Category: Film Score Friday Top 5

FSFT5 – Musical Moments on TV of the Past 10 Years

Posted on by filmscore80

It’s been awhile since I did a proper Film Score Friday Top 5, between classes and the difficulty of coming up with a topic each week, I’ve been a bad blogger.  So once again I’ll throw it to you, fair readers, if you have either a topic you want me to tackle or a list yourself, let me know – part of what makes the internets so great is the interactivity of it all.

Anyway, for today’s installment, I have decided to do what I consider the best musical moments on TV (narrative shows, not live concerts, award shows, etc) of the last ten years.  Why ten years, you ask?  Because that is what I know best, and if I try to go further back I do not feel that I’m on as solid of ground.  My criteria for inclusion is memorabililty, re-watchability, and if the music actually served to further the narrative of the show and wasn’t just for cheap plugging or ratings.  I considered both diegetic and non-diegetic music, and the list I came up with actually includes many examples of the blurring of the line between the two.  Lastly, I wanted specific instances, not just so-and-so’s music for x show, and to that end I decided to limit myself to only one instance from either Lost or Battlestar Galactica, though I could have easily done top five lists for either shows and have done so in the past.

Well with all that out of the way, let’s go to the list.  I shall present them in chronological order.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – “Once More With Feeling” (Season 6, Episode 7; November 6, 2001): Also known as the Buffy musical, this episode, though not the first instance of a “musical episode” within a television show, is certainly one of the most well-known.  Creator/Writer/Producer/Director Joss Whedon also wrote all the song and music for this episode, showing the world that he really is master of all he surveys.  What strikes me most about this episode is how integral it is to the story arc of the entire season, and while one can watch the episode on its own and enjoy the music, without the context of what has come before it, many of the subtleties of the song lyrics are lost – especially in the show’s penultimate number in which the Scooby Gang (look it up) finally confronts the villian…the villian which is actually the cause of the entire town of Sunnydale breaking into song.  And this is what I also find so brilliant, instead of the traditional musical caveat of the characters not commenting on the songs, they are fully aware of their singing and find it quite strange.  This is also the only entry in this list in which it is not a specific moment but rather the episode itself, though musical highlights include Xander and Anya’s  throwback number “I’ll Never Tell.”  Also great are the little moments like “They Got the Mustard Out” or the woman singing to the traffic cop to not give her a ticket heard only in passing as the main characters walk down a street.  It is an amazing episode that set the stage for Whedon & Co.’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  And if you haven’t see that…well you really need to.

Life on Mars (BBC Version) – Episode 1 (January 9, 2006): Let me first just say this, if you’ve only seen the American version of this show (from the 2008-09 t.v. season) or if you haven’t seen either, do yourself a favor and get ahold of this show.  They’ve released it on DVD in the US and you might also be able to find it via torrents (that’s how I first saw it prior to its domestic DVD release).  The basic premise of the show is that a modern-day cop is somehow transported back to the 1970s (the how is left open until the end – is he in a coma, did he actually travel through time, is he dead and this is the afterlife?) after being hit by a car.  And it is this sequence, as his is hit by the car and then wakes up in 1973, that I am highlighting here.  As this happens, the David Bowe song “Life on Mars?” off his album Hunky Dory is playing on his iPod in his car, and the song plays through the traveling sequence and continues to play as he wakes up and is now playing on an 8-track.  The song moves into and out of the diegesis and is links the two time periods together and they even used the sound of telephones (heard at the very end of the album track) as the song fades into the police department, and indeed the sound of a ringing phone becomes very important throughout the show.  I am speaking specifically of the BBC version here because this sequence as rendered in the US version does not even hold a candle, and everything that is brilliant about the BBC version is not present in the US remake.  Unfortunatly, this clip cuts off right before the phones come in.  But listen to the song itself and you’ll hear it.

Battlestar Galactica – “Crossroads, Pt. 2” (Season 3, Episode 20; March 25, 2007):  Of course, for all you Galactica fans out there, you know where I’m going here – the use of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” at the end of Season 3.  For a few episodes prior, four characters had been hearing faint snippets of music and eventually towards the end of this season finale, they come together and realize they’ve all been hearing the same song, unbeknownst to them as “Watchtower” (though in a new arrangement by composer Bear McCreary, and the actual melody heard by them is entirely unique to McCreary’s version).  The handling of the sequence musically leading up the four gathering and the subsequent use of the song itself in the new arrangement during the final sequence of the episode is one of the few good examples, in my opinion, of the use of a “pop” song during an ending montage (I’m looking at you Scrubs and The O.C. for gratuitous overuse and bad examples) because it serves purpose other than “setting a tone” in that it truly serves a narrative function.  Note: I am forgoing posting a video of this sequence here in order to save parties that have not seen the show from spoilers.

Chuck – “Chuck vs. the Ring” (Season 2, Episode 22; April 27, 2009):  I’ve written about this sequence, Jeffster’s performance of Styx’s “Mr. Roboto,” in an earlier post, “Domo Arigato, Mr. Bartowski,” so I’ll let you read that instead of recapping it here.  It’s ironic that I put down The O.C. in the previous selection when both it and Chuck were created by the same person, and The O.C. always had a good selection of music, but Chuck, in my opinion, does a much better job of using it.

