Koji Kondo

Koji Kondo is the most influential and one of the most talented composers for video games. His addictive, hummable, yet surprisingly complex tunes for games in the legendary Mario and Legend of Zelda series are known worldwide. Kondo worked on sound design and music for many early Nintendo games and actively composed full scores from the NES era to the N64 era. He provided the sound effects for Star Fox and co-composed the music for Star Fox 64 with Hajime Wakai. He wrote full scores in a range of musical styles for the primary games in the Mario and Zelda series up to Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. After these games, he did provide musical pieces to further entries in the series, but transitioned more to the role of supervisor for Nintendo's sound division. Although much of his most popular music is synthesized and he is not classically trained, Kondo has a clear talent for melody and composition. His tunes are engaging enough to stand alongside  the best of orchestral music for media. His various tunes call to mind moods and settings from underwater sailing and exotic climates to creepy dungeons and questing adventure--many of them in 8 bit! In terms of setting up atmosphere and setting in a gaming world while still providing catchy, melodic hooks, Kondo has no peer.

Super Mario 64**

On Non-Film Music Matters

To the two people reading this blog:

Hopefully I will find time to write more stuff here. But for writings unrelated to soundtracks (mainly films, theme parks, and maybe literature) I have started a new blog.

The pointless ramblings continue! Enjoy.

http://mantismiscellany.blogspot.com

Iron Man 3, Hans Zimmer, and Melodic Themes in Modern Film Music

(Unorganized Bloated Ponderings)

Musical elitism is not a particularly attractive trait, yet I must admit in my early days as a film score fan, I exhibited it to some degree (notwithstanding the fact that I rarely vocalized my thoughts on the subject in any form, spoken, written, or otherwise). Any film music that had any hint of rock or pop elements I dismissed as lowest common denominator pap. My gradual appreciation of these elements, if done effectively, came slowly (Danny Elfman’s “Costume Montage” from Spider-Man was an early favorite).

Despite my increasing admiration for more musical styles, the rich, melodic orchestral idiom popularized by John Williams remains my decided favorite. Lush, memorable melodies bolstered by sweeping, complex counterpoint and clever harmonies—this is the kind of music that most touches, excites, and even enlightens me. Unfortunately, this style of scoring has fallen out of favor with many filmmakers, both talented and untalented. There are still composers who write great melodies and who have impeccable ears for orchestral color and thematic development—Giacchino, Elfman, Silvestri, and (of course) Williams are a few. But good melodies seem to be harder to find these days.

I will admit that when I heard the theme to Iron Man 3, by Brian Tyler, I loved it. The word ”epic” is criminally overused these days, but the theme does impart a sense of large-scale glory that I find invigorating. When one looks closer, however, one realizes that the theme isn’t too different from some of the others Tyler has written previously. Not only that, but it’s rather simple, with basic harmonies and little counterpoint and complexity. This puts the theme in “power anthem” territory.

Which brings us, as it always seems to these days, to Hans Zimmer. Zimmer’s music is far from complex, yet lots of people find it effective—probably more because of its similarity to rock and pop music than anything else. Is Tyler’s Iron Man 3 theme, then, little more than a modified Zimmer melody? I’m not a musicologist or composer, so I can’t tell whether there are compositional differences between Tyler’s theme and the common, garden-variety Zimmer anthem. What I do know is that I enjoy it, just like I enjoy many of Zimmer’s early (up to 1998) scores.

While Tyler is not quite one up on my list of the top 10 film composers working today, I still prefer him to Zimmer post-1998. This might be blasphemous, since so much of Tyler’s current style owes a debt to Zimmer. But I do think Tyler has adapted that power anthem style well, and Zimmer’s last really good power anthem was in The Peacemaker in 1997.

In fact, Tyler’s simplified style of writing these days (exemplified by scores such as Battle: Los Angeles, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, The Expendables, and Transformers: Prime) resembles a path Zimmer might have taken after 1998 and his wondrous scores to The Prince of Egypt and The Thin Red Line. And I must say I may have been happier with his music had he taken a similar direction—Tyler’s more modern music does have moments of complexity not found in most Zimmer scores, but Zimmer in fact ended up going the opposite direction. He began focusing more on creating “new” sounds, though in honesty I don’t find them all that new or refreshing, and worse, the actual music began to suffer as a byproduct. I understand Zimmer’s decision to move on from his older style, but it’s the case of a film composer merely doing something different (not better) in lieu of actual growth and development; James Horner is another example. All this is my opinion, of course. And I have churned up more words regarding Zimmer than most other composers, so that’s something.

Anyway, the fact that I liked Tyler’s theme so much when it is so simple made me wonder if it was just because there are so few good melodies in film music today. That may be part of the story, but there are plenty of other recent scores with melodies I’ve liked: John Carter, War Horse, Super 8, Captain America, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, Kick-Ass, Dream House, Harry Gregson-Williams’s melody for Prometheus, etc. And it’s not just the case of me going nuts over any old melody, as I’ve been underwhelmed by tunes from scores like Jack the Giant Slayer, Mars Needs Moms, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Croods, and The Amazing Spider-Man (though with the exception of the last, I did enjoy these scores—at least they had melodies!) But it’s clear that relatively speaking, these melodic scores are sparse, outnumbered by countless drone scores now in vogue—including the score for the first Iron Man!

