THE ORIGIN OF ACTION MUSIC (one man's opinion)
by Terry 9 Replies latest jw friends
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Leolaia
Sometimes I like to listen to movie soundtracks, and almost always the most awful, unmelodic pieces are those composed for climactic action scenes. When listened together with the action, it doesn't sound so bad but when attention is paid to it directly, it sounds pretty bad. Sometimes there are exceptions when they deviate from the norm of cacophony. The music in the battle scenes in LOTR is hard to enjoy, while the music of the "Isengard Unleashed" when the dam is broken (not "action" music) is pretty nice and really adds to the scene. Similarly, in Titanic, I don't like the music in some of the sinking scenes, but the trio of scenes before the ship breaks apart when it is seriously up-ended (with people sliding down into the water, with a guy falling from the rear down into the water, and another hitting the propellors) has music (again not "action" music) that again adds to the gravity of the scene.
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Terry
in Titanic, I don't like the music in some of the sinking scenes
This is entirely because the Directors of films do not want melodic music! I kid you not.
James Cameron specifically instructed James Horner (the composer) : "I never at anytime ever want to hear the orchestra playing a full-on love theme!" If you examine the score carefully, Horner was very restrained and clever about where and how he brought in the love theme.
The producers (the Bermans) of Star Trek Voyager and other such series instruct their composer to never compose melodic music. They want generic wallpaper thumping in the background.
The fools!
T.
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I quit!
I guess that explains why I don't like most of the sountracks I have purchased. When I get them home I find that there is usually only one or two songs I like on them. Most of the music on them is boring without the visual effects of the movie.
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CaptainSchmideo
The best action soundtrack I have ever heard:
"The Planet of the Apes" by Jerry Goldsmith
The music during "the hunt" gives me chills every time, especially the scary horn sounds when you see the faces of the Gorillas first revealed as the hunters.
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Quentin
Terry, remember when we'd take in a movie and guess who the composer was, as the credits rolled? You never missed. Kathy and I still do that from time to time, most times she gets it right. At least I developed half an ear for a composers style.
John Barry...Zulu
John Williams...Star Wars
Sergio Leon...The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Never get into a contest with Terry about movie music, you'll lose.
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Preston
Barry was great...
My favorite works of his were his soundtracks for Midnight Cowboy and On His Majesty's Secret Service (great action music). I'm more of an Ennio Morricone fan myself, its high time that he receive his lifetime achievement award.
My favorite soundtrack of all time is Morricone's work on Once Upon a Time in America
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CaptainSchmideo
It's too bad we can't do this in "real time". I'd love to take my best shot at Terry. My brother and I have quite the collection. What I love to do is figure out what soundtrack is being used as the "temp" on movie trailers where the soundtrack has been finished yet.
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Quentin
Ennio Morricone...knew I got the tow confused as soon as I posted...ah, well...
Terry would be the one to do it with CS...would be fun....
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Terry
It's too bad we can't do this in "real time". I'd love to take my best shot at Terry. My brother and I have quite the collection. What I love to do is figure out what soundtrack is being used as the "temp" on movie trailers where the soundtrack has been finished yet.
My misspent youth was squandered buying soundtracks!! It was my drug of choice :)
I use to play a game with friends of mine. They could choose any of my five thousand soundtrack recordings and play just ten seconds from any track on any one of them and I'd guess what it was.
See what a major Nerd I was/am?
T.