Wintry Mix

It's the last day of work before our little holiday break.

Christmas Cocktails - Various Columbia Artists
Christmas Carols and Hymns - Robert Shaw Chamber Singers
When My Heart Finds Christmas - Harry Connick, Jr.
Une Cantate de Noel - Arthur Honegger
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Good. Music.

To get through a quiet day at the office:

Steve Reich: Drumming, Tehillim
Harrison Birtwistle: Earth Dances
Sibelius: Symphony no. 6
Wayne Siegel: Devil's Golf Course
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra
Joonas Kokkonen: Requiem
Rautavaara: Book of Visions

Happy Thanksgiving

And happy birthday!

In Memorium

Jerry Fischer was a friend of mine in grad school. He had just begun composition studies in my second year at Truman State. Jerry was a non-trad. He had made his living in software sales of a system that he had devised that took him all over the world. He was an organ player who rarely missed mass. Most of all he was a family man who cared deeply for his wife, children and elderly mother. He had decided, though, that it was time to return to school and study composition. So he drove to Kirksville, Missouri from Quincy, Illinois every Friday for his lessons and the composers master class. He was quiet, thoughtful, kind and always thoroughly engaged. I didn't really get to know Jerry as well as I would have liked. But the person I was able to get to know was an extraordinarily good human being.

On this date three years ago Jerry was gunned down in his driveway by his business partner over a business disagreement. Later that school year we programmed on one of our composers concerts the only piece he completed as a student; a breezy set for flute and piano written about his three cats. It was an extremely emotional day as his family was there, too. And one I'll never forget.

Once again, you're remembered Jerry.

I Can't Handel It Anymore

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm at work.

Selling Messiah tickets.

The Community of Christ Church (formerly RLDS) sponsored an annual performance of the Messiah that dates back 90 years. After the performance 2 years ago the church announced they were letting it go after the 2005 performance. Well in swoops our E.D. (read about him here and/or here) and "saves the day" by taking over the performance. Great. Now we get to sell 2 performances of the Messiah. As if o1 isn't bad enough.

I first heard Messiah complete when I was a junior in high school.
I heard it again 2 years ago. The only reason I went was because Jaques was performing the alto solo (not too shabby; actually he was pretty awesome!).

That makes it 10 years between performances. I guess that's okay.

I think perhaps we should use Messiah as a yardstick of good taste. If you ask a person if they like Messiah you can probably deduce that they have little in the way of good taste.

Perhaps we should use Sir Thomas Beecham's orchestration next year!

It's Sir William Herschel's Birthday...

...He discovered Uranus (1738).

A Sad Film Score Friday

Basil Poledouris died two days ago of cancer. This week's Film Score Friday will honor his memory with the following:

Big Wednesday
Conan the Barbarian
Flesh and Blood
Robocop
The Hunt for Red October
Lonesome Dove
Quigley Down Under
Starship Troopers
Les Miserables

Reich at 70

On October 25th the Warrior Bard and I made the trek (in the rain) to St. Louis for the symphony which, in conjunction with Synergy Vocals, gave a concert celebrating Steve Reich's 70th birthday.

The concert was, for the most part, great. I'm not going to nitpick too much simply because I don't get to hear this kind of programming closer to home that often. It never struck me until the downbeat of the concert just how difficult Reich's music is to actually perform. I take it for granted because the recordings are all pristine and flawless yet still magical. Anyway, you could tell David Robertson and the performers were without a doubt committed to the performance even if it wasn't perfect.

The Program:

Proverb
City Life
New York Counterpoint
You Are (Variations)

I could go on and on about how great most of this music is, but that would be redundant.

It was a great show.

Thank God That's Over

Die Frau and I sing in the Saint Joseph Community Chorus.

"But Herr Vogler, you and die Frau live in KC. Why do you drive an hour every week for this chorus? Surely there must be one closer," you ask. True. We first started dating as members of this chorus so we have kind of a sentimental connection to it. Additionally it's directed by the choir director from our undergraduate college for whom we both have a great deal of respect.

A week ago Sunday (10/29) we had a concert. It was one of those pull out all the stops concerts where we had an organ (the concert was in a church with a really nice organ; actually it was the church at which I was paid to sing for 4 of my 6 undergraduate years) and an orchestra. Luckily there were no dancers.

Now a little background. Early this summer an anonymous donor gave a large sum of money to the chorus to present this concert. So somewhere along the line someone heard a new cantata by Mark Hayes and said, "HEY! I'VE GOT A GREAT IDEA! LET'S PERFORM THIS!". But wait, there's more. They also decided that we should do more-or-less an entire concert dedicated to his...uh...music. And "HEY! WE CAN HAVE HIM COME UP HERE AND PLAY PIANO, TOO!!! THAT'LL BE GREAT!!!"

For those of you that don't know who Mark Hayes is, consider yourselves lucky. His music is supposed to be liturgical but is in reality awful schlock that tries to be spiritually deep where really it's just trite and pedantic (and annoying to those of us that feel it's merely superficial and pandering). We performed several of his anthems and a new cantata, a Te Deum (or tedium if you prefer). Basically it was enough to make my head feel like a tomato in a microwave. To make matters worse, all I heard during the Te Deum was warmed-over John Rutter and even a snippet of "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera. There's nothing spiritual about it. It is merely self-serving and says, "Listen to how pretty I am". There's no glorification of the Creator of the Universe anywhere in this music, just glorification in the creator of the music. All things being equal I'd rather have performed some Rutter.

Anyway, I feel very strongly about the programming and there just doesn't seem to be enough new or interesting music being presented. For example, we also performed Randall Thompson's Frostiana set for chorus with piano, orchestra or band this past weekend. It's a nice series of Robert Frost settings (a couple of them are completely uninteresting, but others are good), but I've performed with this group six out of the last eight years and this was the third time(!) we'd performed it (though only the first time with orchestra).

Anyway, for more than just artistic reasons die Frau and I feel as though our time with this group has run its course. We just don't have the time or the resources (not only are we expending fuel, we have to pay dues, too!) to devote to it anymore. In a way it's sad, but we all have to move on sometime and this seems to be the time. So after Carmina Burana in the spring that'll be it.

That's A Winner!

Yay! The Cardinals are World Series Champs!!!

Cards Win! Cards Win!

Being the devout baseball man that I am (a man has to get his religion somewhere) I just thought that I'd throw that out there.

I believe I requested a Cardinals/Tigers World Series?

Excellent.

Instant Steve Reich Collection, Just Add Water (and a Negligible Amount of Cash)

It pains me to admit it but I have very little of Steve Reich's music in my CD collection...until now.

Die Frau and I were in one of the local Barnes and Noble stores this past weekend when this lovely box of wonderful music attracted my attention. This 5-disc set immediately got my attention because it's basically a "best of" collection (though you could probably include anything by the man in such a thing) and was astoundingly priced at $35.

This retrospective is absolutely fantastic and even includes the recent works You Are (Variations), premiered by Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale a few years back, which costs $20 all by itself. If that's not enough, you get basically all the seminal works of this most influential American musician. Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Proverb, Different Trains, Eight Lines, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, and Drumming (and then some) are all included. The only drawback for me is a lack of extensive liner notes. But even that isn't a major concern because you can find all that online at the Boosey and Hawkes website.

Anyway, it's a great set. If you like Reich's music and don't have much or are just plain interested check it out. It's awesome.

Composers in Community

This past weekend die Frau and I made the long, long (looooooong) trek to Orange City, Iowa. For those of you that don't know where this is, it's a half hour east of South Dakota and a half hour south of Minnesota. For those of you that do know where this is...why?!?! Why did we go to such a place, you ask? I'll tell you.

I had a piece programmed on a new music festival that was a joint effort of the Iowa Composers Forum and the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers and hosted by Northwestern College in Orange City. It was my first festival selection which made it all the more exciting. Well that's not entirely true. I've been programmed on 4 conferences/festivals, but they were all at Truman State so I think those kind of tipped the scales in my favour in those instances.

Anyway, the piece was my Two Movements for Flute which is an unaccompanied solo which also has the distinction of being my first 12-tone work. It's also a quite difficult work, full of complex rhythmic ideas and wide intervallic leaps. And if that's not enough there are little surface features that really function as background features that unify the piece on a long-range scale. Ugh, can you tell I had been studying Schenker at the time I wrote this piece, too? The soloist, whom I met the morning of the performance, performed the piece very well. She managed to bring out some of the aforementioned "long-range" elements of the piece rather than focus primarily on its gestural nature. I was pleased. Everyone seemed very complimentary especially with the knowledge that this was indeed my first 12-tone work.

