I have a confession. I have a weakness for swashbuckler films. Especially those that are old-fashioned in their scope and storytelling.
My wife and I went and saw The Legend of Zorro Sunday afternoon. First of all, I absolutely love the first movie. It's a fine example of old-fashioned swashbuckling. It had just enough camp to make it fun but still had a certain gravitas that made it entertaining beyond the humor.
That being said the sequel is quite fun, too. Ultimately the plot was a little thin, but on the whole the movie was an entertaining yarn very much in the vein of the original.
I have another confession to make. When it's at its best I really like James Horner's music. There I said it. I know I've crapped on a lot of his music but let's face it: he's the second richest composer in Hollywood (like #1, who also doesn't actually live in Hollywood). I haven't been this impressed, though, with one of Horner's scores since...well the last Zorro film (Troy was above average for having been composed in 2 weeks). I was pleasantly surprised that he somehow chose not to lean quite so heavily on the "Hornerisms". We all know them. Naturally the "Russian" motif appeared. That was more-or-less to be expected. There were a couple times he leaned on the love theme a little too much, mostly in places where I didn't think it was dramatically appropriate, but who am I? After The Perfect Storm I made a rule: I'll never buy a James Horner score without seeing the film to which it's attached first. That being said, I'll be purchasing the soundtrack album for The Legend of Zorro.
So I was hoping that maybe we could use this particular setting to speak intelligently about some of Horner's music. Let's face it; there some of his scores that we all like. So let's talk about it. Kind of like a 12-step program.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Let the Debate Begin
Reed brought up an interesting point on one of the Pikey's postings that I have taken the liberty of expanding. All thoughts are welcome, this list is by no means comprehensive. Remember, these are what I consider essentials because they're high water marks in film history or a watershed for the folks that wrote them and not just because they're fun to listen to (That's the You own it, you love it, but you would never admit to it List. That being said Waterworld, Krull and First Knight are a few of my absolute favorites in that category).
In no particular order I submit film scores that every wannabe (like us) film composer should own or be familiar with:
Star Wars IV-VI - Duh. Like I'm going to start anywhere but here (Star Wars films are like Tchaikovsky symphonies; there are three of them and they are numbered 4, 5 and 6).
The Lord of the Rings (obviously Howard Shore's and not the well-crafted but crappy animated score by Leonard Rosenman)
Jaws
Superman
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler's List
Planet of the Apes
The Omen
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Battle of Britain (both the Ron Goodwin and William Walton scores, conveniently packaged on one disc available from Varese Sarabande)
E.T.
Braveheart
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
Batman
The Sea Hawk
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The Magnificent Seven
To Kill A Mockingbird
Ben-Hur
Spellbound (Rozsa, 1945)
The Thin Red Line (is this Hans Zimmer's greatest score? it's incredible)
Alexander Nevsky (probably one of my top 5 greatest ever)
Patton (probably one of the greatest exercises in film scoring economy; 30 minutes of music for a 3-hour film. and not all of it was used in the final version).
Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota)
El Cid
The Red Violin
Altered States (we may as well include it)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Mission
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Prince Valiant (Franz Waxman, 1954; the first film in cinemascope!)
Star Trek II
King of Kings
Signs
The Jungle Book (Rozsa, 1942)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Alex North's unused score)
The Matrix (an incredible use of post-minimalist concert hall technique blended into a one-of-a-kind score. I have a "bootleg" copy of the score that I recorded from the dvd, if anyone is interested)
Henry V (1989: singlehandedly revived Shakespeare and established the careers of both Ken Branagh and Patrick Doyle, whose Hamlet score is actually a much more refined composition)
In no particular order I submit film scores that every wannabe (like us) film composer should own or be familiar with:
Star Wars IV-VI - Duh. Like I'm going to start anywhere but here (Star Wars films are like Tchaikovsky symphonies; there are three of them and they are numbered 4, 5 and 6).
The Lord of the Rings (obviously Howard Shore's and not the well-crafted but crappy animated score by Leonard Rosenman)
Jaws
Superman
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler's List
Planet of the Apes
The Omen
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Battle of Britain (both the Ron Goodwin and William Walton scores, conveniently packaged on one disc available from Varese Sarabande)
E.T.
Braveheart
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
Batman
The Sea Hawk
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The Magnificent Seven
To Kill A Mockingbird
Ben-Hur
Spellbound (Rozsa, 1945)
The Thin Red Line (is this Hans Zimmer's greatest score? it's incredible)
Alexander Nevsky (probably one of my top 5 greatest ever)
Patton (probably one of the greatest exercises in film scoring economy; 30 minutes of music for a 3-hour film. and not all of it was used in the final version).
Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota)
El Cid
The Red Violin
Altered States (we may as well include it)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Mission
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Prince Valiant (Franz Waxman, 1954; the first film in cinemascope!)
Star Trek II
King of Kings
Signs
The Jungle Book (Rozsa, 1942)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Alex North's unused score)
The Matrix (an incredible use of post-minimalist concert hall technique blended into a one-of-a-kind score. I have a "bootleg" copy of the score that I recorded from the dvd, if anyone is interested)
Henry V (1989: singlehandedly revived Shakespeare and established the careers of both Ken Branagh and Patrick Doyle, whose Hamlet score is actually a much more refined composition)
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Meeting John Corigliano
So the Pikey and I went up to Billy Jewell Bible School Friday afternoon. John Corigliano (who is an amazing composer for those that don't know) was giving a talk and then this evening the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin performed his Red Violin Suite on their tour stop here in town. He seemed like a very nice guy (a bit of a, um, diva) and I got to ask him a couple questions. I didn't necessarily agree with some of the things he had to say but it was very interesting to get to meet one of the preeminent composers of our time and listen to his thoughts.
As Mike and I were discussing afterward it was nice to hear a professional composer (read: someone who actually makes a living) validate some of my own aesthetic viewpoints about being a composer. Mosty it came down to being told that it was okay to want to keep trying your hand compositionally at different things and not worry about getting bogged down in dogma. VALIDATION!!!
The performance was a different story. While they may have captured the spirit of the work I don't necessarily think they performed it well. They employed an interesting gimmick in the playing of the suite. Rather than have just one violinist playing the solo, each in the section took turns playing different parts. It was an interesting idea that ultimately failed, I think, because there was no single point of view being employed (which is how it is in an orchestra of virtuosi, I guess) so there was no cohesion. But it was exciting because as you would suspect Mr. Corigliano was there and he also gave a brief Q&A during intermission in which he was asked essentially the same questions as earlier in the afternoon session.
Along with the Corigliano they performed a Mozart Divertimento and the Mendelssohn Octet (which is a terrific piece of music). Ultimately I wasn't that impressed with the group on the whole. Technically they were quite sloppy when it came to playing together and there were also some serious intonation issues at times. I thought that the overall sound was confused with a distinctive lack of clarity, just everyone playing their part like it was the most important one.
At the end of the day it was still very cool to get to meet another composer. I always love meeting other composers at all levels and listening to their thoughts and ideas even if I don't necessarily agree with their points of view. In this case it was nice to receive reinforcement of something that I had always felt anyway. A single meeting with one person can change or validate your ideas about anything. But there will always be someone who believes exactly the opposite. Therefore it's important to come to your own conclusion through a carefully weighed balance of reason and emotion. As a student of composition, though, it will always be the person who worked with me on a daily basis for two years that will come out as the greatest compositional influence. Not stylistically because what most call style is little more than technique. The real influence of this great teacher of mine came from the aesthetic point of view with which I feel he imbued me.
Just write the best music you can.
As Mike and I were discussing afterward it was nice to hear a professional composer (read: someone who actually makes a living) validate some of my own aesthetic viewpoints about being a composer. Mosty it came down to being told that it was okay to want to keep trying your hand compositionally at different things and not worry about getting bogged down in dogma. VALIDATION!!!
The performance was a different story. While they may have captured the spirit of the work I don't necessarily think they performed it well. They employed an interesting gimmick in the playing of the suite. Rather than have just one violinist playing the solo, each in the section took turns playing different parts. It was an interesting idea that ultimately failed, I think, because there was no single point of view being employed (which is how it is in an orchestra of virtuosi, I guess) so there was no cohesion. But it was exciting because as you would suspect Mr. Corigliano was there and he also gave a brief Q&A during intermission in which he was asked essentially the same questions as earlier in the afternoon session.
Along with the Corigliano they performed a Mozart Divertimento and the Mendelssohn Octet (which is a terrific piece of music). Ultimately I wasn't that impressed with the group on the whole. Technically they were quite sloppy when it came to playing together and there were also some serious intonation issues at times. I thought that the overall sound was confused with a distinctive lack of clarity, just everyone playing their part like it was the most important one.
At the end of the day it was still very cool to get to meet another composer. I always love meeting other composers at all levels and listening to their thoughts and ideas even if I don't necessarily agree with their points of view. In this case it was nice to receive reinforcement of something that I had always felt anyway. A single meeting with one person can change or validate your ideas about anything. But there will always be someone who believes exactly the opposite. Therefore it's important to come to your own conclusion through a carefully weighed balance of reason and emotion. As a student of composition, though, it will always be the person who worked with me on a daily basis for two years that will come out as the greatest compositional influence. Not stylistically because what most call style is little more than technique. The real influence of this great teacher of mine came from the aesthetic point of view with which I feel he imbued me.
