It's a big day for John Williams, so let's get to it.
Today's listening list will be chosen from the following:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Herr Vogler out.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
First Listen: Indiana Jones
Thanks to my friend 'Red' I acquired a copy of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a day early. I've listened to it a couple times now and have a few observations. Obviously I haven't seen the film so these are related solely to the album.
Alright. So. New themes:
There's a twistedly chromatic theme for Cate Blanchett's 'Irina' that is both sinister and evocative of her Russian character. It took me two listens to realise just how much it's peppered throughout the score.
There's a theme for the Crystal Skulls themselves. Actually it's more like an obsessive motive that's a study in building tension through the use of orchestral color. But from what I can glean about the story that makes sense. It's kind of a simple little piece, actually, that's probably very effective in the film.
There's some new music for the adventures of Shia LeBeouf's character. It's mostly energetic music that displays some of the orchestral muscle (and playfulness) for which Williams is so well-known with some of the Indiana Jones theme interpolated. For my own tastes though I wish that he had developed the music that appears in 'Keeping up with the Joneses' on The Last Crusade album instead of the Prokofiev-esque music he wrote. That would have made for terrific continuity on multiple psychological and storytelling levels. I do like how Williams kind of reassigned elements of the 'Indy Theme' to fit this character. There's a similar shape to the line, but it's not quite the same.
There are certainly nice touches in the score. Williams includes the complete 'Raiders March' (with the love theme, though I don't remember hearing it anywhere else on the album). He evokes the feeling of some older action cues in a few places. Most notably there's a cue called 'The Jungle Chase' that is a kissin' cousin to 'The Desert Chase' in Raiders. He also pushes the 'Indy Theme' a lot more throughout the score than he did in Last Crusade. This is interesting because in Spielberg's note in the liner of that album he wrote that he and John felt that they didn't need to "lean on that button" so much because they thought the films had "grown up" to the point that that wasn't needed as much.
Conspicuously absent from this album is a standout action cue. In all of the other films (and subsequent albums) there is a standout action set piece/cue. Raiders has 'The Desert Chase'; Temple of Doom has 'The Mine Car Chase'; The Last Crusade has the 'Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra'. All are terrific. There's nothing like that here. The closest anything here comes is 'The Jungle Chase' (track 10).
The one thing that's always bothered me about the scores for the entire series is that, beyond the main Indiana Jones theme, there's little in the way of continuity. This is certainly understandable in that each is its own self-contained story. There is little need to reference the other films. That being said, if Williams is going to borrow from himself, then he should at least reference the other Indiana Jones films. There's a lot of cutting-and-pasting-and-reworking from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban ('The Snowball Fight') and Revenge of the Sith (General Grievous) into the action sequences.
For all my issues there is a great variety to the album with a lot of action music and a lot of mysterious music, as one would expect. The problem is, we've heard it all before. Now, as someone who has made the study of film music important this isn't exactly a revelation. Composers repeat themselves all the time (please note that I didn't condescendingly write "film composers").
John Williams is the best alive at what he does (writing music for film). That being said I can't help but wonder if he's done. I feel like this score was a little phoned-in (not quite like Attack of the Clones, but close). Perhaps I'm being a little harsh but there's a higher expectation of John Williams writing music for one of these films. Maybe that's not fair but that's the way it is. It's well-crafted but there doesn't seem to be a direction; it seems to be lacking a dramatic arc, but that may only be the album.
Alright. So. New themes:
There's a twistedly chromatic theme for Cate Blanchett's 'Irina' that is both sinister and evocative of her Russian character. It took me two listens to realise just how much it's peppered throughout the score.
There's a theme for the Crystal Skulls themselves. Actually it's more like an obsessive motive that's a study in building tension through the use of orchestral color. But from what I can glean about the story that makes sense. It's kind of a simple little piece, actually, that's probably very effective in the film.
There's some new music for the adventures of Shia LeBeouf's character. It's mostly energetic music that displays some of the orchestral muscle (and playfulness) for which Williams is so well-known with some of the Indiana Jones theme interpolated. For my own tastes though I wish that he had developed the music that appears in 'Keeping up with the Joneses' on The Last Crusade album instead of the Prokofiev-esque music he wrote. That would have made for terrific continuity on multiple psychological and storytelling levels. I do like how Williams kind of reassigned elements of the 'Indy Theme' to fit this character. There's a similar shape to the line, but it's not quite the same.
There are certainly nice touches in the score. Williams includes the complete 'Raiders March' (with the love theme, though I don't remember hearing it anywhere else on the album). He evokes the feeling of some older action cues in a few places. Most notably there's a cue called 'The Jungle Chase' that is a kissin' cousin to 'The Desert Chase' in Raiders. He also pushes the 'Indy Theme' a lot more throughout the score than he did in Last Crusade. This is interesting because in Spielberg's note in the liner of that album he wrote that he and John felt that they didn't need to "lean on that button" so much because they thought the films had "grown up" to the point that that wasn't needed as much.
Conspicuously absent from this album is a standout action cue. In all of the other films (and subsequent albums) there is a standout action set piece/cue. Raiders has 'The Desert Chase'; Temple of Doom has 'The Mine Car Chase'; The Last Crusade has the 'Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra'. All are terrific. There's nothing like that here. The closest anything here comes is 'The Jungle Chase' (track 10).
The one thing that's always bothered me about the scores for the entire series is that, beyond the main Indiana Jones theme, there's little in the way of continuity. This is certainly understandable in that each is its own self-contained story. There is little need to reference the other films. That being said, if Williams is going to borrow from himself, then he should at least reference the other Indiana Jones films. There's a lot of cutting-and-pasting-and-reworking from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban ('The Snowball Fight') and Revenge of the Sith (General Grievous) into the action sequences.
For all my issues there is a great variety to the album with a lot of action music and a lot of mysterious music, as one would expect. The problem is, we've heard it all before. Now, as someone who has made the study of film music important this isn't exactly a revelation. Composers repeat themselves all the time (please note that I didn't condescendingly write "film composers").
John Williams is the best alive at what he does (writing music for film). That being said I can't help but wonder if he's done. I feel like this score was a little phoned-in (not quite like Attack of the Clones, but close). Perhaps I'm being a little harsh but there's a higher expectation of John Williams writing music for one of these films. Maybe that's not fair but that's the way it is. It's well-crafted but there doesn't seem to be a direction; it seems to be lacking a dramatic arc, but that may only be the album.
Friday, May 02, 2008
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