New Podcast - Final Film Scores

[cdouglas]

Hey kids!

A brand-new "Sounds and Sights of Cinema" is ready to go! This week, you'll hear the final film scores of numerous noted composers... or, as a co-worker of mine so delicately put it, "an hour of music by dead guys written just before they died."

On the program, you'll hear:

Airport - Alfred Newman
Far From Heaven - Elmer Bernstein
The Legend of Butch and Sundance - Basil Poledouris
Looney Tunes: Back in Action - Jerry Goldsmith
Son of the Pink Panther - Henry Mancini
Taxi Driver - Bernard Herrmann
The Last Butterfly - Alex North
Rich in Love - Georges Delerue

Plus a completely unrelated suite of music from the television series Lost by the very not-dead Michael Giacchino! I hope you'll give it a spin, kids. Four out of five doctors say "The Sounds and Sights of Cinema" is better for the nose and throat!

[Gabriel Girard]

Great show Clark - you've got me hooked! That Bernstein score really is gorgeous and I must admit that Goldsmith's score works really well with Looney Tunes: Back In Action which happens to be one of my favorite Dante flicks; Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver... masterful.

[cdouglas]

Great show Clark - you've got me hooked! That Bernstein score really is gorgeous and I must admit that Goldsmith's score works really well with Looney Tunes: Back In Action which happens to be one of my favorite Dante flicks; Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver... masterful.

Thanks, Gabriel! I'm glad there's another person out there who actually digs Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Critics had a lot of harsh words for it when it came out, but I thought Dante created a very entertaining flick.

[Gabriel Girard]

Great show Clark - you've got me hooked! That Bernstein score really is gorgeous and I must admit that Goldsmith's score works really well with Looney Tunes: Back In Action which happens to be one of my favorite Dante flicks; Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver... masterful.

Thanks, Gabriel! I'm glad there's another person out there who actually digs Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Critics had a lot of harsh words for it when it came out, but I thought Dante created a very entertaining flick.

The critics are crazy. But then they never seemed to like Dante.. they don't get his humor or his ''strangeness'' I believe. Who else but him could make such an entertaining and loyal ''live-action'' Looney Tunes movie? If someone wants proof, they should watch Space Jam...

[cdouglas]

Gracious, Space Jam vs. Looney Tunes: Back in Action? Not even a contest. Really shakes things into perspective pretty quickly.

[Steve T Power]

No Michael Kamen makes me a sad panda.

Especially with that amazing opening theme for Band of Brothers out there....

[cdouglas]

No Michael Kamen makes me a sad panda.

Especially with that amazing opening theme for Band of Brothers out there....

Actually, it would have been his score for First Daughter, which I thought about including, but I didn't have time for everyone.

[Steve T Power]

No Michael Kamen makes me a sad panda.

Especially with that amazing opening theme for Band of Brothers out there....

Actually, it would have been his score for First Daughter, which I thought about including, but I didn't have time for everyone.

Haven't heard that one...

I'm just a Kamen fan is all.

[cdouglas]

No Michael Kamen makes me a sad panda.

Especially with that amazing opening theme for Band of Brothers out there....

Actually, it would have been his score for First Daughter, which I thought about including, but I didn't have time for everyone.

Haven't heard that one...

I'm just a Kamen fan is all.

Yeah, me too. And you're right, his work on Band of Brothers is amazing. I assume you're also a big fan of his Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, considering your love for the film?

[Carl Wonders]

Just finished listening to the podcast. Great stuff as always. I was especially interested in the Poledouris piece, because I didn't even know it existed! Great sound, and for the most part, it didn't have his "typical" sound (for lack of a better term). I also noticed the absence of Michael Kamen (I know nothing of the score for First Daughter since it's a movie I made a point to get out of having to go see.....)

[Steve T Power]

No Michael Kamen makes me a sad panda.

Especially with that amazing opening theme for Band of Brothers out there....

Actually, it would have been his score for First Daughter, which I thought about including, but I didn't have time for everyone.

Haven't heard that one...

I'm just a Kamen fan is all.

Yeah, me too. And you're right, his work on Band of Brothers is amazing. I assume you're also a big fan of his Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, considering your love for the film?

HUGE fan of the Prince of Thieves score. I actually put it up there with Williams' stuff on Indy and Star Wars in terms of being instantly recognizable. Yes, i'm insane.

[cdouglas]

HUGE fan of the Prince of Thieves score. I actually put it up there with Williams' stuff on Indy and Star Wars in terms of being instantly recognizable. Yes, i'm insane.

