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
Friday, November 2, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
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
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
Friday, April 27, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, April 20, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wallace and Gromit
Stop-motion maven Nick Park touched a worldwide chord with his enormously successful shorts about a somewhat absent-minded amateur inventor and his intelligent (and very expressive) dog. Despite the quintessentially British nature of the characters, their setting, and their various exploits, they are popular with worldwide audiences. It was thus somewhat of a surprise that their feature (Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit) did not do spectacularly well in the United States. In fact, with the exception of Chicken Run, the features of Aardman Animation have not lit the US box office on fire (other titles include Flushed Away, Arthur Christmas, and Pirates: Band of Misfits). At any rate, the intrepid duo has benefited from the expressive music of Julian Nott (although the feature, being a DreamWorks Animation release, had additional music by Zimmer acolytes Lorne Balfe, Jim Dooley, Alastair King, Rupert Gregson-Williams, and Halli Cauthery).
This will focus on the scores for the three shorts made before the feature: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave. (Unfortunately, none of this music has been released on CD, although there is a rare promo.) Nott's bouncy main theme perfectly encapsulates the whimsy of the two characters, its opening three descending notes building a foundation for the rest of the tune, most often played by brass with full orchestra accompaniment. It plays at the closing titles of the shorts, and briefly at the openings for A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers.
A Grand Day Out has the most sparse scoring. There is some low-key music as Wallace and Gromit explore the moon and snippets of the main theme as the Cooker (as the machine they encounter is known) imagines skiing on Earth. The two most prominent uses of music are during the rocket building montage and the scene where Wallace and Gromit are hurrying to leave the moon. The former sequence features a brass-led melody while the latter has a more dramatic bent, and wouldn't feel out of place in a serious adventure film.
The next two shorts would showcase more music of this ilk. The Wrong Trousers opens with the main theme segueing into an old-fashioned horror movie stinger as the shadow of the Techno-Trousers is revealed. The villainous Feathers McGraw plays source music on his radio, but there is one simple musical gesture that Nott makes regarding the character that I have found effective since I first saw this short as youngling: McGraw observes Gromit using the trousers to paint the ceiling, and there is an ominous timpani stroke as the camera zooms is on the penguin's expressionless, blinking visage. There is also music during the exhilarating model train chase that recalls the style of music used during A Grand Day Out's rocket building montage.
But it is in A Close Shave where Nott gets to write the most prominent music. A favorite sequence is a parody of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, where Wallace slides down chutes in preparation for his window-cleaning mission. (Gromit more practically decides just to use a door, and there is a nice, subtle bit of animation as he looks up prior to getting in the motorcycle's sidecar. Is he rolling his eyes? Looking to see that Wallace didn't mess anything up on his journey over?) Fittingly, Nott scores the scene with noble, militaristic brass theme that starts out with a nifty opening percussion cadence. A lighter theme on strings emerges as Gromit gets in, before the noble theme repeats again. Wallace's endearing encounters with Wendolene ("Wallace with a wig on," as Park explains) feature tender string scoring, and there is an especially poignant passage underscoring the scene where the two grasp each other's hands as a flock of sheep carries Wallace away.
When Shaun the sheep accidentally gets sucked into Wallace's Knit-O-Matic, Nott uses ominous music, with an especially dramatic passage for strings. The climax of the film has the most energetic music, starting with the truck/motorcycle/plane chase. This thrilling sequence is scored with an almost out-of-control dance-like theme, while Gromit's aerial exploits earn a separate, soaring theme. Heavier music plays as Preston the dog's true nature is revealed ("Mal-what?") and a final frenzy of music plays as our heroes run to avoid being turned into dog meat.
Wallace and Gromit's theme has deservedly earned classic status, but the rest of Nott's music is adventurous, fun, thrilling, and highly effective. Hopefully, some specialty label will release a compilation of at least some of this fine music (though rights issues might tangle things up). But for now, one has to watch the films in order to hear the music, and that's not too hard to ask. Is it?
This will focus on the scores for the three shorts made before the feature: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave. (Unfortunately, none of this music has been released on CD, although there is a rare promo.) Nott's bouncy main theme perfectly encapsulates the whimsy of the two characters, its opening three descending notes building a foundation for the rest of the tune, most often played by brass with full orchestra accompaniment. It plays at the closing titles of the shorts, and briefly at the openings for A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers.
A Grand Day Out has the most sparse scoring. There is some low-key music as Wallace and Gromit explore the moon and snippets of the main theme as the Cooker (as the machine they encounter is known) imagines skiing on Earth. The two most prominent uses of music are during the rocket building montage and the scene where Wallace and Gromit are hurrying to leave the moon. The former sequence features a brass-led melody while the latter has a more dramatic bent, and wouldn't feel out of place in a serious adventure film.
The next two shorts would showcase more music of this ilk. The Wrong Trousers opens with the main theme segueing into an old-fashioned horror movie stinger as the shadow of the Techno-Trousers is revealed. The villainous Feathers McGraw plays source music on his radio, but there is one simple musical gesture that Nott makes regarding the character that I have found effective since I first saw this short as youngling: McGraw observes Gromit using the trousers to paint the ceiling, and there is an ominous timpani stroke as the camera zooms is on the penguin's expressionless, blinking visage. There is also music during the exhilarating model train chase that recalls the style of music used during A Grand Day Out's rocket building montage.