Lost – “The End” (Season 6, Episode 18; May 23, 2010):   The final musical sequence of Lost is one of the most satisfying musical endings to any television show, I believe.  Where Battlestar has many musically satisfying conclusions, they are separate instances for the most part.  What Michael Giacchino does in the final sequence for “The End” is take at least three major themes from throughout the series and builds them all up into a conclusion (as mentioned earlier, I’m planning a more in-depth analysis later on, once I can transcribe the actual music).  And where some may see at least one, if not more, of the themes as character specific, I see this ending as affirming that many of the major music motifs are not character based, but rather based on themes of the show.  What I find satisfying about it is that it brings to a conclusion these musical themes while underlying many of the similarities between them…the “fundamental interconnectedness” of them, which, in many ways, a major theme of the show…we either live together or die alone. Note: I’m also not linking of video of this sequence either for obvious reasons.

Well, that’s all for now, think I missed any?

‘Lost’ and Michael Giacchino’s Cell Construction

Posted on by filmscore80

So you won’t read this until Saturday at the earliest, but this is a pseudo Film Score Friday Top 5 in that it covers five of my favorite Lost moments.  While I might not have talked as much about Michael Giacchino’s magnificent work on the just ended series as, say, Bear McCreary and BSG, my love for it is no less.  Today, I am going to discuss a bit about how Giacchino constructed some of what I consider the show’s best musical moments.  And in a Temp Track first, I’m going to give you musical examples!  It’s going to be legen…wait for it…dary!  Let’s see how this goes.

WARNING —- WARNING —- WARNING!!!!  SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  So if you haven’t seen ANY of Lost, then you might not want to read any further.

Okay, still with me?  Great.  So I’ve mentioned in some earlier posts that Giacchino constructs many of his cues from small musical cells, starting with a very sparse texture (many times just piano and maybe a cello) and building up from there.  He’ll repeat the same material, adding countermelodies and other things, but the core harmonic and melodic cell remains.  The first one I want to talk about is one of the most heard themes in the entire show, simply titled “Life and Death.”  As many of you might know, even if you’re not fans of the show, Lost was by no means shy about killing main characters, or even secondary, hell even minor characters.  Let’s face it, people dropped like flies on that wacky island.

In the twentieth episode of the first season, we had the first major death, Boone.  But what was so great about it was that it was paired with the birth of Claire’s baby, Aaron.  Hence life AND death.  The cue proper that I’m discussing begins about forty seconds into this clip.

As you can hear, he starts with the bare harmonic outline then bringing in the actual melody and slowly building in some strings.  Though unlike most of the cues I’ll discuss later, it never truly builds into an overpowering force.  Hey, someone’s died here, we can’t get too optimistic, right?  Anyway, the basic theme is like so (Note: I don’t have the best ear for transcribing music, so please forgive any in my transcriptions):

The first chord of the last bar does change occasionally, so I’ve gone with what is heard in the first full statement.  As I said, this theme is reused many times whenever a major character dies.  One of the most heartbreaking of all deaths on the show was the end of season three when Charlie dies, and without fail, the theme is brought back out, but with a new (counter)melody.

 But let’s move to something a bit more uplifting.  Other than the death of Charlie, just shown, one of the most refered to moments of the show is the end of the episode “Walkabout” (season 1, episode 4), and I must admit that this was the scene that got me hooked.  I had never heard such music for a television show (I had yet to watch BSG), and I knew I had to go out and buy the season 1 DVDs.  It really is a simple two-part, four measure phrase with a slowly ascending melody and an eighth-note ostinato.  In this clip you’ll hear it slowly build up (the dialogue buries the beginning of the cue) as we see Locke slowly realize that he has feeling again in his legs and stands for the first time in years.  It was a powerful moment, especially because before this episode we had no idea that Locke had been in a wheelchair prior to the crash.

The basic part is as follows (this one was a hard one to crack, especially because I was having to work straight from the video as this cue specific was not on the soundtrack album):

Again, what standout in my mind is how Giacchino builds something so powerful out of such simplicity.  As I said, tiny cells of music built up, and, of course, the addition to the trombones just drives the whole cue home.

The penultimate episode of season 1 provides a great moment in the pantheon of Lost, the launching of a raft that the castaways hope can find help to get them home.  It is a another moment, like all the ones discussed today, in which the producers gave the sequence over to Giacchino’s music, trusting him to take the visual and send it into a mythic realm with his scoring.  And without fail, he succeeded.  This cue, “Parting Words,” is made up of three small cells that are mixed and matched:

They all have the same harmonic foundation of alternating Db major and G minor chords and are arranged as A-B-A-A-B-A-A-AC-AC-AB-AC-AB-AC-AB (where the letters are together, it indicates the cells being played at the same time).  In the scene below, also notice how in the first five iterations that there is a measure of pause inserted lengthening each cell to eight measures.

And like all these themes, they appear again and again.  When, in season 2, the people who were on the raft finally make it back to the beach, we hear this theme once again with a few new twists.

The last cue I want to consider is one of my favorite from the series, and also one of the last major themes to be introduced.  It is the first music we hear as the erstwhile Oceanic 6, who have escaped the island, land in Hawaii in the second to last episode of season four.  The cue is called “There is No Place Like Home,” and features a theme that became more important as the show progressed towards its final episode and was then heard many times in the finale.  In this transcription, I have also included the full theme with countermelody(Note: the first two chords are cut off in the below clip):

As you can hear, it is constructed just as the previous cues, starting with a simple piano version before adding strings and a countermelody to the proceedings, and then fading back away.  In many ways, this cue is related to the earlier “Life and Death,” especially in that instead of continually building, such as with Locke’s cue or “Parting Words,” it fades back out.  Also note how the first two chords for both “Home” and “Life and Death,” arguably the heart of the both cues, are related by a third – DM to F#m and BbM to Dm respectively.  Further, you may notice that the countermelody is a sequenced and altered version of the eighth-note ostinato heard in the above Locke theme.  In fact, many of these themes do bear a resemblance, if not explicitly musical, at least “spiritually.”  This is all brought home in the final scene of the series in which “There’s No Place Like Home,” “Life and Death,” and “Parting Words” all make an appearance.  I’ll forgo posting a clip of that just in case.  While the above clips are indeed spoilers, they would not really ruin ones enjoyment, the last scene of the series, on the other hand, would be a bit to much for a Lost virgin.

