The music of TV themes and movie soundtracks.

Mar 10 05:24 UTC 1997

This is the movie/TV soundtrack item.  Feel free to discuss John Williams,
Danny Elfman, Mike Post, and other TV theme/movie soundtrack composers.  Other
good topics might include commercialism of movie soundtracks (creating a movie
for a soundtrack instead of vice versa, the "Music Inspired For and/or By the
Movie--, for example).

response 2 of 107:

Mar 10 21:16 UTC 1997

<krj is somewhat baffled, since he didn't think the Special Edition 
of JEDI was due out until Friday 3/14.  And who is Sy Snoodles?>

response 4 of 107:

Mar 11 05:10 UTC 1997

<No, Fox & Lucas postponed the opening of JEDI because of the strength
of STAR WARS and EMPIRE at the box office.  Stern was a beneficiary, 
but not the cause, say the news stories I saw when the postponement 
was announced.>

response 6 of 107:

Mar 12 07:25 UTC 1997

 i have noticed that someitmes the music ot a sound track does better than
the movie itself.... Take Romeo and Juleit (1197 version).  People went for
the music it seemed than for the movie. 

Though i must admit,  A great movie with great action music is _Last of the
Mohicans_... the music makes your heart jut jump! course, so does Daneil
Day-Lewis... well for me.  Anywyas.  Music can be a very important part.  I
should be.  Soemetimes it is the movie.  It can make a movie good or bad. 

response 8 of 107:

Mar 12 13:10 UTC 1997

The story of Romeo and Juliet goes back further than Shakespeare. Dante
refers to the Montagues and the Capulets in his Inferno (ca. 1300)

But seriously, I like "The Crow" soundtrack. It captured the mood of the
film perfectly.

I also like Mark Snow's "X-Files" music. It's a lot better that the other
CD of songs inspired by the show. His music soulds great on its own and
its hard to believe he writes roughly 30-35 minutes of incidental music
per show. Most shows only have 20 minutes per hour.

response 10 of 107:

Mar 13 09:50 UTC 1997

I see people moved rather quickly to my other idea, or are about to. 
Jennifer's point is true-- but that's because moviemakers try to create a
soundtrack they know will sell well, rather than one that will fit the movie.
Sometimes, it seems as if they make a movie for a soundtrack album.  But
ironically, it's getting harder to find snippets of all tracks of a soundtrack
album in a movie.  And sometimes, producers want to sell music that didn't
make the edit of the film, so suddenly, it's "Music Inspired By.."  By the
same coin, not all movie soundtrack albums feature all the incidental music.

I am highly recommending you all check out Jeff Danna's soundtrack to Kung
Fu: The Legend Continues.  He came to Narada Records with this project as his
debut.  He took classically trained Chinese musicians, and then used their
skills to create music that is a mixture of traditional Chinese music and
Western symphony-- with a New Age touch.  The result is nothing short of
incredible.

The soundtrack to '2010' is another undiscovered gem, although the film didn't
quite do justice to Arthur C. Clarke's sequel to his bestseller, '2001: A
Space Odyssey.'  Ironically, the music is better than that of the critically
acclaimed screenplay of '2001.'  Even the ambient-influenced pieces are a
little bit more interesting than '2001's many variations of "The Blue Danube
Waltz,' and the 2010 theme itself is a freah arrangement of the old "Also
Sprach Zarathrustra" theme.  Fresh, folks, not fresh-- but it does have a more
sci-fi feel to it than a classical one!  But not to worry; it has an excerpt
of the old theme as well for comparison.

response 12 of 107:

Mar 14 07:44 UTC 1997

Thanks, Ken-- my error.  They are excerpts.  but that's what makes the
soundtrack so boring-- that's all there is besides the title theme.  This is
the other extreme of movie soundtracks-- it doesn't quite stand well as an
artistic piece of work on its own.