But it is in A Close Shave where Nott gets to write the most prominent music. A favorite sequence is a parody of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, where Wallace slides down chutes in preparation for his window-cleaning mission. (Gromit more practically decides just to use a door, and there is a nice, subtle bit of animation as he looks up prior to getting in the motorcycle's sidecar. Is he rolling his eyes? Looking to see that Wallace didn't mess anything up on his journey over?) Fittingly, Nott scores the scene with noble, militaristic brass theme that starts out with a nifty opening percussion cadence. A lighter theme on strings emerges as Gromit gets in, before the noble theme repeats again. Wallace's endearing encounters with Wendolene ("Wallace with a wig on," as Park explains) feature tender string scoring, and there is an especially poignant passage underscoring the scene where the two grasp each other's hands as a flock of sheep carries Wallace away.
When Shaun the sheep accidentally gets sucked into Wallace's Knit-O-Matic, Nott uses ominous music, with an especially dramatic passage for strings. The climax of the film has the most energetic music, starting with the truck/motorcycle/plane chase. This thrilling sequence is scored with an almost out-of-control dance-like theme, while Gromit's aerial exploits earn a separate, soaring theme. Heavier music plays as Preston the dog's true nature is revealed ("Mal-what?") and a final frenzy of music plays as our heroes run to avoid being turned into dog meat.
Wallace and Gromit's theme has deservedly earned classic status, but the rest of Nott's music is adventurous, fun, thrilling, and highly effective. Hopefully, some specialty label will release a compilation of at least some of this fine music (though rights issues might tangle things up). But for now, one has to watch the films in order to hear the music, and that's not too hard to ask. Is it?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Some Composer Quotes
I know I haven't posted in a month, and I've been procrastinating on finishing a massive review. So as filler, I will lazily post a collection of composer quotes that I've already gathered and posted elsewhere.
"This sh*t is so unpredictable. But that's good." -James Newton Howard
"I won't tell you again. I'm not Mick Jagger, you blithering idiot" -Danny Elfman
"You don't have to be a total freak to enjoy a Goldenthal score this time!" -Elliot Goldenthal, on Frida
"This is going to sound like sour grapes, not that I care" -Jerry Goldsmith
"If I want to sit here and eat plaster or whatever, it's my prerogative!" -Basil Poledouris
"I live in an area in LA that I grew up in, and have a real association with the mud and the weeds."-Thomas Newman
"It's crazy time"-Michael Giacchino
"I remember thinking on Armageddon, I was working on this bloody cue I was doing with Bruce Willis, with a tear in his eye standing on some f*cking meteorite and he was saving the world. I thought, this is more than just Hollywood - this is ludicrous! I could underpin this with very emotional music... ah.. sorry Jerry [Bruckheimer]!" -Harry Gregson Williams
"'Kick-What'? That sounds rather rude."-Henry Jackman, quoting his mother's reaction to the news that he was working on Kick-Ass.
John Williams tends to be more serious in interviews. But if you watch the behind-the-scenes stuff for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you'll find that he has thinly-veiled attraction to Cate Blanchett.
"Film idea : a can ofbaked beans gets sold at a supermarket but the customer hasn't got enough money so they put it back and get embarrassed."-David Arnold, from his Twitter (davidgarnold). By the way, David Arnold's Twitter is flat out crazy. Following is just the beginning series of tweets he made recently:
"Insect incest"
"Outsect outcest"
"Shake it all about"
"If anyone wonders what exactly 'it' is all about...apparently its the okey cokey ..which you have to do."
"The okey cosy is an elaborate form of commentated kicking"
"For people with Parkinson's"
For the thrilling conclusion to Arnold's magnum opus (it makes his score to Independence Day sound like The Social Network) go to his Twitter and see the entries for February 19th (2012).
"This sh*t is so unpredictable. But that's good." -James Newton Howard
"I won't tell you again. I'm not Mick Jagger, you blithering idiot" -Danny Elfman
"You don't have to be a total freak to enjoy a Goldenthal score this time!" -Elliot Goldenthal, on Frida
"This is going to sound like sour grapes, not that I care" -Jerry Goldsmith
"If I want to sit here and eat plaster or whatever, it's my prerogative!" -Basil Poledouris
"I live in an area in LA that I grew up in, and have a real association with the mud and the weeds."-Thomas Newman
"It's crazy time"-Michael Giacchino
"I remember thinking on Armageddon, I was working on this bloody cue I was doing with Bruce Willis, with a tear in his eye standing on some f*cking meteorite and he was saving the world. I thought, this is more than just Hollywood - this is ludicrous! I could underpin this with very emotional music... ah.. sorry Jerry [Bruckheimer]!" -Harry Gregson Williams
"'Kick-What'? That sounds rather rude."-Henry Jackman, quoting his mother's reaction to the news that he was working on Kick-Ass.
John Williams tends to be more serious in interviews. But if you watch the behind-the-scenes stuff for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you'll find that he has thinly-veiled attraction to Cate Blanchett.
"Film idea : a can ofbaked beans gets sold at a supermarket but the customer hasn't got enough money so they put it back and get embarrassed."-David Arnold, from his Twitter (davidgarnold). By the way, David Arnold's Twitter is flat out crazy. Following is just the beginning series of tweets he made recently:
"Insect incest"
"Outsect outcest"
"Shake it all about"
"If anyone wonders what exactly 'it' is all about...apparently its the okey cokey ..which you have to do."
