THE THING - the prequel

Jon Broxton wrote
Are we listening to the same score?? I thought the music was OUTSTANDING in context, and just as good as a standalone CD, where you can hear all the creative orchestral flourishes in full detail, without all the obfuscating sound effects.

I understand the question "how long do we have to wait for real writing to come back into film music" but, really, Beltrami is the LAST guy you should be leveling this criticism at. He's one of the few mainstream guys who *is* writing real film music.

http://moviemusicuk.us/2011/10/19/the-t … -beltrami/

John Bender wrote
My post got responses - cool. Typically if I post at the FSM board I (metaphorically speaking) usually find myself standing in a big open field at night and listening to crickets - and that's all. (The FSM board is a weird place.)

My reply to your posts (and thank you): I have an axiom that I firmly believe in and I stick to: "In any debate between two parties of more or less equal acumen on the subject of the arts it will usually be the party holding the pro position who will be correct - or even who SHOULD be correct." I believe this because art is created to be experienced, understood and enjoyed. Based on this truth my lack of enjoyment with Beltrami's THE THING puts me in the inferior position and I accept that. I cannot accuse Jon and the rest of you of being stupid or wrong - that would be rude, ignorant and would accomplish nothing and of course I do not think it! But - art is nothing if not a complex component of human expression and experience.

I believe my (and "sdtom's") frustration with Marco's work is a valid clue that something real and pertinent is afoot. I assume we can all agree that if we compare Marco's THING score to Morricone's we see vast stylistic and formal differences - more differences than similarities in my opinion. How do I explain what I perceive? It is difficult but let me try: My perception is that Ennio's score involves the creation and use of fully formed and emphatically expressive musical constructs. By fully formed I mean that Ennio's cues each stand as independent statements, statements that, in a sense, mimic the cohesiveness of larger and/or more overtly independent structures such as a concerto or a ballad/melody/song-form - there will be a beginning, a middle, an ending.

Also there will be present a melodic identity that is profound and communicative on more than one level -

1) melody that is instantly and irrefutably recognizable AS an emphatic melodic construct,
2) melody that boldly communicates a mood, emotion, an ambiance, and
3) melody that will be substantial enough to harbor and readily communicate the composer's unique voice or personal imprint.

Now (and I may be wrong with this) to my ears Beltrami's end titles construct sounds like generic semi-melodic ramblings - a sort of stream of consciousness type of "writing" that is not unlike what one might do in the shower - a semi-melodic line that seems to have some vague structure and intent but never is fully realized. Of course Marco's end titles for THE THING is clearly "horror film music" - that is obvious. But this is because he is using only the most basic and familiar types of simplistic tropes and phraseology - kind of like your buddy's girlfriend catching him kissing another girl and you go (grimly and descending) "Da-da-da!" I hear Marco's THING end titles and I realize "OK, this music is telling me HORROR and FEAR." but I can detect nothing more than this. I can perceive a cohesive structure to Marco's end titles but I find it somehow basic and bland - it doesn't surprise me, it doesn't tax my expectations, it doesn't conflict with my own internal templates of what I might create if I were to compose an extended horror track.

Morricone's THE THING cues DO conflict with my own head because all of his stuff is so utterly and expansively MORRICONE! Every note and line and structure expresses his unique sensibilities, and this phenomenon is also every bit as present in the work of Barry, Herrmann, North, Piccioni, Cipriani, Ifukube, Satoh and many others. I'll end by saying that, based on my axiom, I may be wrong about all of this and just "missing the boat" as regards what is really going on in contemporary film music. You guys seem to love it and I can't ignore that. I'll keep paying attention. I certainly don't won't to be an old fuddy-duddy grumbling about how "They don't write scores like they used to in my day!"