I mean, I think it's a very fine film score. The only thing that really keeps it from hitting greatness for me is that the performance of the orchestra (I forget which orchestra recorded that score) is pretty bad. There are quite a few missed notes and poorly-performed moments throughout. That's a score that could use a sharp new re-recording.

[BrettCullum]

I love the dead guy stuff... but I am truly intrigued by the LOST score.
I own all the CD releases, and I have to say it's about half brilliant and then half silly cheese that doesn't always work on its own. Michael Giacchino is an amazing partner for JJ, and his work is some of the best on television currently (if not THE best). I find the LOST stuff hit and miss, but oh how I love the romance themes or the sad moments. They really know how to milk those, and he's genius there. FUN STUFF man!

[cdouglas]

I love the dead guy stuff... but I am truly intrigued by the LOST score.
I own all the CD releases, and I have to say it's about half brilliant and then half silly cheese that doesn't always work on its own. Michael Giacchino is an amazing partner for JJ, and his work is some of the best on television currently (if not THE best). I find the LOST stuff hit and miss, but oh how I love the romance themes or the sad moments. They really know how to milk those, and he's genius there. FUN STUFF man!

As someone just experiencing the music without having seen most of the show, I've really enjoyed Giacchino's work. Television music is not exactly top-drawer in general these days (with occasional exceptions like Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica), but Giacchino is writing very interesting stuff. I may check out the show this summer when the first season is released in hi-def.

[BrettCullum]

I'm having a hard time seeing someone interested in the score only for LOST without knowing the show and how it uses that music in context. So that in and of itself is amazing and a testament to the power of the work. There was a guy that was part of a podcast who ONLY analyzed the show through the score. He would talk about how Michael Giacchino would use these brilliant leit motifs and then alter them by one note when something mysterious or dramatic happened. For example you would hear Locke's theme but it would be off by one note signaling something was very wrong with him. The show relies on the score as much as anything else to develop the mystery. It is the kind of symbiosis that TWIN PEAKS had going for it. One thing about the LOST score is the percussion section actually uses pieces from a destroyed airplane fuselage.

Interestingly enough Michael Giacchino started off as a video game score maker. He's certainly made his mark with Abrams and Disney (he also did THE INCREDIBLES for Pixar). I really love his work in general, and he's one to watch. Apparently Hollywood knows this all too well since he was chosen to lead the orchestra at last year's Oscar ceremony.

[cdouglas]

I'm having a hard time seeing someone interested in the score only for LOST without knowing the show and how it uses that music in context. So that in and of itself is amazing and a testament to the power of the work. There was a guy that was part of a podcast who ONLY analyzed the show through the score. He would talk about how Michael Giacchino would use these brilliant leit motifs and then alter them by one note when something mysterious or dramatic happened. For example you would hear Locke's theme but it would be off by one note signaling something was very wrong with him. The show relies on the score as much as anything else to develop the mystery. It is the kind of symbiosis that TWIN PEAKS had going for it. One thing about the LOST score is the percussion section actually uses pieces from a destroyed airplane fuselage.

Interestingly enough Michael Giacchino started off as a video game score maker. He's certainly made his mark with Abrams and Disney (he also did THE INCREDIBLES for Pixar). I really love his work in general, and he's one to watch. Apparently Hollywood knows this all too well since he was chosen to lead the orchestra at last year's Oscar ceremony.

Very interesting. Now I'm even more intrigued to check out the show.

Yeah, Giacchino is getting very big very fast... just in the past month, three films scored by him have been released: Star Trek, Up, and Land of the Lost!

[Steve T Power]

Anyone who's heard his score for Medal of Honor: Frontline would know why. Amazing stuff.

[cdouglas]

Anyone who's heard his score for Medal of Honor: Frontline would know why. Amazing stuff.

I also quite liked his work on Medal of Honor: Airborne... well, all of those scores, honestly, but Airborne seemed particularly striking to me.

[Boba Fett]

Anyone who's heard his score for Medal of Honor: Frontline would know why. Amazing stuff.

I also quite liked his work on Medal of Honor: Airborne... well, all of those scores, honestly, but Airborne seemed particularly striking to me.

I want to hear Jesper Kyd score a mainstream feature film.

[Steve T Power]

Anyone who's heard his score for Medal of Honor: Frontline would know why. Amazing stuff.

I also quite liked his work on Medal of Honor: Airborne... well, all of those scores, honestly, but Airborne seemed particularly striking to me.

I want to hear Jesper Kyd score a mainstream feature film.

The score he did for Freedom Fighters was amazing!

speaking of awesome video game scores - just acquired the Mass Effect score, and it is one of the absolute best!