"The okey cosy is an elaborate form of commentated kicking"
"For people with Parkinson's"
For the thrilling conclusion to Arnold's magnum opus (it makes his score to Independence Day sound like The Social Network) go to his Twitter and see the entries for February 19th (2012).
Thursday, January 19, 2012
John Williams
What can be said about John Williams that hasn't already been said? Williams is not only the best-known film composer, but his skill and mastery at his craft are matched only by long-gone masters such as Bernard Herrmann, Erich Korngold, Miklos Rozsa, Jerry Goldsmith, and the like. Williams is a musical titan, and even if he hadn't written any concert works, he would still be considered a great composer. He may have written some of the best known and catchy themes of all time, but a closer listen to any of his scores will reveal compositional depth and clever musical ideas that bolster his surprisingly complex melodies.
Williams was born in New York and studied composition at UCLA and Juilliard after which he became a jazz and film score pianist for great composers like Henry Mancini and Jerry Goldsmith. Williams's first full score was in 1958 for a film called Daddy-O. Throughout the '60s, he scored many light, romantic comedies of this type, using the casual, jazzy style he had employed as a pianist. He got to branch out with films like None But the Brave and The Reivers, but his foray into blockbuster fare came with his relationship with Irwin Allen. Williams scored the themes and several episodes of Allen's TV shows The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, and Lost in Space before Allen hired him for the feature The Poseidon Adventure. A year before, Williams had won an Oscar for adapting the score for Fiddler on the Roof, but soon his own music would become recognized by the public and the critical establishment. After scoring two more disaster films (Allen's The Towering Inferno and Earthquake), Williams formed a seminal relationship with Steven Spielberg by scoring The Sugarland Express. Their next film, Jaws, became a sensation with its famous, menacing two-note theme. Even more impressive, the score contained inventive orchestrations and additional themes to underscore the danger and adventure of the film. Williams would score all of Spielberg's feature films as director except for The Color Purple (scored by Quincy Jones) and Bridge of Spies (scored by Thomas Newman). Their collaborations would include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, the Indiana Jones films, ET, Empire of the Sun, Always, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, AI, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich, Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, and The BFG. After scoring Alfred Hitchcock's final film in 1976 (Family Plot), Williams created an even bigger splash with his score to Star Wars. Throughout the series' six films, Williams provided immortal themes filled with excitement, beauty, tenderness, melancholy, and terror. The same year as the first Star Wars film, Williams created another musical touchstone with his experimental, dissonant music for Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well as a famous five-note theme. Superman was another smash, with Williams providing not only the title march, but a soaring love theme, heroic action music, tender strains for Smallville, a comic march for the villains, and more modern music for Krypton. Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET were next up on Williams's non-stop hit parade, the former one of the most exciting action scores ever, and the latter featuring exultant and emotional music for the bond between boy and alien. In the '90s, Williams wrote surprisingly touching music for two Home Alone films, swashbuckling adventure music for Hook, melodies of wonder and terror for Jurassic Park, and reached heights of poignancy with Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. As the new millennium rolled around, Williams scored the first three films of the incredibly popular Harry Potter franchise, providing the boy wizard (or his pet owl, at least) with an enduring, magical theme. The end of 2011 signaled the end of a three-year Williams drought with two superb scores for War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin.
Although Williams is best known for the themes for his blockbusters, his filmography contains hordes of lesser known but still awesome scores, from the wildly unconventional Images and the pastoral The River to the triumphant SpaceCamp and the beautiful, thrilling Far and Away. He also composed the NBC News "Mission" theme, the theme for DreamWorks SKG, and four Olympic fanfares alongside numerous concerti and other concert pieces. With the exceptions of Memoirs of a Geisha and The Book Thief, Williams has only written film scores for Spielberg, Star Wars, and Harry Potter since 2000's The Patriot, but his music remains as exciting and inventive as ever. He deserves all the recognition and praise that he gets. Unfortunately, with the advent of sound-design drone scores, his work has become under-appreciated by certain film critics, mainly of the younger generation. Regardless of their opinions, Williams's music is among the most superb written for film.
Williams was born in New York and studied composition at UCLA and Juilliard after which he became a jazz and film score pianist for great composers like Henry Mancini and Jerry Goldsmith. Williams's first full score was in 1958 for a film called Daddy-O. Throughout the '60s, he scored many light, romantic comedies of this type, using the casual, jazzy style he had employed as a pianist. He got to branch out with films like None But the Brave and The Reivers, but his foray into blockbuster fare came with his relationship with Irwin Allen. Williams scored the themes and several episodes of Allen's TV shows The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, and Lost in Space before Allen hired him for the feature The Poseidon Adventure. A year before, Williams had won an Oscar for adapting the score for Fiddler on the Roof, but soon his own music would become recognized by the public and the critical establishment. After scoring two more disaster films (Allen's The Towering Inferno and Earthquake), Williams formed a seminal relationship with Steven Spielberg by scoring The Sugarland Express. Their next film, Jaws, became a sensation with its famous, menacing two-note theme. Even more impressive, the score contained inventive orchestrations and additional themes to underscore the danger and adventure of the film. Williams would score all of Spielberg's feature films as director except for The Color Purple (scored by Quincy Jones) and Bridge of Spies (scored by Thomas Newman). Their collaborations would include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, the Indiana Jones films, ET, Empire of the Sun, Always, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, AI, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich, Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, and The BFG. After scoring Alfred Hitchcock's final film in 1976 (Family Plot), Williams created an even bigger splash with his score to Star Wars. Throughout the series' six films, Williams provided immortal themes filled with excitement, beauty, tenderness, melancholy, and terror. The same year as the first Star Wars film, Williams created another musical touchstone with his experimental, dissonant music for Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well as a famous five-note theme. Superman was another smash, with Williams providing not only the title march, but a soaring love theme, heroic action music, tender strains for Smallville, a comic march for the villains, and more modern music for Krypton. Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET were next up on Williams's non-stop hit parade, the former one of the most exciting action scores ever, and the latter featuring exultant and emotional music for the bond between boy and alien. In the '90s, Williams wrote surprisingly touching music for two Home Alone films, swashbuckling adventure music for Hook, melodies of wonder and terror for Jurassic Park, and reached heights of poignancy with Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. As the new millennium rolled around, Williams scored the first three films of the incredibly popular Harry Potter franchise, providing the boy wizard (or his pet owl, at least) with an enduring, magical theme. The end of 2011 signaled the end of a three-year Williams drought with two superb scores for War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin.
