Film Scores

[alicebandassassin]

a good movie score by deffintion has to be the one you do not notice because it is so much part of the film

[pokernut951]

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - by Ennio Morricone

I listen to this album alot.

[Green]

Originally Posted by alicebandassassin

a good movie score by deffintion has to be the one you do not notice because it is so much part of the film

Completely untrue, if you ask me. Can anyone honestly say they never noticed the score to Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Jaws?

A good score is one that enhances the movie, imo, not one that blends anonymously into the background I've already said that I love the Gattaca soundtrack/score, and the final bit of music as the incinerator fires up still brings me to tears now, after about 20 viewings and a hundred listens. The images/movie alone would not have the same effect.

[chrispenycate]

Sound, picture and editing should reinforce, either by synchronicity or contrast (a violent, brutal picture with delicate, etherial music and pastoral sound effects can be very effective) Within the sound, the music should never interfere with the dialogue, and should co-operate with the sound effects, rather than having to bet brought down to let them through. Thus, the album is frequently mixed differently, and not that rarely uses a different instrumental arrangement, from the version used in the film mix. In fact, whenever possible, the elements of the music are brought in separately, for optimal integration into the final product, enabling us to put the music much further forward (if this is what is desired) without interfering with comprehensibility, than was once possible.

Still, if at the cinema you find yourself listening to the music, unless the film is "Amadeus" or "Fantasia", the director has failed (you, not me; I'm probably analysing how the mixer's using the surrounds, or how much the screen speakers are rattling, but each to his own enjoyment)

[Curt Chiarelli]

Originally Posted by kaneda

Totally agree.

I was reading this Hans Zimmer interview the other day, and he was talking about the sorry state of film scores nowadays. Basically he was saying that there are so many film scores being released now (apparently equivalent to more than 1 a day!) but that only about 2% of them are any good, and that even fewer deserve repeat listens.

Back in the day, when truly great work was being done by Benny Herrmann, Mikki Rosza, Erich Korngold, you could count the number of soundtrack albums on your left hand. For forty years Hollywood executives ignored all the fan mail begging for soundtrack albums to be made available to the public. Their rationale for never releasing them? Soundtrack albums "have no market". In the early 70's, Warner Bros. studio accountants, wanting to score Brownie Points with upper mangement, decided that the archived master tapes in their possession were "worthless overhead" that "took up to much space". These masterpieces - including a portion of Max Steiner's and Dimitri Tiomkin's catalogue - ended up as landfill. At other studios the magnetic oxide tape was slowly disintegrating or mislabeled or completely lost. As to this day the only studio that has a record for properly archiving and maintaining its classic scores is Twentieth Century Fox. Alfred Newman, who headed up the music department at Fox from 1940 to 1960, was, as usual, visionary in his approach: Bernard Herrmann's earliest scores for Fox ("Jane Eyre" 1944 and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" 1947) were recorded in advanced technology that simulated stereo! Because of Newman's foresight we have many treasures released as CDs and delighting listeners today.

[Green]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

Still, if at the cinema you find yourself listening to the music, unless the film is "Amadeus" or "Fantasia", the director has failed

I have to disagree with that. For a recent(ish) example, when I saw the Fellowship of the Ring at the cinema, the bit of music after Gandalf falls from the Bridge was something that really caught my ear, and I did listen to the music. It's a beautiful (but very short) piece of music. The director didn't detract from the film for highlighting that bit of music, he added to it. If done properly, emphasising the music works towards emphasising the film, without having to be anonymous.

It's the same with cinematography and things like that. Sometimes, it's done in a way so that you don't notice it (and often, it just does the job with a minimum of fuss), but a lot of the time it's very overt and has a positive effect on the end result (the Matrix palette is a perfect example of this, as is the classic "Star Wars wipe"). I'm sure "A Scanner Darkly" will have a big impact because of its interesting animation/effects - we'll just have to wait to see whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

[Chabio]

Since Rock and more Generalised music distracts me when writing or researching background, I have tended to buy more Film scores for background ambience these days.

Conan the barbarian was my favourite for a long time, until Narnia and Lotr trilogy came out, but Conan the Destroyer is worth considering (even if the movie fell short of the first)
Also Crouching tiger, hidden dragon is kind to the ears and Master and commander-The far side of the world is worthy of a listen.
Although not a true film score.. The celts (enya) is quite appealing and inspiring too.

[j. d. worthington]

For anyone interested, the Bernard Hermann soundtracks (which span from Citizen Kane to Seventh Voyage of Sinbad to It's Alive to Hitchcock films and Taxi Driver) are, I believe, still available, and are easy to listen to when reading/researching, I find; as well as very enjoyable and having lush textures when listened to attentively. And there's always Jerry Goldsmith, Morricone, Dmitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner.....