Maurice Jarre RIP

Maurice Jarre died day before yesterday. That night the Wee One and I started watching Lawrence of Arabia. (Gosh, that's a fantastic movie.) Jarre's score is such an epic part of the movie it's almost comical in the same way that Steiner's Gone with the Wind is to modern ears. Maybe Star Wars will be like that some day. Maybe it already is.

Jarre was my first film composer. Dad had the LP of Grand Prix. It opens with the orchestra making race car noises. How can a two year-old not love that? But it also has the main theme. A few years later I saw Disney's Island at the Top the World. The theme for the airship Hyperion is total Jarre. It was the first time I ever recognized that sound that Jarre has. Firefox has that same kind of feel, so does Enemy Mine. (I'm sure someone who actually knows composition theory or whatever would say "Oh,
well that's just this this and that." Then I could find all the music
like that that I wanted.)

He's gone now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Jarre Aged 84.

Stay Healthy, Johnny

Good news this morning. John Towner Williams will be scoring the film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Mind you, he's 75 NOW. HP:AtDH will be out in 2010. Indiana Jones and the Out of Reach Cane will be in 2008. Jerry Goldsmith didn't last this long, so let's hope Mr. W. is taking his vitamins.

I have all of the Potter scores (except Chamber of Secrets which they did a Superman II on: Re-tracked the film with Williams' Sorcerer's Stone score). When I was reading the last half of DH I was listening to Sorcerer's Stone and a little Prisoner of Azkaban. Goblet of fire never even showed up on the iPod. I like Patrick Doyle very much, but really.

I just noticed that iTunes lists the artist Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire Soundtrack. Doyle must be pleased.

Pizer. Charlie Pizer.

Oh rapturous day! iTunes has added the score to The Black Hole by John Barry! Zounds! I checked Amazon: No CD. Just iTunes. Truly, brave new world that has such soundtracks in it. I wonder what the licensing deal with this is.

An my gosh is it a John Barry score. I mean, this is almost definitive Barry. Translation? It's James Bond in space! Ok, Moonraker is James Bond in space, which came out the same year, but this may be more so. That's the amazing thing. We played this record into the ground when I was ten. I'm trying to think of an analogy that isn't John Williams. But Williams will do. It would be like kids listening to Harry Potter and then finding out that a long time ago- er, a while back Williams had written this Star Wars and Superman stuff. Which sounds just a LITTLE bit like John Williams, right? Now I go back and listen to this and wonder at the idea that it could have been anybody EXCEPT John Barry. It's got the low brooding strings, the muted horns, the light pensive snare drums, it's all dark and foreboding and terribly mysterious. Set lush factor twelve. Oh, and then there's this fanfare because it was 1979 and space needed fanfares. Unless you were making Alien. But this was adventure. Even though it was mostly "haunted house in space" adventure. There are two amazingly awesome things that keep this from being a totally awful movie: The art design (Mary Poppins in space!) and the score. (Almost anything gets better with "in space!" Western? In space! You can't take the sky from ME!)

When I was a kid I listened to the fanfare, and the title (swirly music!), and maybe one or two tracks that were "tuney-er". I have a lot of scores from that time like that. Then I grew up (stop laughing) and realized that Star Trek: The Motion Picture has NO bad notes. Neither (obviously) does Star Wars. This isn't boring, it's just not fast. Learn the difference, skinny boy. (Bernard Hermmann would have left me lost back then. Maybe not, I was quite taken with Journey to the Center of the Earth.) Now the robot funeral may be one of my favorite tracks. It's gorgeous! Oh, and it sounds more than a little bit like James sneaking around Istanbul in From Russia with Love. But I heard it first with Ernie Borgnine and Slim Pickens the Robot.

Also on soundtrack news I got a suite from Grand Prix by Maurice Jarre. Not terribly well recorded, alas. This was my first film score ever. My Dad had the album and the beginning sounds like race cars, so that was exciting to a small child. Got played a lot when I was, oh, two? Again, years later I'd hear Firefox or Laurence of Arabia and realize what a recognizably Jarre score this was.

I'm trying to think what other Holy Grail scores I have left. Other than a few Star Trek episodes ("RISK is our BUSINESS!") I think I'm done! Wow....

Music of the Toasters

Bear McCreary, the composer for BSG, has a blog. And lately he's been doing a nice series of pieces on "The Themes of Battlestar Galactica".

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4. (This last probably doesn't work yet, but it's the latest entry on his blog.)

I'll get to my review of "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" (aka, the FUNNY episode) over the weekend. Really.

Klaatu Barada Nikto - The Musical Edition

I'm listening to the score to The Day the Earth Stood Still, by Bernard "Psycho / North by Northwest / Citizen Kane" Herrmann. ("Who is this Bernard Herrmann, and why do we have to keep hearing about how great he is?"). The film was directed by Robert "Sound of Music / West Side Story / Star Trek: The Motion Picture" Wise.

The score uses two theremins. This is the quintesential Sci-Fi instrument. It goes weeeeeeOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOHHHHHHHHHH. It's actually a very pretty sounding instrument, when it's not be played to be W-eee-eeee-iiiiiii-rrrrrr-dddddd! (Boowhaaaahahahahahahahhahaha!)

I remember being at Bob's house with all our movie geek buddies. Bob's Dad had a movie scene (Spellbound) with an "unusual instrument that you miiiiight not recognize" he said with a twinkle. It played about half a second before most of us chimed in (in harmony) "Theremin!" Wrong crowd, sir. Heh.

Composer Shirley Walker 1945-2006

Well, this sucks. Shirley Walker has passed away.