I hope that this modest post has provided a glimpse into how Michael Giacchino constructed some of the best musical cues of the series, and indeed, for any television show ever aired.

Update 6/13: I’ve gone back and fixed a few things in the voicings in the “Parting Words” transcription. 

Film Score Friday Top 5: Scores of the Aughts

Posted on by filmscore80

The first decade of the 21st Century has come and gone and I still want to know where my flying car and jet pack are, but since Q division has yet to produce on them, I figured I could at least give you my top five scores of the past ten years.  It’s actually surprising how easily I came up with them, though I’m sure many will disagree with some of my choices.  And yes, this could easily be a top ten of the past ten, but I don’t want to break with the FSFT5 tradition!  So in reverse order, here we go.  Drumroll, if you please…

5. (Tie) John Williams – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) / Catch Me if You Can (2002): John Williams is still the film composer of film composers, even as his output has slowed down in recent years.  In the last decade, these two scores stood out the most to me, mainly because they are very distinct from a lot of his output.  As I wrote in my review of the Potter scores, Azkaban has a medieval/renaissance feeling to it, especially with the “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble” song performed by the students.  Catch Me if You Can is a score I haven’t mentioned in these electronic pages, but a recent post by Herr Vogler on the demise of good title sequences in films brought it back to mind.  Williams might not be known for jazz infused scores, but it’s a natural fit since he is steeped in jazz performance.  Both of these scores, for me, though, show that even though Williams might be most known for his lush orchestral work (Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, et al), he still knows how to mix it up and surprise the audience.

4. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard – The Dark Knight (2008): This is the first of two scores on this list not nominated for Academy Awards for what I deem “stupid” reasons.  In the case of Knight it was because the Academy could not attribute a substantial amount of the music to one composer.  Some people haven’t liked the score, but I find it fascinating, especially how Zimmer can so completely capture a character in one held, distorted electric cello note.  Anytime you hear that note in the score while watching the film, you know something bad is going down.  My personal favorite moment is the cue entitled “Watch the World Burn” on the album.  This happens right before the end when Batman confronts Two-Face holding the Gordon family at gun point.  The cue has always reminded me of the slow movement to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony as it has the same melancholy quality, but Zimmer and Howard infuse it with a quality of menace appropriate to the scene.

3. Jonny Greenwood – There Will Be Blood (2007): This is the other score not nominated for “stupid” reasons, though I can at least understand the reasoning…to an extent.  Greenwood, better known as a member of the band Radiohead, reused or adapted parts of previous works he had done, including one for his only other film score, Bodysong.  What makes this score one of the best of the past decade is how Greenwood melds his diverse influences into a whole that creates a “sound” of the American west that is the not nostalgic West of John Wayne, or even the dangerous West of Sergio Leone, but rather a dark, cold place where evil men make their fortunes through lying, theft, and murder.  The Messiaen inspired string tracks, especially “Prospectors Arrive,” are among my favorite cues of recent years.

2. Michael Giacchino – The Incredibles (2004): At the opposite end of the spectrum from There Will Be Blood is Giacchino’s score for The Incredibles.  When I first saw this film, the music hit me like a thunderbolt.  It was exciting, fun, and the sequence where Mr. Incredible is figuring out what Kronos is, intercut with his wife beginning to understand that something is going on, was one of the most brilliant musical sequences I had ever seen or heard.  The big band jazz score with elements of James Bond thrown in for good measure (according to Wikipedia, John Barry was first approached to score the film) is, to me, a big reason as to why the film worked so well.  The music fit with the animation style, and especially the exaggerated drawings used in the end credits – or as the cue is called on the album, the “Incredits”.

And the number one score of the past decade is…

1. Howard Shore – The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003): “But wait,” you’re saying, “that’s three film scores!”  Honestly,  The Lord of the Rings is really just one twelve hour long film with a score to match.  Shore’s achievement in depth, complexity, and sheer amount of thematic material and construction is on a level with that of Wagner’s Ring, in my opinion.  There is even a website that catalogs which themes are used in what cues and at what times.  I can only imagine how much time one would have to spend on such a project.  But what sticks out most in my mind about these scores is just how well each theme and cue captures and translates the myriad of characters, places, and concetps in the films.  From the percussive almost industrial sound of the orcs and Isengard to the nostalgic, rustic, and plaintive theme of Rohan, and the wistful, carefree Hobbits theme, Shore created what could be one of the most perfect scores ever written for film.  Overstatement?  Maybe.  But I think that most would agree that Shore’s scores should rank pretty high on any list.

Well there you have it, folks, my top five scores of the past decade.  So now that you know mine, how about yours?

FSFT5: Desert Island Discs aka Is There A Film Music Canon?

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So I’ve decided to wade into the shark infested waters that I have so far avoided.  When I first started the Film Score Friday Top 5, there was one list that I avoided like the Swine Flu: Top 5 Scores, what could also be termed a so-called “Desert Island” list (as in, if you were stuck on a Desert Island, which scores would want to have with you).  Both of these lists, or questions postulated to a person, point to a similar idea: the canon. 