Compared to 2001, 2010 was indeed a critical failure.  But then Hollywood is
always trying to attract a broader audience then the typical sci-fi movie
goer.  Perhaps the corresponding soundtrack did so poorly because the movie
was so bad; I found a tape of _2010_ for 50 cents in a bargain bin.  But the
soundtrack is worth a second look.  The recording quality is good, the
electronic instruments used formidable for 1984, and the material is fairly
original.  "2010," the opening title cut, is merely based on "Also Sprach
Zarathrustra," but it's a well-crafted arrangement.  The 'New Worlds Theme'
rounds out the soundtrack and is another stand-out cut.  It is more orchestral
(probably because it's the end title), which makes a good ending since the
rest of the tracks are more ambient.

response 14 of 107:

Mar 14 18:50 UTC 1997

No, there's quite a bit of other music in 2001, most notably 
Katchaturian's slow movement from the Gayanah Ballet Suite -- the suite 
is best known for the Sabre Dance, which doesn't appear in the film, 
but it's one of those classical pieces which everyone instantly 
recognizes -- and Gyorgy Ligeti's pieces "Atmospheres" and "Lux Aeterna,"
which are used for the encounters with the monolith.  
 
Ligeti sued Kubrick for making electronic distortions to his compositions,
and he won; I assume this is in Europe, where the notion of "artist's
rights" holds much more legal force than it does in the USA.
 
I suspect that scoring a film almost exclusively with previously-composed
classical music is a different form than composing music specifically
to fit the film.
 
I suspect that Jon hasn't heard the same recording of the 2001 soundtrack
album that I have.  I really don't know the ancestry of what's been for 
sale the last few years, but it has *not* been the same program as the 
1968 LP.  The '68 mix has only been issued on CD in the last few months.
 
To stop beating a dead horse:  I don't suppose any of you have ever 
seen a soundtrack recording for Akira Kurosawa's film KAGEMUSHA?
I've never been able to find any evidence that one exists, darn it.

response 16 of 107:

Mar 16 07:55 UTC 1997

You are only partially correct, Ken.  A friend of mine (actually, his father)
has the '68 LP, and I had planned to get a copy of it since the tape of it
at the library was warped.  All I got was "Atmospheres", as part of a sampler
tape.  I liked the arrangment of it and I wonder why Ligeti chose to sue.

Re #3 now that 'JEDI' is out:  I liked the addition of 'Jedi Rocks' to the
Palace scene (and I should note that it was written by Andy Hey, not John
Williams), although it was a really weird fit to the otherwise exotic-sounding
music.  I also was very disappointed that Lucas decided to change the song
for the Celebration scene.  It was very New Agey and the mood really wasn't
celebratory at all.  Don't get me wrong-- I like New Age-- but the setting
was all wrong.  I wonder what Williams had to say about it.  (Then again,
Williams isn't as rich as Lucas, so he has no say)

response 18 of 107:

Mar 23 11:21 UTC 1997

I just picked up the recently re-issued soundtrack for _2001..._ and I'm
enjoying it very much.  Whatever was out, before this edition, was pretty
sadly packaged, and I'm not sure why.  This edition, however, is
delightful:  lengthy liner notes, extra music, and a whole track of sound
bites from the film.  It's a Rhino edition, though, so it's not surprising
they did a good job, this time around.

response 20 of 107:

Mar 24 15:38 UTC 1997

I try to watch in a nice comfy chair or couch, after falling asleep on the
floor once.

response 22 of 107:

Mar 26 21:48 UTC 1997

I have a question:  what great movie theme *hasn't* Joun Williams been
involved in?  He did Star Wars, He did Superman, he did Jawsw, he did Jurassic
Park.  has there been anything since, say, 1977 that's definitive that he
didn't do?

response 24 of 107:

Mar 27 10:04 UTC 1997

perhaps, but name some really significant work that they've done :)  John
Williams is *the* definitive movie composer of the last quarter century.