Who Is new Here? / New Members kindly introducing themselves

You're just too kind Peter.

I feel like a right old rotter.

Hehe, I didn't mean to imply that criticizing was wrong and that we should stop doing it. In fact I'm all for criticizing the album experience. I just meant that I can understand why film composers tend to avoid places like these.

Peter

Yeah, it's mostly a matter of taste.

Personally, I enjoy Santaollala and Reznor's work, and think their Oscars were very worthy.

I'm also a fan of Rahman, but I actually agree with you there. SLUMDOG was largely disappointing, and seemed more to be hype and "exoticism" more than anything. The irony is that almost anything else he has done is much better than SLUMDOG, but that no one (in the West, at least) know about.

Precisely what I meant. Thank you

A composer has potentially made hundreds of sensitive musical decisions over the course of an entire work, and may have spent long hours in the painstaking process of realising the source of their inspirations to paper.

Then follows an intricate process of working with musicians (and/or producers) in a recording situation, where the composer's work is transferred to an inspired (hopefully!) audible result. Finally, a studio mix is prepared, also time consuming, where again hundreds of sensitive decisions are made concerning balance, timbre, foreground/background etc.

Finally, a product is put out to the market.

Of course, criticism is vital and always has been. But those who are unaware of the artistic choices being made and are unwilling to explore them are bound to end up with inaccurate expectations to what they are going to hear/experience, and the feedback will certainly be invalid to the composers themselves if the listener is not willing to take off their hat and come explore the artistic landscape of which the music infact does evolve within.

In my opinion and experience, as a critic, you need to explore the music, not only hear it once or twice to then compare it to what expectations you might have had in your own mind. You need to question what is being heard, not merely accept whatever is thrown out of the orchestra/ensemble/band and let important musical events and artistic decisions go past you without reflection.

On forums there are a lot of non-academic presentations of opinions (more-or-less unreflected), and it is a natural and logical thing - and a healthy thing (I have observed myself doing this!). Important too, from a sosiological view, as places like this are contributive to the very manifistation of the marginal market that film music is. And it is a valuable and growing market.

But by profession, only producers of pop music are intent on creating music that perfectly suits a given market situation. Only they are asking themselves (as demanded by their profession) what people are expecting, and diagnosing the market situation in order to provide the "perfect" product - almost like a doctor diagnoses a patient.

Film composers do the same thing, but they limit the area of their focus to what unfolds within the film they are working on. They select instruments, genres, tempos, compose melodies - or make a decision to avoid them altogether, because of their interpretation of the filmic universe they are involved in creating.

I think listening is an art form, and the critique of art is at least an artistic process if not also an art. So I believe comments on art should be creative. Infact, I think the primary value of critique is creativity: new perspectives, reflected interpretations, presentation of newfound rhetoric that challenges both the composer and the listeners! Etc etc...

It is then unfortunate that a lot of boring (read: selfish) critique goes around in the soundtrack review communities, it really only encourages decadence if anything.

Listening is a form of art?...........im one of the greatest artists then ..im so happy XD

Sure Martijn, I respect that you don't want to share what you're in disagreement with - but I'm glad you told me anyway. If you do want to point out a couple of things, roughly of course, I'd be glad.

I'm not neccessarily in complete agreement with myself, I only do my best to express what comes to my mind at a certain time. And next week I'll be thinking new things and exploring some new hypothesis, always being a student, always looking for new impulses. But I see how my contributions here can be tiresome to engage in... I wish it wasn't so! :p

Nice to hear that Martijn...;-)...though of course i read with interest the post of Mark as well.

I don't disagree. Believe it or not... I agree!

I just re-read what I wrote earlier and don't feel I contradicted this. But maybe I'm reading it differently? The closest I come to presenting any one-true-way of anything is perhaps when I suggest a music critic has a distinguished responsibility to the given work being critiqued: that a common mistake being made (in my opinion!) is to evaluate the music for what it is not rather than for what it is. To be unwilling to explore the work as a listener, but rather expect it to reveal itself automatically. Not only in the soundtrack community of course, but many other genres.

A strange exception might be the classical genre, where there exists a patriotic companionship within the community (as it has become so marginal). The ratings of new releases sometimes tend to be overly generous, almost as if it were a marketing strategy conspiracy, and often reviewers seem to cover up for lack of insight by offering excessive flattery. Like little love poems to the artists. One could disagree, but I often feel those are the symptoms when I'm reading BBC or Grammophone. It sometimes feels pretentious.

And of course in that community, one rarely questions the composer - its all about the performers! Even in cases when the music is obscure and unknown to the public, the contents of the composition itself are only touched superficiously - as the critics listen in a very different, much more performance-orientated way than what soundtrack reviewers are used to. Soundtrack reviewers seem more interested in the recording technique and technology - something classical reviewers often are unknowledgable about.

The soundtrack reviewing community is much tougher in comparison, partly because it consists of so many hobby reviewers and websites that don't know the artistic processes in the same intimate way as the more educated classical reviewers, who are often performers themselves and might have teaching posts within higher and lower music education.

But there are great benefits to be found in a community where the fans do the critique. Sometimes it seems though, that the trends in film music are going one way, and the critique of it is going another. People seem to be more interested in where it is coming from than where it is heading. I think that is unfair towards the artists themselves.

/rambling :P

...

P.S. - Peter, I liked what you wrote. I think a good film composer and a good composer is the very same thing

Welcome to greatest film music community on the interwebs!

-Erik-

Welcome!

Anthony welcome, I'm sure you'll love it here

Nice to have you here, Anthony. Hope you'll become an avid poster.

I've warmed alot up to Filmtracks the past few years, but MT is still the friendliest, funniest and most interesting place to be, imo.

Peter

Who are your favourite composers/music Anthony?

Not even Looking For Richard and Dogma? Both scores foreshadow his Rings scores.

I've no idea how easy these two are to get now but yes, both were available commercially.

Edit : DOGMA, Movie Music store has one used for $3.99, Amazon UK has Looking For Richard very cheap too.