The term canon in this context is not the large gun fired from a Pirate Ship or other sailing vessel, or even the imitative musical device used in works as far ranging as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to Pachelbel’s  infamous on in D heard everywhere, at least according to one comic.  No, in this sense, canon is meant as a collection of works or artists that we hold up as exemplars of whatever genre under consideration.  In criticism, historiography, and other such disciplines, this can become a rather thorny topic.  As a musicologist in training, one learns the “Western Art Music” canon (you know, those dead Germanic guys: Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Brahms, etc), but at the same time, scholars are now attacking that very idea not only because of its very limited scope, but also because of the very way in which it was created.  (If you wish to know more, I would direct you to the recent articles by University of Oklahoma musicologist Dr. Sanna Pederson.) 

So all this brings me to a crisis of sorts in my own study of film music.  Since deciding a few years ago to make film music my primary area of study, I have been doing my best to acquaint, and in some cases reacquaint, myself with those scores and composers that most people talk about: Korngold, Steiner, Herrmann, Rozsa, Goldsmith, along with the more contemporary practitioners (Williams, Elfman, Zimmer, etc).  But no matter how much I hear or read, I still feel like there is so much out there that I have yet to hear.  I know I have a dearth of Hermann in my ear largely because my school’s library doesn’t have much of his music (mainly one compilation disc of his work with Hitchcock and the North By Northwest score), but even beyond Herrmann, I still feel like there is so much that I don’t know. 

Which brings me to the question in the title of this post: Is there a Film Music ‘Canon?’  My instincts say yes and no.  On the one hand, we humans have the insatiable urge to catalog and categorize things; put them into neat little boxes.  Witness the overabundance of lists not only by the AFI but just about every major trade publication and magazines.  But by doing so, what do we gain?  We know not everyone is going to agree:  sure Mozart was a genius, but was he that great?  (Personally, I say yes, but that’s another blog entirely, we’re here to talk about film music.)  The obvious gain is that it does help one to have a place to begin when trying to get into a new genre of music, art, film, etc, but it also has the adverse cultural effect of giving message board trollers something to rant about and rail against – which is maybe my biggest fear: either leaving something out or going for the obvious choice. 

So, now that I’ve given you an entirely too long introduction, here is my response to the question of:  If you were on a desert island, and magically had power and a stereo system but could only have 5 film scores with you, what would they be?  Not a ‘best’ list, but rather a personal one.  Yes, I took the easy way out.

 1) The Empire Strikes Back – John Williams:  Obvious, yes, but I couldn’t survive long on a desert island without my “Imperial March.”

2) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – James Horner: My love for this has been stated elsewhere in this blog, ‘nuff said.

3) The Hunt for Red October – Basil Poledouris:  Not only was Poledouris born in my home town of Kansas City, Missouri (like famed director Robert Altman), this score is one of my long time favorites…if only for the opening title with its Russian chorus.  But the rest of it is also pretty good.  More a sentimental pick, I would still like to have it with more on this remote atoll.

4) North By Northwest – Bernard Herrmann:  One of the few Herrmann scores I know well, and a favorite.  The off kilter meter is great and fits the film so well.

5) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly – Ennio Morricone:  Morricone’s scores for Leone are so iconic and well known that his scoring for the Old West has passed into cliché.  But that doesn’t make it any less amazing.  Besides, when I start having imaginary gunfights on my Desert Island (either out of boredom, insanity, or both), I could hardly imagine a better soundtrack.

 So what if magically I had five more CDs on the island?  Or maybe instead of taking my top 5 symphonies I grabbed five more scores and stuck them into my magical duffle bag that also survived the calamity that washed me ashore this remote Desert Isle, those would be:

 6) Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith:  Goldsmith perfectly scored the first Trek film, and it still bugs me to no end that Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory dissed it.  Yes, I know that it’s “just a TV show,” but a show so steeped in nerd culture should know better.

7) Battlestar Galactica Season 1 – Bear McCreary:  The Season 4 album has more music and overall was his best season on the show, but so many of my favorite cues are on the Season 1 album that that’s the one I’d grab.

8 ) There Will Be Blood – Jonny Greenwood:  It might be a little early for me to put this on the list considering I just heard it for the first time a week ago…but what a week it has been.  I hope to write a post on this one sometime in the near future.  I know that there are those who hated this score, but I found it amazing upon my first listening, and even more so once I saw the film.

9) Dodes’kaden – Toru Takemitsu: Not Kurosawa’s best film, and probably not Takemitsu’s best score, but there is just something about the main theme that I love so much: a joy, a simplicity…but also a melancholy.  It also sounds like it could light right into the song “MacArthur Park” which could be a bad thing to some people.

10) Lost Season 1 – Michael Giacchino:  Hey, I’m stuck on a Desert Island, you didn’t actually expect me to leave this off, did you?

 Well that’s it for now.  Disagree?  Of course you will, instead it’s…inevitable.   So I want to hear from you.  What would you choose?  And what would you include in a so-called ‘canon?’

Film Score Friday NOT Top 5: Summer Score Round-Up Spectacular!

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Okay, I know this more than just a day late coming, but better late than never, right?  So what follows is a list of most of the films I saw this summer (in theatres) and some thoughts on their scores.  Plus, I’m also including a few major soundtrack releases from the summer, and as an added bonus to you, loyal reader, an extra special discussion prompt!

 Note: These are roughly in the order in which I saw them.

 Star Trek – Michael Giacchino:  I’ve already written on this in an earlier post, so I won’t say much else here except that this was one of the best scores I heard this summer.  To me, only two other scores can really compete with this.

