YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

My 5th choice could so easily have been my 1st choice....


# 5 JOHN WILLIAMS - E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL


The reason this isn't number 1 is simply because I don't play it that often. This score for me is one of the most personal albums I own, Williams magnificent music is very connected with a sad event in my life back in 1982 to the point that the music has become that time and those memories, this score becomes, for me, far farrrrrrr more than the film it was written for, a personally poignant and emotional journey.

I should point out that I'm talking about Williams original rerecorded album on MCA as released at the time.

My fifth entry in this column is The Black Hole by John Barry

This score is a first cousin to Goldsmith’s Star Trek TMP: Both are science fiction scores, both have a terrific main theme, both brilliantly combine orchestral and synth elements. Both scores feature the Blaster Beam sound effect in abundance. Both films made their debut in 1979.
The main theme found my intention when the film aired in Germany in the mid-80s. Already being the Sci-Fi buff that back then that I still am today, I taped the film on VHS. The main theme with its sweeping Moog sounds blew me away! I had never heard something like that before. What did I do? My parent’s TV set lacked an audio line out link, so I placed my CC recorder in front of the TV set and copied the theme “though the air”. By today’s standards the sonic result was abyssal. But what did I care back then - the theme was mine! I recorded many themes that way and I later found out that I was not the only one to resort to that technique.
When I started collecting film music on CD around 1990 compilations were a major means of informations and orientation. The theme from The Black Hole was one I constantly searches for. I found one or two inferior versions, inferior because they did not feature any synthesisers. Then I found Erich Kunzel’s Fantastic Journey and my joy would have been complete had Kunzel recorded the longer end titles version of the theme.
The next step in this journey was a bootleg from Italy. Out of nowhere came a CD production of the LP soundtrack content, supposedly by the label “Mask”. That CD found its way to regular vendors until a few weeks later it was unmasked as a boot. The remaining stock was destroyed. Indeed that boot had been mastered from a LP in such quality that it never ceased to astonish me. For long years that bootleg was one of my most treasured possessions. I have to say, a closer look on that CD should have been enough to make anyone suspicious: Music from Howard the Duck was on this CD as well as some random music from [d]James Bond[/d]. No legal information, no nothing. But it sold well.
A regular CD release of The Black Hole had been clamoured for by collectors for years. Disney deemed the LP master unsuitable for a CD release. That did not hinder a release of that master in digital form. (Indeed the Overture march has seen a regular release on CD: On Sci-Fi’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 of the German Edel label. I wonder what the source of that track was.) The original master recordings were rumoured to be lost. It was known those had been digital recordings, allegedly the first of that kind in the realm of film music.
Then, in 2011, along came Intrada and announced the release of score in its entirety, mastered from the original digital source. This was the apex of my film music collecting career. The technological challenges that had to be dealt with to make this release possible are described in detail in the liner notes of this release and that is a fascinating read in itself. I still regard this CD in awe and wonder whenever I hold it in my hands.
One final word about the music: In all honesty the score is not on par with Goldsmith’s magnum opus of the same year. Aside from the “Main Theme” and the “Overture” the score is standard Barry, which means it never gets boring but it is nothing really to fuss about. Yet if you know the back story of the Intrada release and the story of the score itself, if you are as nostalgically attached to the film and music as I am, well, then this is one of your most favourite film music albums ever.

Volker

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ildwpls3sn3l5 … CI0011.JPG

E.T. is a great choice! It's not in my Top 10, but definitely somewhere in my Top 50. This was another that I analyzed in my thesis, so I obviously have a close connection to it (although not as personally as you, Timmer).

My choice:

5. BEYOND RANGOON (Hans Zimmer)

I remember finding the CD in a cut-out bin in the late 90s and picking it up based on Zimmer's name alone. Certainly one of my better deals. Ethnic textures are Zimmer's main forte, IMO, and my favourite part of his sound. He delves into these exotic elements by using a lush, romantic template. One of the most moody soundtracks I own -- I'm immediately transported to the shores of Burma with flying mosquitos, jungle branches flickering against a sunset backlight and heat waves rolling along the 'face of the water'. Goosebumps galore! (haven't seen the film in ages, so the brutal story it conveys is far away from my own experience of the album).

And yes, I know this album and score is very popular here at maintitles (and maybe elsewhere).

My #5 is...

MEET JOE BLACK - Thomas Newman

I just love that theme. And I love Thomas Newman's romantic side. This album has just the right balance between Newman's quirk and heart-melting gorgeousness, and it has my favorite piece of film music ever - "That Next Place." The additional music on the album is also very good. Newman often has a bunch of extra music that clutters things up, but the big band arrangement and the fantastic song at the end only add to this album's goodness. Great stuff!

I didn't misunderstand the film D, it was a tedious bore. I also remember being surprised that Newman's score sounded intrusive during the whole end sequence though I really wouldn't want to watch the film again to reaffirm that opinion.

I do agree with Christopher that it's a good album.

okay

When's you book coming out, Timmer?

YES!

There will be a tiny section dedicated to you.

I think a book on John Barry would sell.
Tom

#2: L'IMPRECATEUR (1977) by Richard Rodney Bennett, on Barclay LP.

I suspect this item is more of what Timmer is expecting from me!

A French-language film with music by U.K.-born Bennett. No Hollywood to be heard!

To me, L'IMPRECATEUR is an ideal soundtrack album to represent the intersection of contemporary classical music and music for film. Most of my top 50 soundtracks will be in this 'intersection' category.

Soundtrack collectors who already own and like this score may wish to investigate R.R. Bennett's concert music as well. His Symphony No.1, his Messiaenic piano concerto from 1968, and his 1975 violin concerto can be great companion pieces to L'IMPRECATEUR.
[for those who've never heard it - or of it - you need to acquire a taste for this type austere soundsculpture]

Mostly icy string writing, with percussion (and lots of keyboards - piano, electric piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, cimbalom, harps & organ).

While I'm grateful this quite obscure work has been re-issued onto CD by MusicBox Records, the CD also pairs Bennett with a Gabriel Yared score and sort of ruins the atmosphere of Bennett's music.
This is why I prefer the original French vinyl (which I remember getting in 1987 at age 20 from R.T.S. mail order )

Stop picking such big Hollywood blockbusters, Cobweb!

I don't mind a list of interesting sounding scores I've never heard of. (I've long given up coming here to see if anyone listens to what I do. )

Good to see you here Joep. Don't be a stranger ( as we say here in UK )

("You need a better composer for this", to which the famous reply was: "I know, but they're already dead").

I always found that comment a little irritating, the implication being that, at that time, John Williams was the greatest living composer. And who were the dead ones that could have been considered?

Anyway, a very very fine choice Pawel.

And I must say that while I know that this score is very depressing, it always makes me feel better. I think it's because of its musical quality. It is a cathartic score leading one to reflect, but also the amount of sheer beauty makes me appreciate what I have more than I sometimes do. It's a matter of personal experience, I think.

I have the same with The Thin Red Line... it's a film and score that always make me feel better, because there it's an hour of feeling OK with being who I am and the feeling of being understood. When I watch The Thin Red Line, I actually find it life-affirming, I always end up with a strong will to live my life the way I want to live it.

Weird, isn't it?