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Topic: Ah, those soaring strings
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Laurence Page
Oscar® Winner
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of the LSO under Mr Williams. Now playing "The Fury" (Hester's Theme and the House). And those soaring strings at the close of Episode IV's "Imperial Attack", and "The Return Home", "Dracula"'s Love Theme - does anyone else write such achingly lovely music as well as this? Well - do they? (Bruckner excluded)..
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posted 07-18-2000 03:11 AM PT (US) ip
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Rang
Oscar® Winner
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Admittedly biased, but no. I've always loved Williams' string writing, regardless of which decade. A recent favorite would be throughout ROSEWOOD. Just heartbreaking stuff -- "False Accusation," the massacre of Rosewood (some passages which can only be experienced by watching the film), "Aunt Sara's Death"; and inspiring, soul lifting music -- "Man at Rosewood." BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, and in particular "Arlington" from JFK, are other standouts for me.
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posted 07-18-2000 08:17 AM PT (US) ip
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Scott
Oscar® Winner
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I said this before, and now say it again. Williams is able to stear more emotion with just the string section than other composeres who use every instrument available. Scott
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posted 07-18-2000 09:42 AM PT (US) ip
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Howard L
Oscar® Winner
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Man, when you talk about soaring strings the first thing that comes to mind is Patsy Cline performing "Sweet Dreams". Somewhere about 2/3 through those strings reach up to high heaven, dip, and then fly back upward. Great scene near the end of the bio film bearing the same title with Jessica Lange "singing" the song in perfect synch to Ms. Cline's voice...with those violins in the background reaching heavenward on an impossibly magnificent only-in-Hollywood set.Oh, can't think of conventional film music examples just right now, will come back later when I'm done swooning.
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posted 07-18-2000 10:14 AM PT (US) ip
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Marian Schedenig
Oscar® Winner
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quote:
Originally posted by Laurence Page:
does anyone else write such achingly lovely music as well as this? Well - do they? (Bruckner excluded)
Nothing to add, you said it all!
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posted 07-18-2000 05:32 PM PT (US) ip
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JJH
Oscar® Winner
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I must step up and say that Georges Delerue used to.His music for such films as Her Alibi, Steel Magnolias[/b], Chouans!, etc, has to be heard to be believed. very good with strings, he was.
As an aside, Agnes of God, for me, is Delerue's penultimate theme. dark, yet graceful and reverent.
Of course, I haven't heard everything he wrote, but Delerue was a master with the strings.
NP -- "Norville Suite", from Burwell's The Hudsucker Proxy. beautiful
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posted 07-18-2000 06:58 PM PT (US) ip
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SBD
Oscar® Winner
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Alan Silvestri also knows his way around the string section. Some examples:"Judgement Day" from JUDGE DREDD
"Main Title" from RICOCHET
just about anything from DEATH BECOMES HER
the theme from RICHIE RICH I could go on...
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posted 07-19-2000 07:05 AM PT (US) ip
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Howard L
Oscar® Winner
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Love that phrase "achingly beautiful." Max Steiner came to mind with his scores, in particular, for Gone With The Wind, Now Voyager and A Summer Place; Herrmann for The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Twilight Zone's "Walking Distance" and Farenheit 451; Alfred Newman, not so much for his orginal scores (hey, Song Of Bernadette's a great one) so much as his incredible arrangements in musicals such as those marvelous strings of Camelot's "Love Montage/If Ever I Would Leave You" and the beyond-achingly beautiful reprise of Carousel's "If I Loved You" late in the film; Victor Young, Around The World In 80 Days--my all-time favorite stand alone soundtrack.There's bound to be more, but I must agree that I have never heard strings consistently "soar" as they do in Williams scores.
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posted 07-19-2000 12:55 PM PT (US) ip
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Scorro
Oscar® Winner
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Get yourself a copy of Delerue's "Tours du Monde, Tours du Ciel". He wrote this as accompaniment to an astronomical presentation, and celestial it is! It is a 'must have' score, IMHO.
Yes, Chouans! is another Delerue tour de force.
Recently obtained "The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne", again by Mr. Delerue. A somewhat melancholy score; primarily based on strings composition. More than any other music of his (which I have heard to date), this one most reminds me of "Tours" in feeling and depth.Just got "Becoming Collete" and "The Scarlet Tunic" both by John Scott. Absolutely incredible strings. Very powerful, and gorgeous! _Sc
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posted 07-19-2000 03:00 PM PT (US) ip
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Luscious Lazlo
Oscar® Winner
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Big John's best string-thing is the eerie string chord that he repeated throughout JAWS. This string chord owes its weirdness to a dissonant harmonic note played by the violas and/or violins. You can hear it in *Out to Sea*, *Sea Attack #1*, *End Title*, and most notably as the basis for the second section of *Preparing the Cage* (which I refer to as the "mystical eye-in-the-hurricane section"). Richard Wagner was a ham-fisted boremonger who had his own mystic-chord, but Big John's chord is the real thing, baby.
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posted 07-19-2000 07:16 PM PT (US) ip
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