The whole conference was pretty amazing. 1 day, 4 concerts (long concerts), 2 paper sessions and seemingly endless variety. It was incredible to hear all this music by so many composers and so much of it was different from everything else that was heard. In addition everyone seemed genuinely supportive of each other's work. Many and constant congratulations abounded throughout the day in the halls, during concerts and during meals. Another nice aspect of the conference was getting to see Dr. Gooch again. It was, afterall, his suggestion that I join the Forum. His Monodies for cello and piano were performed right before my piece.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a composer in a situation such as this is trying to find the balance between enjoying what you're listening to and listening on a more analytical level. I found myself trying to find this at many points throughout each of the concerts and would say that, in my own opinion at least, was fairly successful. If you do nothing but listen analytically you might miss the point. If you do nothing but listen for enjoyment (though there's nothing wrong with this from time to time) you might also miss a larger point. Balance is key, Daniel-san.

Overall the experience was really great. One I look forward to again soon.

Gonna Fly Now

Maynard Ferguson died Thursday night at the age of 78.

For those that don't know Ferguson was one of the greatest jazz trumpet players who ever lived. He could play ridiculous high notes. He quit school at 15 to start his own big band and played with a lot of other big bands in the '50s. He gave the Stan Kenton Orchestra its signature sound (screaming high, screaming loud).

He scored a big hit in the 1970s with his cover of Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky and almost instantly made the big band a viable art form again only this time fusing rock, jazz, bop and anything else that caught his fancy (like Indian classical music).

I got to see him in concert once.

It was the end of my freshman year and he and his band, Big Bop Nouveau, came to play at a church in Kansas City. 2 others and I made the trek from Saint Joseph to south Kansas City for the concert. One of the guys, Kevin, was also a bop trumpet player (an extraordinarily talented one with an ego to match) who had heard Maynard play so many times that the road manager recognised him and he eventually earned a tour jacket...which you couldn't actually buy. We got to the church and I realised I was about $15 short. Kevin paid for my ticket for which I will be eternally grateful.

Move over, Gabriel, you're playing second trumpet now.

The Cue Sheet

So the Pikey threw down and I have accepted the challenge. It's hard to wittle 450 film score recordings down to your 10 favourite cues. Unlike the Pikey, though, mine are in no particular order as the aforementioned task was difficult enough. Miklos Rozsa got kicked off the island for crying out loud!

Anyway, here's my list, some thoughts on each and some of the runners-up.

The Big Rescue – Superman (John Williams) – This is the moment that would make or break this film. The entire cue (fugue and all) is captivating and brilliantly paced with a near-perfect dramatic shape.

The White Tree - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Howard Shore) - First of all, let's call it what it really is, the Lighting of the Beacons. I nearly wet myself when I first saw this scene in the theatre. Is there really anything that has to be said here? It's one of the most beautiful blends of music and picture ever run through a projector.

Journey to the Line - The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer) - As has been discussed before, I'm no huge fan of Zimmer. I care for this movie even less (don't say I don't get it, either, unless you really want me to pounce). But it is necessary to give credit where it's due. If you were to tell me that I had 10 seconds to come up with the single greatest cue Hans has ever written I would only need 2 and this would be it. All comparisons to Barber's Adagio for Strings aside this is probably one of the most subtle, detached (therefore emotionally heightened) and gorgeous pieces Hans has ever written.

The Hand of Fate, Part II - Signs (James Newton Howard) - This won't be the last one the Pikey and I have in common. This is a perfect complement to the climax of the film. Few directors think about their films the way Shyamalan does. He eschews convention. Even in this instance he chooses not to use the opening stinger in the film because it's "obvious" and a cheap scare tactic. One of the things I think is so brilliant in this particular cue is the way it more-or-less encapsulates the camera movements in the film. For much of the film Shyamalan ignores fancy camerawork and quick editing and let's his film breathe through the performances of its actors. The first real sense of motion in the music is reflected in the first real motion of film where there's that beautiful, swooping crane shot that covers Graham and the kids and moves into the house with Merrill and the alien. Can you tell this is one of my absolute favourite films?

Overture (Main title) - North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann) - I know the accepted attitude is that Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece and that there are few greater marriages of music and film in the history of cinema than the scene d'amour when Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) finally makes over Madeleine (Kim Novak). That being said, North by Northwest is my favourite Hitchcock/Herrmann collaboration. The suits at MGM originally wanted something jazzy and "Gershwinesque" for the opening title sequence (by the perennially brilliant Saul Bass). Instead Herrmann incorporates South American dance rhythms into the overall substance of the score. Somehow it works brilliantly.

Riding the Fire Mares - Krull (James Horner) - This is one of the standout cues of the score. In it Horner demonstrates his full powers as a master of variation technique and orchestral colour. It was a bit of a toss-up between this and The Widow's Web from the same score with its cascading arpeggios and Herrmannesque orchestral crashes but ultimately this won out. I know that Krull is bad. Really bad. It's one of my absolute favourite bad movies. It is, though, my absolute favourite Horner score. Nowhere in his entire output is he as melodically inventive and full of orchestral colour as he is here. Also there seems to be some sort of internal logic that holds the score together very nicely where it seems to have a feeling of inevitability at every climax point. I have done no analysis to back my claims up, though. It's more of a feeling.

Valhalla/Viking Victory - The 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith) - Again the standout cue of the score despite the fact that Crichton had Goldsmith rescore the actual battle music in favour of a more atmospheric, electronically-dominated approach. Don't get me wrong, I love the battle music here, but it's actually the music that bookends the battle that really does it for me. The prayer sequence in particular demonstrates Goldsmith's mastery of building tension. So much so that Ridley Scott would dump the very good cue that Harry Gregson-Williams wrote ('Rise a Knight') in a similar scene in Kingdom of Heaven and use Goldsmith's music.

Toccata and Dreamscapes - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliot Goldenthal) - I think that if I were asked to cite my favourite example of modernist film music that could instead have been written for the concert hall this would be it. I know the Pikey chose the 'Adagio and Transfiguration' but that's because he likes Richard Strauss.

The Demise of Mrs. Baylock - The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith) - This is sheer choral and orchestral terror. 2 minutes and 42 seconds of it. I can't imagine how much fun it must have been to write this piece and just unleash all hell's fury.

The Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid Field - The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams) - I'm with the Pikey on this one. They may be separate cues, but it's essentially one continuous cue. And it's a (thematic!) 20-minute orchestral tour-de-force (pun intended). I'd just like to see one of the Zimmer boys attempt to come up with something like this! And just to be clear it's 6(!) cues on the 1994 boxed set strung together as one forming a coherent, unified and dramatic whole.

Runners up, or, Those that I could live without but would be grumpier to do so:

The Mission - The Sum of All Fears (Jerry Goldsmith) - Easily the highlight of this score and wretched film performed by up-and-coming soprano Shana Blake Hill.

Theology/Civilization, Wifeing - Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris) - Because there should be pretty tunes somewhere on one of these lists. I guess. If I have to.

Prelude/Outer Space/Radar - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Herrmann) - This is simply brilliant and one of the most amazing orchestral combinations you'll ever encounter anywhere. Electric violin and bass, high and low theremins, four pianos, four harps and 30 or so brass make up the orchestra. The energetic, propulsive staccato piano figures capture the foreboding and the mystery of what is to come.

Ontological Shock - The Matrix (Don Davis) - Everything about this cue feels right. It did absolutely what it had to do in capturing the inevitability of this moment. Using wonderful modern techniques I might add.

Desert Chase - Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams) - Perfectly (and entertainly) photographed and edited in nearly every way, this isn't a chase, it's an 8-minute ballet.

The Flying Circus - The Rocketeer (James Horner) - Another wonderful cue that demonstrates Horner's mastery of variation technique and orchestral colour.

Those We Don't Speak Of - The Village (James Newton Howard) - Tense, gutwrenching and, ultimately, one of the most gorgeous pieces in the entire score.

Tournament Speech - Shrek (Harry Gregson-Williams/John Powell) - This cue makes me laugh every...single...time...I listen to it. Why? Two words: falling brass.

Main Title - The Great Train Robbery (Jerry Goldsmith) - A fun-filled and entertaining romp through Victorian England. Goldsmith perfectly captures (as usual) the charm of Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland's characters and clearly as a good time with the score. It's amazing that he wrote this score in the same year as Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture simply because their diversity.

Battle in the Mutara Nebula - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (James Horner) - Once again Horner creates an early splash before his ideas (those that were actually his) became tired and worn. This cue, though, captures everything this movie is about and sounds like an epic seafaring adventure that just happens to be set in outer space adventure (Horatio Hornblower in outer space is how Nicholas Meyer described it).

Exiled - The 13th Warrior (Goldsmith) - Two from The 13th Warrior?!? He must be off his rocker for sure now. Listen to it. Behold the glory that is 8 French Horns playing in unison! Not to mention it's rousing as all hell.

O, for a Muse of fire!

About this time every year the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival presents their outdoor production of Shakespeare in the Park. This year's production is one of my personal favourites, Henry V (the honors for my favourite belong to Macbeth).