Although Williams is best known for the themes for his blockbusters, his filmography contains hordes of lesser known but still awesome scores, from the wildly unconventional Images and the pastoral The River to the triumphant SpaceCamp and the beautiful, thrilling Far and Away. He also composed the NBC News "Mission" theme, the theme for DreamWorks SKG, and four Olympic fanfares alongside numerous concerti and other concert pieces. With the exceptions of Memoirs of a Geisha and The Book Thief, Williams has only written film scores for Spielberg, Star Wars, and Harry Potter since 2000's The Patriot, but his music remains as exciting and inventive as ever. He deserves all the recognition and praise that he gets. Unfortunately, with the advent of sound-design drone scores, his work has become under-appreciated by certain film critics, mainly of the younger generation. Regardless of their opinions, Williams's music is among the most superb written for film.
AI*
The Accidental Tourist
Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn*
Always
The Accidental Tourist
Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn*
Always
Amistad
Angela's Ashes
The BFG
Angela's Ashes
The BFG
Black Sunday
The Book Thief
The Book Thief
Born on the Fourth of July
Catch Me If You Can
Close Encounters of the Third Kind*
ET**
Empire of the Sun*
Family Plot
Far and Away**
The Fury*
The Fury*
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone*
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*
Heartbeeps
Heidi
Heartbeeps
Heidi
Home Alone**
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York*
Hook**
Raiders of the Lost Ark**
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom**
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade**
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Jane Eyre*
Jane Eyre*
Jaws*
Jaws 2*
JFK
Jurassic Park**
Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lost in Space (TV Series)
Memoirs of a Geisha*
Midway
Midway
Minority Report*
Munich
Nixon
The Patriot
Pete 'n' Tillie
Pete 'n' Tillie
The Poseidon Adventure
The Post
Presumed Innocent
The Reivers
The Post
Presumed Innocent
The Reivers
The River
Rosewood
Sabrina
Sabrina
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List**
Seven Years in Tibet
Sleepers
Sleepers
SpaceCamp
The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration (3 Volume Compilation)
Stanley & Iris
The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration (3 Volume Compilation)
Stanley & Iris
Star Wars**
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back**
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi**
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace*
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith*
Star Wars: The Force Awakens*
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Force Awakens*
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Stepmom
Superman: The Movie**
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace* (with Alexander Courage)
The Terminal*
Tom Sawyer (with Richard and Robert Sherman)
Tom Sawyer (with Richard and Robert Sherman)
The Towering Inferno
War Horse**
War Horse**
War of the Worlds
The Witches of Eastwick
1941
The Witches of Eastwick
1941
Friday, January 13, 2012
Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer, the "big Z" of film music, has had perhaps the largest influence on film scoring methods in the modern age. Whether this is a positive influence or not is debatable. Zimmer was born in Germany and quickly developed an interest for synthesizers and electronic music, working with groups like The Buggles and The Damned. He became a protege of renowned film composer Stanley Meyers and the two started developing the signature synth-orchestra sound that would come to dominate big-budget Hollywood action pictures. His score for A World Apart got the attention of Barry Levinson, who offered the composer his first big hit: Rain Man. Today, Zimmer is best known for his popular scores to films in the 2000s like Sherlock Holmes, Christopher Nolan's Batman films, Inception, Interstellar, Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Ring, Gladiator, King Arthur, The Da Vinci Code, and Pearl Harbor. All employ Zimmer's "wall of sound" effect, combining orchestra and electronics into massive blasts of audio in simplistic chord sequences. But for me, his best work lies among the scores he did before 1999. Scores like Black Rain, Pacific Heights, Point of No Return, Backdraft, Drop Zone, Crimson Tide, Broken Arrow, and The Peacemaker contain the best examples of the "power anthems" that would make Zimmer famous, and indeed one unfamiliar with these scores will be surprised at how similar they sound to Pirates of the Caribbean. These earlier action scores all contain an energy and inventiveness that is hard to find in his modern day scores, with exceptions like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Last Samurai, Rush, and the brilliant "160 BPM" cue from Angels and Demons. Zimmer also excelled at lower-key scores in the '90s, with Green Card, A League of Their Own, The House of the Spirits, Beyond Rangoon, and The Thin Red Line all containing appealing music. Two of Zimmer's absolute best scores are for animated films: The Prince of Egypt and The Lion King. The former features a brilliant theme for God and more glorious music rare for Zimmer, and the latter has some of the most effective and emotional themes in modern films. Zimmer has also forged relationships with prominent directors, including Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, and Christopher Nolan, and he is head of music for DreamWorks Animation. His collaboration with Ridley Scott has been especially fruitful, with Black Rain, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, and Matchstick Men. He also composed Days of Thunder, True Romance, Crimson Tide, and The Fan for Ridley's brother Tony before Harry Gregson-Williams took over.
