 is of high quality with the likes of Copernicus's Star and A Single Man (the latter with Shigeru Umebayashi). Chris Young's Creation and Chris Gordon's Mao's Last Dancer are strong titles from composers always able to deliver good scores and Kolja Erdmann's Wildes Russland is also worthy of note.
TV scoring is strong here too - away from Doctor Who/Torchwood - with some interesting scores including Red Riding 1974/1980/1983 giving us three low-key but very listenable scores from Adrian Johnston/Dickon Hinchliffe/Barrington Pheloung, respectively.
And the Wii game's Monster Hunter Tri has a grand orchestral score from duo Tadayoshi Makino & Yuko Komiyawa and is singled out from a number of other, perhaps more widely-played, game scores.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2012 edited
Here's some clips of Jeneraru Rûju no Gaisen courtesy of SAE:
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_det … RAL-ROUGE/
Though they don't really do the score justice.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2012
Thanks for bringing this score to my attention, Alan!
My favorite score for 2009, hands down, is UN HOMME ET SON CHIEN by Philippe Rombi. It is so gorgeous, lots of piano, lots of strings, great themes. This is just the kind of score I love best. Runners up for me are Korzeniowski's A SINGLE MAN, and Aaltio's HOME OF DARK BUTTERFLIES. -
- CommentTimeOct 24th 2012
christopher wrote
Thanks for bringing this score to my attention, Alan!
My favorite score for 2009, hands down, is UN HOMME ET SON CHIEN by Philippe Rombi. It is so gorgeous, lots of piano, lots of strings, great themes.
host and executive producer of THE CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST | www.cinematicsound.net | www.facebook.com/cinematicsound | I HAVE TINNITUS! -
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012
2010 - TRON: Legacy - Daft Punk
I am sitting here looking at the list of titles that are this year's "also rans" and it's a pretty impressive list. It needed a pretty impressive score to top the rest and I believe that TRON: Legacy is that impressive. And any score that manages to pull off including dialogue on a track and making it sound awesome in some ways deserves to be the top of the pile.
I am sure most people will be aware of what TRON: Legacy is musically. For me it's the perfect fusion of electronics and orchestral elements, the extensive use of ostinato rhythms throughout and the choice of electronics that make this score. I am a stickler for how electronics sound - they need to be organic (!), they shouldn't be too harsh, too angular that they become difficult to actually listen to. And TRON: Legacy delivers in this - I want to listen to the electronics, want to hear their almost 3D presence. And, together with the orchestral elements and what Daft Punk do with their tools, it's a winner.
In any other year, Hans Zimmer's Inception would probably be top choice. In some ways it's quite similar to TRON: Legacy. But, rather than not being good enough, the latter score is just way more listenable to my ears. TV scoring features well in this "top tier" titles: David Arnold & Michael Price's music for Sherlock was an immediate attention-grabber when I watched the show (I seem to remember there being criticism for the music in that it sounded too much like Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes and they were accused of copying the style - even though the music had been composed before Zimmer's effort). And Murray Gold's musical landscape just keeps going and going with some great music in Doctor Who (Series 5).
Little-known composer (in 2010) Arnau Bataller had an excellent year penning the likes of La Herencia Valdemar and it's sequel La Sombra Prohibida as well as Ermessenda. And it was little-known composers who seemed to make the most impression in 2010 (though most of the music wouldn't be heard until sometime later): Victor Reyes' Buried, Haik Naltchayan's score for the documentary Chasing Legends, Maciek Dobrowolski's Clockwise and Andrew Hewitt's Cuckoo all excelled.
More well known composers such as Christopher Gordon (maintaining quality scoring after his success in 2009 with Mao's Last Dancer), John Powell, Michael Giacchino and Danny Elfman produced favourites Daybreakers, How To Train Your Dragon, Let Me In and The Wolfman, respectively.
There's lots of scores worthy of mention here for this year but there's not the space to list them. All in all, a great year.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012
Wow. Of the scores you just mentioned I have heard only two! TRON is very cool.
My pick is HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, without a doubt. It's so wonderful on so many levels. It's exhilarating, beautiful, super fun, and has great themes one after another. I consider it not only the best score of this year but it's in my personal top 20 film scores of all time. It helps that I love the film as well.
Other than those two scores there wasn't a whole lot from that year that excited me. I love the main theme to ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and "Flow Like Water" is a dynamite piece of music. I guess if I were familiar with the rest of what you mentioned I might feel differently about 2010! -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012
UN HOMME ET SON CHIEN by Philippe Rombi is my pick for 2009.
For 2010? My favourite is Hans Zimmer's INCEPTION closely followed by Daft Punk's TRON LEGACY. I also really enjoyed Danny Elfman's ALICE IN WONDERLAND.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012 edited
2009 was a really great year! Some very strong scores all around.