Die Frau and I went out twice. Once about two weeks ago and again Friday night. When you're watching a good production of the Bard you get pulled in, almost forgetting it's theatre. Wait a minute. Isn't that the point?!? There are, however, fewer things more agonising than watching bad Shakespeare (or worse, being forced to listen to your high school classmates read it aloud in the most boring possible!).

The production was quite good. The acting, for the most part, was terrific. Except the Dauphin. I told J (as in J and C, J who still doesn't have a blog, hi J) that he acts like he wants to be Harry Lennix when he grows up. He was good. Just a little tooooo melodramatic. The costuming and set design were fantastic. Though I wouldn't have wanted to wear one of those costumes Friday night as it was still around 85 degrees and humid as hell an hour after sundown! There was music. Some of it played as underscore but it mostly played during scene changes. I'm not sure what the attempted effect was but it seemed a bit distracting to me. The "Royal Music" sounded a bit too "Welcome to 79th Academy Awards!" and the "Peasant Music" was a little too Titanic, but I suppose it did it's job.

I'm convinced that there are fewer speeches written in any language that, when done well, can make you want to take up arms quite like the St. Crispin's Day speech.

Goosebumps.

Twice.

Oh sure, the speech that precedes the battle of Sterling in Braveheart is good. That is, it's good until you understand that it's modeled entirely after the St. Crispin's Day speech. Way to go Randall Wallace.

The other plus of the festival is that, since there is no charge for admission, you can BYOB. Which we did. And food. Good wine, good food, good friends, good Shakespeare. Good grief! That's what I call a good night.

Swash Me Buckles!

It's Film Score Friday kids!

Today's list takes us swashbuckling through the high seas and across the stars!

1. Pirates of the Caribbean (duh)
2. The Sea Hawk
3. Cutthroat Island
4. Treasure Planet
5. 7th Voyage of Sinbad
6. The 13th Warrior
7. Hook
8. Jason and the Argonauts
9. Krull
10. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
11. Waterworld

Blogging Superman

I was originally going to post my thoughts on Superman Returns last Wednesday morning after Tuesday night’s premiere. But then I decided to give it a few days in order to mull it over a little more.

Before writing anything else I have to back up. The original Superman films (I & II, we’ll pretend like III and IV never happened) hold a special place in my adolescence and awareness of film in general. Superman was the first film I truly fell in love with as a kid. To this day it's still one of my very favourite films. It was the first film with which I became cognizant of music in film and its ability to tell a story. For my tenth birthday my grandfather gave me a VHS copy of the film. I think I wore out the first 5 ½ minutes of the tape watching the opening titles over and over and over. The old soundtrack album was one of the first compact discs I ever bought. I think I might even have more copies of the score than The Pikey. For me, few moments in cinema/music are greater than the moment during the helicopter sequence of Superman: The Movie in which Christopher Reeve pulls his shirt open to reveal the “S” to the accompaniment of John Williams’ theme in the home key of C major. It just tells you musically from the outset that everything is going to be okay. Rarely since have I encountered moments in film that were so perfect, so inevitable. The Lighting of the Beacons in The Return of the King springs to mind as one of those moments of perfect melding of music and picture.

With that in mind one can hopefully gain a greater grasp of what this new film means to me.

My initial reaction to Superman Returns was one of awe and joy. I hadn’t experienced that much excitement and energy from an audience in a movie theatre since the Special Edition of A New Hope in 1997. Also since I’d never seen any of the original films in the theatre I’d waited 28 of my nearly 29 years to see that title sequence and hear that music on the big screen. WOW!!!

I think that Brandon Routh was cast well enough. Obviously they went out of their way to find someone that looked like Chris Reeve. I think he was a little uneven at times but we should cut the kid a little slack. He’s got big boots to fill and it’s his first film. I think that Kevin Spacey makes quite a good Lex Luthor. I think he gets to explore the darker side of the character in a way that Gene Hackman never really got to. That’s not a slight against Hackman, either. We all know how terrific he can be in those roles. James Marsden is, as always, quietly terrific and has what is probably the most sympathetic role in the film. I think that the weakest performances in the film are in the female roles. Parker Posey, who I think is terrific in Christopher Guest’s films, is flat-out boring here. It seems like she more-or-less phoned it in. This may be a result of direction, too. I don’t know. While Posey was a yawn I think Kate Bosworth was a downright poor casting decision. I think this part would have been better suited for someone like Miranda Otto who we all know can be tough and vulnerable rather than flat and bad. I think that perhaps the strongest casting choice was Frank Langella as Perry White. I enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t high-strung and barking orders like Jackie Cooper in the original films or J.K. Simmons in Spiderman. Cool, calm and collected=good.

As far as the film itself is concerned it’s obvious that it was made with a lot of love. They served up enough trivial minutiae that those of us who know the originals well were able to get all geeked up about certain aspects of it (like the piece of kryptonite that was found in Addis Ababa in the third film that Lex and Co. stole from the Museum of Natural History). Production values are tremendous. The special effects are wonderful and the airplane sequence is downright breathtaking.

As far as the music goes, John Ottman proved that he actually can write a warm melodic score when given the chance. I think his incorporation of the original themes are well done. It's just that, too. An incorporation. It's not like the sequels where there's little or no new music, just the original cut-and-pasted. My biggest problem with the score is actually in the performance of the main title itself. I realise it's *a march* and that it's not supposed to be about subtlety. It is, however, supposed to be about musicality and the Hollywood Studio Symphony's performance isn't shaped nearly as well as the LSO's performance from the original recording (this could also be a mixing issue). I suppose that my other quibble musically is how Ottman hit us over the head with the theme when Superman first appears. There's no inevitability about it. John Williams' build-up to the theme during the helicopter sequence of the original is textbook for building tension. With Williams we have to wait until 3 minutes into a sequence that is almost 6 minutes before we get the first true statement of the theme! But when we get to it, it sounds perfectly natural and even inevitable.

The shortcomings of the film are things inherent to the genre. The characters are all ultimately 2-dimensional; the female sidekick to the bad guy always has a change of heart; the story is pretty thin. Just like the first film it’s basically a land grab by Lex that drives the plot. I understand that writing a good story for a comic book film is a difficult thing to do; too simple and you wind up with the mess that is Batman and Robin; too weird and you get The Avengers (okay, technically not a comic book film, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway) too complex or convoluted and you get the unintelligible The Hulk; non-existent and you get Spawn. You get the idea. I do also wonder where they are planning to go with their little subplot. It could ultimately become a serious story liability in the sense that they have written themselves into a corner with it.

There was one story element that I had a serious problem with. When Lex is in the Fortress of Solitude it appears that the hologram of Jor-El doesn’t recognize Luthor and just assumes that it’s Kal-El. There’s a scene on the DVD of the original that’s not in the theatrical prints (and I’m pretty sure was never in any of the television versions either) in which Superman is clearly interacting with the hologram (or whatever; it just seems easiest to use this term) and that it’s not pre-programmed with every possible response. Also, in Superman II he pretty clearly interacts with his mother to the extent that she appears to take physical form. I realize that Marlon Brando is dead, but that problem has been digitally circumvented before with Oliver Reed in Gladiator and Sir Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Come to think of it Olivier has been resurrected twice. There’s a scene that was reinserted into the DVD of Spartacus in which the audio had degraded beyond the point of usage and they had Anthony Hopkins come in and do his best Laurence Olivier impression (bet you didn’t know that, did you?). But I digress.

Ultimately I loved the film. It is not as good as the first or second film in the series but I saw it as a continuation of those stories. A lot of critics have kind of showed their dissatisfaction with the fact that Routh is too much like Reeve, there is too much incorporation of the original music and there are too many little hommages to the original films in the series. I tend to see it quite the opposite. I think that, for those of us that were raised with the originals, it doesn't matter who you put in the suit, we're going to see Chris Reeve. And as far as the music goes, why not incorporate it? Is anyone actually going to write music that captures the spirit of the character better than John Williams? I don't think so. I think Bryan Singer and the writers were just tipping their hats to the originals and knew that they were creating a story that should feel like a natural extension of the originals. This does, however, give them the freedom now to explore new territory in the sequels.

Superman Playlist

Superman makes his triumphant return to the big screen tonight. I thought a comic book/graphic novel playlist was the order of the day.

Batman (Elfman)
Dick Tracy (Elfman)
Mars Attacks! (Elfman)
X-Men (Kamen)
Spiderman (Elfman - I'm sensing a theme here)
Road to Perdition (T. Newman)
X-2 (Ottman)
Hulk (Elfman)
X-Men: The Last Stand (Powell)

and of course...

Superman: The Movie (Williams)

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

So. I opened up iTunes a few minutes ago to see what was new this week.

Lo and behold! Right there on the homepage. They've released the Superman Returns score a week early on iTunes!

How excited am I? If you said, "very", you would be correct.