Speaking of Gregson-Williams, Zimmer also founded what was then Media Ventures and is now Remote Control Productions, taking in young composers and having them write additional music for him before sending them off on their own. The most talented alumni so far have been Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Mark Mancina, and Henry Jackman, and others have included Steve Jablonsky, Ramin Djawadi, Geoff Zanelli, Marc Streitenfeld, Lorne Balfe, James Dooley, Klaus Badelt, and Heitor Pereira. (Trevor Rabin was never formally part of MV/RC, despite his music sounding more like Zimmer's than that of many "true" MV/RC graduates). On one hand, it is extremely generous of Zimmer to offer these budding composers a chance to get a foothold into the film industry. On the other hand, many of these composers write (or are asked to write) music highly derivative of Zimmer's style. There are exceptions, like Gregson-Williams, Mancina, Powell, and Jackman, but they are few. In addition, Zimmer's own scores, especially from 2000 on, are co-written with a host of additional composers, which has noticeably diluted the big Z's own voice. He may be talented, but he is not Our Savior and the Lord God as many Youtube people claim. I may be quickly losing interest in the musical direction Zimmer is going in, with his increasingly simplistic and staid music, but his earlier works will always pack a punch. Zimmer has an undoubtedly sound dramatic instinct, and in many cases, he has followed it well.
Speaking of Gregson-Williams, Zimmer also founded what was then Media Ventures and is now Remote Control Productions, taking in young composers and having them write additional music for him before sending them off on their own. The most talented alumni so far have been Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Mark Mancina, and Henry Jackman, and others have included Steve Jablonsky, Ramin Djawadi, Geoff Zanelli, Marc Streitenfeld, Lorne Balfe, James Dooley, Klaus Badelt, and Heitor Pereira. (Trevor Rabin was never formally part of MV/RC, despite his music sounding more like Zimmer's than that of many "true" MV/RC graduates). On one hand, it is extremely generous of Zimmer to offer these budding composers a chance to get a foothold into the film industry. On the other hand, many of these composers write (or are asked to write) music highly derivative of Zimmer's style. There are exceptions, like Gregson-Williams, Mancina, Powell, and Jackman, but they are few. In addition, Zimmer's own scores, especially from 2000 on, are co-written with a host of additional composers, which has noticeably diluted the big Z's own voice. He may be talented, but he is not Our Savior and the Lord God as many Youtube people claim. I may be quickly losing interest in the musical direction Zimmer is going in, with his increasingly simplistic and staid music, but his earlier works will always pack a punch. Zimmer has an undoubtedly sound dramatic instinct, and in many cases, he has followed it well.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Angels and Demons
Angels and Demons
Backdraft
Beyond Rangoon
Black Rain
Broken Arrow
Crimson Tide
The Da Vinci Code
The Dark Knight (with James Newton Howard)
Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder
Drop Zone
Gladiator (with Lisa Gerrard)
Green Card
Hans Zimmer Live in Prague (Concert)
Interstellar
Hans Zimmer Live in Prague (Concert)
Interstellar
King Arthur
Kung Fu Panda (with John Powell)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (with John Powell)
The Last Samurai
The Lion King**
Man of Steel
Pacific Heights
Man of Steel
Pacific Heights
The Peacemaker
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (with a bunch of other people)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End* (with a bunch of other people)
Point of No Return
Point of No Return
The Prince of Egypt*
The Rock (with Nick Glennie-Smith and Harry Gregson-Williams)
Rush
Rush
Sherlock Holmes
White Fang
White Fang
Christopher Young
Christopher Young hasn't quite made it into the ranks of the most well-known film composers, but his talent and body of work prove that he definitely deserves to be there. Young is mostly known for his horror work, where his complex orchestrations, haunting themes, and exotic harmonies combine to create chilling scores. An early assignment was Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and Young soon found himself scoring projects like The Fly 2, The Vagrant, The Dark Half, Species, The Grudge, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and The Uninvited. Two particular fan favorites are his enormous, epic scores to Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II. His score for Bless the Child combines signature dark chorus and various doom-related material with more tender, sublime material. Young's skill at composing action music is evident in his bombastic scores for Ghost Rider, The Core, and Priest. Young has also done a handful of films for Sam Raimi, scoring The Gift, two scenes from Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and Drag Me to Hell. The majority of the films in Young's oeuvre may be unremarkable, but the scores for them are not.
Bless the Child*
The Core
The Core
Drag Me to Hell
Hellraiser
Hellraiser II: Hellbound
Jennifer 8
The Monkey King**
The Monkey King 2*
The Monkey King**
The Monkey King 2*
Priest
Spider-Man 3
Gabriel Yared
Gabriel Yared is a composer perhaps under-appreciated in his time, at least by the mainstream. He has had a few of his scores rejected, at least one of which is one of the most exciting and bold scores in decades. Yared was born in Lebanon and scored many French films before Hollywood noticed him. Among his early scores are Clean and Sober and Robert Altman's Beyond Therapy and Vincent & Theo. His score for director Anthony Minghella's The English Patient won him critical accolades and an Academy Award for Best Score. Yared would score Minghella's subsequent films, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, Breaking and Entering, and the TV show The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Other films he has scored include City of Angels, Message in a Bottle, the remake of Shall We Dance, 1408, and Amelia. He had written music for the films The Tourist and Troy, but had them rejected. Troy in particular was an interesting case, as Yared had written an enormous score fit for an epic, only to have it cut after an audience test screening. James Horner quickly wrote an underwhelming replacement score, but the film couldn't be saved. Yared's rejected score stands as an amazing standalone piece regardless of whether or not it would have worked with the disastrous film. Yared's style of writing is perhaps out of date in an era where musically empty and unintelligent droning is favored, and that is indeed unfortunate.