 Terminator Salvation – Danny Elfman:  A good score from Elfman, not great, though.  The opening cue is very good, and he does a good job integrating the original Terminator thematic ideas in it.  The guitar based cues humanize the music and make us identify with the resistance soldiers, but overall the score, like the film, is just lacking that something special.

 Up – Michael Giacchino: The second of three in the 2009 summer of Giacchino (the third, Land of the Lost I have yet to hear or see).  Giacchino does another great job of knowing just how to score a Pixar film: sentimental and bumping right up against cliché without going over.  Here, he uses a sound that is meant to evoke that of the ‘20s and ‘30s, almost like a silent film orchestra, for those scenes dealing with the old man’s past; evoking the nostalgia that leads to his quest.  It’s wistful and wonderful, and also heartbreaking when it needs to be.  All three of his Pixar scores (The Incredibles and Ratatouille prior to this) are among the best of recent years.  They have that playful quality that reminds us that movies can be fun without being rude, violent, or sexy, much like Pixar films themselves.

 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Steve Jablonsky:  I really don’t have much to say about this one.  The film was mixed in such a way that the music was hard to hear most of the time, and I never did pick up the CD release.  For more discussion, I direct you to the post on Herr Vogler’s blog.

 Moon – Clint Mansell: The score that surprised me the most this summer, and if I had to pick a ‘best’ score I heard this summer (of just what I heard, there are a lot I didn’t, so don’t get mad), it would most likely be this…or maybe Up.  It’s just a deceptively simple score and has two main ideas: a piano ostinato that you hear almost throughout in some form, and a lyric melody used in two cues on the CD release.  There are many cues that are more atonal and electronic in nature (reminding me of the middle section of “Echoes” by Pink Floyd), but the main idea is the piano ostinato, which drives home the solitude and repetitive nature of the main character’s life.

 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Nicholas Hooper:  I’ve already said a bit on this.  The score was definitely a step up for Hooper from Order of the Phoenix, but it’s also no Prisoner of Azkaban.  I’ll direct you to my comments elsewhere on this blog.

 District 9 – Clinton Shorter: I really want to like this score because there is a lot to like about it, but for me it really smacks of the Zimmer/Howard score for The Dark Knight…and there are just too many similarities to ignore.  There are times when a cue is structured a lot like a cue for the CD release of Knight, which means that most likely that Knight cue had been temped in so Shorter was sort of locked into how that cue was edited to picture.  This was Shorter’s first “major” motion picture (according to IMDB he had done a lot of TV work prior).  That said, I look forward to hearing what he does in the future.

 Inglourious Basterds – Ennio Morricone, et al.:  Supposedly  Tarentino wanted Morricone to score the film, but scheduling wouldn’t allow for it, so he did the next best thing: he used music Morricone (and a few others) had already written, and I must say that it worked.  Luckily Tarentino didn’t use the most iconic of Morricone’s cues (the ones from the Leone westerns), which would have proved too distracting.  But the ones he did choose worked very well and the end result was one of the best films of the summer. 

Other Releases: 

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 – Bear McCreary:  Yes, more Galactica music.  I know I sound like a broken record, but McCreary really outdid himself in season 4.  I mentioned a few cues in my Top 5 list a month or so back, but the entire album really deserves a listen by all.  I don’t know why McCreary hasn’t done a major studio film release, but it’s hard to imagine that he won’t be getting the call soon.  I’ve heard the sound he created for BSG cropping up in so many other scores recently that it’s getting somewhat annoying. 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – Complete Score – James Horner:  The most exciting score to be (re)released this summer.  Long out of print on CD and then only in a shorten form, Horner’s first major work in Hollywood, and, in my opinion, one of his finest scores.  Maybe it’s all my nostalgic memories of watching the movie, but there is a quality about the music that fits so well with them film.  And as many people have commented around the Internets, how can you not help but scream “Khan!” during the “Buried Alive” cue. 

Discussion Question: 

It’s recently been announced or rumored (who knows which with the Web rumors) that Ridley Scott will be getting to work on an Alien prequel film soon.  Should this actually happen, who do you think should write the score?  Just as the franchise has a quite a pedigree of directors (Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher…I’m ignoring Alien Resurrection on all counts), the composers who have worked on it have been equally talented (Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Elliot Goldenthal).  Given that Mr. Goldsmith has passed on, who should take his place to work with Scott?  Looking at recent collaborations, Marc Streitenfeld seems to be a likely candidate, or could he go back to working with Hans Zimmer?  Or maybe Harry Gregson-Williams, whom he worked with on Kingdom of Heaven?  But my question to you is, if you had your druthers (yes, I did just use that word), and barring the discovery of a lost Goldsmith score for a film not yet made, who would you pick to score the film?  I’m not sure who I’d choose, some of the recent sci-fi scores might point the way, maybe Bear McCreary?  Or maybe Clint Mansell, whom I mentioned earlier in this post, he is a fellow Brit after all, and a more electronic based score could really add a unique sound to the film.  

Well, that’s it for now.  I am trying to update as often as possible, but as I said before, this is a tough semester.  As always, I’ve extended an open invitation to you, the reader, to contact me with any entries you might want to write, including ones in the ever popular “Film Score Friday Top 5” series.  Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

FSFT5: Avant-Garde Film Scores

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So in what will hopefully be one of many guest bloggers, Herr Vogler has given us this wonderful Film Score Friday List!

Dictionary.com defines “avant-garde” as: 

-adjective  

2. of or pertaining to the experimental treatment of artistic, musical, or literary material.