Anyway, I'm going to resist the urge to purchase and wait until the mass release with the packaging and artwork comes out next week. I can't help but enjoy some of the reviews. Here are some of my favourites (that's for you, Tim).

Note: In fighting my own inner impulses, none of these has been corrected for spelling or punctuation.

ottman doesnt do the theme as good as williams

I can hear it, too! There aren't supposed to be any clarinets doubling the other woodwinds from measures 43-48. They're supposed to be doubling violins!!!

super-man rules but this...i don't think so . face this is really bad

is this reviewer letting us in on his own personal demons?

All that this has in it is background music. It's kind of cool, but who would really buy it?!?!

That would be me and about 50,000 other fans of the film, the music and even, perhaps, John Ottman.

Awsome! The only reason it's a 4 star is because it has no words

Words??? We don't need no stinking words!!!

I not a person who likes sound, I like music with sound and singing, but that was one of the most impresive soundtracks I have ever heard

Does this guy love it or hate it? And since he doesn't like "sound" how is he qualified to make a statement like it's "one of the most impresive I have ever heard"?

WHO'S IDEA WAS THIS? WHOEVER IT WAS NEEDS A GOOD SLAP IN TH HEAD!

I'm sensing some anger here. Because the reviewer didn't state his case clearly I'm not entirely sure of what he's angry. Is this you, Tim?

no real music junkie would listen to his stuff

I guess I need to throw away my film score collection.

the is no better super hero that superman. the score is equally good.

Isn't babelfish great?

This album has a good variety of music but maybe even more variety by using a different artist

Hans? Is that you? I think this is someone from Media Ventures who is pissed off that there are composers in Hollywoodland who don't need 7 extra composers and 11 orchestrators just to write some music for a film.

come on supposedly one of the biggest movies of the year and they can't even make a decent soundtrack. before buying this and jumping to any conclusions that this soundtrack will actually be any good, listen to the samples

This message brought to you by the Future Studio Executives of America (FSEA). Only someone who is, or wants to be, a studio executive would say something so divinely stupid.

With a nod to John Williams in the first track and similar themes throughout the score, John Ottman has proven to be a truly emotional writer. A bit more string friendly than his predecessor (Williams), Ottman still has the ability to wrap us in the majesty of one of our most beloved icons. Mr. and Mrs. Kent would be proud.

You know, I was just thinking earlier today what a terrible orchestrator John Williams has always been. It's the one thing that's been holding him back in his career.

I'm not a fan of classical music, ut this is probably the first music soundtrack to come out in a long while, that only has songs FROM THE MOVIE. For what it is, I think its pretty good, and deserves a good rating.

This is classical music? And it has been awhile. It's totally the first movie soundtrack since, like, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Da Vinci Code that has only songs from the movie. It seems like a lifetime ago.

John Ottman undoubtedly stood in the shadow of John Williams' masterpiece and remained faithful to the original. That fealty, however, extends beyond the first track and envelopes the entire score. More importantly Ottman infuses pieces with heavenly choirs and punctuates them with exciting interludes. Well done!

This can only be the ramblings of someone whose sole ambition in life is to be a critic so that he/she can legitimately use words like fealty, envelopes (not the mailing kind) and punctuates in their writing.

i like it alot it is cool. but it could be better.

Why is it that everyone thinks it take no talent whatsoever to write music? Seriously. I think what this reviewer thinks is that they could have written better.

And finally, I kid you not...

Even Chuck Norris can't beat this.

There's absolutely nothing to say to that.

Okay. Seriously. I'm done. I have music to write.

Ham and Jam and Spam-a-looooooot!

Or: New York in a Nutshell

So we're back from New York! Okay, so this will be waaaay too long to do as one post so I'm basically going to do the rundown now. Pics to follow.

I'm pretty sure one could've squeezed more than we did in 2 1/2 days, but I wouldn't want to try it.

Day 1:

Fly to New York. Note to self: from now on, take Midwest Airlines if they go where you're going.

Check-in: hotel 2 blocks off Times Square. Tiny little room. Good view of the theatre in which The Wedding Singer (the musical!) is playing. Greaaat.

Dinner: quick at the Nathan's Hot Dog place right across from the hotel (I'm sure it was no Zweigle's but it sufficed).

Spamalot: in a word...hilarious. Can you really go wrong when the big numbers are called "The Song that goes like this" and "You can't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews". The staging was tremendous. It's nice to see that they still use sets creatively in a multi-million dollar show. There was one unintentionally hilarious moment in the second act where Lancelot is "coming out" and they totally gaffed. You know it's a loose production when even the actors are laughing on stage. Did I mention that the show was hilarious?

After the show we did another typical touristy-type thing and just wandered around Times Square taking pictures.

Day 2:

Breakfast at the Westway Diner. We had no idea at the time but according to our tour guide this was the place where Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld hatched there little show about narcisstic New Yorkers (and not much else).

Bus tour of Manhattan. I had a fantastic time (more than I can say for some of the kids). It was interesting seeing all these places that I'd only read about. Once the tour guide (a funny little man named Lee with an unforgettable mustache) found out we were a music group he basically customized the tour for us on the fly. I thought that was pretty awesome. He pointed out buildings and their histories, architects, etc.

Stops included:

1) Lincoln Center. For those that don't know this is the facility that comprises the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre and New York City Opera and the Juilliard School (New York City's finest community college, according to Howard Hansen).

2) Strawberry Fields in Central Park and the memorial to John Lennon.

3) Greenwich Village

4) The courthouse where they shoot externals for Law and Order, City Hall and the financial district.

5) The Winter Gardens at the World Financial Center. From the atrium (where, had stayed a few days longer, Herr Vogler would have had a grand time at the Bang on a Can Marathon) you had a clear, unobstructed view of the work being done at Ground Zero. This was a surreal and not unemotional experience. It was weird to think that in this footprint once stood two colossal buildings.

6) After lunch we took the Staten Island Ferry out and back so we could get some good pictures of Lady Liberty (what's under that toga, anyway?).

I don't know that the kids appreciated the tour as much as we did. Then again, my wife and I are the type that like to go to concerts, museums, the opera and art galleries when we're on vacation. I guess that makes us nerds. I gladly embrace this.

After hanging out at Rockefeller Center for a few hours we went back to the hotel, changed and went to see Mamma Mia! I'm with Michael on this. I'm not wild about canned musicals where the 'creators' try to build a storyline around preexisting songs. It had its fun moments but I still fell asleep twice in the first act. Why did we go see this, you ask? Because that and Spamalot were the only shows for which we could get tickets (and I would have paid not to go to Phantom). Our ticket buyer got laughed at over the phone when he asked about tickets for The Lion King (that or Sweeney Todd would have been my 2nd choice).

Day 3: A butterfly flaps its wings in Peking...

Chinatown. It was a warm, muggy day so Chinatown smelled like, well, an expired fish market. Die Frau and I decided to skip it and head north to...

Little Italy. We wandered mostly, just seeing where we wound up. We stumbled across several little shops including a little independent bookstore (we never seem to be able to pass up a bookstore and it was air conditioned...whew!). After that we wandered into the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was a beautiful old building in which mass was provided in English, Spanish and Chinese. Of course, it was the Old St. Patrick Cathedral because the new one was downtown (which I learned Day 2 the parishoners had original thought it was "too far" to travel to get to mass).

We had lunch in a great little restaurant with several of the kids. Mmmmmmmm...yes that means lunch was good.

We spent the afternoon wandering through SoHo and, much to die Frau's delight, we found her favorite bath and body store. Guys, if you're looking for something a little different than Bath and Body Works for your wife, girlfriend, concubine, etc. it's almost impossible to go wrong here.

Then came the rain. And more rain. And still more rain. It rained so hard for 10 hours straight that the subway was shut down the entire length of Manhattan for over 8 hours. Luckily we made it back to the hotel before all this happened. Well the shutting down of the subway part. We were all soaked.

With Hard Rock (gimme a break, it was close to the hotel) and an overcooked tuna steak sandwich in our rear view we made our pilgrimmage to the Virgin Megastore. I would like to say that this is the part where the heavens opened and sunshine beamed down on us from above and guarded us on our quest...but it just kept raining. Anyway something happened to me there that has never happened to me before: I wasn't the last one left standing shopping for CDs. I know, die Frau couldn't believe it, either! I was slightly disappointed that the selection of some of the composers I was looking for but I left with enough esoterica to keep me happy for a little while.

Day 4:

Just the plane ride home...with 2 really annoying middle-aged women sitting right in front of us who thought that they were teenagers in a nightclub rather than an airplane. They were also singing at the top of their lungs with their iPods so loud that they could hear neither how bad they were nor the disparaging remarks emanating from behind them. Hmmm...I wonder who would've done that?