Amelia
The English Patient
Troy (Rejected)**
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Jack Wall
As
far as video game composers go, Jack Wall is the cream of the crop. Although he
studied civil engineering in college, Wall has proven to be a real talent at
composing. His scores include Unreal II: The Awakening, Splinter Cell: Pandora
Tomorrow, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect II. He is also the
co-founder and conductor of the Video Games Live concert series, bringing
attention to the wealth of quality music being composed for video games. Two of
his best scores are for Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation. Wall brought
movie-quality music to the venerated series of games, even incorporating some of
Robyn Miller's themes in his score for the latter game. Both games combine the exotic
instrumentation familiar to the Myst franchise with orchestral themes and
furiously chanting choir. Wall delicately balances more atmospheric (yet still
interesting) music for exploration with rich drama, tension, and tenderness for
the cutscenes.
From 2006 to 2012, Wall had only scored the two Mass Effect games and Army of Two, and sadly did not contribute any music to Mass Effect 3. However, in 2012 Wall made a big comeback with his score for the popular Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Trent Reznor wrote a slight main theme, but the exciting and surprisingly varied score (at least for a modern FPS) is really Wall's through and through. His score for Black Ops 3 was even better, mixing propulsive electronics, rousing orchestral anthems, and dramatic choral melodies. He also displayed his versatility by composing pastiche songs in a variety of styles, from swing and country to jazz and Calypso, for the game's zombie mode. I for one hope that this is only the start of a glorious return for this talented composer.
From 2006 to 2012, Wall had only scored the two Mass Effect games and Army of Two, and sadly did not contribute any music to Mass Effect 3. However, in 2012 Wall made a big comeback with his score for the popular Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Trent Reznor wrote a slight main theme, but the exciting and surprisingly varied score (at least for a modern FPS) is really Wall's through and through. His score for Black Ops 3 was even better, mixing propulsive electronics, rousing orchestral anthems, and dramatic choral melodies. He also displayed his versatility by composing pastiche songs in a variety of styles, from swing and country to jazz and Calypso, for the game's zombie mode. I for one hope that this is only the start of a glorious return for this talented composer.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (theme by Trent Reznor)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Jade Empire
Myst III: Exile**
Myst IV: Revelation
Shirley Walker
One may notice that my list of composers is mostly men. All men, actually, except for Yoko Shimomura and Shirley Walker. Partly, this is my fault, as I have yet to explore the scores of women such as Rachel Portman, Debbie Wiseman, Deborah Lurie, and others. But women still for some reason make up a small percentage of film composers (and classical composers in general). This has more to do with the business than with talent, for Walker's musical skill is undeniable. She started her career playing synthesizer on Apocalypse Now, and served as a conductor and orchestrator for composers Carmine Coppola, Brad Fiedel, Hans Zimmer, and Danny Elfman, among others. Notable scores she worked on include Fiedel's True Lies; Trevor Jones's Arachnophobia; Elliot Goldenthal's Batman Forever; Zimmer's Black Rain, Bird on a Wire, Days of Thunder, Pacific Heights, Backdraft, Radio Flyer, A League of Their Own, Renaissance Man, and Toys; and Elfman's Scrooged, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Dick Tracy, Nightbreed, Darkman, and Article 99. On her own, Walker composed the scores to John Carpenter's Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Escape from LA as well as the thrillers Turbulence, Willard, and Black Christmas. She created the alternately brutal and elegant music for the first three Final Destination films and composed for the TV shows Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The Flash, and Space: Above and Beyond. Her work on the Batman series led her to compose for the animated feature Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a stunning score that represents the Dark Knight as well as Elfman's music, and is leagues above the scores for Christopher Nolan's otherwise masterfully-crafted entries. Walker passed away in 2006, and one can only guess at melodies from her that will remain unheard.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*
Brian Tyler
Brian Tyler is not only a composer and conductor, but also plays guitar, piano, drums, percussion, and programs the electronics for his scores. Although he has written many fine scores, he unfortunately didn't have a lot of luck in getting quality films to score until recently. Nevertheless, his high-energy style and versatility bring a sense of class to the projects he scores. He began composing and conducting his own pieces at a young age before he turned to film composition with Six-String Samurai. His score for Bill Paxton's Frailty garnered positive attention, and Tyler would go on to score Paxton's The Greatest Game Ever Played. But his most famous score would be for the miniseries Children of Dune, for which Tyler combined exotic percussion, world music, and grandiloquent themes into an enormously enticing package. The "Summon the Worms" cue would be used in many trailers, including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Tyler provided a rousing replacement score to Richard Donner's ill-fated Timeline when original composer Jerry Goldsmith (one of Tyler's influences) became too ill to revise his music for the newly re-cut picture. Tyler has since become a specialist at writing high-octane action scores that combine compositional skill with up-to-date electronic riffs. These include Darkness Falls, Rambo, Bangkok Dangerous, War, Dragonball Evolution, The Expendables films, Battle: Los Angeles, Now You See Me, and the fourth and fifth installments in the Final Destination series. Eagle Eye, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature particularly furious and unrelenting action cues. Speaking of furious, Tyler has also scored music for most of the recent installments in the Fast and Furious series: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast and Furious, Fast Five, and Furious 7. The music in the Tokyo Drift starts out heavily electronic (including contributions from guitarist Slash) and becomes more orchestral in Fast Five. The first three were directed by Justin Lin, whom Tyler also worked with on Annapolis and Finishing the Game. Tyler also became one of the composers for the Marvel stables with his muscular, large-scale scores to Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. For TV, Tyler scored the pilot of the rebooted Hawaii Five-0, the series Terra Nova, and Transformers: Prime (the latter having a more interesting score than its big-screen brethren). He has also scored a handful of video games, including Need for Speed: The Run, LEGO Universe, and the popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. LEGO Universe is one of his best scores, with a delightful main theme, colorful orchestrations, and a variety of catchy tunes. Although Tyler certainly gets plenty of work, one can hope that his Marvel scores promise more prestigious assignments that will allow him to explore new musical territories.