A bit of a tangent: It’s a microcosm within a microcosm, but the scores for the Iron Man films have certainly gotten better. I am not slamming John Debney’s great score to Iron Man 2 at all, but hearing that wonderful melody he wrote in the track “I Am Iron Man” get used only once, and almost buried by sound effects (when Iron Man suits up in the Monaco race scene) was painful. And the full “I Am Iron Man” version itself never appeared in the film—not even in the end credits! (Shades of Alan Silvestri’s score for GI Joe: Rise of Cobra). I haven’t seen Iron Man 3 as of this posting, so I have yet to hear whether the score is audible in the film. But at least the filmmakers allowed Tyler to actually use and develop his theme as heard on the album. And the less said about the first film’s score, the better.

Tyler has shown with his score to LEGO Universe that he can still write in that robust, adventurous style that he established in early scores like Children of Dune, Darkness Falls, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, and Eagle Eye. Perhaps it is Tyler’s background with writing this kind of music that has allowed him to imbue Iron Man 3 with unidentifiable or subtle musical elements that allow the score to connect with me more than the average MV/RC score. Or I could be typing out of my posterior. If someone had told me that Zimmer wrote the score to Iron Man 3, I might have believed it. But more importantly, I still would have liked it, and hope that this would represent a style that Zimmer would continue to explore (and develop) in future scores.

Ultimately, it’s all about what’s effective to each listener. But this “essay” is an attempt for me to find out why I like something, especially when it doesn’t fit into the more lush, complex (but still accessible) style that I like and is more similar to the more simplistic music that I find, for the most part, less appealing. Maybe my musical elitism (if I ever had it) is being chipped away. Or maybe not; I still find the scores to Christopher Nolan’s Batman films terribly pedestrian (aside from some tender moments in the first two scores and, to a lesser extent, the Joker “theme”). And I can’t really be accused of being a musical elitist when I‘m a fan of film music, the “bastard child” of classical music (the little classical music I own, mostly Mahler and Beethoven, I love, and I do realize I need to hear more). In any case, I clearly haven’t been successful, and maybe that’s how it should be. Over-analyzing something you like can kill your appreciation for it, but that doesn’t preclude analysis period. However, it doesn’t take much to discern that this piece is far from analysis, and more like scatterbrained observations. One thing is certain, however: Despite listening to more than two dozen of Tyler’s scores, Iron Man 3 will be the first Tyler-scored film I’ll see (and the first I’ve wanted to see.)

Wendy Carlos

Nowadays, any old fool with a computer can find decent sounding samples and whip up some electronic music. (And dare I say there are a few prominent film composers with very expensive equipment creating music at the same level as these fools). But it was much harder in the mid-'60s, and composer Wendy Carlos was at the forefront of the electronic music revolution. She collaborated with Robert Moog in pioneering the brave new world of synthesized music. However, Carlos was no mere technician playing with toys. She was a classically trained musician, with a deep knowledge and understanding of music theory and classical works. Not only has she reworked and deconstructed pieces by composers like Bach and Beethoven, she has also developed musical scales she names the Harmonic, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Her solo works are legion, but she also composed music for three prominent films. Two of them were for Stanley Kubrick: A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, though the latter film didn't use a lot of her music. Her score for Disney's Tron is one of the best works of electronic/orchestral/choral music that I've heard. Not only is her use of synthesizers unique even to this day, but also she clearly knows her way around the orchestra. In some ways, her fusion of all these elements has yet to be surpassed. Her site (www.wendycarlos.com) contains much more information, with articulate essays by the composer on her works and other interests, which range from solar eclipses and maps to color and art.

Tron

Best Scores of 2012

Even though it’s a month into 2012 and I haven’t written a post in forever, I thought it would be prudent to write up what I thought were the best scores of 2012. Absolutely no one has thought of doing anything remotely similar to this, so I’ll take a moment and bask in the illustrious light of my ingenuity.

Anyway, this was an OK year for scores, though only one I thought was worthy of two asterisks (the best of the best), with five more earning one asterisk (almost the best).  All in all, I listened to 29 soundtracks and found at least some merit in all of them. However, I did see some films that I did not get the scores too because they sounded downright abysmal.

A few brief notes about some scores that didn’t make the cut. I might be becoming one of Henry Jackman’s biggest fans, but Man on a Ledge was disappointing, aside from the somewhat engaging final cue. I actually enjoyed Jackman’s score to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter a bit more than I expected, though it’s not one of his best. Harry Gregson-Williams’s Total Recall was of course nothing compared to Jerry Goldsmith’s masterpiece score for the original, though it had its moments and was a little better than most of the MV/RC dreck out there. Bourne Legacy by James Newton Howard had a couple of good action cues, but was overall rather nondescript. Alan Silvestri’s Flight and Danny Elfman’s Promised Land were decent, though very subdued and not the most engaging listens on their own. Elfman’s Men in Black 3 was solid and entertaining as all the MIB scores are, though the first is still my favorite. Cloud Atlas by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil was pleasant enough, but nothing revolutionary. James Horner’s Amazing Spider-Man was the best and most original score he’d done in a while (by his standards, at least), but I found most of it dull or cheesy despite the OK main theme. Christopher Young and especially Danny Elfman wrote better scores for the Sam Raimi trilogy. I didn’t buy or want the score to Hans Zimmer’s The Dark Knight Rises, but I think, due to its popularity, it at least warrants a mention. There, I mentioned it. Battleship’s score by Steve Jablonsky also warrants a mention because it’s ghastly. I subjected myself to Battleship the film, and hearing the score in it was egregious enough. I couldn’t imagine what listening to the CD would be like.