Reflections:

Overall the trip was great. Die Frau and I have decided that we need to go back and drink in more of the city (sometime after we take our trip to New Zealand). I had a really good time (mostly) and it was nice to escape work for a few days. I'm pretty sure that there were a few kids that didn't really appreciate a lot of what they experienced but the fact is they still got to do it and one day they may reflect on it and be grateful.

From the eternal sea he rises...

I know it's a few days late but here it is:

Today's Film Score Friday is Jerry Goldsmith's legendary (and Oscar-winning) music for The Omen trilogy. Hahahahaha!

The Omen (1976 - Academy Award Winner, best original score, Nominee: best original song...only in Hollywood does Ave satani get nominated for best original song!).

Damien: Omen II (1978)

The Final Conflict (1981) - the climax of the series is some of the most amazing music I've ever heard written for the cinema. Of course it had to be. You don't actually see much of anything.

This is the best choral/orchestral film score ever. Plain and simple. Don't get me wrong. Howard Shore's LOTR is awesome. I would never dispute this. But he didn't establish the sound of an entire genre. Or did he?

Love for Jerry...

Mia Farrow was on CNN's American Morning yesterday talking about the remake of The Omen (in which she plays Damian's nanny Mrs. Baylock ("She is an apostate of hell!"). She was talking about how this version was superior to the original in its production value, direction, etc. I kind of had to laugh and began to slough it off. Of course the remake is going to have better production value than the original...it has a budget!!! I was, however, impressed when she took the time to mention that she was originally worried about the score because Jerry Goldsmith's had been so wonderful. I considered it very thoughtful that she took the time to mention this.

Rest easy, Mia, Jerry's score is being adapted by one of his best pupils and one of my favourite of the "younger" generation...Marco Beltrami.

Will be blogging about the NY trip soon!

New York, New York, What a Wonderful Town...

Well kids, die Frau and I are off to New York for a few days of chaperoning some high school kids on their "cultural enrichment trip". We're going to catch Spamalot (there was much rejoicing) and Mamma Mia (which I'm kind of ambivalent about at this point; I'm sure it'll be okay).

I will try to blog from NYC, but if not I'll catch you all up after returning.

Oh yeah, for bonus points, name the songwriters, show, year written and who starred in the film version that the title of this post comes from.

Music for a Darkened Theatre...

Yesterday was Danny Elfman's birthday. We weren't at work yesterday (they unchain our manacles for some government holidays) so, apropos, today's playlist reflects some of the finer works in Mr. Elfman's oeuvre.

Batman (who is this Prince fellow?)
Mission: Impossible (Elfman's first score of his "mature" period)
Mars Attacks! (just damn funny)
Sleepy Hollow
Spiderman
Red Dragon
Spiderman 2
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I've never seen the original in English, I had to watch it in Spanish, though; Willy Wonka y la fabrica de chocolate!!!)

Now I realise this is hardly comprehensive, but this is a pretty good overall representation though I don't have the scores to Sommersby or The Black Stallion, both of which I understand are quite good. Also of potential interest in the not-very-thematic-but-a-wonderful-film-score-case-study-in-building-tension area would be his score for Dolores Claiborne which is quite nice.

Oh, and anyone says that Elfman's scores are ghostwritten or he doesn't read music loses and eye (unless it's the Pikey; I'm afraid you've already lost too much what with the meat grinder "accident" and all).

Bloggin' ain't easy but it sure is fun...

Yeah. I'm totally white.

Our computer at home bit it this past weekend so we are sans all things computer-related until this weekend. This means that I'm bloggity-blogging at work until then. Things have been hectic as all hell here, too, but that's another posting.

We made it to Mission: Impossible 3 this past weekend with Oscar and B. Was it a great movie? No. Was it a helluva lot of fun? I think so. Unfortunately the plot was, once again, waifer thin. Isn't it just possible that someone could write an actual story for one of these things? The first is still the best and we'll just pretend the second one didn't even happen. I've noticed that a fair number of people on the Film Score Monthly message board are kind of poo-pooing Michael Giacchino's score for the film. I can't help but think that, compared to much of the other more recent work out there, it's quite good. It's pretty "up front" for a contemporary action score. And even though it's filled with bombast, it's also has a few subtleties. Plus his interpolations of Lalo Schifrin's original themes (including some of "The Plot") were quite nice. My only gripe is that Giacchino either needs to learn how to orchestrate better or hire someone who does because I have the Alias: Season One album and The Incredibles and I just don't think that Tim Simonec is a good orchestrator. He had help (like the 900-year old Jack Hayes, who was no spring chicken when he orchestrated Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) but Simonec was the lead and ultimately responsible for the end result. At the same time some of his writing reminds me of some of the things I've done in a few of my own scores. Just with a bigger budget (rather than a "beggar" budget).

Also, there's a discussion going at the Film Score Monthly message board about the use of pencil and paper versus synthesizers and computers for the composition process. Some people are saying that they can hear the difference between composers who use one or the other as their primary means of composition. To an extent I agree. But I also think that it has as much to do with training as the tools one uses.

Comments? Is it the same with screenwriting?

Putting a Dime in the Minimalist Jukebox

Recently the Los Angeles Philharmonic (in conjunction with other LA arts organisations) hosted the 'Minimalist Jukebox' Festival. This was the first festival of its kind hosted by a major orchestra. I downloaded the 2 albums that have been released (so far) of the festival from iTunes this weekend. Stunning recordings of stunning works.

Today's Playlist:

Louis Andriessen: Raconto dall'Inferno, de Staat (from the festival)
Arvo Paert: Tabula Rasa (festival)
Steve Reich: Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards; 3 Movements for Orchestra; Tehillim (festival recordings); Music for 18 Musicians
Henryk Gorecki: Symphony no. 3
John Adams: Shaker Loops, Light Over Water, Naive and Sentimental Music
Philip Glass: Symphonies no. 2 & 3
Jim Fox: The City the Wind Swept Away

I would have included some Branca but, as McIntire has noted, it's a little too extreme to play at work.

go...listen...go...listen...go...listen...go...listen...go...go, listen...go...go, listen...go...go, listen...go, go, go listen...go, go...go, listen...go, go, go listen, go listen...go, go, go, go listen, go listen...go, go, go, go, go listen, go listen, go listen...go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go listen, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, goooooooooooooo.....

Miklos Rozsa

It's Miklos Rozsa's birthday. He was born 99 years ago today in Budapest.

Rozsa was the 2nd greatest composer of the Golden Age of Hollywood (Bernard Herrmann was the greatest, duh). While his music was firmly rooted in both the European tradition and Hungarian folk music (a la Bartok) it also had an undeniably more "modern" quality than many of his European contemporaries who emigrated from Europe and found themselves working in pictures.

Rozsa had a lengthy list of both film and concert works that distinguish themselves from many of his contemporaries, was well traveled and moved in the circles of the artistic elite regardless of where he found himself. He greatly disliked many of the films he scored but still lavished great attention on most of them (there's a lesson in there I think). He was also one of the few composers in Hollywood that Bernard Herrmann openly respected, which was extremely rare. He was also a musicologist (he was awarded a PhD at the Leipzig Conservatory) and threw himself into research for such films as Quo vadis?, Ivanhoe and El Cid in order to better colour (that's for you, Tim) his scores.

I suggest his book, A Double Life, if you can get your hands on it. It's a great read.

The Playlist:

Symphony in 3 Movements (if you like Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, this is a great spin)
String Quartets 1 & 2

Julius Caesar - probably one of Rozsa's most thoughtful scores in which he makes interesting use of overdubbing and stereo separation during the lengthy final scene.

Ben-Hur - pretty much one of the greatest scores for one of the greatest films ever.

Knights of the Round Table - a dull script and wooden performance by Robert Taylor (as Lancelot) don't stand in the way of Rozsa's score being detailed and rousing.

El Cid - yet another epic role for Charlton Heston.

Throwing Out The First Pitch

I've waited six months for this day.

Opening Day.

My Cardinals will be taking on the Phillies in Philadelphia at 3:05 eastern. I'm so excited!

Cardinals/Yankees World Series, anyone?

Starting Your Own Religion

In light of the Pikey's recent request for more friends...

Every religion needs specific things to advance itself.

1. A central figure.
2. A sacred text.
3. A martyr.
4. A history of persecution (well, it's not required but it certainly helps).
5. An identifying symbol.
6. Mystics (i.e.: saints/bodhisattvas/famous rabbis).
7. Someone to persecute.
8. Fanatical followers who twist your teachings to suit their own agendas.

The Grand Poobah Order of the Psychotic Baastards

I submit for the approval of the group:

1. Me (No choice, I simply had to)
2. The Calvin and Hobbes: Complete Edition
3. The Warrior Bard
4. We're all artists. You don't get much more persecuted.
5. a little help?
6. I say we make The Pikey our first mystic since he has such keen observations about humanity.
7. Conservative and Liberal Zealots who can't seem to find a balance.
8. NOW TAKING APPLICATIONS!!!