Here is my favorite Walker story:

For those who want the "Latin" lyrics used in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, there is an amusing and fascinating anecdote. Shirley Walker tells the story.

"As you know, the music team is rushing to the finish line as a film is in its final dub phase. Even the known orchestrators are not always given the credit they so justly deserve for insuring the timely execution (so to speak) of the score. I've become tired of fighting for credits for the support team that helps pull me through the final throes of recording and mixing my scores.

The choir for Masks gave me the opportunity to rectify this terrible situation. I made a chart by number of syllables of every music persons name backwards to use in creating the language you hear. 'Oh Nahlim Mot!', the phrase the score begins with, is Tom Milano, the music editor of most of my features, whom I originally worked with doing the Flash TV series.

You get the idea. It was working so well, I realized that I would need to include some of the film producers and executives at Warner Bros. After all, they were paying for my little inside joke. People do like to be included in these sorts of things. I had to lie to the Warner Bros. legal department person who called to ask me what the language was and what was being said.
They certainly didn't want to be a party to me saying "screw Warner Bros." in Danish. I told them it was an obscure nonsensical choral language that existed only in out of print orchestration books.

I think I actually spent more time on my plot than I did on the score during the week I was preparing the choral cues. It was quite fun to see the looks on peoples faces, as they realized what they were hearing. Only two people had deciphered the puzzle by the time we recorded the choir. It was very difficult for the singers to sing the strange words. I'm sure they would
have had more fun doing it, had I been able to include them in the joke too.

While I was mixing the score, I had Bobby Fernandez (Zed-nahn-fur E-Bob) record the choir accappella onto a seperate DAT, ostensibly for my sample reel. The look on Tom's face as he began to suspect what I had done was well worth the whole deception. He finally turned to me and said "You didn't do what I think you've done, did you?".

The rest is history. Everyone on the music team has a tape of the singing of their names (we transfered to 1/4" tape and played it backwards; the old "back-masking" trick)."

One Ping Only

Aw, suck. Basil Poledouris is gone. I don't own Conan (not a fan of the movie, but what a score!) so now I'm going to have to play Hunt for Red October a lot today. Maybe I'll go get Conan. Robocop may be some of the best music to play Laser Quest to ever.

Goldsmith, Bernstein, Kamen... It's been a rough couple of years for flim music.

One Score to Rule Them All

I'm listening to the Complete Fellowship of the Ring score. As with many Jackson Lord of the Rings things, I wish I liked the movies better, because the treatment is gorgeous. It's the kind of treatment that Star Wars fans wish we got. (THEY. Star Wars fans wish THEY got. Grrrrr. Sput!)

This is an interesting listening experience for me, because I saw Fellowship once. I listen to the original CD a lot. (Wow. Pre-iPod. Has it been so long?) So my biggest connection to this music comes from the novel and the previously released recording. It's not like listening to Star Wars where I can picture what's happening on screen note for note. (Even the music that was tracked to a scene and later dropped.) Lord of the Rings, even more than Star Wars, is very very VERY theme driven. This set has EXHAUSTIVE notes written by Film Score Monthly's Doug Adams. It comes with a nice little book that details EVERY SINGLE THEME from the score (did you know there is a Theme for Elvish Longing?), how it's used, why it's used, what different setting are meant to convey. It's a scholarly work. It's extensive enough that the actual track descriptions have to be included on-line as a PDF. I gather Adams will be including all of these notes in a book. Lucky Tolkien fans!

So it's like listening to a symphonic story. You are introduced to all of the cast, shown all the sets, and then listen to them wander around for three CDs. It's Peter and the Wolf on steroids.

What I just wanted to say when I started this was "Wow, dude, this is a really awesome score!" and that it's really nice to read the novel with. I don't like the movies much, but yowza what a score!

The Complete Two Towers will be out next month.

The Random Thoughts Blog

It's Friday!

I haven't read any news this week. Last thing I heard was the Foley stuff and the Amish. Now I'm Current Event free. I'm more relaxed than I have been in months! I guess ignorance IS bliss!

Big Thunderstorm right now. In Phoenix that's a big deal. She Who Is My Wife is in a room full of thunder-phobic kindergartners, so good luck, honey!

Saw the latest Bond trailer. Casino Royale. I actually recognized scenes from the book! Is that allowed? (Not to worry: Lots of scenes that Ian Fleming never even dreamed of.)

Of course, the big news is GALACTICA STARTS BACK UP TONIGHT! I haven't watched the first act that Sci-Fi put up on line. I haven't even watched all the webisodes yet. Maybe we'll do that tonight. Then the two hour premier can be a THREE hour premier.

Coffeemate creamers now has rasberry-chocolate. This may be better that Galactica AND Star Trek. No, really. (Ok, just looked on the web site - both the Pumkin Spice AND Gingerbread flavors are available now. I may be drinking WAY too much coffee.)

I got Danny Elfman's first concert piece this week. Serenada Schizophrenia. Quite good. Very Elfman, sure, so you might have a couple of Beetlejuice flashbacks, but a little bigger than his latest film work. I'll put it up there with Nightmare Before Christmas. Bernard Hermann should get co-writing credit as always, but that's ok too.

Still no Scarecrow and Mrs. King on DVD. Just so's y'all know.

Keep flying!

A FOOTBALL Post on TGP!

Ahhhh, but don't worry. It's still a really GEEKY football post.

Here's the new theme for NBC's Sunday Night Football. Composed by some Williams guy.

From the sounds of it, does this mean the NFL is being replaced by droid armies controlled from space? Coooooool.