A special note on two scores: I saw Prometheus and didn’t think much of Marc Streitenfeld’s score. But Harry Gregson-Williams’s “Life” theme, which plays under the opening credits and numerous other places in the film, was quite captivating. I can see why he was hired to write that theme as it overshadowed by a disconcertingly large margin everything else in the score. 21 Jump Street has become one of my favorite comedies, and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh wrote a score worthy of one of Hans Zimmer’s ‘90s action opuses. The opening logos blast us with a mega-muscular power anthem that stands up there with the best of them, and Mothersbaugh develops that theme along with a slightly pop-flavored love theme throughout the film. A remix (of sorts) of the power anthem plays in the middle portion of the end credits (starting as the crawl begins). Unfortunately, that score remains unreleased in any form.

In any case, here’s some thoughts about the 20 scores I enjoyed most this year.

20. The Hunger Games (James Newton Howard)

When I heard Danny Elfman had been replaced on this because he was busy on Dark Shadows, I was a bit bummed. But then I learned that his replacement was James Newton Howard, and I got my hopes up again. His score for The Hunger Games is quite subdued, but it grew on me with repeated listenings. “Rue’s Farewell” is a gorgeous cue of the kind Howard seems to turn out regularly, and his choral arrangement of Arcade Fire’s “Horn of Plenty” is glorious.

19. Mirror Mirror (Alan Menken)

Apparently the movie was terrible, but Menken took a cue from Jerry Goldsmith and wrote a good score for a bad film. Menken is best known for his songs, but his scores for films like Beauty and the Beast, Enchanted, and especially The Hunchback of Notre Dame are first rate. Mirror Mirror doesn’t quite reach those heights, but it contains the full romantic sound that he has become known for.

18. Moonrise Kingdom (Alexandre Desplat)

Desplat wrote less than half an hour of score for this film, which also contains brilliant use of Benjamin Britten music, some Hank Williams, a dash of Schubert and Camille Saint-Saëns, a Franciose Hardy French song, and a percussive Mark Mothersbaugh march thrown in for good measure. Desplat’s contributions are whimsical and quirky, utilizing varied instrumentation and orchestration as heard in the end credits demonstration.

17. Sorcery (Mark Mancina)

In my opinion, Mark Mancina has been missing from the film scoring scene for too long. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear a new score from him, even if it’s for a video game and not a film. Mancina employs lush Celtic-flavored themes and his trademark driving action for this fantasy game. The themes aren’t quite as impactful as those he wrote for films like Speed, Twister, Tarzan, and Blood+, but it’s an entertaining listen nonetheless.

16. Silver Linings Playbook (Danny Elfman)

Danny Elfman may have left The Hunger Games, but he would end up scoring no less than six films in 2012. Elfman wrote a highly enjoyable (though brief) soft rock-ish score for this highly acclaimed film, using a small ensemble including guitars and his own vocals. Some surprisingly tender piano and string writing rounds out the score. Elfman proves that a score for a romantic comedy need not consist of generic, syrupy mush, especially when the composer (unlike Elfman) has no idea how to write for an orchestra.

15. W.E. (Abel Korzeniowski)

On the other hand, when a composer does know how to write for orchestra, writing romantic tunes for such an ensemble tends to transcend the merely sentimental and approaches the sublime. The score for Madonna’s W.E. isn’t quite sublime, but the sensitive writing makes for an extremely engaging listen and further cements Korzeniowski’s status as one of the best new composers in the medium of film.

14. Skyfall (Thomas Newman)

John Barry is untouchable as far as Bond music goes, but David Arnold with his five Bond scores came the closest by far to approaching Barry in terms of quality. Thomas Newman in turn wrote a score for Skyfall almost worthy of Arnold. Newman hadn’t really written a full-on action score before, but he proved up to the task and brought his own unique style and sound to Mendes’s film. Skyfall is another score that grew on me, with its effective writing for strings and woodwinds and a tender, noble theme for M. Adele’s great song (not written by Newman) is the cherry on top (a real cherry, not one of those bright-red, fake looking cherries that taste like sugared plastic.)

13. Hitchcock (Danny Elfman)

For this biopic about Hitchcock and the making of Psycho, Elfman could have written a score in the vein of Bernard Herrmann, but he went in his own direction for the most part. He wrote one of his characteristically melancholy themes for the master of suspense, as well as actual suspense music that runs from silky to brooding and downright ominous. Perhaps as a nod to Psycho, there’s great violin work as well. Yet another great work from Elfman,

12. The Master (Jonny Greenwood)

Famed Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood created a highly complex and difficult score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, which apparently focused more on character than on plot. Appropriately, Greenwood’s score has no obvious through-line (at least not one apparent to musical novices like myself), but creates an individualized, distinctive soundscape that aptly reflects the various aspects that make up a fully realized character.