Doctor What?

No, Dr. Who!!!

I don't know if any of you catch the new incarnation of Dr. Who on Sci-Fi, but it's terrific! Of course, none of the original series ever entered into my sphere as a youth except for a few stray episodes here and there on PBS so I have nothing with which to compare it. All I know is that I do like this show. It's fun, smart and every once in a while the show's makers sneak in a few ideas about humanity, morality and how we might fit into the cosmos.

Also I think Christopher Eccleston is fantastic as the Doctor. He plays it the way I think someone should play the Time Lord: wide-eyed and enjoying every moment of it. Though, once again, I really have nothing to compare it to.

In short, it's great. Watch it!!!

I'm Such a Dork

At one point yesterday there were three sirens going off within the vicinity of the old domicile (for those that don't know, yesterday was one of those "Midwestern weather" days). We had the patio door open to hear the sirens (and the storm) and there my dorky ass was listening to the sirens phase in and out of each other and the pitch interactions between passings.

I suppose the best part is that I can tell you that none of them were moving at the same speed, either, so the phasing changed with each pass. It was awesome! The storms were great, too, for those of us that (luckily) only had to watch.

It's Official!

The aforementioned short film I scored last year will be shown at the Louis B. Mayer Theatre in Woodland Hills, CA on Saturday April 1 at the first Shorts session.

Awesome!

Me, Me, Me...

Two pieces of really great news.

1. Evidently Angels and Demons, the violin solo I wrote for my friend Carol (who will be premiering the piece March 31st, as I recall) at Truman State, is pretty ok. I gave it to one of the violinists in the orchestra to look at, too. She said after much swearing (as composers, isn't that part of our job?) that the piece was absolutely playable and that it had really grown on her and she really liked it. That is encouraging and so was she. She also said some other nice things that would simply be too self-indulgent to repeat here.

2. The romantic comedy/light fantasy film that I scored last year, The Importance of Blind Dating, has been selected for performance at The Method Independent Film Festival March 31-April 7 in Calabasas, California! How awesome is that?

Anyone want to contribute to the "Send Brad to California" Fund?

Introducing Modern Music and Serial Extensions

I have been thinking about this most recent discussion more. Actually it's still kind of driving me nuts. It occured to me that there are other forces at work here that need to be explored.

First, McIntire says we should basically use our anger to have something to push against. I think that there is a great deal of validity in this and I've never thought about it this way (stupid me!). This is good advice and utilizing it can help us prove to the world that we do, in fact, have something to say and we might not have the desire to say it in the same way as our predecessors (or we do want to say it like our predecessors a couple of generations removed, take your pick). So from that point of view it's good to have something to push against.

Second, and this is big, is it possible that those of us making this argument are doing a great disservice to the two or three generations of composers before us that worked hard to break free from this kind of dogma to open up new vistas for us, the "younger" generation? This is my fear now. The "live and let live" attitude that began developing in the 1960s helping bring about the "return to tonality" (not that tonality ever actually went anywhere) seems to have, in many respects, come full circle. It seems that now those in what might be referred to as the "tonal majority" are beginning to treat those in the "minority" with furious anger. In a sense doesn't this violate the basic tenets of this philosophy? Are we not wandering into dangerous dogmatic territory of our own? Shouldn't the music itself be the thing and not the means that brought us to that end?

Third, I've found what truly makes me angry. It's not the music. It's not its underying philosophies or techniques. I wish that the subject matter had been presented to me better when I was an undergraduate. I wish someone had taken the time to explain to a me a little bit more about Babbitt's background. I know he's nuts about jazz and musical theatre. I know that Sondheim (genius) is probably his most famous student. I just wish that someone would have placed his ideas into the proper context rather than just said, "Here it is. Deal with it." This angers me a great deal and should I ever have to teach it I know for sure that I would teach it with a much more open mind.

I realize that this music rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Most of it, in fact, doesn't have this affect on me. It's the dogma behind a lot of the music that bothers me. I think my own personal experience with modern music of all kinds has actually been better than a lot of musicians/music students. Perhaps this is because I came to the music of the Second Viennese School and beyond on my own and without any kind of academic pretense. This doesn't keep me from feeling a kind of ambiguity about it though. I like and respect a great deal of the music. I admire much of the complexity. But I also have this deep love of neotonal music representing both postminimalism and the new complexity.

I invite your insults of "waffler" and such, but this entire discussion has given me cause to think about the whole affair a little more.

Hiatus

Okay kids, I'm going to take a little blogger break for a few days. All this talk of Babbitt and Cage has made me a little crazy. But it's also helped put me in the mood to write. Thanks for the comments.

I'm submitting for a festival a work for violin and piano that I haven't written yet and the deadline is March 1. As in next Wednesday. Am I insane? Maybe. See you on the other side.

I'm also going to listen to my new recording of Sibelius' Kullervo. Don't have it? Get it!

Taking Up Arms With the Warrior Bard

Before reading this, read this.

This is such dogmatically dangerous ground on which to be treading and yet, as a willing heretical participant, there’s so much to say. Where does one begin?

First let us be fair to Milton Babbitt. He didn’t title his article “Who cares if you listen?” That was the editor of the magazine that did that. Okay, that’s it.

I still don’t put much stock in the subject matter of the article. Is composition a highly specific field? Yes. Does that mean it shouldn’t be accessible? No. Even Schoenberg knew that if he was going to write his music using the system he devised that he still had to place an emphasis on clarity. No matter how abstract, his music should be comprehensible to more than just the most highly trained of all composers (about 6 people). One would also be remiss not to mention the incorporation of the human element into Schoenberg’s music. And Webern shouldn’t be blamed, either. His music is incredibly inspired and well crafted. It was the post-WWII serialists who took Webern’s work and codified it to its utmost extremes.

“The sad thing is, this school of thought has become dogmatic for any scholarly composer. If you disagree, you're narrow-minded…what's the point of discussing, if we're not going to really discuss anything? They don't want discussion; they want conformity.” - Tim

"Any attempt to codify musical reality into a kind of imitation grammar (I refer mainly to the efforts associated with the Twelve-Tone System) is a brand of fetishism which shares with Fascism and racism the tendency to reduce live processes to immobile, labeled objects, the tendency to deal with formalities rather than substance. Claude Levi-Strauss describes (though to illustrate a different point) a captain at sea, his ship reduced to a frail raft without sails, who, by enforcing a meticulous protocol on his crew, is able to distract them from nostalgia for a safe harbor and from the desire for a destination.”
-Luciano Berio, Meditation on a Twelve-Tone Horse

I understand that the older generation grew up with this method. We get it. There was no other way. Beyond all this, though, is something that is much more subversive and sinister. Whilst the strictures of academia have loosened in recent years there is still this frighteningly dogmatic adherence to the music/teachings of Babbitt, Cage, Stockhausen and Boulez, even if only in theoretical form, in the upper echelons of academia. I’ve been thinking about this for years. Literally. I have thought for a long time now that the kind of conformity that came to be expected of composers after World War II is dangerous and fascist. You will do it this way! Isn’t this the kind of thinking that started that war in the first place? You will not question. You will acquiesce. The perfect society is a conformist society.

What’s worse is that this attitude developed (and, to a point, persists today) in a time where a lot of interesting things were happening musically outside of Darmstadt. That school basically turned a blind eye to all of it. There is no dialogue between proponents of total serialism and other musics. None. What does exist is merely a monologue which places no value on the influence of popular forms. Are you going to tell me that the likes of Miles Davis, George Gershwin, John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk don’t deserve to be placed with the most brilliant of their academic counterparts? If that’s the case I beg to differ. Furthermore I’m not sure if I would want to be associated with those that might actually think this.

I respect serialism, just as any thoroughly trained composer who learned how to utilize it should. I even enjoy incorporating serial elements into my own compositions from time to time. But I can’t bring myself to surrender all creative control (not to mention my humanity) to a formula that merely expresses one’s intellect and totally discounts one’s personal experiences. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Babbitt’s music has no value. Like all previous music, it has historical and theoretical value when taken into the whole of musical history. To me total serialism is largely empty and devoid of meaning.

The faculty nearly bit the heads off of anyone who remotely insinuated anything anti-Babbitt. So... what's the point of discussing, if we're not going to really discuss anything? They don't want discussion; they want conformity.

When the subject of Babbitt and his teachings comes up there is no discussion. You accept everything or you are a heretic. When our teachers talk about him all of a sudden there is this reverential tone and he is spoken of as if he were some kind of Promethean figure bringing fire and knowledge to we mere mortals.

