YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

...my 4th choice


# 4 THE BIG COUNTRY - JEROME MOROSS ( 1958 )


Much as I love the full original score it can be difficult to sit all the way through unlike Silva Screen's wonderful rerecording under Tony Bremner's baton which I have played so many times over the years. This score is just EPIC and a melodic feast from beginning to end and unless you're an ancient Japanese soldier all alone on some Pacific Island thinking WW II is still happening then I doubt you've not heard one of the greatest film themes of all time...

THE BIG COUNTRY THEME

One of my most memorable experiences was hearing this on a car radio while driving out to The Grand Canyon, one of those sublime moments of art meeting life.

Not seen either of them. ( I don't really like Hoosiers score either. Rudy is very good though )

Great post, Michael. That's a very worthy choice, and I agree with much of your description of the score and its various highlights. I love "Twilight Cellos," "A Certain Light," "Kiss," and "Love Remains." Excellent stuff.

Pawel, your choice comes as no surprise, but thanks for sharing your thoughts about it

D, I've never heard THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. I've heard it mentioned a couple of times, but not enough that your choice was expected. I'll have to look into that one.

Awesome choice Captain. And I think it's the first choice not coinciding with a score I already listed to come up that will be featured in my list.

A part of the liner notes in the LLL album of Star Trek: TMP is the discussion of how it shows a transition from the modernist to the romantic in Goldsmith's career. I think that's an interesting point to explore deeper.

BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. This is my #2 choice. One that I return to on a very regular basis.
Tom

It is relevant indeed. Other album incarnations of THE BIG COUNTRY would likely not have made my top 50 despite it being one of my all time favourite scores.

Now to my number two, though it comes about, because I listened to it today and all these emotions came through.

James Newton Howard - Snow Falling on Cedars

I've known the score for ages, but it became very personal when I actually bought very cheaply the CD off an Amazon seller (it was OOP for quite a while already).

I've had a fascination for Japanese culture for a while now. While it wasn't specifically the reason, of course, it was this fascination which led me to start talking to this forum's Miya on my own (she's working quite hard right now, on a couple of things, she's fine for those concerned), which ended up with my closest friendships, at this point resorting to online contacts, but still.

Howard's score, written for a combination of courtroom drama and a crime thriller is an interesting approach. The court case at heart of the story leads to an exploration of the difficult past of Japanese immigrants in the country. It is widely known, of course, that the Japanese Americans were mistreated after Pearl Harbor and even after the war (as the film shows, I have NOT read the novel yet) the relationships were full of mutual distrust (the Japanese having strong memories of the internment, the community having strong memories of the surprise attacks and of course treatment of POWs, war crimes, etc.). What James Newton Howard does with the story is interesting, because it is a metaphysical companion to the story, which, save for the extensive use of flashbacks (Ishmael's relationship with Hatsue before the internment, His father's disdain and publicly voiced protest against the internment, Carl's death and the events surrounding it), is quite straightforward.

The metaphysical approach could be properly called a religious one. It's by no accident that the most heavily referenced composer is the, as literature suggests, "religious minimalist" Arvo Part. While Japanese ethnic instruments (most notably a shakuhachi) are extensively-though-carefully used, the Christian musical elements actually underscore something very important for the Far Eastern spirituality. The choral outbursts (except The Evacuation and the Tarawa flashbacks) mostly represent scenes featuring nature. The sense of awe and spiritual connection to nature is a very important element of the Japanese culture and Howard builds the bridge by using Christian elements to underscore that aspect. With help of Robert Richardson's exquisite cinematography, James Newton Howard's score gives the movie a very magical, if dark, atmosphere. While the emotional outbursts like Evacuation and Tarawa are firmly there, the score is another exercise in restraint, not really crossing a certain line unless necessary (be it the aforementioned sequences or the dramatic courtroom moments like Susan Marie Remembers or Humanity Goes on Trial). This beautiful restraint shows up in my favourite cue and one of the most moving for me on also a personal level.

The reason why Ishmael is interested in the case is not just being a journalist and Carl's death being a big thing for the town's community. The defendant's wife was his former lover and it's a feeling that he never fully got over. So when at the end, there is a lot of unresolved issues before the two. Howard and the scene start slowly to the point where Hatsue asks him, as per the cue's title: "Can I hold you now?". The resolution of this hug, putting an end to their past and the present, combining emotions that have been hidden for years... it's just a simple musical crescendo for Howard and not really dramatically overdoing it. It still comes from everything that was written before it, it's a definite part of the previously carefully created soundscape. It's just the right way to end it.

I love when a story ends with an emotional outburst. I love it when the resolution is not overdone, but just sets everyone free in terms of intensity. An exercise in restraint leading to just letting go at the end... it's my favourite way of scoring a film. Knowing that the viewer, the director, the composer, everyone... earned this.

Pleasure to see you posting as always, Joep. I don't know that specific Karaindrou, but her music always has a special, desolate and lonely quality to it. I can more than understand why music that shows up absences in your life would be a favourite. Another album I was sorely tempted to post about here does much the same to me.

Interesting thoughts on Snow Falling, Pawel. I'm not sure the Arvo Part brings specific Christian overtones to the tale except in the ear of specific beholders. (Those who know a bit about Arvo Part's personal journey.) But then subjectivity is the key to this thread.

Karaindrou's masterpiece is still Angelopoulous' ETERNITY AND A DAY, IMO, but that may be coloured by the fact that I love the film so much.

And that is in fact the film he's talking about.
Personally I'm a Ulysses Gaze guy.

I'll give it a listen in some time, but I kinda recall "ora pro nobis" being sung in the cue, then it would harken at a litany, actually.

Hey, Timmer:

I'm happy to report that I have determined my favorite 50 albums.
Yet, I'm still unhappy about the number of soundtracks I've ruled out of the top 50.

Hope to post #1 later on Jan 8th ...

A great choice. 'Ghosts' is mine from that score.

Cobweb, I don't know who you are, but you have taste, and a great deal of it.