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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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December, 1998: The Music of Babylon 5
As the original 5-year saga of Babylon 5 comes to an unfortunate end, Filmtracks will take you on a hyperspace journey this month through the years of fine contributions made to the series by former Tangerine Dream member and Sonic Images Records founder Christopher Franke. This month, to celebrate Franke's unique music and pay tribute to the finale of the show, Filmtracks will review and analyze the episodic and compilation CDs currently available, and provide a look at the evolution of Babylon 5 music since the show first aired five years ago. Track listings and purchasing tips will also appear for some titles, as well as links to the numerous generous resources that can be found at the Sonic Images
website.
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Includes: Additional comments and updates regarding the January, 1997, to March, 1998, themes. |
There has been turmoil for many months over the subject of the November "theme." I was reading through some of the archives of old "themes of the month" from years back and was surprised by their antiquity and, in some cases, recently invalidated concepts. Some of the subjects and issues raised have solved themselves, while others remain just as pertinent.
Therefore, this theme will serve as a addendum to the first fifteen themes, dating from January, 1997, to March, 1998, and will include my thoughts on these issues since the theme was first published. There have been events unfolding since they were written that have had an effect on most of them... so this is catch-up time.
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"...The producers of the film can take the finished score and throw it off a cliff without punishment..." |
Not many film music fans, even those who own hundreds of soundtrack albums, know the inside workings of the film music industry. After the enormous monetary success of Horner's Titanic this year, many fans have raised the issue of composer contracts and earnings in general. How much money do composers make? What do they charge for? What happens if a
score is rejected? What are the legal implications of a scoring assignment? These questions could be answered with hundreds of pages of supporting materials, however, I hope this condensed Theme of the Month satisfies your curiosity in this intriguing and sometimes mysterious field of study.
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The results of this summer's votes for the best five recent works of James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams have evoked some interesting candid remarks from regular Filmtracks visitors. If anything, they prove that the tastes of film music fans are sometimes very difficult to predict. So this month, the votes will be wrapped up and I'll attempt to make sense of them. Below, you will find the top five voted responses for each composer (from over 500 Filmtracks visitors), as well as those that I voted for. I'll take an (attempted) objective point of view in examining the viewer choices and give you the opportunity to respond, too! Given the wide range of scores people voted for, I know there will many, many conflicting opinions...
August, 1998: The John Williams Vote
This vote is the third and final composer vote of the 1998 summer. Response to the James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith voting booths has been very good, and to finish off the summer, who better to vote for than John Williams? The past fifteen years for Williams have been vastly different than those for the other two composers. Instead of producing 50 to 60
scores during that time, Williams has only scored 24 films (not including the Star Wars re-releases). Sometimes he produces one score --or even none-- in any given year. Normally, this would make the voting for Williams' recent scores easier, but since they are all of good to high quality (that Williams touch!), narrowing it down to your favorite five
could be tougher. Voting begins August 1st, 1998, and concludes September 1st, 1998.
July, 1998: The Jerry Goldsmith Vote
Due to the success of last month's Filmtracks Theme of the Month, the James Horner vote, this month's theme will give you the chance to vote in a similar poll for the best five modern Jerry Goldsmith scores. Since Goldsmith's career spans four decades, a vote for the five best of his entire career would be a difficult, if not impossible task. Thus, this vote will give you the opportunity to vote for the five best Goldsmith compositions of the last 15 years (assuming that we all agree on his established, pre-1983 classics). So the question is posed: which of Goldsmith's scores from 1983 to the present will be added to this list of classics? Voting begins July 1st, 1998, and concludes August 1st, 1998.
June, 1998: The James Horner Vote
Filmtracks "Themes of the Month" in the summer months of 1998 will be devoted to single-composer votes, and in light of Horner's exploding popularity this year, the first vote belongs to him. Vote below for your Top 5 Horner scores --the ones you'd take with you to a desert island. For some film music buffs, being stuck with five Horner scores on
a desert island might be torture, but for those of you with over 20 Horner scores near your stereo, this is your chance --once and for all-- to decide: What are the top 5 Horner scores? Voting begins May 31st, 1998, and concludes July 1st, 1998.
May, 1998: Shakespeare & Patrick Doyle
Since the emergence of Kenneth Branagh's talent for Shakespeare arose on the big screen in the late '80's, he and his long time friends (Patrick Doyle being one) have collaborated to produce a growing string of fine, well-performed films. Branagh and Doyle, although they had acted together previously, now maintain a strong director/composer relationship. The
three scores that have resulted so far from this partnership, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and Hamlet (1996), all play a major role in their films. As listening experiences on CD, they are good, but in the film, they are a vital part of building the emotion of many scenes without drowning the ever so precise dialog. After all, Doyle refers to his music for these films as "underscore."
April, 1998: Swashbucklers and the Open Seas
When I think of adventure and excitement, my mind often wanders back a few hundred years to the days of pirates and elegant, triple-masted sailing ships. In no other type of film does the color blue so dominate the screen. Canons, swords, uncharted land, skulls & crossbones, killer
whales, muskets, and sunken treasure inspire raw beauty and danger in motion pictures.
These tales of heroism have also given birth to great swashbuckling scores for films of the 1990's. Tribute must be given to the great scores of the Errol Flynn era when black/white and early color classics reigned, but with the existence of these scores engraved on the memories
of longtime film music fans, some people overlook the fact that there are many great modern swashbuckling scores as well.
March, 1998: The 1998 Academy & Filmtracks Awards
Once again we journey to the land of ridiculous awards! This year, there's even more to look forward to. Along with an analysis of the Academy's nominations, you can view the Filmtracks voters' choices, read about and listen to Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar fanfare, and browse through
the Filmtracks choices for the "best and worst" in just about every soundtrack-related category. Some of the categories were created this year for pure fun, so don't take them too seriously!