Just write the best music you can.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Finished!
I just put the kabosh on my most recent piece, a violin solo for a friend of mine. Now I just have to get it on the computer and out to her. I also have to convince her that it isn't as difficult as it looks.
Damn it feels good to finish a piece.
Now I have a choral piece to write. NEXT!!!
Damn it feels good to finish a piece.
Now I have a choral piece to write. NEXT!!!
Friday, October 14, 2005
The Hand of Fate, Part I
I'm lucky. In a single instant I knew what I would do with the rest of my life.
The Time: the mid-1980s
The Place: somewhere in the midwest
The Setup:
As long as I can remember music has been an important part of my life. I spent a lot of time in the hospital when I was very young. I was read to and listened to the radio often. Later on I would discover that I was a HUGE fan of the music from Superman (and the movie, too). This was really my first exposure to orchestral music. I remember going to an educational concert given by the Kansas City Symphony when I was in grade school. They played the theme from Superman then, too. I was blown away! I thought to myself that this must be something really special for these guys to take the time to learn how to play it (yes, I realize I was only 8 or so at the time; things do change a little over time. To this day the music for Superman still holds a special place with me). I had an old VHS copy of the movie that my grandfather (ever the techno-geek, right up until his death 11 years ago) taped off television and edited the commericals out (this was in the mid-80s mind you; a big-time deal!). I wore out the first 6 minutes of that tape listening to (and watching) the main title sequence over and over and over (one of the best title sequences EVER). I was also able to watch Ben-Hur from beginning to end by the time I was 8 years old. Probably in no small part due to Miklos Rozsa's amazing score, though I didn't know it at the time (and the chariot race, I suppose; one of the greatest action scenes ever filmed and no music - a brilliant and artistically correct choice).
I always loved singing in elementary school. Like so many others I joined the school band in the 6th grade. I got my first trumpet from the pastor of my church at the time (the trumpet is, of course, a manly instrument, as opposed to the oboe! - KIDDING!). Most of my teachers were uninspiring throughout the course of my public school music education. I don't even remember the name of my first band director. My junior high band directors were enthusiastic but ultimately I was in band for the social aspect of belonging to something (I think most of us know how that feels). Then came high school. My first high school band director only taught to the best of his students and the rest of us fell by the wayside (further, he was not a very good director, as I would come to discover later. He was a horrid conductor and a mediocre rehearsal technician). My second HS director was more enthusiastic and expected a lot more of us as we were a smaller school (by this time my family had moved to the next town, very small) that had a reputation for excellence. He had a great impact on me as a musician. But not as great the impact as the choir director at this small-town school. He was the reason I became a musician and became so open- and high-minded about what music can be. Not in an arrogant sense, mind you, but about the expressive capabilities of any kind of good music. By this time I was already becoming steeped in the possibilities of film music but also knew that there was more to be had...
The Moment:
The Time: Finals week. January, 1994 (10th grade).
The Place: Mrs. Farrabee's Western Civilization class.
We had already taken our final and Mrs. F. said that she didn't care what we did so long as we didn't play cards (apparantly, somebody lost money years before). Anyway, my friend Patrick Pyzska slips me a CD of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra playing film themes of Maestro Williams. It was upon hearing the first notes of the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, and ultimately the rest of the disc, that I knew that music of drama was going to be my professional life.
So when Pat loaned me that CD (eventually my first CD purchase) it changed my life completely. I made a tape of it (didn't have a CD player at this time - poor, you know) and just about wore out the tape due to incessant listening. Eventually I began picking out the themes on the piano (I had some lessons late in elementary school but the whole experience kind of turned me off to the piano, but that's another posting. On the whole I was - and still am - pretty awful at playing the piano).
It wasn't too long before I got my first job which means that I had a lot of disposal income (comparatively speaking). I started going to movies and purchasing film scores at an unbelieveable rate. By the time I graduated high school my CD collection had ballooned from 0 to about 150. I had also made it a point to see as many movies as I could in the theatre and started catching up on old movies in order to make a more conscious attempt at understanding how music works in film.
At first I thought I might enjoy being a studio player and began gearing myself in that direction. How awesome would it be to just get to play this stuff? Then I discovered how ridiculously competitive the studio musician world was and just how wretched a trumpet player I really was (it wasn't until my second year of college that I discovered it was actually equipment - no crap). Then I began to conduct (learning by paying attention to the drum major in marching band, ugh, and then conducting to the recordings). I thought it would be fun to be a studio conductor. I mean, forget playing, how great would it be to get to conduct this stuff to a 75-piece orchestra!?!
