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Over the years I have come to genreally prefer re-recordings when it comes to Golden Age scores.

And I agree with you, in many cases I have original and rerecording and 9 times out of 10 I'll reach for the rerecording. Sometimes it's because it's an easier digestion, THE BIG COUNTRY comes to mind here, I love the full score but it can be a bit much to take compared to the wonderful rerecording, something like John Barry's THE LAST VALLEY ( just an example, I know it's not Golden Age ), on the other hand, I prefer the rerecording because it has so many great cues left off of the original release.

I much prefer discs 2 & 3 and honestly doubt I'll bother with the first disc again!?

p.s. It was a joy to finally bin my CDR.

Such things can only be judged on a case-by-case basis -- i.e. how does the music answer to what the filmmaker wants to convey in that particular film?

Absolutely. The score -- as the film -- is more moment/tableaux-type filmmaking, and it's perfect that way. Not all films and film scores need to be primarily storytellers although that's the big Hollywood mantra.

I can't stop playing good stuff.

I didn't play 'SEVEN CITIES', that can wait for another day.

NP : JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - Bernard Herrmann



This is how it's done Andrew

I prefer to use the term "paradigm" in the sense of Fritjof Capra and say that we are now entering the Age of Aquarius.

Really, Pawel, I fear it's all much more trivial than anything that would require good old T.S. Kuhn. Zimmer has brought pop music to the films of Hollywood again. Now pop music is far more pupular then symphonic music. There is nothing symphonic about Zimmer, nerver was, never will be. He keeps it simple and he draws those who never had any exposure to classical music. Zimmer is feeding the masses. Really, Pawel, I see you as the exeption from the rule here.
Also non-thematic composing isn't news for Hollywood. Not all the Golden Agers applied Wagnarian techniques for example. So, no revolution, no change of paradigm. Fashion would be the more adequate word.

Playing today:

Aliens: Colonial Marines - Kevin Riepl
See "Upcoming CDs" for further information.

The Best Years of our Lives - Hugo Friedhofer
The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Franco Collura. Recording from 1978, this CD: Membran, 2004. I read a statement that claims this to be a boot. I don't know. There is a x-label edition out there that seems to feature the same recording. Or maybe that's the original one. It's all a bit confusing.

On the Waterfront - His Magnificence Leonard Bernstein
Concert Suite. Bernstein conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in 1959. (Columbia Records / Sony)

MGV: Musique à Grande Vitesse - Michael Nyman (argo, 1994)
No film music. What the heck.

Volker

NP: ON THE BEACH (Christopher Gordon)

Great album that spans many different moods throughout -- always with top-class orchestral writing.

NP : ARTHUR OF THE BRITONS - Paul Lewis & Elmer Bernstein



I love the liner notes to this release, Paul Lewis went through quite an epic task to get this written and recorded in a small allotted time frame, it also confirmed what I'd thought all along that most of the cues were written as Library cues to be used in numerous episodes...battles on foot, on horseback, chases, fade-ups on sunny mornings, in drizzle, driving rain, fog etc plus mysterious underscore for sequences with tension, burning homesteads, happy children etc etc

Also of interest is that when Lewis was given Elmer Bernstein's theme for recording he saw that Elmer's notes ( the original music sheet is replicated in the notes ) stated it included an electric bass, Lewis decided he was having none of that in 5th Century Britain and dumped it.

Full of rich melodies and orchestral goodness that I note Lewis orchestrated himself, he believes orchestrating is an integral part of the composing creative process and it shows, this is music that lives and breathes and this TV score from 1972 is a real breath of fresh air.

Brilliant!

Yes.

It's a good score but it doesn't even break into my top 10 Horner's. The romantic parts of BRAVEHEART touch me far more than 'LEGENDS'.

Yes.

You've never heard BRAVEHEART? No worries, no bagpipes but there are Uillean pipes



By the way, here's something about the film.....

Elizabeth Ewan describes Braveheart as a film which "almost totally sacrifices historical accuracy for epic adventure".[25] The "brave heart" refers in Scottish history to that of Robert the Bruce, and an attribution by William Edmondstoune Aytoun, in his poem Heart of Bruce, to Sir James the Good: "Pass thee first, thou dauntless heart, As thou wert wont of yore!", prior to Douglas's demise at the Battle of Teba in Andalusia.[26]

Sharon Krossa notes that the film contains numerous historical errors, beginning with the wearing of belted plaid by Wallace and his men. In that period "no Scots ... wore belted plaids (let alone kilts of any kind)."[27] Moreover, when Highlanders finally did begin wearing the belted plaid, it was not "in the rather bizarre style depicted in the film."[27] She compares the inaccuracy to "a film about Colonial America showing the colonial men wearing 20th century business suits, but with the jackets worn back-to-front instead of the right way around."[27] "The events aren't accurate, the dates aren't accurate, the characters aren't accurate, the names aren't accurate, the clothes aren't accurate—in short, just about nothing is accurate."[28] The belted plaid (feileadh mór) léine was not introduced until the 16th century.[29] Peter Traquair has referred to Wallace's "farcical representation as a wild and hairy highlander painted with woad (1,000 years too late) running amok in a tartan kilt (500 years too early)." [30]

In 2009, the film was second on a list of "most historically inaccurate movies" in The Times.[31] In the 2007 humorous non-fictional historiography An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, author John O'Farrell notes that Braveheart could not have been more historically inaccurate, even if a "Plasticine dog" had been inserted in the film and the title changed to William Wallace and Gromit.[32]

Randall Wallace is very vocal about defending his script from historians who have dismissed the film as a Hollywood perversion of actual events.[citation needed] In the DVD audio commentary of Braveheart, Mel Gibson acknowledges many of the historical inaccuracies[citation needed] but defends his choices as director, noting that the way events were portrayed in the film was much more "cinematically compelling" than the historical fact or conventional mythos.




Never let history stand in the way of a good movie eh?