11. Snow White and the Huntsman (James Newton Howard)

Howard wrote a beautiful theme for a not-so-fairest-in-the-land Kristen Stewart (especially when compared with Charlize Theron, and let’s not get started on the substantial difference in acting ability). The action material veers dangerously to the generic MV/RC side, but when Howard lets rip with his romantic material, the score shines. I’m also extremely fond of his orchestral additions to Florence + the Machine’s “Breath of Life”—it’s a fine song, and I’m not much into modern pop music at all.

10. Dark Shadows (Danny Elfman)

Some have called this score “Wolfman-lite” (which in turn owes a debt to Wojciech Kilar’s Dracula). Maybe I need to listen to Wolfman again, which is indeed a very fine score, but I found Dark Shadows to be more entertaining. Elfman mostly plays it straight with Gothic, tragic, melodies and mysterious, fluttering flute material (a nod to Robert Cobert’s music from the original show). And that cheesy synthesizer portamento (heard in “Dark Shadows-Reprise”) sure put a grin on my face when I first heard it.

9. Brave (Patrick Doyle)

Doyle had a mighty comeback in 2011 with the mighty Thor, La Ligne droite, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In 2012, he continued with his score to Brave, an appropriate assignment given the composer’s Scottish heritage. In addition to some boisterous bagpipe jigs, Doyle also wrote two lovely main themes. One opens a bit like John Williams’s song “Somewhere in My Memory” from Home Alone, and the other is an evocative, traditional sounding tune he used for the vocal ballad “Noble Maiden Fair.”

8. The Avengers (Alan Silvestri)

Alan Silvestri followed his heroic score to Captain America with a slightly more modern, but still refreshingly orchestral score to this superhero epic. Silvestri’s talent for writing dynamic, thrilling action music is on full display, anchored by snippets of his Captain America theme, a malleable tune for Black Widow, and a simple yet rousing theme for the Avengers as a whole. The score meanders a bit in the non-action scenes, but once the action does get going, it’s quite a ride. Especially impressive is how Silvestri never lets the momentum halt in the lengthy mid-film and climactic action sequences while keeping the music fresh.

7. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Andrew Lockington)

Lockington’s score to Journey to the Center of the Earth was a solid effort, but his music for the sequel surpasses it in every way.  His adventurous action music utilizes a variety of orchestral colors, and he introduces several distinct themes and motifs. The score has a measured quality about it and it never quite soars into the stratosphere, but it gets very high into the troposphere. (How’s that for taking a cliché and making it sound even lamer?)

6. Wreck-It Ralph* (Henry Jackman)

I’ve raved about Henry Jackman plenty, but his score for Wreck-It Ralph does contain his most emotional writing since his music for Kick-Ass (no joke.) He mixes retro sounds with catchy modern electronic riffs and dramatic orchestral themes. The more silly, slapstick music may not be the best listen separated from the film, but the score at its best approaches the masterful. The track “Wreck-It Ralph” is one of the few mainly electronic tracks that I find truly affecting, evoking all the hope, melancholy, and enduring spirit of the title character and his quest to find his purpose. It’s probably my favorite track of the year.

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey* (Howard Shore)

It’s no Lord of the Rings, but I actually preferred this as a standalone listen to The Two Towers. The new themes are subtler and not as memorable as most of those in LOTR, but the action music is a distinct improvement, with more interesting melodic things going on. “Khazad-Dum” was one of my favorite tracks from Fellowship of the Ring, and it was nice to hear more choral Dwarf action material. Insert your own joke about choral Dwarf action here, because I’m not witty enough to think of a good one right now.

4. Rise of the Guardians* (Alexandre Desplat)

Like Elfman, Alexandre Desplat wrote about 47 scores this year, but unlike Elfman, Desplat seems to do that every year. Rise of the Guardians is one of my favorite scores of his. Desplat was let loose to write a full-blown fantasy-adventure score that shows what he could have done with Harry Potter 7.1 and 7.2 (which are still pretty good scores) had the real You-Know-Who let him. Desplat writes the most fun, boisterous action music of his career for this DreamWorks underperformer, featuring a beautiful theme representing the power of dreams and a thrilling, David Arnold-esque fanfare for the guardians themselves (who apparently have nothing to do with owls).

3. Frankenweenie* (Danny Elfman)

Elfman continued his fecund collaboration with Tim Burton with this delightful score. He weaves together a tender, whimsical theme for Sparky the dog with portentous, intentionally over-the-top Gothic grandeur. One of the dark themes sounds suspiciously like Elfman’s own theme for Batman, complete with what may be the most massive sounding pipe organ in any score of his.  The skill with which Elfman meshes the lighthearted and ominous material is admirable. The main theme is lively for the most part, but the third trio of notes hints at something deeper and more reflective. And the darker music may be even more grandiose than the music for Dark Shadows. Elfman had a great year, and I thought this was his best.