Then came the writing. At first I was playing the themes by ear and then I started improvising my own "embellishments" and then my own extensions where I would no longer use the original theme but my own embellishments. Naturally everything I wrote was horrific, but it was a start...
The Time: the mid-1980s
The Place: somewhere in the midwest
The Setup:
As long as I can remember music has been an important part of my life. I spent a lot of time in the hospital when I was very young. I was read to and listened to the radio often. Later on I would discover that I was a HUGE fan of the music from Superman (and the movie, too). This was really my first exposure to orchestral music. I remember going to an educational concert given by the Kansas City Symphony when I was in grade school. They played the theme from Superman then, too. I was blown away! I thought to myself that this must be something really special for these guys to take the time to learn how to play it (yes, I realize I was only 8 or so at the time; things do change a little over time. To this day the music for Superman still holds a special place with me). I had an old VHS copy of the movie that my grandfather (ever the techno-geek, right up until his death 11 years ago) taped off television and edited the commericals out (this was in the mid-80s mind you; a big-time deal!). I wore out the first 6 minutes of that tape listening to (and watching) the main title sequence over and over and over (one of the best title sequences EVER). I was also able to watch Ben-Hur from beginning to end by the time I was 8 years old. Probably in no small part due to Miklos Rozsa's amazing score, though I didn't know it at the time (and the chariot race, I suppose; one of the greatest action scenes ever filmed and no music - a brilliant and artistically correct choice).
I always loved singing in elementary school. Like so many others I joined the school band in the 6th grade. I got my first trumpet from the pastor of my church at the time (the trumpet is, of course, a manly instrument, as opposed to the oboe! - KIDDING!). Most of my teachers were uninspiring throughout the course of my public school music education. I don't even remember the name of my first band director. My junior high band directors were enthusiastic but ultimately I was in band for the social aspect of belonging to something (I think most of us know how that feels). Then came high school. My first high school band director only taught to the best of his students and the rest of us fell by the wayside (further, he was not a very good director, as I would come to discover later. He was a horrid conductor and a mediocre rehearsal technician). My second HS director was more enthusiastic and expected a lot more of us as we were a smaller school (by this time my family had moved to the next town, very small) that had a reputation for excellence. He had a great impact on me as a musician. But not as great the impact as the choir director at this small-town school. He was the reason I became a musician and became so open- and high-minded about what music can be. Not in an arrogant sense, mind you, but about the expressive capabilities of any kind of good music. By this time I was already becoming steeped in the possibilities of film music but also knew that there was more to be had...
The Moment:
The Time: Finals week. January, 1994 (10th grade).
The Place: Mrs. Farrabee's Western Civilization class.
We had already taken our final and Mrs. F. said that she didn't care what we did so long as we didn't play cards (apparantly, somebody lost money years before). Anyway, my friend Patrick Pyzska slips me a CD of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra playing film themes of Maestro Williams. It was upon hearing the first notes of the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, and ultimately the rest of the disc, that I knew that music of drama was going to be my professional life.
So when Pat loaned me that CD (eventually my first CD purchase) it changed my life completely. I made a tape of it (didn't have a CD player at this time - poor, you know) and just about wore out the tape due to incessant listening. Eventually I began picking out the themes on the piano (I had some lessons late in elementary school but the whole experience kind of turned me off to the piano, but that's another posting. On the whole I was - and still am - pretty awful at playing the piano).
It wasn't too long before I got my first job which means that I had a lot of disposal income (comparatively speaking). I started going to movies and purchasing film scores at an unbelieveable rate. By the time I graduated high school my CD collection had ballooned from 0 to about 150. I had also made it a point to see as many movies as I could in the theatre and started catching up on old movies in order to make a more conscious attempt at understanding how music works in film.
At first I thought I might enjoy being a studio player and began gearing myself in that direction. How awesome would it be to just get to play this stuff? Then I discovered how ridiculously competitive the studio musician world was and just how wretched a trumpet player I really was (it wasn't until my second year of college that I discovered it was actually equipment - no crap). Then I began to conduct (learning by paying attention to the drum major in marching band, ugh, and then conducting to the recordings). I thought it would be fun to be a studio conductor. I mean, forget playing, how great would it be to get to conduct this stuff to a 75-piece orchestra!?!
Then came the writing. At first I was playing the themes by ear and then I started improvising my own "embellishments" and then my own extensions where I would no longer use the original theme but my own embellishments. Naturally everything I wrote was horrific, but it was a start...
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