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"...they believe that the CDs are infected with germs, fungus, spores, and other nasty little critters..." |
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as the "soundtrack savvy" collector. And he who is knowledgable about the best deals on CDs can usually save over a hundred dollars each year by shopping wisely. This month, I'll throw on the table everything I have learned over the years
about the art of saving money while collecting soundtracks. For some of you, this might not be new information... others might find it useful. Either way, you'll hear from a guy with some strange views on life, so go ahead and enjoy it!
January, 1998: Soundtracks... Is it a Guy Thing?
If you find discussions about "gender differences" or "kissing to the sounds of film music" offensive, or if your significant other left you recently because you were listening to your newest Hans Zimmer score too loudly on your stereo, hit the back button on your browser immediately. Why? This month, I will offer you my observations on an issue that few have yet to raise in the film music community:
Why are 90% of the film music enthusiasts of this world MALE?
December, 1997: The 1997 Fan Vote
Well, December has arrived once again, and it's time to summon praise for the best of 1997. You can vote for your favorite CD release, composer, and score as heard in a film this year. Come in and check out the results of the voting!
Voting ends January 30th, 1998.
November, 1997: DVDs and... Soundtracks?
I'm going to go out on a limb to tackle this question. I believe that soundtrack audio CDs will be obsolete within another decade. What will surpass them? Digital Video Discs. We're at an odd junction of music and movies, a junction where DVDs might satisfy all our needs. The simple fact is that DVDs can solve the changing needs of soundtrack collectors by giving us the opportunity to enjoy the audio tracks we seek on the movie disc itself. To hell with the movie --turn the picture off (and the four other audio channels) and listen to the ENTIRE score as you please! Could this be true?
October, 1997: Filmtracks' First Anniversary
For this first anniversary Theme of the Month, I decided to put this site into your hands. With filmmusic.com passing on this month, the oldest and best film music site will have been dismembered. I'd like to know what all of you want to see in the future of Filmtracks (call it "a little film music internet R&D"). I maintain this site because I love the contact I gain with the wider film music world, and if there's any way I can better that contact, I want to know!
Please take a moment to fill out a quick questionnaire over the course of the month.
September, 1997: 1989, What a Year!
To pay tribute to this remarkable year, the Filmtracks September, 1997, Theme of the Month is devoted to new reviews of scores composed in 1989. Until now, Filmtracks has been primarily a "1990's only" site, and after being harassed by a number of friends and fellow webmasters (as well as having a personal urge to promote some of my favorite scores), I've
decided to start the journey back in time. Many of the 1989 reviews will have Real Audio 3.0 ISDN clips, and hopefully I can introduce some hidden gems of the year (by famous composers, none the less!) that many people don't know about.
July/August, 1997: The Collector's
Frenzy
In July, Filmtracks tackles some of the rarest soundtrack CDs and provides you with some background and reviews of those releases. The decision to purchase a $200 CD can be a tough one (well, at least for those of us who don't fit into that upper 2% of society that's run off with all the money), so in this month's theme you will find links to reviews, background and availability info, track listings, and a few hidden audio clips of collectible CDs.
In August, even more reviews will be added --rounding out the series'. Audio clips will be added to the rarest titles and many of the CDs reviewed will be auctioned off in the latter half of the month!
June, 1997: The State of the Sequel
1997 has become "The Year of the Sequel," and some thought should be given to the growing speculation over sequel scores. First there was Fierce Creatures; then there was the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Now there's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Alien: Resurrection, and Batman and Robin --just to name a few! With all the talk about sequels (and prequels) floating about, one must ultimately ask the question:
April/May, 1997: The Best of the 1990's Compilation CD, Vol. 1
A soundtrack fan's dream come true! Here's your chance to vote for your ultimate 1990's compilation CD. Choose your favorite track off of a released 1990's score, and the top ranking tracks at the end of the vote will be included on the CD (up to 77 minutes, of course). This is our place (as devoted fans) to show the world of record producers what we really want on our compilations...
March, 1997: The 1997 Academy Awards
In this tribute to the very best of 1996, Filmtracks presents information and reviews on the Oscar nominated scores, and gives alternate nominations and winners for soundtrack fans to consider. Includes the final voting results of Filmtracks viewers, who voted for their 1996
favorites at the beginning of 1997. Links are provided to all nominated scores that are reviewed at this site, including The English Patient, Hamlet, Michael Collins, Shine, Sleepers, Emma, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and others.
February, 1997: Star Wars: The Special Edition Trilogy
Collectors of modern orchestral soundtracks owe their thanks to John Williams, who, with the scoring of Star Wars in 1977, sparked a new generation of interest in film music. Twenty years later, his force is still with us, and soundtracks represent a powerful portion of the record industry. Coinciding with George Lucas' Special Edition releases of the Star Wars Trilogy, comprehensive and orderly 2-CD sets complete the road to Star Wars score perfection. In this tribute, we'll stop along the Star Wars journey and recap the history of the Trilogy on CD.
January, 1997: Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops
For over a decade, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops have been recording music of all kinds --from classical to jazz, gospel to big band, Christmas carols to film music. Their contributions to the recording of film music have been overwhelming, with compilations
featuring selections from over one-hundred film scores. These compiled performances are a treasure still to be discovered by soundtrack fans of all types. As part of this special tribute, Filmtracks will present an introduction to many of the Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops CDs, provide a
biography of Erich Kunzel, and hopefully spark some interest in these wonderful releases. Reviews will be provided for most albums.