2. Lincoln* (John Williams)

Any score from Williams nowadays is extremely welcome. Lincoln may not be quite as strong as either of the master’s two scores from last year, but it still shows that Williams has no living equal at his craft (save Ennio Morricone). Williams paints a restrained, noble portrait of the president, with a surprising number of themes, each rich in nuance. It may not break any new ground or contain anything overtly rousing and unabashedly emotional, but in contains that intangible “magic” that makes great music what it is. From the nobility of “The People’s House” to the almost ethereal simplicity of “With Malice Toward None,” this is definitely a score to savor.

1. John Carter** (Michael Giacchino)

Giacchino is no Williams (obviously, no one is), but he’s definitely one of the top composers of his generation. For Andrew Stanton’s commendable, entertaining sci-fi adventure, Giacchino took the style of his best music for Lost and crafted a magnificent, swashbuckling score that is his own. There are several high-quality themes, including the slightly exotic theme for Carter, a melancholy melody for Princess Dejah Thoris and a mystical tune for the mysterious Therns. There are also minor motifs for London, the six-limbed Tharks, and the treacherous Sab Than (sadly, there is no theme for Poopos Flem). On top of that are some spectacular standalone melodies, including a jagged action motif that serves as the spine of “Sab Than Pursues the Princess” and a dramatic choral composition in “The Prize is Barsoom.” Giacchino knits these superb threads together into a cohesive whole that serves as a perfect accompaniment to the drama on screen and is also an engrossing listen on its own. It all culminates in an exquisite, nearly nine-minute end credits suite that climaxes with a glorious flourish. This is my favorite score of 2012.

Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil

Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil together make up the group sometimes known as Pale 3. Tykwer is best known as a writer/director of films like Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The International, and (with the Wachowskis) Cloud Atlas.   Tykwer provides musical ideas for his films that are fleshed out by Klimek and Heil. One of the trio's contributions outside the Tykwer films was the song "In My Head" used in the Club Hel sequence of The Matrix Revolutions. This composition, along with the scores for Run Lola Run and Land of the Dead (the latter without Tykwer's involvement), features a heavily electronic style built on the mens' former experience playing in rock bands. But Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Cloud Atlas feature effective orchestral writing while still retaining more modern electronic elements in a lesser role. The latter film uses a mix of musical styles to score the six variegated stories set in different time periods, united by a classical-style sextet. Klimek and Heil have also collaborated on films such as One Hour Photo, The Cave, One Missed Call, and The Killer Elite and the TV series Deadwood, Without a Trace, and Awake.

Cloud Atlas
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Jonny Greenwood

In times past, most film composers were classically trained folks who learned their craft scoring for the concert stage, radio, or TV. Today, it is become more common for film composers to have been from a rock band or involved in some other kind of pop music. While the contributions of composers like Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Trevor Rabin (Yes), and Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream) have been questionable, there are also composers like Alan Silvestri (Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders), Michael Kamen (orchestral arranger for bands like Pink Floyd), and James Newton Howard (arranger and keyboardist for Elton John) who have written music as good as the best of their contemporaries. Indeed, former Oingo Boingo songwriter/guitarist/lead singer Danny Elfman may be the most prominent and accomplished composer in this category. However, with the exception of Reznor, most of these composers were either in bands with a smaller following or they played a more behind-the-scenes role. Jonny Greenwood of the well-known and successful band Radiohead is an exception. And unlike Reznor, he has quickly become one of the most interesting new voices in film scoring.

Greenwood is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of Radiohead, and his aggressive method of guitar playing has apparently been quite influential. He grew up playing the viola, and also plays Elmer Bernstein's favorite instrument, the ondes Martenot (roughly a keyboard version of the theremin). Along with various pop influences, Greenwood is also fond of famed composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and in fact released a CD containing Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia with Greenwood's own compositions Popcorn Superhet Receiver and 48 Responses to Polymorphia. Greenwood's first score was for a film called Bodysong, and he was subsequently asked to become the BBC Concert Orchestra's composer in residence in 2004. He composed the aforementioned Popcorn Superhet Receiver and included fragments of it in his breakout score for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Greenwood's string-heavy, complex score features interesting chord clusters, rhythms, and tones passing by each other. He has also written scores for Norwegian Wood, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Anderson's The Master. Norwegian Wood features a blend of austere and heartfelt writing that contains some of the most touching violin writing since James Newton Howard's The Village. Greenwood seems to choose projects that fit his distinctive style, and I look forward to more of his music, whether he continues to write for film or not.

The Master
Norwegian Wood
Phantom Thread
There Will Be Blood

Power Anthems: Part 3

A brief prefatory note: I've noticed that some of these have become mini-reviews. So don't be surprised if some of the material is included in the full reviews (assuming I actually write any, since so far, Wallace and Gromit is the only one).

