[Closed] Now Playing XLIV

Are you saying that Jeff Rona's score doesn't have music?

I heard it this morning, and it has music in it. Music composed for the movie, too.

NP: Armageddon - Trevor Rabin & Harry Gregson-Williams

Excellent work from all parties involved. Too bad that we can't get an official release of all of the music.

Oz: The Great and the Powerful - Danny Elfman

Also known as "recycling from the usual bag of tricks" - feels like we've gone back in time to the early 90s.

Same thing i was thinking today when i listened to Rona's Phantom. Media Ventures from the dark pits of 90's hell. Sigh.

It's one of my favourite Elfmans in the last TEN years!

The bible, mini-series ost, by Balfe and Zimmer

Not bad actually, although i turned to the mp3 player to re-instate i was in fact listening to Zimmer and not
Vangelis It's complete synths + Gerrard's voice + synthetic choir. It's The thin red line (no, not that good, more stylistic-wise) meets Vangelis with a slight Da Vinci Code dosage (the ostinati and the chorals ("creation choral" which is pretty good).

Very long chord phrases and extended melodic lines, slow and gradually building. Brass synth pads, high strings, very, very Vangeli-esque. Not bad at all, but nothing special either, disappointing that it doesn't have a real orchestra in it; could have sounded so much better with a real orchestra and this constant feeling of a man improvising on his synths (what the score is) would probably go away.

You got it!

-Erik-

The last 2 cues, 'creation choral' and 'rise up in faith' (the latter clearly influenced by Debney's outstanding ending cue for Passion of the Christ) are top stuff, clearly he saved everything for the end.

It is!! And I went straight on to Edward Scissorhands.

Wwwhhhat?!??

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is my 4th favourite score of ALL TIME! 'nuff said.

Clear and Present Danger - James Horner

Fabulous action score, easily the best of the Jack Ryan series. The second track is pure dynamite.

NP: Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann

This version is the Varese "expanded" release which added a significant amount of music to the original Mercury Records release.

Another classic score from Herrmann. I'd forgotten how much low-key passages there actually are in this score, but it certainly packs a punch. "Scene d'Amour" is rightly seen as a classic track - and it would be so much better for Scotty if the score/film had have finished on that emotional crescendo at the end of that cue!

Listening to the original tracks is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it is the original tracks and that is good (though the music is not conducted by Herrmann) - usually. Two reasons have me reaching for McNeely's re-recording after listening to this: firstly, some of the score is in stereo and the rest is mono (even mid-track, when several cues are joined together, there's a jump between the two) and, 2) the tapes weren't stored particularly well and there is significant damage in several places.

BTW, I would heartily recommend David Cooper's exhaustive analysis of Herrmann's score, "Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook", as a wonderfully informative accompaniment to the music.

NP: Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann

Joel McNeely's re-recording of Vertigo (with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) is an excellent interpretation of Herrmann's score: the romance of the score shines through, "Scene d'Amour" showcasing just how good the composer and orchestra understand what's required. I do find though that some of the details of the score are lost slightly in the mix; the glissandi harps for example aren't as prominent as I would like.

This Varese recording more-or-less duplicates the music as heard on the previous expanded release and represents about 60-65 minutes of the score.