Beyond that, one’s definition of “avant-garde” is extremely subjective; my “normal” might be another’s “extreme”. For the purposes of this particular entry I want to set certain parameters that more-or-less define avant-garde scoring in narrative filmmaking in the following way (without trying to be overly rigorous):

 1. A score that utilizes experimental techniques in conjunction with traditional techniques throughout.

2. The use of avant-garde techniques is not self-conscious. It is a means toward the end of enhancing the narrative.

3. The reasons for using advanced or experimental techniques are because it could be no other way. The final film would almost be unimaginable with a different score. (Really an extension of #2).

With that in mind, I submit for your approval the following Top 5 avant-garde film score nominees:

 #5.) The Cobweb (Leonard Rosenman, 1955). More often written about than listened to, this score opened the door for avant-garde scoring in narrative films. The Cobweb was the first notable use in narrative film of the 12-tone technique as a unifying compositional device for an entire score. Rosenman has said in interview that the Piano Concerto, Op. 42 of Arnold Schoenberg (one of his teachers) was a major influence in writing the score.

 #4.) The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (David Shire, 1974). You’re probably thinking to yourself Seriously? Yep. Shire brings together big band-style writing centered around 12-tone organizational techniques. The score is jazzy, gritty, percussion-oriented and a snapshot of the composer’s idea of the “sound” of New York in the mid 1970s. The CD release from several years back was one of Film Score Monthly’s earliest releases. I believe it was Doug Adams who wrote up a terrific little companion essay in that month’s issue giving a basic explanation of 12-tone technique and how Shire used it in the film. For me the great thing about this score is that, beyond the grittiness of it, it has atmosphere to burn. This was well before atmosphere meant “keyboard drones” (which is another post).

 #3.) Altered States (John Corigliano, 1980). John Corigliano probably wouldn’t have developed certain aspects of his compositional technique had it not been for this film. He invented a number of techniques (many of which seem to be derived from the Polish avant-garde) including certain improvisatory/aleatoric techniques for creating a lot of orchestral activity. One of these techniques Corigliano refers to as “motion sonority”. In this technique two pitches (a fifth apart for example) are placed inside a box and the performers are told to improvise between those two pitches for a predetermined period of time (incidentally, many of his techniques were absorbed by his former student Elliot Goldenthal who has, over time, deployed them in his own creative ways. But that’s also another post. The music is highly theatrical (though quite lyrical at times, too) and measures up to the theatricality of the film itself and it’s difficult to imagine anything else with the film.

 #2.) The Matrix (Don Davis, 1999). There are plenty of examples of narrative film from the last 20 or so years with isolated cues that utilize minimalist techniques but The Matrix is the only example I can come up with (by a composer who makes their living primarily in film that is) that utilizes minimalist techniques to unify a score. But it’s much more than that, too. On the surface it seems to be a battle between post-1945 modernist writing (representing the Agents and the Matrix itself) and a postminimalist aesthetic (associated more with the protagonists) that the composer himself refers to as a postmodern aesthetic.

 #1.) Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith, 1968). Few composers wrote so many interesting scores in so many different genres as Jerry Goldsmith, but science-fiction is where his talent was truly allowed to shine. This is the crème-de-la-crème. Honestly I could have chosen any one of at least a dozen scores to fit the bill but this is the high-water mark for Goldsmith and the avant-garde. For Planet of the Apes Goldsmith combines together a quasi-serial-to-freely-atonal harmonic language and Bartókian percussiveness with (for its time) inventive orchestration techniques; wind players are instructed to blow air through their instruments while depressing keys without making traditional sounds; horn players are instructed to reverse their mouthpieces and play; strings and harp are all echoplexed from time to time and the percussion section is heavily augmented (no more famously than the metal mixing bowls utilized in “The Searchers” or the addition of the Brazilian cuica).

 Posted by Herr Vogler http://musicinventor.blogspot.com

Film Score Friday Top 5: Cues from the “Battlestar Galactica” soundtrack albums

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This list is long overdue.  Bear McCreary’s scores for Battlestar need no introduction, so I’ll give none.  With five soundtrack albums (including Richard Gibbs’ score for the miniseries) to choose from, it’s hard to choose only five, but here it goes.

#1) “Thousands Left Behind” – Richard Gibbs, “Miniseries”:  A chilling cue using mostly gamelan, but also drums and some electronic effects, it slowly builds as the now President Roslin gives the cue for the civilian fleet (still without “Galactica”) to jump away from the soon to come Cylons…leaving thousands of people stranded on ships without jump drives.  As it builds, the rhythms speeds up and volume increases.  I’m not a huge fan of the “Miniseries” score, but it does have some great cues and this is my favorite.

#2) “Something Dark is Coming” – Bear McCreary, “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I”:  This is the cue that actually made me sit up and take notice of McCreary’s work on the show.  This cue plays under the opening teaser that, as you might guess from the title, sets the scene for the episode (I won’t reveal more for fear of spoilers).  It’s score for bass and electric guitars (with some wicked reverb), along with Galactica‘s standard compliment of duduk, taikos, etc., and even strings (which only rarely make appearances this early on in the series).

#3) “The Shape of Things to Come” – Bear McCreary, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part II”: And speaking of strings, it was with the two part Season 1 finale that we finally heard strings in the series score.  I blogged more extensively on the sequence of cues that this is from (“Passacaglia” to “Shape of Things to Come” to “Allegro” and on), so I’ll let you read that post.

