(Rant) One reason I prefer even bad old movies to most good new movies...

[robotmonkey]

btw mission impossible theme is from late 90's and i think it was fairly memorable

also twin peaks tune is top

Well, original was written in the 70's after all. Though I agree on Twin Peaks.

[aMUSEd]

I totally agree with the OP. I feel like music in film has become so formulaic that I can't remember the last time I was even mildly surprised by a musical choice in a Hollywood film. (except Q.T)
But that kinda fits with how I feel about big budget films in general, so I guess that kind of makes sense.

I also blame Mr Zimmer a bit. The music in the L.O.T.R's and the hobbit drove me insane!

I loved the beautiful score for LOTR, although I do feel that The Hobbit score was an attempt at rehashing it that failed.

Cliff Martinez writes beautiful scores - especially loved the Solaris remake soundtrack.

All of these are miles better imho than some 'classic' scores like pretty much everything by John Williams who imho is just unlistenable (although Morricone is brilliant - esp Days of heaven)

[bronxsound]

btw mission impossible theme is from late 90's and i think it was fairly memorable

also twin peaks tune is top

Well, original was written in the 70's after all. Though I agree on Twin Peaks.

my bad.

[bstageboss]

Italian composers like Morricone, Piccione, Trovajoli, Ciprioni, Baclov, Umiliani, Ortolani and others wrote a lot of scores in varying styles ranging from bombastic orchestral scores to avant-garde electronic to funk-jazz. And they definitely could turn out some pretty good and memorable melodies. I think this was one of their great strengths.

I'd have to agree that the Italian film composers come up melodies and themes that are very memorable and inventive, but with the tradition of opera in the country, that should be no surprise. Heck, whether you like it or not, you can even see traces of that in Italo-Disco from the 80s.

I used to work in a "jingle house" right around the time when most of the technology for doing digital film scoring became available to mortals. We had started doing trailers and game scores; and there was one thing that I noticed about putting action cues together:
Lots of percussion everywhere. I kept asking myself: Why?
Well, as it turned out, our boss and head composerwas a genius of sorts, but it had to do more with technology and marketing than with musical training. He'd started on drums and switched to keys later on (no disrespect to drummers intended). So he used percussion to generate motion and tension, rather than try to figure out chord structures, harmonic theory and voice leading. When you're on a deadline, there's no time for any of that. The sound was very powerful, and fresh enough at the time where the clients would be extremely impressed (most of the time they had no musical background, so it was a case of "Impress The Natives"). They liked it, paid us, and life went on.

So here we are today, and lots of modern composers are now at the point where time constraints keep you from doing anything other than what Hummie Mann calls "Storm Drum scores" when action is required; the slow scenes are mostly whole-note chord changes, which is (for me, at least) a typical result of letting your fingers do the writing, rather than your brain. I can't really blame the composers, since the deadlines almost force you to go on autopilot this way. But I do miss hearing something that will stick with me.

All of these are miles better imho than some 'classic' scores like pretty much everything by John Williams who imho is just unlistenable (although Morricone is brilliant - esp Days of heaven)

I actually like Williams' music up to about the mid-90s, but I think his work has started suffering from the same "deadline crunch disease". He still is above and beyond in his use of harmonic language, but something about his recent work is failing to resonate with me, which saddens me greatly. But for memorable themes, it's hard to beat his track record.

The vid I posted was actually a response to this one:



Sorry about the rant, but sometimes it's like you watch somebody yawn, and sure enough...

STV

[aMUSEd]

I actually like Williams' music up to about the mid-90s, but I think his work has started suffering from the same "deadline crunch disease". He still is above and beyond in his use of harmonic language, but something about his recent work is failing to resonate with me, which saddens me greatly. But for memorable themes, it's hard to beat his track record.

I just don't like it whether old or new - overblown, pompous, crude music, turns me right off.

[waiting man]

for IT composers in 60/70 try also Pietro Umiliani and/or Armando Trovajoli...

for the thread, I also disliked a lot all the 300/Gladiator/Rome & Spartacus series vibe. Not that I watch the shizzle, but it happens...
Had to wait for movies like Frank and the two Anderson's to get my hardons.

Loved all the Schifrin/Hancock stuff anyway.

[bstageboss]

@aMUSEd

I totally understand; Williams' music isn't everyone's cup of tea. A good friend of mine would agree with you; he considers it "very emotionally manipulative". (He also despises Spielberg for that very same reason.)
OTOH my friend is a self-described "theater geek", and that's a very different discipline. Much more rests on the actors and the direction. There's very little call for music in what he does.
I do like going in for an unabashed emotional ride every once in awhile, but that's just me.