Now here's my two cents:

The conformity demanded by the proponents of total serialism amounts to little more than the dogmatic practices of musical terrorists who would rather blow up the entire world for the sake of their empty god than admit that there might be other paths to musical expression that are capable of coexisting. - Brad Fowler

“Alas, this industrialized twelve-tone horse, dull on the outside and empty inside, constantly being perfected and dragged to a new Troy in shadow of an ideological war long since fought and won by responsible minds like Schoenberg, with neither systems nor scholarship for armor!"
-Berio, “Meditations…”

I Hate Writing About Me

Okay, that's not entirely true. When it comes to this blog, I tend to write a lot about me. Then again, it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. Oh wait...there was a point here.

Anywayyyy...

I'm submitting a couple of scores for a new music festival in the fall and, along with those scores, recordings, program notes, etc., I have to include my bio. I hate doing this. How does one write about one's achievements without sounding smarmy? Beyond that, I have so little real experience at this thing that my bio kind of looks pathetic. Granted it's an opportunity to talk about myself and what I've supposedly done, but it's still annoying. I think McIntire wrote about this previously. A lot of people - especially composers - will pad their resume with the slightest contact of a "name". It's kind of like a native American coup (sp?) stick. Sometimes you'd whack somebody over the head with it in battle for glory and honor. Sometimes you'd just touch someone who was already on the ground dead and claim it for yourself. I met Krzysztof Penderecki after a Chicago Symphony concert in 2000, do I get to put that on my resume? I think there are some unscrupulous composers who probably would. But the fact of the matter is that, at this point in my life, there's only one person with whom I've actually studied who has had a direct influence on my writing. I also don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Happy Birthday, Jerry

Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) is still my favorite film composer. It's still kind of sinking in that I'm never going to see another new movie poster with his name on it. I love John Williams' music. Bernard Herrmann was a genius. But few others have been quite adept at being so chameleon-like in their ability to genre jump.

With that in mind, we'll be enjoying a good mix of standards andthe more obscure works of Mr. Goldsmith's output. Afterall, Jerry Goldsmith is to me what John Williams is to the Pikey. I have lots.

The Omen
Rio Conchos
QB VII
Take a Hard Ride
In Like Flint/Our Man Flint
Alien
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Rudy
Basic Instinct
First Knight
The 13th Warrior

and.....

Christus Apollo (cantata for orchestra and chorus based on writings of Ray Bradbury, 1969)
Music for Orchestra (commissioned and premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the St Louis Symphony, 1970)
Fireworks (written as part of Jerry's first concert series with the LA Philharmonic, 1999)

A Sad Day For Godzilla

The composer that defined the sound of the Godzilla films has died. According to the BBC online, Akira Ifukube died of multiple organ failure today. He was 91.

Happy Birthday, Johnny

Happy 74th Birthday to the Maestro.

Today's Playlist celebrates John Williams who is arguably the most famous living composer in the world (like it or not, which I do!).

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Superman
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Star Wars
Schindler's List
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

And let's not forget a few concert works:
The Violin Concerto
Treesong for Violin and Orchestra
Cello Concerto

So listen to some Johnny today!

Film Score Friday 2/3/2006

Today's Theme: Music from films directed by or adapted from Michael Crichton.

Coma - Jerry Goldsmith, 1978
The Great Train Robbery - Jerry Goldsmith, 1979
Jurassic Park - John Williams, 1993
Congo - Jerry Goldsmith, 1995
Twister - Mark Mancina, 1996
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - John Williams, 1997
Sphere - Elliot Goldenthal, 1998
The 13th Warrior - Jerry Goldsmith, 1999 (Graeme Revell score rejected)
Jurassic Park III - Don Davis, 2001 (themes by John Williams)
Timeline - Brian Tyler, 2003
Timeline - Jerry Goldsmith, 2003 (unused)

Enjoy!

Rotations, Just for Fun

composer

Set 1:

composer
omposerc
mposerco
posercom
osercomp
sercompo
ercompos
rcompose
composer

Set 2:

co mp os er
oc mp os er
oc pm os er
oc pm so er
oc pm so re

Set 2':

co mp os er
mp os er co
os er co mp
er co mp os
co mp os er

Set 2":

co mp os er
mp os er oc
os er oc pm
er oc pm so
oc pm so re

Set 3:
com poser
omc oserp
mco serpo
com erpos
omc rpose
mco poser
com oserp
omc serpo
mco erpos
com rpose
omc poser
mco oserp
com serpo
omc erpos
mco rpose
com poser

Set 4:

comp oser
ompc sero
mpco eros
pcom rose
comp oser

Set 4':

comp oser
ompo serc
mpos erco
pose rcom
oser comp
serc ompo
erco mpos
rcom pose
comp oser

Reincarnation

Die Frau and I spent Sunday watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. We like to do this every once in a while, just to have something to do for an entire day.

Anyway, we were sitting there in the middle of The Two Towers when I had an epiphany:

In my next life I want to come back as Bernard Hill.

Now I know what you're thinking so stick with me on this one for a second.

If reincarnation is what happens to us when we die (which is possible, though I'm not actually sure how I feel about it) then why is it not possible to break the supposed "rules" of space/time and travel back instead of forward since you're dead anyway? Isn't it possible that I could say, "No, I think I'm going to go back, just to be different"? Why not? Then again, time is supposedly the only constant in the universe (unless you're traveling near the speed of light, then it gets really messed up) so it might not be possible.

Either way, Bernard Hill is one bad mother...

And We're Back...

Die Frau and I have finally returned from the Missouri Music Educators Association meeting at the beautiful Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri. Well, we've been back since Saturday. And the disclaimer on the "beautiful Tan-Tar-A Resort" thing is that it would have been beautiful had it been June.

Anywayyyyyyy...

Her kids (well, hers and J's) performed Friday morning. It was a huge success and the outpouring of response was pretty overwhelming.

Let's back up...

Every year there are two or three performances out of, I don't know, 50, that just completely rise above everyone's expectations. Let's just say, this was one of those performances. But I'm not going to steal my wife and J's glory, so I'm going to leave it at that. Hopefully she'll post about it on her own blog.

Anyway, the rest of the convention was, for the most part, quite a letdown. There were 5 ensembles that performed to which I was in some way connected. I'm pleased to say that all of them performed incredibly well (this is me being proud). Beyond that there was only one other performance that really captured my interest.

I suppose the most disappointing thing is that in recent years programming at this meeting has become utterly conservative. This is especially true in the band and orchestra areas. It seems as though few are willing to take the chance and give a gutsy or adventurous performance. I heard about 5 bands play and all but one left me pretty cold regarding both their programming and performance.

The highlight of the weekend (for my ears) was the Truman State University Wind Symphony. Naturally I'm biased as a former student, but I also believe I have the ability to see beyond those things to hear the performance for what it is. It wasn't good. It was absolutely superior.

Overall, though, the convention was pretty disappointing. But we still managed to have a good time. We caught up with old friends, made new ones and, rather importantly, I made good contacts with a lot of potential. Heheheh...

Happy Birthday, Mozart

Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us.

Film/Music Meditation

Recently the Warrior-Bard (also known as my dear friend Tim) posted about his thesis composition, a work far from finished, but completed in draft form. First, good on him for getting it done because it's a pretty big accomplishment. In describing the genesis of his thesis he had the following to say:

"Film music can--and does--stand alone, apart from the events of a film (especially when it appears on the album in a concert form instead of chopped into three scenes throughout the film, as is the case with Toccata and Dreamscapes). But this is another discourse entirely, one I don't have time for at the moment. I can let Brad field that one..."

First of all, thanks to the almighty Warrior-Bard (and his anger, which has made him powerful)for giving me today's topic. We'll explore three common fallacies of film music.

1. Film music isn't supposed to draw attention to itself.
2. Film music that is "emotionally manipulative" is bad film music.
3. Film music isn't intended to exist outside of the film/music diegesis.

1. Film music isn't supposed to draw attention to itself.

"Experts" seem to think this is true. The "best" film music shouldn't draw any attention to itself ever. I think that this is slightly misplaced. I think what these "experts" want to say is "film music should be subtle enough that it doesn't force me to feel a specific emotion". While we'll tackle this shortly I want to address the first issue. The "best" film music is that which the composer and/or director has chosen the appropriate time to allow the music to play in the background or come to the foreground and help tell the story on another level. If the "best" film music isn't supposed to draw attention to itself, why is the music from Star Wars a perennial favorite? Because it's good music. That's why.

2. Film music that is "emotionally manipulative" is bad film music.

I had an interesting discussion with a young filmmaker when I was in Los Angeles last June (that's another posting) about "emotionally manipulative" music in film. His argument was that he felt that he disliked a lot of film music because of this. So we engaged in an interesting debate/discussion. This conversation took place shortly after he had seen both of the films that evening (both of which I scored) and was surprised that 1) I had written "actual music" and 2) it didn't shove his emotions around. I think I was eventually able to convince him that some people that think that "emotionally manipulative" music is being considered in the incorrect context. My point to him was that just because a cue is emotionally involved doesn't mean that it's trying the manipulate the emotional response of you, the listener/viewer. Perhaps the composer was trying to express the emotional response of the character or, heaven forbid, the overall situation. Or maybe he/she is actually portraying their own musical/emotional response to the scene they're scoring. Ultimately, though it is the character and not you, the audience, that is the important thing (in good film, anyway).

