YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

Hmmm? Surely 13.1 should be 14?

Fair enough. I've never heard it and did not know that it was unreleased.

Please continue as you were Cobweb.

#14: THE CHALLENGE (1982) by Jerry Goldsmith, on Prometheus CD (2000).

A long-time favorite Goldsmith of mine. I had rented the movie on VHS tape in 1987 and tape-recorded the whole thing because this was the only way to hear any of Goldsmith's 3 collaborations with director John Frankenheimer. (neither SEVEN DAYS IN MAY nor SECONDS were on LP, either).

When Prometheus released it for the first time in Y2K, it easily became one of my favorite albums as well.

Have never gotten the re-issue of THE CHALLENGE on La-La Land and thoroughly avoided that whole 'missing kitchen mixing bowls' situation.

As for the music itself, I realize fans are divided about its content. A few people even consider THE CHALLENGE to be one their least favorite albums by Jerry G. To me, it's an ideal blend of his action cues with his 'ethnic' ventures.

I love JG in his Japanese mode. TORA! TORA! TORA! is another top Goldsmith with me, but, since that soundtrack has WW II source music, I disqualified it from my Top 50 for this thread.

As a result, Jerry Goldsmith's 2nd appearance on my Top 50 is also his final one (I simply needed, also, to include quite a number of lesser-knowns on my listing so that no particular composer dominates).

I love Tora! Tora! Tora!

I don't think I listened to The Challenge on the whole, but I do love Wrong Sword.

Yeah, I have issues finding my #4, because I don't want to hijack my top 10 with a single composer though I might cave in on this one

Seriously though, I should take a listen to RZA's Ghost Dog. The *film* is a very personal one for me.

4. Hans Zimmer - Beyond Rangoon

This score represents what I call a "personal epic". It's quite atmospheric with a chamber ensemble (electronics, strings, flutes, nothing else), but has a big scope.

Not unlike The Thin Red Line, the score has a sense of journey. But the journey takes us inwards. It gives a sense of going *into* our own emotions. I can't explain it better, sadly. That's what the score means to me and sometimes I just don't have the language (even in my native Polish) to explain such things, even to myself.

This score is one of melodic quality that even Hans himself rarely surpasses. It's quite interesting. He has a big melodic talent, sometimes even obsessive in terms of harmonic pleasantness (rarely he ventures into atonality, more, rarely he gives a single theme played in one chord only), but with some short exceptions, achieved mostly atmospherically, this score is ethereally melodic. Also I would like to point out that the string writing is quite unique in terms of what they add to the score.

Usually strings are used (as per Rimsky-Korsakov) as the basic medium of emotions in music. Here they, mostly, they are relevant in the action writing as well, play an atmospheric warming "bed" (a bit like a live synth pad, really) for the music. That way it gives the music, which sometimes gains epic proportions, mostly through its theme statements (the big, epic, theme is stated only once on the album, before the end credits piece, which is based on it for most of its 10 minute duration), intimacy and warm.

Another thing I really love Hans' music for and this score does it beautifully. At least before somewhere near 2007-2008 he was very capable of creating musical worlds, which shouldn't be shocking, when you know that Vangelis is one of his biggest self-admitted inspirations. This score creates an internal world. While sad, the music almost never becomes cold. That way it prepares for the empathetic masterpiece, which would be The Thin Red Line.

For the first time a TV score makes my list...

# 15 BENJAMIN BARTLETT - WALKING WITH DINOSAURS / WALKING WITH BEASTS


I was in a bit of a quandary choosing here as both have CD releases, so I've sort of done a "cheat" ala Cobweb ( Loosely ), my reasoning being that the Walking With Beasts CD contains a healthy selection of Walking With Dinosaurs.

There has been many fabulous documentary scores over the years but on the whole they are rarely released in any shape or form beyond a DVD/Blu-ray release so thank the gods for this, one of the best "documentary"* scores out there. For me, either of these albums are a transcendental experience, these scores take me back to a time when the moon was closer, where the air was more oxygenated, when there was a super continent named Pangea populated with some of the strangest and most awesome animals ever to walk or swim or fly the Earth, Bartlett conjures all this with a wonderful palette of colourful orchestrations and occasional electronics for otherworldly and ambient elements that bring a world of pre-history to fabulous life, it feels like being in that time, unlike John Williams magnificent Jurassic Park scores which, bar a few tracks, has it's musical awe from a human stand point.

Before I go I should also mention that Walking With Beasts also contains three tracks from a one-off Walking With Dinosaurs special, THE BALLAD OF BIG AL, about the life and eventual death of a young Allosaur, a supposition based on bone injuries contained in a museum specimen. IMO there's not a dud track on either album, 10/10 for both!

Here's one of the tracks from BIG AL BATTLE OF THE SALT PLAINS

*The word Documentary being used very loosely for these idealised programs.

My no. 15.1 and 15.2:

Since we are talking compilations now: Compilations have been of great importance to me when I started out collecting film music around 1990. Internet was unknowen to me then, so compilations were an important guideline and a source of information. Erich Kunzel and Charles Gerhardt of course must be mentioned here.

Two compilations by John Williams and the Boston Pops on the Philips label were among the first film music related CDs I ever owned:

Out Of This World
and
Star Wars: The Best Of Space Music

These compilations were a revelation back then because they provided me with almost all those SiFi fanfares I loved so much. Title themes were all that interested me back then.

These CDs provided me with stellar recordings of the STAR WARS OT concert suites, the themes from Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, E.T., Close Encounters, Twilight Zone and more. I cherish these recordings till this day.

Volker

But ... but ... these two CDs are so closely related, the content partly overlapping even. What should I have done ?!

Looking through my future lists I can confirm there is no more .1's from me.

I really did think it was fair to include the 2 cd's in my list. Walking With Beasts contains 6 tracks of the 20 track Walking With Dinosaurs album.

#16 will be a John Barry?

Maybe? Maybe not!?

If I were to participate in this thread I'd probably cheat and list the three Lord of the Rings scores as 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3...