Batman Begins/The Dark Knight-Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
I'm not the biggest fan of these scores--as far as music for The World's Greatest Detective goes, I prefer Elfman, Walker, and Goldenthal. For me, the most enjoyable part of these scores include the quieter, more emotional material and Harvey Dent's theme. The music for the Joker is effective, if not as revolutionary as some think. But the first film does feature a power anthem heard in the track "Molossus" and plays in the film when Bruce Wayne is escaping from the League of Shadows fortress and again at the film's climax. Puzzlingly, this theme is not heard in The Dark Knight in full, though the underlying chords are heard in the track "Like a Dog Chasing Cars." Because, as we all know, Batman doesn't need a theme! Simplistic droning and endlessly repeating minor thirds perfectly express the complexity of Batman's character, especially since it sounds so much like the music of every Jerry Bruckheimer action film ever made.

Pearl Harbor-Hans Zimmer
For this film, which drew raves for Ben Affleck's subtle, nuanced, and powerful Brando-esque performance, Zimmer wrote a slight love theme and lots of other unsubstantial material. The CD contained almost no action material, except for the track "War," which is an admittedly rousing piece with some particularly fine string churning about two-thirds of the way through. But the true power anthem in this score is in the unreleased cue following the attack when Affleck and Hartnett go all macho and dogfight with the Japanese planes. The theme here is more than a little similar to one in Gladiator (see below) and, thus, the "He's a Pirate." You can listen to it on Youtube here, though there are unfortunately machine gun and plane sound effects.

Gladiator-Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard, Klaus Badelt
About halfway into the "Battle" cue (underscoring the opening skirmish), we hear a figure that seems to have directly influenced the "He's a Pirate" theme. I tried typing several statements comparing the two that didn't sound like I was typing out of my ass (which I am), but since I have no formal musical training, I gave up. Sorry. Suffice to say, the two are very structurally and melodically similar. The track also opens up with a simpler yet still muscular theme for Maximus.

Pirates of the Caribbean-Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Henry Jackman, about a dozen more
Wonder why the Pirates of the Caribbean films have so many themes? One of the reasons is probably because so many composers worked on it. Besides the "He's a Pirate" theme, there's a quirky string dance, a grander theme for Jack's entrance, a Black Pearl motif, a "rocking" theme for the undead pirates ("rocking" in more ways than one--it's very similar to the theme for Hummel in The Rock), and several action themes (one of them based on a theme from Drop Zone). And that's just the first film--the next two films offer a ridiculous (yet fun) theme for the Kraken, an expansion on the string dance that is transformed into Jack Sparrow's theme, Davy Jones's music box/organ theme, a tune for Tia Dalma, a sweeping three-part love theme for Will and Elizabeth, themes for Sao Feng and Beckett, and the "Hoist the Colours" chant. There are themes for Blackbeard, mermaids, and the Fountain  of Youth in the fourth movie, but I honestly can't recall them. The problem is that the themes in the first film sound similar and tend to run together, and the second film doesn't use its themes enough. Yet the third film, along with Last Samurai, has one of the best scores Zimmer has done since 1998.

Drop Zone-Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith
This score is completely synthesized and performed by Zimmer and Glennie-Smith. It attempts to emulate the sound of an orchestra, which makes it sound a little dated. But the cleverly titled "Too Many Notes, Not Enough Rests" contains a theme that would find its way into Pirates of the Caribbean. It features prominently in the suite "Pirates, Day One 4:56 AM" that Zimmer composed before handing scoring duties to Klaus Badelt and others.

Broken Arrow-Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams
John Travolta hams it up as a villain in this John Woo film, and Zimmer and Gregson-Williams provide swaggering accompaniment. One tension-building theme is adapted from (and credited to) Randy Edelman, but original themes include a rising theme for the hero, a cool guitar lick that turns into a massive anthem for Travolta's character, and an exciting action anthem that again sounds like it could be an inspiration for the "He's a Pirate" theme. The music for the final battle of the film ("Hammerhead" on La-La-Land Records' expanded CD) is a nonstop adrenaline blast.

Backdraft-Hans Zimmer
This score was written in the ancient days of 1991, but it is still arguably one of Zimmer's most effective, benefiting from the talents of orchestrator and conductor Shirley Walker. Some of its music was famously used in the TV show Iron Chef, setting the precedent for scoring cooking competitions and reality shows with ridiculous, laughably over-the-top dramatic music. The score features an anticipatory ostinato that would influence many other MV/RC scores, and the triumphant "Show Me Your Firetruck" cue that is either one of the most inspiring or most hokey tunes you will ever hear. I imagine this is the sort of music that would pump athletes up before a big game (or a little one, as the case may be.)

Crimson Tide-Hans Zimmer
This score for Tony Scott's entertaining thriller features the ultimate power anthem in the cue "Roll Tide." A solo trumpet leads into the anthem played softly on real and synthesized brass and strings. It repeats and gets louder and louder, and just when it seems like it has reached its peak, three massive percussion hits precede a gargantuan statement of the theme This leads into a blood-pumping ten-note ostinato on low strings and then a brassy bridge before simmering down. And would you believe that the scene in question (the ending of the film; the aforementioned three percussion hits mark the final cut to black and the text epilogue) is not a macho march or slow-motion action scene, but merely Denzel Washington watching Gene Hackman walking away with his dog? Nonetheless, this is probably the definitive example of this type of music.

