[Closed] Now Playing XLIII

Nice stories Tim and James.

I remember that after a concert of Craig Armstrong, we were outside waiting to have a chat and signature with the man (there's no back entrance!). After half an hour, he comes outside with two bodyguards, one of which was quite Scottisch. They first stopped us, but then Armstrong looked in our direction and said it was okay. He was rather quiet and that chat was very short.

NP: Music from The Edge (John Corigliano)

Aka Edge of Darkness (rejected score) -- released this past year by one label to whom Corigliano fans are grateful. It's a solid effort -- one that unsurprisingly draws on the whole resources of the western orchestra (so rarely tested for films these days), even if the story doesn't give scope for the same compositional freedom as Altered States and The Red Violin did. A core theme for the character of Mel Gibson's daughter opens the score, and closes it in a surprisingly epic way. In between there's quite a bit of a variety to the abrasive orchestral material -- fans of Elliot Goldenthal will recognise aspects of his sound as being influenced by his mentor here. There's a slight reprise of one Red Violin piece in there.

Now, it's not wonderful. Maybe that's disappointing given the rarity of any score -- rejected or not -- from this titan of the classical scene. But if you were ranking orchestral scores by the quality of the writing, this would be topping your list for albums of new film music out in 2012.

And yes, there is one thing that doesn't work for me at all, and that's the very classical song for the closing credits. It's not the orchestration, nor the melody -- it's the lyrics, which are in English, and the mouthpiece, a classically-trained songbird. It can't help but feel incredibly conservative. This sort of thing arguably can work for something like Rise of the Guardians (where Desplat's song could be similarly described), given the playful content. But here it just doesn't work. The Kathleen Battle song for House of Flying Daggers also comes to mind. Not a shining moment.

We'll never know how any of this would have worked for the film, because of course the score didn't make it. And perhaps that's not so surprising -- writing like this for dramas is so rare these days, it feels like it would need commitment from the producers to stay. I do feel though that for all of Corigliano's stature, it would not have made the impression on people that the original Kamen/Clapton score for the miniseries did. (Mind you, it's hard not to think that the miniseries and the film -- despite featuring the same director -- are pitched at very different audiences.)

Rise of the Guardians - Desplat

My first listen to this and I'm not sure I'm getting the enjoyment from it that others seem to have. It's nice, fun music - kind of like a mid-range John Powell score for an animation. I'm not sure it would be in the top half of my ranking of Desplat's nine 2012 scores though.

It's an okay score. But I can't hear where the love for this comes from.

It's very well written music. But it does feel like the desplat score you'd like if the rest didnt do anything for you. And because its the type of score that we've been trained to think only works in animation - like pavlovs dog - it's hard to take it very seriously either compared to the sort of emotions he usually elicits with his music..

HA!

assuming that was a joke. If so it was a good one.

Die Hard with a Vengeance Kamen

If I could go back 15 years and give this to my teenage self he would be very happy indeed! How wonderful to have all the 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' material, 'Bank Invasion' is a stunner! The release is very long but I find it holds up pretty well, certainly much better than the 2 disc Die Hard 2 (Which I find wonderful in small doses).

agree with you on your assessment although I'm still holding out hope for it.
Tom

This very cut-down presentation works a bit better for me... (descended from Erik's trimming of the score)

Old Friends (Extended Version)
Axe or Sword
The Adventure Begins
The World is Ahead
Radagast the Brown
The Hill of Sorcery
Warg Scouts
The Hidden Valley
Dreaming of Bag End
The Edge of the Wild
Riddles in the Dark
Out of the Frying Pan
A Good Omen
Song of the Lonely Mountain

That's pretty much an hour of listening, and it seems to be plenty. Sometimes I throw in The White Council too.

I'm not fully convinced by the random nature of that triumvirate.

By the time I'd typed the names out, neither was I!

LIONS FOR LAMBS | mark isham

Not sure why one would trade lions with lambs, but since Tom Cruise is included, ridiculous stuff is bound to happen. One of my favourite scores of Isham though, with that great pulsating main theme and the fantastic last two tracks Last Shift and End Credits.

Not sure how much ridiculous stff is bound to happen in a movie that was directed by nobody else than Robert Redford (No, I haven't seen it yet)

I've seen it; it's a pretty decent political advocacy movie, featuring Meryl Streep as a journalist and a young Andrew Garfield, among others.

And yes, the score gets really good towards the end.

http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/t … rschudnow/

My review
Tom