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
Annapolis
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (with Danny Elfman)
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (with Danny Elfman)
Bangkok Dangerous
Battle: Los Angeles
Bubba Ho-Tep
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Children of Dune
Darkness Falls
Dragonball Evolution
Eagle Eye
The Expendables
The Expendables 2
The Expendables 3
The Expendables 2
The Expendables 3
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Fast and Furious
Fast Five
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
Furious 7
The Fate of the Furious
The Final Cut
The Final Destination
Final Destination 5
Frailty
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The Hunted
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3
LEGO Universe**
The Mummy (2017)
Need for Speed: The Run
Now You See Me
Now You See Me 2
The Mummy (2017)
Need for Speed: The Run
Now You See Me
Now You See Me 2
Paparazzi
Partition
Power Rangers
Rambo (2008)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*
Terra Nova
Thor: The Dark World
Partition
Power Rangers
Rambo (2008)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*
Terra Nova
Thor: The Dark World
Timeline
Transformers: Prime
War
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini is one of those rare film composers whose music became well-known in the mainstream. He is best known for his jazz and pop-inflected tunes, including the immortal themes for Peter Gunn and The Pink Panther. Mancini spent a year at Juilliard before he got drafted into Word War II. Following the war, Mancini scored a slew of low-budget films, including the horror/sci-fi cult classics Creature From the Black Lagoon and This Island Earth. Another early assignment was for Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. Mancini soon became typecast as a composer of light romances, including Breakfast at Tiffany's. The song "Moon River" from that film is only one of many of his popular songs. But Mancini also wrote full-bodied orchestral scores, from the grand, majestic themes of Lifeforce to the rollicking adventure of Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. He was slated to score Tim Burton's Ed Wood, but sadly passed away in 1994 before he could score it. If nothing else, his music lives on in marching bands across the country, but his talent clearly went far beyond such jazzy staples.
Condorman
Days of Wine and Roses
The Great Mouse Detective*
Hatari!
Lifeforce*
Once Is Not Enough
Santa Claus: The Movie**
Silver Streak
The White Dawn
Condorman
Days of Wine and Roses
The Great Mouse Detective*
Hatari!
Lifeforce*
Once Is Not Enough
Santa Claus: The Movie**
Silver Streak
The White Dawn
Friday, January 6, 2012
Ken Thorne
Ken Thorne is a British composer whose most high-profile assignments were for director Richard Lester. Thorne scored most of Lester's films since Help! (the "musketeer" films and Robin and Marian being notable exceptions). Most of his work for Lester has involved adapting other music, whether it is The Beatles, Richard Wagner, or Stephen Sondheim. Thorne himself has noted that this is one of his particular strengths. He used John Williams's music for Lester's Superman II and Superman III. While the former is mainly a rehash of Williams's material (with thinner orchestration and slightly diminished performance), the latter contains lots of new material to fit the more comedic aspects of that film. Thorne remained very active in scoring for television until his death in 2014.
Superman II
Superman III
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim in primarily a stage composer and lyricist, although he has worked in film, providing the scores for Stavisky, The Last of Sheila, Warren Beatty's Reds and original songs for Dick Tracy (scored by Danny Elfman). He was trained by Oscar Hammerstein II and provided the lyrics to the classic musical West Side Story, music by Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim subsequently wrote the music and lyrics for many other highly-respected productions, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Passion. Sweeney Todd remains a favorite, and its profile heightened in 2007 when it was made into a film by Tim Burton with lush, full orchestrations of his classic music.
Into the Woods: Broadway Production*
Into the Woods: Film*
Into the Woods: Broadway Production*
Into the Woods: Film*
Sweeney Todd: Broadway Production**
Sweeney Todd: Film**
Johan Soderqvist
Johan Soderqvist is a Swedish composer who played the keyboard before moving on to composing for films. Most of his scores are for non-Hollywood projects, although he has written music for Susanne Bier's Brothers, After the Wedding, and Things We Lost in the Fire. His most well known score is for the drama/horror classic Let the Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and an inspiration for the American version, Let Me In. The score accentuates the tragedy, loneliness, and restrained drama of the story over its horror elements.
