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Own a classic score just because you "have to"?
General Discussions » Own a classic score just because you "have to"? (Posts 1 to 29 of 29)
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- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010 edited
Now that I try to downsize my collection, faced with an oversaturated market that is more interested in the latest limited release than second hand from little ol' me, I've been struck by a particular aspect of some of the titles, namely the socalled huge, CLASSIC soundtrack albums or scores that are often hailed as cornerstones in film music history. I realize that I actually have bought many of these just because they are what they are, how often they've been referenced and because of their overall position - NOT really based on my musical taste!
Roughly speaking, I would separate them in three categories:
1. THE CLASSICS THAT I LOVE TO LISTEN TO - include STAR WARS, THE ROCK, BLADE RUNNER, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, PLANET OF THE APES.
2. THE 50% CLASSICS - I like enough to keep playing them, but there's a whole lot of stuff that I don't like that much. Include JAWS, PSYCHO, CITIZEN KANE, BEN HUR.
3. THE CLASSICS THAT I DON'T LIKE - they're not without musical value, of course, but overall they don't really do anything for me and I've really just picked them up because they're labeled classics. Include LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DR. ZHIVAGO, KING KONG (1933), BATTLE OF BRITAIN, PATTON. Just to specify that all of these are great scores in the film (and deserve their status); they've just never done anything for me as a LISTENING EXPERIENCE alone.
It's mostly that third category I'm talking about here. Anyone else done the same?I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
Answer: no.Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
Christodoulides wrote
Answer: no.
So you have never at one point been curious to hear what all the fuss about a given score has been?
There is a curious dilemma in this, I think. One the one hand, you're a film music fan and should strive to have a representative collection (or at least knowledge) of said artform to call yourself that. One the other hand, you're an individual listener with an individual taste, and it is not guaranteed that you automatically enjoy something that is a classic.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010 edited
I used to buy scores because I felt I had to many years back, I do admit. Nowadays I only buy what I absolutely positively know for sure I will enjoy... and I rarely purchase CDs anymore. (Partly because I can't afford to, and partly because I d******d them. Otherwise I'd love to keep on collecting them.)
Sort of off topic here: I've very much got into the habit of making my own versions of albums since I now only listen to music on my computer. It used to be CDs in a Cd player many years ago, and so bad albums remained as bad albums. But now, if an album is too long, or isn't in the best order for the best listen, or even doesn't have some great cues missing from the complete score (if you can find it), then these days it's so easy to create your own version better suited to you! I love it, and I enjoy making those playlists.
Off the top of my head:
1. THE CLASSICS THAT I LOVE TO LISTEN TO: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Ben-Hur, Conan, Jaws, Braveheart, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, El Cid, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Magnificent Seven. (Ones that I never feel the need to make my own versions of. They're classics for a reason!)
2. THE 50% CLASSICS: Dances With Wolves (a great score, but I have to really really be in the mood for it), Doctor Zhivago (I LOVE the themes, perhaps not the whole thing though). Most of Herrmann's classics; proper classics in every sense of the word, but I generally only listen to Herrmann's music in suite form. Ooh, and Blade Runner; interesting in the film, but I can't bear to listen to it outside the film.
3. THE CLASSICS THAT I DON'T LIKE: The old Bond scores, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly... well, just about anything by Barry and Morricone in fact. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
Thor wrote
Christodoulides wrote
Answer: no.
So you have never at one point been curious to hear what all the fuss about a given score has been?
There is a curious dilemma in this, I think. One the one hand, you're a film music fan and should strive to have a representative collection (or at least knowledge) of said artform to call yourself that. One the other hand, you're an individual listener with an individual taste, and it is not guaranteed that you automatically enjoy something that is a classic.
Nah, i only get what i like beforehand. To do otherwise would be a financial and temporal luxury for me, neither of which i actually have.Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010 edited
That's true, which is why one tends to do these things as one is starting out, exploring stuff.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010 edited
This is certainly an interesting question, and quite topical for me at the moment. As I'm currently seeking out classic scores that I have missed before (why lament the lack of new exciting releases when there's so much brilliant stuff already undiscovered?) I'm often trying to make that desicion: why do I feel drawn to this score, just because I want to explore him, the influence that it's had, or because I love hearing it? And I often tell myself there must be a reason why it's endured all those time, it certainly can't be a bland score. Besides, even when I wouldn't enjoy it because of a certain beauty, there are other reasons to enjoy a score. And because I don't 'get' it the first time around, don't necissarily mean I won't 'get' it in the (near) future.
1. THE CLASSICS THAT I LOVE TO LISTEN TO: Indiana Jones, CE3K, Dances With Wolves, Herrmann's Hangover Square, Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Great Train Robbery, Conan, Flesh+Blood
2. THE 50% CLASSICS: Jaws, Alien, Braveheart, The Wind and the Lion, The Godfather (all scores where I love the main attractions, but where I rarely find myself listening to the whole thng)
3. THE CLASSICS THAT I DON'T LIKE (YET!): Goldsmith's Freud, Citizen Kane, King Kong (1933) -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
I've bought a number of classics that I never listen to but it was all pretty much pre-internet age.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
Timmer wrote
I've bought a number of classics that I never listen to but it was all pretty much pre-internet age.
You lived that long to remember and tell about pre-internet era?Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
I'm already turning to chalk mate.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
I began by purchasing compilation albums and then deciding.listen to more classical music! -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
It's hard to comment as the dynamics have been so consistenetly different for me, and I think -like Timmer- the fact that I started WAY pre-internet certainly helped me find my own ground.