#4) “Farewell Apollo” – Bear McCreary, “Six of One”: This cue features another favorite McCreary theme, that for the Adama family (William, commander of “Galactica,” and his son Lee).  This version comes from Season 4 as Lee is leaving “Galactica” to assume a new post.  The Adama family theme is always heavily tinged with Irish pipes giving it a very old, military air (think of the song “The Minstral Boy”).  Outside of the actual song version, “Wander My Friends” from the Season 1 album, this one strikes me as the most dignified version.  It also includes fiddle which also reminds one of the theme for President Roslin and William Adama.

#5) “Kara Remembers” – Bear McCreary, “Someone to Watch Over Me”: This cue, also from the just released Season 4 album, actually mixes digetic and non-diegetic music as we hear what Kara and her Father are playing on the piano in the “Galactica” bar, but it eventually brings in non-diegetic instruments to accompany.  This is a favorite because it from one of the most pivotal scenes from all the series.

I could go on and on, and maybe I’ll pick some more choice cues next week or in the future, but that’s all for now folks.  TTFN.

Film Score Friday Top 5: Ranking the “Star Wars” scores

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So on my recent vacation, I kept myself awake on my long drive by listening to the Star Wars scores of Mr. John Williams (No Clone Wars or video game scores here…but maybe later).  And, having now ingested all six as fully as can be had on Compact Disc, I feel confident enough to post my rankings of the scores.  As mentioned in my earlier post, the versions used in this were the 2-disc “Ultimate Edition” of Phantom Menace, the standard 2-disc sets of the Original Trilogy, and the single disc releases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

So here it goes…in reverse order…

#5) Episode III – Revenge of the Sith: I’ll say this right now, it was hard to compare the films with only a single disc release against those with 2-disc releases because with the single disc you’re getting only the highlights.  That being said, this score was good, but not great.  It showed a good integration of themes, and the “Battle of Heroes” music for the final duel between Anakin and Obi-wan was quite good.  But it there was still something lacking.

#4) Episode II: Attack of the Clones – Say what you will about the film (and I think it is easily the worst Star Wars movie of all time…maybe even worse than Clone Wars), but I think the score is just as easily the best of the prequels.  It is ironic that the Love Theme for Anakin and Padme is among, in my opinion, the best in the series (right up there with the Force Theme, Luke and Leia, and the Imperial March), but yet it is those scenes and their awful dialogue, that utterly destroy episodes II and III.

#3) Episode IV – A New Hope: I always have a problem with ranking both the film and score for the original Star Wars. On the one hand, it is the original and set the stage for what was to come, and there are many great moments and themes (Force Theme, the Jawas, Cantina Band).  On the other hand, though, the subsequent scores takes everything to a higher level.

#2) Episode VI – Return of the Jedi:  Three words – Battle of Endor.  The rest of the score is also good, Jabba’s Theme also being a highlight.  But as good as Jedi is, it can’t really compete with…

#1) Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back:  So many great moments come from this film, and also introduced many classic themes (Imperial March, Yoda, Han and Leia).  The Battle of Hoth sequence is so well scored that one really doesn’t need to watch the film, but just listen, to understand what’s going on.  Oh, and Boba Fett’s theme uses a Contrabassoon, which is just cool.

So the question now becomes, why did I decide to rank Phantom Menace last?  Well, this is where the question of 2-disc vs. single disc comes in, because in listening to the entire Menace score, there were times when I was kind of bored with it, long stretches, probably underscore for dialogue, that I question why they were scored.  In listening to the 2-disc sets for original Trilogy, I experienced no such moments of boredom.  So it could be that the scores for II and III were not markedly better than I, but because they were in single-disc sets “seemed” better.  Thoughts from the gallery?

Also, I have yet to find out why, in the end credits on the album for Sith, it goes into the Throne Room from New Hope, but doesn’t in the actual film release.  I know that there was much editing done after recording, and things are routinely changed, but the fact that it is there makes me wonder if the credits were longer originally, or if there was some sort of mid-credits scene, or something else entirely. 

Anybody out there know?

Film Score THURSDAY Top 5: End Credit Suites/Songs

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Last week’s Cowboy Bebop list weighed heavily towards songs during End Credits, which made me think about doing an entire list of End Credits songs and suites (obviously excluded will be those already covered in the previous Bebop list).  Basically, there are no rules for this list.  The only criterion is that it is music that makes you stay in your seat (or not change the channel) during the credits.  Many times the Credits music will have segued from the previous cue, when the track on the CD release is such, I will give the combined title (for example “The Throne Room/End Title” from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope).

The List:

– “Epilogue/End Title” from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by James Horner – I’m actually listening to the new “Expanded Edition” release as I write this, and let me assure you that it is a wonderful thing to be-heard (that really should be a word if it’s not).  I’ve professed my love for Horner’s score elsewhere, and rest assured that every time I watch Wrath of Khan that I do let the DVD play all the way through to the end.

– “The Rebel Fleet/End Title” from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back by John Williams – When the original Star Wars films were re-released back into theatres in the ’90s, I made sure to stay in my seat during the credits for Empire.  One of the scores that made me fall in love with film music, and the credits sums it up perfectly.

– “Ending Theme” from Final Fantasy VI by Nobuo Uematsu – Back in early June I did a top 5 of themes and cues from Final Fantasy VI, but this mammoth cue ends the game takes it to a new level.  This cut is just over 21 minutes long and begins right after the player beats the final boss.  It cover the “Ending” of the game which goes through each playable character and their theme and closes out the story and then into the credits.  To this day I still go back to my save game (right before the final battle) just to watch and listen to this sequence.

