Film Scores

[Marley Drama]

Anyone else have an interest in these?

Let's talk scores and composers here: favourites; holy grails; the ones that got away. Maybe there are some scores you like more than the film itself.


Currently en route to me is the Deluxe Edition of Marco Beltrami's Scream 2, which came out last week:

It'll be so good to have the complete score on CD, and will be the perfect companion to the Scream Deluxe Edition which came out back in 2011 (hard to believe it's been five years):

 

[Marley Drama]

Quite possibly my favourite score of all time is Herrmann's Psycho. I'm a big fan of strings, and to have a complete film score written just for strings is incredible.

It's been recorded many, many times, of course. My two favourites are...


Joel McNeely and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1996). A very classy complete score played by a top-drawer orchestra. And the cover artwork for the CD is beautiful:

Danny Elfman's score for the pointless 1998 remake is great.

The remake itself is dire, but Elfman's score is worth investing in. It has a harder, rockier edge than other versions, but is full of energy and the sound quality is great. I especially enjoy what he did for the Intro/Logos, as heard in the first 40 seconds below (confusingly, the video uses the artwork from the McNeely version):

I've been lucky enough to attend a few concerts where music from the film has been played, including a screening of the film with a live orchestra playing the score: a film score buff's wet dream.

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

I'm also still looking for some soundtrack albums, but usually just for one particular song rather than the entire movie score.
But the one from Prom Night is very good! In the 80s there was only the LP release from Japan, and a few years ago it was re-released on CD in Australia. But even that CD is a limited edition...in other words: impossible to get unless I'm willing to pay a small fortune.

I must have it!

 

[Richard Channing]

I've recently been enjoying 'The Man With The Golden Gun' soundtrack. Most of the songs feature some kind of orchestral version of Lulu's theme song but I never seem to get tired of the tune. It's just so beautiful and majestic. The whole album is pretty enjoyable from start to finish. Along with the sweeping violins I also love the occasional mandolins (at least I think thats what they are). The whole album is on youtube.

 

[Marley Drama]

a few years ago it was re-released on CD in Australia. But even that CD is a limited edition...in other words: impossible to get unless I'm willing to pay a small fortune.

I hate when that happens. I hesitate or somehow miss it and then the price starts shooting up. Let's hope you manage to source a copy someday.

I've recently been enjoying 'The Man With The Golden Gun' soundtrack. Most of the songs feature some kind of orchestral version of Lulu's theme song but I never seem to get tired of the tune. It's just so beautiful and majestic. The whole album is pretty enjoyable from start to finish. Along with the sweeping violins I also love the occasional mandolins (at least I think thats what they are).

They're really nice. I don't have many of Barry's Bond albums - just Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker, both of which I bought for Bassey tracks.

Though I have some of his selected tracks on a Best Of Bond CD, including Hip's Trip from TMWTGG, which sounds gorgeous (I can't post a video as it's blocked in my country ).

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

I had thought about buying the Bond albums because I like the songs so very much...I had also thought about buying all the movies (or at least the ones from 60s/70s/80s)....but I still haven't done it.

 

[Marley Drama]

I had also thought about buying all the movies (or at least the ones from 60s/70s/80s)....but I still haven't done it.

I treated myself to the 50th Anniversary Blu Ray set, which went from the first film through to Casino Royale (the first Daniel Craig). I thoroughly enjoyed watching them. They're great fun.

 

[Marley Drama]

Quite possibly my favourite score of all time is Herrmann's Psycho. I'm a big fan of strings, and to have a complete film score written just for strings is incredible.

It's been recorded many, many times, of course. My two favourites are...


Joel McNeely and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1996).



...Danny Elfman's score for the pointless 1998 remake is great.

This week I've been listening to film scores a great deal and Herrmann's work more than most.

At the moment, I'm over most of Elfman's recording of the Psycho album. It's just too loud, too in your face to meet my current listening requirements.

McNeely's rendition of Psycho remains the definitive complete score, but I've decided that the recording by Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic back in '96 is pretty damned perfect. It's not a complete score, but the album I have features eleven Psycho tracks as well as many other Herrmann scores including Vertigo, Marnie, Fahrenheit 451 and Taxi Driver. It's the most unsettling the Psycho score has sounded to my ears - those raspy deep notes at the beginning of The Swamp and The Madhouse are incredibly threatening, while the top strings really get the subtleties of the swirling fragments in The Water.


While none of those tracks appear to be on YouTube, I did find the Fahrenheit 451 and Vertigo tracks from the same album. So beautiful:

 

[The First Noele]

i also enjoy Bernard Herrmann as i always enjoy a Hitch film with vertigo top of the list

one of my favs is John Williams in particular saving Private Ryan and Schindlers list, they make me cry to be honest and a huge regret that i never learned to play a violin as a child, to be able to make a musical instrument sing is wonderful but was never gifted in the musical area - sadly

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Anything from John Barry.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Schmaltzy, perhaps, but, much like "Moon River," it's hard to beat '60s schmaltzy -- it's what schmaltzy ought to be!

 

[Angels Chanting]

Quite possibly my favourite score of all time is Herrmann's Psycho. I'm a big fan of strings, and to have a complete film score written just for strings is incredible.

Bernard Herrmann was a genius and his score for Psycho was excellent but I think his best work was North By North West, not just the theme for the main titles but the incidental music throughout the film effectively adds to the tension.

 

[Angels Chanting]

My favourite film score is Michael Masser's Mahogany. I thought the film was awful the music was excellent.

A very close second is Clint Mansell's Requiem For a Dream soundtrack, perfect pieces of music that work well with the film but also in their own right.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I'm so on the fence about John Williams. He's been one of the most influential composers ever, yes, and yet I always find myself wondering if he's brilliant or a brilliantly derivative hack -- a hack derivative of his own brilliance.

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

Schmaltzy, perhaps

Those poor animals!

 

[Marley Drama]

one of my favs is John Williams in particular saving Private Ryan and Schindlers list

Schindler's List really opened my eyes to Williams. Just when I thought I knew what to expect from him he came out with something really intimate and melancholy.

I'm so on the fence about John Williams. He's been one of the most influential composers ever, yes, and yet I always find myself wondering if he's brilliant or a brilliantly derivative hack -- a hack derivative of his own brilliance.

His trademark brassy sound from the end of the Seventies onwards is a little off-putting to me. There are some beautiful moments on those scores but they seem to get swallowed up by the big sweeping stuff. One can start to feel nothing else matters but the epic ballsy moments which in turn blend together:

I like him so much more when he's reigned in:

Schmaltzy, perhaps, but, much like "Moon River," it's hard to beat '60s schmaltzy -- it's what schmaltzy ought to be!

Yes indeed.

Clint Mansell's Requiem For a Dream soundtrack, perfect pieces of music that work well with the film but also in their own right.

Beautiful!

 

[The First Noele]

i aways enjoyed this and think im in Greece when i listen to it for some reason

i like John barry thmes too
Zulu
Out of Africa
dances with wolves
born free

 

[ginnyfan]

Everything Hermann did for Hitch is perfection. Currently can't get Marnie theme out of my head.....

 

[ginnyfan]

Another one of my favorites, Laura (1944)

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Another one of my favorites, Laura (1944)

I was about to come post that one myself -- it's rightly considered one of the most effective scores ever written for establishing mood and helping push the story along (and the song became a standard, although Johnny Mercer's later lyrics to it were uncharacteristically lousy, which I've read Raksin -- or Premminger, at least -- agreed with).