The Peacemaker-Hans Zimmer
This ballsy action score is like Crimson Tide on steroids (apart from the main anthem, most of the score to Crimson Tide is relatively low-key.) Although it contains a neat theme for Sarajevo and various other thematic material, most of the action material can be summed up in the 17-minute cue "The Chase," one of the most exhilarating pieces of music Zimmer has ever written (even though consists of a few cues edited together). The main theme appears in full in the last two minutes of the cue, and is actually the end credits. It resembles the theme from Crimson Tide more than a little, especially with the low string ostinato, which here rises steadily instead of going up and down. It ends with a march-like horn tune that builds before rhythmic strings fade out. Again, the combination of orchestra and synth is remarkably potent, and this 1997 score would be Zimmer's last effective use of this style of scoring.

The Rock-Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams
Zimmer wrote the title theme for Michael Bay's best film (unless Armageddon and The Island, which I haven't seen, are better), a slow, melancholy march that plays much the same way in the scene where (MILD SPOILER ALERT) Michael Biehn dies yet again, along with his crew (END OF SPOILER). The theme can also conveys a more adventurous tone when played faster (Sherlock observed perceptively). Glennie-Smith and Gregson-Williams provide a plethora of additional themes. Besides a guitar-based love theme and a flute theme for Sean Connery (reprised in power anthem mode in "Mason's Walk") there is a swashbuckling theme for Nicolas Cage's exploits that opens the end credits (similar to, yes, "He's a Pirate") and an angular theme for Ed Harris (Hummel) and his troops (part of which is similar to another Pirates of the Caribbean theme played when Elizabeth first encounters the pirates in their undead form). Gregson-Williams also provides some themes in the San Francisco car chase that appear again in the final fight scenes, one that uses more repeated notes and one that is slightly more lyrical. Like the film itself, the score is not terribly original (though certainly more original than certain score that would follow), but it's one of the most entertaining scores of its kind.

Power Anthems: Part 2

X-Men: First Class-Henry Jackman
For the most part, Henry Jackman's scores (like John Powell's) have been more complex and orchestrally adventurous than those from his fellow MV/RC graduates. But for Matthew Vaughn's impressive follow-up to Kick-Ass, Jackman composed a simple, robust anthem for Xavier's mutants and their emerging heroism. While best heard in its full form in the track "First Class," (actually the last part of the end credits) Jackman also incorporates more adventurous, higher-tempo variations in the cues for the lengthy final battle. The ten-note melody is interesting in that it sounds like it's going to resolve in note eight, but instead rises up for the conclusive descending figure.

Speed/Speed 2: Cruise Control-Mark Mancina
The noble, surprisingly evocative main theme for Speed is a catchy tune that is played with more of an orchestral sound than the typical power anthem, and even gets a tender piano and string rendition in the end credits of the first film. There is also more standard, minor-mode anthem that often follows the main theme as well as a staccato six-note action motif. The score for the second film introduces even more themes. In addition to the Caribbean-style love theme and chromatic villain theme, there are no less than three distinct anthems. Having not seen the film, I have no idea what each relates to, but one is a faster-paced one introduced in the opening "Motorcycle Chase", one is a more triumphant fanfare heard in "Last Lifeboat," and the last is the most power anthem-y of them, heard in "Final Chase" and the commercially-unreleased cue "Tuneman." Mancina's score for Speed would have a large influence on the action music of the rising Media Ventures "club."

Twister-Mark Mancina
Although Twister contains a lively Copland-esque theme (introduced in "Wheatfield") and a wondrous theme representing the awesome power of tornadoes (best heard in "God's Finger"), it also contains one of my personal favorite power anthems. The climatic cue "Mobile Home" includes a pounding ostinato that leads into the impressive anthem, which is modulated upward for its second statement before returning to the ostinato and climaxing with a dramatic rendition of the Copland-esque theme. This cue segues right into the splendor of "God's Finger," and they are a pair of cues that I play often.

BLOOD+-Mark Mancina
For this ambitious anime series, Mancina composed several themes, two of them fitting in the "power anthem" category.  "Saya's Victory" introduces a triumphant theme that reminds me a little of his superb work on Tarzan, while "BLOOD+ Grand Theme" is a dramatic march (with the inevitable Mars/Holst-inspired section.) The whole score is full of riches, from tender passages and raging action to a fantastic aria.

Antz-Harry Gregson-Willams and John Powell
This isn't the first score to spring to mind when one thinks "power anthem," and indeed, this gem of a score is in a category of its own. But the theme for General Mandible does fit into this category. While it is introduced on exotic instruments, male choir soon enters and exposes the theme for what it really is. A high-energy variation of the theme is played during the termite battle. The fact that this is actually one of the more minor themes in this theme-heavy score illustrates the strength of the composition as a whole.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots-Harry Gregson-Williams
For the second installment of this complex video game series, Gregson-Willams "power anthem-ized" the theme from the first game composed by TAPPY. For the third game, HGW introduced his own epic theme to accompany the original theme. A plagiarism suit involving TAPPY's theme kept it from being included in the fourth game, but HGW was able to update his own theme, giving it a faster pace and a part of it beautifully performed by solo trumpet in the cue "Metal Gear Saga." Oddly enough, HGW does not use his theme much in the actual underscore to the games (at least not in the cues he composed), which is a shame because it's a rousing theme.