3. Film music isn't intended to exist outside of the film/music diegesis.

Perhaps this was the original intention of film music; that it should/could/would never live outside of film, that it was the ultimate gebrauchtsmusik. Can you extract an entire score for a concert performance? Perhaps. Should you? Not really. Not unless it's a colossal work such as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars where there is an abundance of music to choose from. (Anymore, though, I'd be more interested in hearing film music outside the construct of the film in which the composer has gone back and reworked the material into something that is more concert-like, just to prove his/her composition skills. Think about it, Korngold's Violin Concerto is based on themes from his film scores that were recast in more traditional symphonic form.).

For me this is perhaps the most important of the three because I don't have to see the movie first in order to appreciate how great the music can be all on its own. Actually I would say that between 10-15% of my film score recordings are from films that I've never seen. But I like the music. Does seeing the movie make the listening experience more valuable? Of course it does. But sometimes you have a real stinker of a movie with a really tremendous score (did I hear someone say Cutthroat Island?) and you like listening to it for whatever reason. Ultimately it means that it resonates with you and that is a deeply personal thing.

As is all art.

Film Score Friday 1/20/2006

Today's theme is music from the films of Paul Verhoeven.

That'll be fun.

The playlist:

Flesh and Blood (Basil Poledouris)
Robocop (Basil Poledouris)
Total Recall (Jerry Goldsmith)
Basic Instinct (Jerry Goldsmith)
Starship Troopers (Basil Poledouris)
Hollow Man (Jerry Goldsmith)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

AND ANOTHER THING!!!

I have taken the liberty of adding a countdown clock to my sidebar indicating how long it will be until the end of the "Mozart Anniversary Year". This is probably the most fun I'll have with Amadeus all year!

Those English Blokes Can Play!

This past Saturday the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was in town. The Pikey and I went and heard them.

Wow! We have a great orchestra ("Wow, what a terrific awwwdience!") here, but there's little that beats the calibre of those English kids sawing away.

The program:

Sibelius: Finlandia
Mozart: Concerto no. 5 for Violin ("Turkish")
Sibelius: Symphony no. 2

I guess you start by saying that the concert was awesome. Unfortunately it's going to be February before I go to a concert where there's no Mozart involved. I suppose I can live with that. The violin soloist, though, left a lot to be desired. There seemed to be a disagreement about pitch between her and the orchestra. It was painful and I winced a lot. Also it seemed that she played a little more romantically than one would like for Mozart and her tone was thin. Other than those things I guess she was pretty good! Oh.

Anyway, the Sibelius was all tremendous. For the budding film composers out there if you don't know Sibelius you should. This is especially true if you like Michael Kamen or James Horner. The brass section just rocked. Maybe a little out of balance. Just a smidge. Teeny tiny.

But still awesome.

What else does one say? It's the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, England's self-proclaimed "national orchestra". They're pretty much some of the best players on the planet. I guess, though, there's also a sense of complacency that goes with this particular territory because the concertmistress looked pretty bored much of the time. When she wasn't playing she was fidgeting with her brastrap or trying to clean out her nose. At least she used a tissue.

Yay!!!

Congrats to Johnny on his 4th Golden Globe last night. I think that Memoirs of a Geisha is probably one of the most beautiful, if sparse, scores he's written in a long time.

Any other thoughts on the awards?

Film Score Friday the 13th

Supposedly all sorts of fantastical things happen on Friday the 13th. What better way to have a Friday the 13th than celebrate the genius that is Bernard Herrmann? Today's playlist includes:

The Egyptian (20th Century Fox, 1954)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (20th Century Fox, 1947)
Jason and the Argonauts (Columbia Pictures, 1963; 1999 re-recording on Intrada, Bruce Broughton, Sinfonia of London)
Taxi Driver (Columbia Pictures, 1976)
Psycho (Universal, 1960; 1997 Varese Sarabande re-recording, Joel McNeely, Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (Columbia Pictures, 1958; 1998 Varese Sarabande re-recording, John Debney, Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2oth Century Fox, 1958)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (20th Century Fox, 1951)
Vertigo (Paramount, 1958)
North by Northwest (MGM, 1959)

Namedropper!!!

In the spring of 2000 some friends of mine and I decided that, rather than go somewhere sunny and warm, we were going to have a "cultured" spring break and headed to the Windy City for a week. We did all the things you're supposed to do when you visit Chicago. We went to the Sears Tower, the Chicago Art Institute (could've spent days in there), Navy Pier (it always rains the day I go to Navy Pier), the Field Museum of Natural History, Pizzeria Uno (duh...you can't go to Chi-town without getting great pizza), did lots of shopping (mostly at the Virgin Megastore, which I preferred at the time to refer to as the Virgin Meccastore), and pretended to be German when approached by homeless people.

But...

For me the absolute highlight of the week, though, was attending the Chicago Symphony's American premiere(?) of Krzysztof Penderecki's Seven Gates of Jerusalem. This hour-long work is amazing with truly incredible performing forces as well. It calls for doubled wind/brass/percussion sections on stage. This group of winds and brass is doubled again at the back of the concert hall as an antiphonal group. The percussion section also has in it two sets of giant PVC pipes that are cut to different lengths and struck on the end with fly swatter-type things. Then there's a 200-voice choir that is, at one point, split into 3 mixed choirs. Then there are 6 soloists; a lyric soprano, a dramatic soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass and cantor.

The work itself is in 7 movements. All of the text is taken from the Old Testament and performed in Latin except the 5th movement which is intoned by the cantor in Hebrew. This is probably the most striking of the seven movements because of the Hebrew cantor and the conspicuous use of bass trumpet (awesome!) which Penderecki uses to symbolize the voice of God (as a trumpet player I'm not going to disagree). Mr. Penderecki was the guest conductor for the evening as well and the other work on the program was Schubert's Symphony no. 9 "The Great". Let's just say this about his conducting; anyone who has watched Howard Shore conduct on the extra features on the Lord of the Rings dvds will understand what kind of conductor Mr. Penderecki is. He has one conducting "dynamic" which is a rather huge window. And he conducts left-handed. While this isn't a bad thing, it's quite distracting.

Seven Gates of Jerusalem is the piece that really got me turned on to Penderecki's music. After that I went on this buying spree where I picked up a whole bunch of Penderecki recordings which ultimately led me to many other composers of Eastern Europe and the Baltic Region (you may have noticed).

And the second greatest part of the evening (after the music) was the shot above. That's yours truly with Penderecki. Mercifully my hair and sense of style has changed since then. I hope.

Happy Birthday, Milton Babbit

Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us.

King Kong!!!

So die Frau and I finally went and saw King Kong a couple weeks ago with Oscar and her Boo. A day late and a dollar short but here it is anyway...

What can one possibly say about one of the most amazing "popcorn" movies ever seen? I thought the movie was terrific. The only real gripe I had was the same as everyone else. The subplot with the kid. I'm going to take the opposite stance of most people though. I think that if you're going to go to the trouble of putting the subplot in the film then you should develop it as fully as you can. That, of course, gets you into the sticky realm of how much does one develop a subplot so that it doesn't become the story itself? Anyway, some people thought that the whole bit with the kid should have been left out. Sure it didn't advance the plot but when most of the movie actually is plot-based (that's refreshing) it's nice to have a diversion even when it ties in.

Did that make sense? I don't care.

I also thought that some of the dialogue ranged from ridiculous to leaden and overly serious. I thought that James Newton Howard's score (covered previously) worked quite well in the film. Was it an earth-shattering, groundbreaking work? No. For that matter, was the music for Lord of the Rings? Think about it. Anyway, I thought the music worked fine, I just wish that he could have come up with better tunes. It would have been nice to have something a little more grandiose, but what do you expect for 3 weeks work?

And then there's Naomi Watts. I've never seen her in anything else (no I haven't seen The Ring, Ring 2 or I Heart Huckabee's) but I can't help but think one of two things; 1) she's an incredible actress or 2) she takes direction extraordinarily well. I think it's probably a little of both. I think this because no one else in the movie has to interact with a non-existent Kong more than she does.

Kong is incredible. The characterization in the animation is absolutely astounding. I thought the eyes were especially terrific because you knew the moment that he died that it had happened because of the way his pupils dilated. The fur was great. It seemed like every aspect of Kong was well researched, planned and executed.

Overall you just get the sense that Peter Jackson really did want to make this movie for the past 35 years. It was lavished with so much attention and love that it was a wonderfully engaging moviegoing experience.

A friend of mine and I were joking that, since the technology exists and PJ is such a great director of both actors and computer generation, he should be allowed to remake Episodes I-III of Star Wars "The way they were meant to be seen!".