– “End Titles” from Independence Day by David Arnold – Arnold today is most well known for his James Bond scores, but his early collaborations with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin resulted in two very good scores: Stargate and Independence Day.  While there is not truly special about the “End Titles,” it does do a great job of recapping the music that came before, the job of any good End Credits suite.

– “Extreme Ways” by Moby from The Bourne Identity, et al – One of the things I love about the Bourne films is how you know the credits are about to begin because you hear the first notes of Moby’s “Extreme Ways.”  I can’t really describe why it’s such a great song to kick off the end credits, but I just know that it is perfect.  As a treat, a link for the video (YouTube won’t let me embed the clip for some reason).

Want more?  Okay, here are some Honorable Mentions:

– “End Credit” from Batman: The Animated Series by Danny Elfman – Also known as “34-seconds of Sheer Awesomeness,” Elfman’s adaptation of his Batman film theme is short, sweet, and just about perfect.

– “Shiki no Uta” from Samurai Champloo by MINMI – this End Credit theme from Shinichiro Watanabe’s  other anime series isn’t as good as “The Real Folk Blues,” but it is still up there, and beats just about every American television show’s end credits (heck, these days our credits are just excuses for more ad space or plug the latest episode of Survivor or some other such nonsense).  This a video of the entire song, not just the Credits portion.

That’s it for now, tune in next week…

Film Score Friday Top 5: Songs from “Cowboy Bebop”

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Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop has been mentioned many times in this blogic space, most recently in my post on it and Samurai Champloo.  For today’s edition of FSF Top 5, I would like to consider, though, not the instrumental backing tracks that make up the show’s score, but rather the many songs that are used in the show.  What is remarkable is that these are not stock pop songs, but rather original compositions written by composer Yoko Kanno and performed specifically for the show by a variety of talented performers, and used in many different ways in the series (from special end credit music to montage to something akin to the Opera Scene from Godfather, Part III).  If you want to know more about the music and show I recommend this site.

For our purposes, then, are the actual “songs,” meaning texted music with vocalist (sometime in English, sometime Japanese…what a weird wacky world!).  For your consideration (in no order):

“Blue” – from Episode 26, “The Real Folk Blues, Part II”:  This is the song that ends the entire series.  After our hero Spike’s climatic showdown with his nemesis Vicious, the camera has a long zoom out as the song beings, then pans up as this first verse begins and the credits roll.  What makes this ending so amazing is that the camera pan continues until it reaches space and the shot that had ended every episode of the series (the field of stars then the message…which is different for this episode and quotes a Beatles lyric).  Watch the whole sequence for yourself (and no, if you haven’t watched the series, this really won’t ruin anything):

“Gotta Knock a Little Harder” – from the Cowboy Bebop movie, “Knockin on Heaven’s Door”: Like “Blue,” this song is the end credits of the full-length animated film (not to be confused with the supposed forth-coming live-action English film that is rumored to be starring…ugh…Keanu Reeves…*shudder*).  The end credits show scenes of the people on Mars reacting to the rain falling on them.  I really hate using all these credits songs, becuase part of the power of the songs is how they tie up the what has come before, which many readers haven’t seen. The video here isn’t the actual ending sequence, just a video someone put together with clips from the movie:

“The Real Folk Blues” – the End Credits for Cowboy Bebop series (with a few exceptions): This song was the normal song for the credits of the series with the exception of Episodes 13 and 26 (the midway point and final episode…talk about structure), which were both the second part of two part episodes.  The song was also used, with different lyrics and different arrangement, towards the end of the final episode as our hero Spike goes to do final battle with his nemesis.

Ending Credits Version (sans credits):

Episode 26 version (from episode, with Spike remembering the woman he loved and then blowing up much in sight):

“Rain” – from Episode 5, “Ballad of Fallen Angels”:  Functioning in the same capacity as the second version of “The Real Folk Blues,” this song plays as Spike goes to confront Vicious for the first time.  Adding the element of the human voice prior to a major confrontation makes the entire scene, for the lack of a better word, epic.  It mythologizes the scene for the viewer…clever use of camera angels and framing don’t hurt either (sorry for the bad audio on this clip:

“Adieu” – from Episode 1, “Asteroid Blues,” and Episodes 25 & 26, “The Real Folk Blues, Parts I & II”:  I have specifically saved this one for last because, even though we don’t really hear this song that much, in many ways, it is what the show is all about.  Episode 1 of the series, unlike every other episode, actually opens not with the credits sequence, but a 45 second montage, in black and white (except for the color red), that has no dialogue.  The only sound is a bell at the beginning, and a music box like tune.  The images and music go unexplained in what follows.  The meanings of the images (and the song) will slowly be revealed through the 26 episodes of the series, with the music finally being played as a song in Episode 25.  As I said in my earlier post, the song “Adieu,” is a memory echo that reverberates throughout the series (the music box track is actually called “Memory” on the first soundtrack release).  “Memory” plays again, also, at the beginning of Episode 26.  (I might be missing a few times it was played, but it’s been awhile since I watched the entire series)  This song also sums up so much of the series as it is, in many ways, an amazing jazz ballad.

Episode 1 opening:

Episode 25 – Note: this clip is the first 7 minutes of the episode, including credits with opening theme “Tank!,” and is used right after the credits, but the section used is the very end of the full song.

Full Version of Song:

There are other songs I could have mentioned (“Ave Maria” from the opera scene in “Ballad of Fallen Angels” is a major one not on the list), and if I did just instrumental tracks (which I might do later), it would be hard to pick only five.  What I hope to have conveyed, if only in five choices, is the high quality of musical work that went into this series, and maybe entice some of you to add it to your Netflix queue.