My honourable mentions go to THE DARK KNIGHT (Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard), PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND (Christophe Beck), ANGELS & DEMONS (Hans Zimmer), TERMINATOR: SALVATION (Danny Elfman), THE HURT LOCKER (Marco Beltrami/Buck Sanders), PUBLIC ENEMIES (Elliot Goldenthal), PONYO (Joe Hisaishi), TAKING WOODSTOCK (Danny Elfman), INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (various), THE ROAD (Nick Cave/Warren Ellis), SHERLOCK HOLMES (Hans Zimmer), A SINGLE MAN (Abel Korzeniowski), MOON (Clint Mansell), THE LOVELY BONES (Brian Eno) and BROTHERS (Thomas Newman). All of them great listens in their own right and for different reasons.
But for me, there's no question about the winner, one of the most visceral scores this person has ever composed, IMO:
AVATAR (James Horner)I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012 edited
....and 2010 was almost equally as impressive. Film music has really been chuggin' out the jewels over the last few years.
Honourable mentions to ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Danny Elfman), INCEPTION (Hans Zimmer), THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (John Powell), PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (Christophe Beck), THE WOLFMAN (Danny Elfman), SHUTTER ISLAND (various), THE GHOST WRITER (Alexandre Desplat), COP OUT (Harold Faltermeyer), THE GREATEST (Christophe Beck), RAVAAN (A.R. Rahman), PREDATORS (John Debney), BLACK SWAN (Clint Mansell/Tchaikovsky) and THE TEMPEST (Elliot Goldenthal).
But as Alan and others have said, it's one score that made a great impact in the film (mixed really loud) and is a superb mix of electronics and orchestra:
TRON: LEGACY (Daft Punk)I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2012
I am sure most people will be aware of what TRON: Legacy is musically. For me it's the perfect fusion of electronics and orchestral elements, the extensive use of ostinato rhythms throughout and the choice of electronics that make this score. I am a stickler for how electronics sound - they need to be organic (!), they shouldn't be too harsh, too angular that they become difficult to actually listen to. And TRON: Legacy delivers in this - I want to listen to the electronics, want to hear their almost 3D presence. And, together with the orchestral elements and what Daft Punk do with their tools, it's a winner.
Well said Alan. While I don't particularly like the score you nicely explained why you did.
Tomlisten to more classical music! -
- CommentTimeOct 28th 2012
2011 - Il Primo Incarico - Donatello Pisanello
I think that this is another "What?!" moment for a lot of people - particularly with 2011 being (I think) a particularly strong year in the end. Perhaps a tiredness in the usual Hollywood score is what's made me look further afield when it comes to music that makes an impact that sets it above the rest. Pisanello's score for Il Primo Incarico is a relatively simple score, based around 1-2 themes, and features only a small number of instruments (a few strings, guitars). But sometimes it's the intimate scores that have the greatest effect. The theme for Nena is beautiful (it does have echoes to Martin Phipp's The Virgin Queen) and it's featured in a variety of different forms throughout the score. It's a lovely score and one that I revisit often.
Documentary scores feature strongly in this year with Pinar Toprak's The Wind Gods, Nathan Barr's Hood To Coast and Bobby Johnston's No Impact Man: The Documentary offering variety in style to satisfy the ears. Horror-style scores such as Daniel Pemberton's The Awakening, Conrad Pope's The Presence and Marco Beltrami's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark are all definitely worth hearing - as is Christopher Young's Priest.
And also worth mentioning are the scores for W.E. (Abel Korzeniowski), Hella W (Panu Aaltio), Project Nim (Dickon Hinchliffe), La Ligne Droite (Patrick Doyle) and Jannos Eolou's The Christmas Tango. Not scores that don't really use the full potential of the orchestra but that deliver a punch nonetheless.
And finally, a very enjoyable score from Henry Jackman (Puss In Boots) rounds off a selection where I haven't even touched on accomplished "mainstream" scores that were strong this year.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 -
- CommentTimeOct 28th 2012
Well, that's me done with this list for the time being. It's been a long time in coming to a completed list and I apologise to everyone that it has taken so long to do.
I hope that people have enjoyed reading my selections and it's been great to see all the contributions along the way. This is a favourites list and as such each selection has been based on how it has affected me rather than whether or not it is "the best".
I have added a few scores that have been either composed more recently for silent films and re-recordings of early scores to the original list at the beginning of the thread just to make it a bit more complete (and take into account of scores I may have heard since I began the list:
1916 - Christus - Marco Frisina
1922 - Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie Des Grauens - James Bernard
1925 - Ben-Hur - Carl Davis
1927 - Metropolis - Gottfried Huppertz
1928 - The Passion of Joan of Arc - Richard Einhorn
Tom, it's over to you!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