I started with what I liked from what I heard from movies and then took out of the library.
That amounted to maybe 50-60 scores over the years (mind that in The Netherlands film music resources were just about non-existent! I frequently had to travel to Amsterdam to visit some of the more obscure record shops!).
Then over time and with the dvent of internet, I found recommendations: people listening to the same scores I did, and waxing lyrically about composers or scores I'd never heard of before. So I started looking into those.
I've bought the odd dud now and again: based on recommendation and status held high by people I hold in esteem, and which turned out not to match my taste at all. That happens, of course.
But simply buying music "because it's a classic" doesn't appeal to me. That very much seems like collecting for collecting's sake, which is something that I have never understood.'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentTimeMay 15th 2010
I don't care if a score is considered classic: if I don't like it, I don't buy it. Therefore my collection misses many so-called classics. On the other hand I have many-many scores that are considered classic by me. -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
We were fortunate to have record shops who would allow you to listen before you bought. That allowed you to explore the album past the compilation stage and decide if you wanted to get the score.
Thomaslisten to more classical music! -
- CommentAuthorJoep
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010 edited
No. But I have a great urge to get every Dutch score just because I have to. Something takes control of me when I come across a Dutch release and I need to get it straight away. Just now I've bought a terrible release of a Dutch hiphop artist who did a score (including some raps). -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
sdtom wrote
We were fortunate to have record shops who would allow you to listen before you bought. That allowed you to explore the album past the compilation stage and decide if you wanted to get the score.
Thomas
Now we're fortunate to hear the album in your own home before buying. It's called The Internet! -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
45 seconds of a 5 minute cue is not acceptable to me. But that is IMHO.
Thomaslisten to more classical music! -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
There are other ways, Tom. I don't listen to clips either. -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
I realize it is a thing of the past but my memories were stirred being able to go into a sound room and listen to the record on a pair of speakers that I could only dream of owning at the time. I had a $40.00 GE turntable/amp/speakers at the time and to be able to listen to Herrmann through a pair of Wharfedale sand enclosures was a dream come true. I lusted for those Wharfedale speakers more than any woman or car.listen to more classical music! -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
Steven wrote
sdtom wrote
We were fortunate to have record shops who would allow you to listen before you bought. That allowed you to explore the album past the compilation stage and decide if you wanted to get the score.
Thomas
Now we're fortunate to hear the album in your own home before buying. It's called The Internet!
It may be nostalgia but I'm with Tom, there was something fantastic about going into a record store and getting the assistant to play something for you, for want of a better word(s) there was a soul, a warmth to it......not something you get with the ice cold internet.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
Hmmmm...I always was too self-conscious to ever give a record a good listen in a record shop.
That aside, those cans were usually all grimey and disgusting from the accumulated sweat and earwax of a hundred customers before...'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
yikeslisten to more classical music! -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
Martijn wrote
Hmmmm...I always was too self-conscious to ever give a record a good listen in a record shop.
That aside, those cans were usually all grimey and disgusting from the accumulated sweat and earwax of a hundred customers before...
You forget the 'downsides' when peering through the rose tinted specs.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
I'm like Martijn, being too self-conscious to go into a record store and ask to listen to a film score! I'd mostly get my listen from watching the film and then buying the score.
As for buying "classics" for the sake of them being of such a status I do occasionally purchase said titles. But I believe that my tastes are so varied that I can usually find something worthy in most of these purchases. One title that does stick in my mind is Rosenman's The Cobweb. A score I had not heard of before it was released by FSM, a score that was very difficult to enjoy from the clips available. But it's place in the history of film scoring was enough to sway me to a purchase. It's not a score I listen to often and I don't have any tracks on my favourites playlists but I do sometimes listen to the odd track when I'm looking for some examples of 12-tone music. (And it may turn out to be a good title for a mystery clip game.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 -
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
What was its place in history Alan? You mean it also uses 12-tone music? (is that like 1-2-3 Pelham?)Kazoo -
- CommentAuthorPawelStroinski
- CommentTimeMay 16th 2010
As far as I've heard it was the first film score to use consequently this technique, yes.
Shire's Pelham is an amazing work, because it's hugely listenable (and a hoot in the AMAZING, just amazing, movie, I actually should watch this one again) while retaining some atonality in the melodic writing. It's dissonant thematically, but harmonically very good and the use of the jazz/blues sound makes it such a great work.http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website -
- CommentTimeMay 17th 2010 edited
PawelStroinski wrote
As far as I've heard it was the first film score to use this technique, yes.
That's my understanding too.
Shire's Pelham is an amazing work, because it's hugely listenable (and a hoot in the AMAZING, just amazing, movie, I actually should watch this one again) while retaining some atonality in the melodic writing. It's dissonant thematically, but harmonically very good and the use of the jazz/blues sound makes it such a great work.
Shire's excellent score is much more listenable than The Cobweb - which suggests to me that Shire's use of this "modern" technique is a bit more subtle!
BTW, Shire's score to The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 is getting a bit of an airing to a wider audience at the moment: it's the music that's associated with Southern Comfort advertising during the breaks in True Blood (which just finished it's second series.)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 -
- CommentTimeMay 7th 2021
Kinda interesting topic still, this. I've listened to and sold/deleted many "classic" scores throughout the years because they didn't work as a listening experience.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeMay 8th 2021
Thor wrote
Kinda interesting topic still, this. I've listened to and sold/deleted many "classic" scores throughout the years because they didn't work as a listening experience.
I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have deleted scores. I have kept almost everything I have acquired over the years - much of it I have only listened to once.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
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