STV

[aMUSEd]

@aMUSEd

I totally understand; Williams' music isn't everyone's cup of tea. A good friend of mine would agree with you; he considers it "very emotionally manipulative". (He also despises Spielberg for that very same reason.)
OTOH my friend is a self-described "theater geek", and that's a very different discipline. Much more rests on the actors and the direction. There's very little call for music in what he does.
I do like going in for an unabashed emotional ride every once in awhile, but that's just me.

STV

I have to admit the only film of his I can stand is Close Encounters. The rest either bore me or annoy me (or both). I do like an emotional ride but prefer one that doesn't feel so crude.

[Aleatoriac]

Depends on the movie.
So many movies are trying, essentially, to be and do the same things to us.

I completely feel the same way others have mentioned about composers forgetting to leave some space. Sometimes a scene needs just the actors, their voices and that's it.

Loved Williams' Close Encounters, I also love Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Not much else by him does anything for me. But he's quite dynamic, not monotonous at all.

Then again I'm incredibly weird and I think the pinnacle of television scoring is Sylvester LeVay's "Airwolf" theme. God what an awful show, but the music... Well, hell, some of the music is awful too. OK: the theme itself... there we go. That's the good stuff.

Or the Delia Derbyshire Doctor Who theme. I'd love to go back in time and be a fly on the wall watching (and hearing) her work. If ever the 20th Century produced a musical genius, it was her.

[bstageboss]

I've read that CE3K is supposed to be his most "cerebral" film( at least as Spielberg goes).

(Liked the stuff on your soundcloud BTW . Reminds me of the experimental pieces I created on my university's modular synth. Your sounds are a bit more advanced, though)

STV

[aMUSEd]

Thankyou - wish I had a modular system to play with

[Numanoid]

In recent years, I've heard many soundtracks that sounded like Lux Aeterna, big blockbusters, AAA-videogames, small indie-productions, trailers... that epic, dramatic, sad sound is penetrating everything. Even pop music. Numbing.

Modern documentaries suffer from the sample problem

It is not possible to watch a documentary these days which hasn't got an annoying tinkling "bitter sweet new age" piano in the background

[xoxos]

do you like ream-aches like when they ream you so hard the first time around. i don't watch fillems.

check out the ivie anderson/duke ellington "when my sugar walks down the street" then listen to anyone else's version (including contemporaries like ella fitzgerald).

basically, the duke version is so densely packed that chances are, your brain will shut down, after all, apparently twiddling a few notes seems to be sufficient for most acts. i mean, maybe jan is capable of sustaining attention enough to parse it.

somewhere in the forties i figure duke just got tired of being so good. what's the point when your audience isn't operating on that level. it's like one day, if i started writing posts that were all "good day to you sir".



edit here i'll help

[Googly Smythe]

Soundtracks are boringly similar because films are boringly similar. Mundane plots, explosions, crazy-fast editing in a vain effort to inject some drama, explosions, washed out colours, explosions, unlikable characters and yet more explosions.
I went to see the latest Bourne film - even closing doors had an earthquake sound effect.
Tan Dun's soundtrack to Jet Li's Hero is pretty good, though, with "violin and fiddling" (from the credits! ) by Ithzak Perlman. (Apologies if I've misspelled his name.)

[jancivil]

The only times I really paid attention to John Williams score for a movie (literally once or twice) I thought he was doing too much, to tell us what to feel about what we were seeing.

Sean Callery is doing some exemplary work in TV, esp HOMELAND. HOMELAND front titles music is practically Miles Davis. I was impressed by the subtlety and the surprise of a lot of the music for Rectify.

I don't know what yer on about exactly, Rurik, but that is not a very good Ellington thang to my ear. With 'classical', I began to tune out of Tonal music early on; jazz same thing with the harmonic lingo before bop, usually of little to no interest for me, with classical the whole shebang post-JS Bach, pre-Debussy isn't either. Except 'late Beethoven quartets' (this exception rather a cliche... Oh well.). I paid attention until I was around 23, when I strenuously moved away from Western European music aesthetically/psychologically. Corny jazz... my father's taste was progressive to avant-garde jazz, which was my environment. I came to Duke Ellington much later in life.

I almost went to see the 2009 Star Trek in the theater, tho' not alone as I would usually do but thought better about the whole enterprise. I saw it on my laptop, well say 20% of it cause I bailed; the music was hackneyed, wrong vibe and FAR too up in the mix. It actually killed the flick for me. Michael... whatshisname, Italian surname. Giacchino? He did Fringe... eventually an assistant did and you can tell... the good shit isn't Giacchino's. Least favorite film composer ever.