Team America:World Police-Harry Gregson-Williams
This just might be the best power anthem score there is, maybe because it's parodying the style and HGW thus does not need to restrain himself in any way. The "Team America March" opens with an ultra-macho theme complete with male choir accompaniment, and then moves on to the most used theme of the score, a triumphant melody more reminiscent of the composer's work with John Powell on Chicken Run than any power anthem. The track closes with a true power anthem that starts quietly before blossoming into full chorus, orchestra, and synth-orchestra. "F.A.G." contains a brief rocking anthem while "Putting a Jihad on You" contains a classic, four-chord masculine melody that brings to mind a Michael Bay film with a line of macho US Military soldiers walking toward the screen in slow motion. Truly an enjoyable score.

Next: The conclusion with Hans Zimmer.

Power Anthems: Part 1

I've stated before my somewhat lukewarm feelings about Hans Zimmer in the wonderful post/essay with his name emblazoned on top. While he is not among my favorite composers, there is no denying that, especially in his earlier works, he has written some crowd-pleasing tunes. Although Zimmer has written his share of tender scores, he is most known for his action scores, combining synthesizer, brass, and low strings to create muscular blasts of music. He popularized the use of what has come to be known in film music circles as the "power anthem," a loud, melodic tune based on very simple chords that makes you want to go out and kick some derriere (or roll your eyes, depending on your level of exposure to these tunes that have admittedly become a bit overused). Power anthems have a lot in common musically with progressive rock, which, combined with the typical earth-shattering volume and emphasized bass, perhaps accounts for their popularity. Soon, Zimmer's acolytes also began writing these anthems, and the big studios' fondness for this style of writing has led to composers such as Patrick Doyle, Javier Naverrete, and Brian Tyler, not from Zimmer's Media Ventures/Remote Control studio, being asked to create this kind of music. Of course, there is no shortage of MV/RC graduates like Mark Mancina, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Henry Jackman, Steve Jablonsky, and Klaus Badelt currently writing such tunes.

Of course, it is difficult (for me at least) to explain the properties of music without getting flowery, so let's use the most popular example of a power anthem: the "He's a Pirate" tune from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. As soon as the credits rolled for the first Pirates film, I was undoubtedly impressed at the macho, energetic sound. As with many in my generation and after, it was the first full-blooded power anthem I'd heard, but it would be far from the last. As I became more familiar with Hans Zimmer's catalog (especially Crimson Tide, The Peacemaker, Broken Arrow, and Drop Zone), the more I realized how derivative the theme was. Not that it isn't enjoyable, but it's not the unique, revolutionary, untouchable melody that some seem to think it is.

So... if "He's a Pirate" stirs your blood, here is a selection of power anthems that you should become intimately familiar with. Part 1 will include composers Steve Jablonsky and Brian Tyler.

Transformers-Steve Jablonsky
OK, it's not a great score, but the scores for the Michael Bay action-fest films are literally a string of power anthems strung together (with the exception of a blatant Thomas Newman rip-off theme for Sam Witwicky's more whimsical scenes). There are actually quite a lot of themes, but unfortunately, most of them sound the same. There is a reflective theme composed of two four-note phrases (heard in "Optimus Prime"), a churning, ostinato-based motif with male chorus for the Decepticons, an anthem for the military forces (heard in "Scorponok"), an action theme associated with Bumblebee and the other Autobots (heard in "Allspark" and "Bumblebee"), and the popular "Arrival to Earth" theme associated with Optimus Prime. Perhaps the most engaging theme is the one introduced at the beginning of the film and entitled "Autobots" on the soundtrack. This is the theme that gets stuck in my head the most often.

Transformers: Prime-Brian Tyler
This may not be a popular opinion, but I find Brian Tyler's score for this animated Transformers series to be superior to Jablonsky's efforts for the feature films. The main theme is a muscular, steadily rising march that combines the sound of MV/RC scores with Tyler's own melodic sensibilities.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3-Brian Tyler
For this installment of the blockbuster video game franchise, Tyler adapted the Zimmer sound to powerful effect. The main theme is not as memorable as the one for Transformers: Prime, but it still harkens back to the days when Zimmer and his apprentices actually composed themes like these instead of sonic wallpaper.

Battle: Los Angeles-Brian Tyler
MV/RC composers have always found a place for electric guitars, but Tyler uses them more for color and texture instead of playing rock riffs that have become somewhat cliche in film scoring. The track "Battle: Los Angeles-Main Title" (actually a suite of material from other parts of the score) contains most of the primary thematic material. The main theme is a simple but fairly long melody that starts out descending before slowly reaching upward, creating a mood of muted hope.

It should be noted that many of Brain Tyler's action scores are wonderfully powerful and owe a little to MV/RC influence, but not as much as the three mentioned above. Scores like Eagle Eye and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem are exciting, but they feature rapid, busy orchestral action as opposed to the simpler, slower chordal movement of power anthems.

Part 2 will feature the four best composers to emerge from MV/RC: Henry Jackman, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, and Mark Mancina. Part 3 will be devoted to the progenitor of all this madness, the Big Z himself. That means at least two more posts before I have to start thinking about writing actual reviews.