Let the Right One In
Let the Right One In
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri is a master at creating memorable and powerful themes, and his specialties include both hard-hitting action and tender romance. Silvestri first entered the world of music as a percussionist and subsequently played with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders. Silvestri was lured to Los Angeles with a contract, but it turned out to be fraudulent and the musician soon found himself with nothing to do. A producer offered Silvestri the job of scoring The Doberman Gang. Silvestri knew nothing about film scoring, but picked up a book on film scoring technique and took the job.
After scoring a few obscure films, Silvestri scored the TV show CHiPs for its six season run from 1978 to 1983. Once the series came to an end, Silvestri received a call from Robert Zemeckis with an offer to score the director's third feature, Romancing the Stone. In an oft-repeated story, Silvestri walked into the meeting with Zemeckis to find that they were both wearing the same Calvin Klein sweater. It was the beginning of a great partnership, and Silvestri scored all of Zemeckis's subsequent features. After the electronic rhythms and jazzy riffs of Romancing the Stone, Silvestri composed his first major orchestral score for Back to the Future, composing a timeless fanfare and establishing his signature style of action scoring. He wrote a similar score for the sequel and composed rollicking Western music for the series' third installment. Who Framed Roger Rabbit combines blues with manic cartoon music and, Death Becomes Her features a witty string scherzo. He wrote a multitude of inspiring and tender themes for the Academy Award-nominated Forrest Gump and similarly tender but celestial-tinged music for Contact. While What Lies Beneath features Herrmann-esque suspense, Cast Away is a restrained score with no music appearing until the last third of the film. Flight is even more restrained and subtle, the score playing a lesser role than in Cast Away despite there being slightly more music. But both Polar Express and A Christmas Carol have scores brimming with holiday magic and boundless energy, while Beowulf combines dark chorus, orchestra, and electronics is a brutal frenzy of action.
As expected, some of Silvestri's best scores make use of the composer's percussionist background, featuring exciting action cues. Films such as Predator, Young Guns II, Ricochet, Blown Away, Judge Dredd, Eraser, Volcano, Van Helsing, and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra showcase Silvestri's natural talent for the genre. The Mummy Returns is an especially exciting score, with one of the most swashbuckling themes in modern music. Yet he also can write heart-tugging music for films like Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, Stuart Little, and Maid in Manhattan. His scores for James Cameron's The Abyss, Disney's Lilo and Stitch, and DreamWorks's The Croods show Silvestri deftly combining both tenderness and action. With his scores for the Marvel blockbusters Captain America and The Avengers, Silvestri has made a welcome return to the high-profile films that his exuberant music deserves.
After scoring a few obscure films, Silvestri scored the TV show CHiPs for its six season run from 1978 to 1983. Once the series came to an end, Silvestri received a call from Robert Zemeckis with an offer to score the director's third feature, Romancing the Stone. In an oft-repeated story, Silvestri walked into the meeting with Zemeckis to find that they were both wearing the same Calvin Klein sweater. It was the beginning of a great partnership, and Silvestri scored all of Zemeckis's subsequent features. After the electronic rhythms and jazzy riffs of Romancing the Stone, Silvestri composed his first major orchestral score for Back to the Future, composing a timeless fanfare and establishing his signature style of action scoring. He wrote a similar score for the sequel and composed rollicking Western music for the series' third installment. Who Framed Roger Rabbit combines blues with manic cartoon music and, Death Becomes Her features a witty string scherzo. He wrote a multitude of inspiring and tender themes for the Academy Award-nominated Forrest Gump and similarly tender but celestial-tinged music for Contact. While What Lies Beneath features Herrmann-esque suspense, Cast Away is a restrained score with no music appearing until the last third of the film. Flight is even more restrained and subtle, the score playing a lesser role than in Cast Away despite there being slightly more music. But both Polar Express and A Christmas Carol have scores brimming with holiday magic and boundless energy, while Beowulf combines dark chorus, orchestra, and electronics is a brutal frenzy of action.
As expected, some of Silvestri's best scores make use of the composer's percussionist background, featuring exciting action cues. Films such as Predator, Young Guns II, Ricochet, Blown Away, Judge Dredd, Eraser, Volcano, Van Helsing, and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra showcase Silvestri's natural talent for the genre. The Mummy Returns is an especially exciting score, with one of the most swashbuckling themes in modern music. Yet he also can write heart-tugging music for films like Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, Stuart Little, and Maid in Manhattan. His scores for James Cameron's The Abyss, Disney's Lilo and Stitch, and DreamWorks's The Croods show Silvestri deftly combining both tenderness and action. With his scores for the Marvel blockbusters Captain America and The Avengers, Silvestri has made a welcome return to the high-profile films that his exuberant music deserves.
The A-Team
The Abyss*
The Avengers
The Avengers
Back to the Future**
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III*
Beowulf
Blown Away
The Bodyguard
Blown Away
The Bodyguard
Captain America: The First Avenger*
Cast Away
Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye
A Christmas Carol
Contact
Cosmos (Volumes 1-4)
The Croods
Cosmos (Volumes 1-4)
The Croods
The Delta Force
Eraser
Fandango
Fandango
Father of the Bride
Flight
Flight
Flight of the Navigator
Forrest Gump**
GI Joe: Rise of Cobra
Judge Dredd*
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Lilo and Stitch
The Mummy Returns**
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
The Parent Trap
The Polar Express*
Predator*
Predator 2
Red 2
Red 2
Romancing the Stone
Stuart Little
Young Guns II
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)