are film composers the modern equivilent of say a Mozart or a Beethoven?

[Keef]

KalamityKel Wrote:

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> The music to the Lord of the Rings triology is very disappointing (not to mention boring).

That's what you get if you let Enya get involved.

I love the last of the mohicans sound track! Gladiator was pretty good too, which made up for the film itself being a load of drivle.

[KalamityKel]

LOR is prob okies to listen to without really listening to it. But to play it... a friend of mine hand wrote an arrangement for string quartet... *yawn* hehe

[andycam]

Right my turn,

I'm a huge fan of film composers work as you can tell from my list of composers. Massive movie buff too to say the least as it's my passion.

Did you you know, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber is in fact first used in the David Lynch's The Elephant Man, when he passes away at the end. Another stunning use of the music.

BigNumber5, I agree with you about Hans Zimmer, He's done some fantastic scores, Gladiator, Crimson Tide, The Thin red line, even The Fan (Not a great film), but honestly of late seems to be repeating his melodies. The Thin red Line's theme is reproduced but sped up in Pearl harbours Score. How's that for geeky.

Lord of the Rings score is more of an opera in structure.

How can you call Gladiator a bad film Keef? Are you mad?

Last of the Mohicans soundtrack was by Trevor Jones and is rather cool. The film was on tv the other night. isn't daniel Day Lewis the most versitle and solid actor working today (never the same).

I really like Clint mansell's stuff at the moment, using the Kronos Quartet. Have you heard the score for Requiem for a Dream (remixed by Mansell himself and used mostly for film trailers at the moment - They used it to promote The Two Towers) or even The Fountain. Stunning.

My, what a geek out.

[KalamityKel]

How do u figure LOR is more like an opera in structure? *raises eyebrow*

[andycam]

Howard shore even considers his work on the Trilogy as an opera in structure, telling a story through the music as equally well as the visuals.

[KalamityKel]

I wouldn't necessarily call that an opera just picture painting :p

*remember university days trying to stay awake thru lectures of a similar nature* *shudders*

[*Bob*]

I thought the LOR score was commendably restrained. When your film is nearly a week long and every other scene has several million CGI-generated orcs popping out of the screen at you, you don't necessarily want your composer screaming "THIS IS MY BIG MUSICAL MOMENT! LISTEN TO ME!!!" as well.

Mohicans has a good soundtrack.. it's slightly cheesy and overblown but stays on the right side of that and is perfect for the film.

I like Danny Elfman (doesn't everyone?).. his style has been copied to death now but imitation/flattery and all that. Edward Scissorhands has some of the best music-to-picture moments on the screen, in my book.

All the usuals 'classic' names.. Williams, Jarre, Bernstein etc and the modern workhorses.. Zimmer, Horner, J N Howard. Films have changed though.. you just don't hear those old Huge Tune Themes too much these days as they often aren't appropriate.

What about..

John Carpenter's stuff (for his own films)? Dead simple but effective.

Fargo soundtrack.. one of those that sticks in my mind for some reason.

[carter39]

Not a score, but the soundtrack to The Hot Spot is superb. Miles Davis & John Lee Hooker - what a combo. Doesn't get much better than that.

[Keef]

andycam Wrote:

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> How can you call Gladiator a bad film Keef? Are you mad?

>

> Last of the Mohicans soundtrack was by Trevor Jones and is rather cool. The film was on tv the other night. isn't daniel Day Lewis the most versitle and solid actor working today (never the same).

Sorry, but don't think Gladiator is anyhting to write home about.

Daniel Day-Lewis is indeed a fine actor, and I love LOTM. I also had a mad crush on Johdi May (Alice) when I first saw it as a teenager. Saw her on stage a year or 2 ago and she was fab.

Funnily enough, I was doing some training today, and I used the finale to LOTM to demonstrate how much a blind/visually impaired person will miss without audio description. Imagine watching the whole film and following the story, then it all ends with a 6 minute sequence of them running up mountains and jumping off them and sword fighting, all of which happens to music... You wouldn't have a clue what was going on!

2 soundtracks (not scores) that I really like are Cruel Intentions, and Baz Lurman's Romeo+Juliet (which actually has a nice score as well).