To answer the topic question: Yes. It's what a composer does when it happens that's the real question.

Jack London started writing very popular short stories and novels and ended buying stories from ghost writers and putting his name on them. He was tapped out.

Some people are flowing wells of invention, others have only one or two great works in them at best.

Film composers are the work horses of music: a few weeks to compose, the need to provide a theme that connects with an audience, etc. Drying up may be a problem for some, but the film composers we have have proven they are prolific and versatile. This leads me to think that there are often other factors involved in some of the poor scores we hear besides the composer's own weaknesses.

Take any large mess hall or cafeteria. The food coming in is actually of high quality, but the mass cooking of it knocks the taste out of it.

Composers are constantly at war against the "mass cooking" modes of film production. I'm sure composers develop techniques and short cuts. Most use orchestrators so they can compose themes without having to flesh them out, others use "assistants." In the liner notes to Percepto's Vic Mizzy Suites and Themes promo, Mizzy talks about an approach he learned that allowed him to write more quickly than other composers. Also, the film and its requirements may inspire a composer where a blank score page might not. The film composer has crutches to get him through.

But in the end, I'm sure nearly every composer facing a deadline has wondered where the next page of score was coming from. It's when this becomes more or less the norm then the composer needs to either retire or retrench. Rather than crib a score, if the composer took some time off to recharge those batteries, who knows what would result. But only a Kubrick can stay out of the power and limelight for five years at a time and return the conquering hero. I'm sure the average film tech wants their name on something that comes out every season, if just to keep it advertised in front of the public and producers.

Do Composers ever run out of ideas?

good God man!

Have you never listened to a James Horner score?

goodnight everybody!

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Originally posted by André Lux:

But never Goldsmith. He is good, we all know.

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I DON'T know!Go buy a copy of Deep Rising(Jerry Goldsmith)and talk to me about cheap ideas later.It's not a patch on Elfman's Batman.

BTW, even Donuts Elfman, the Funfa King, is a confessed fan of Jerry, the master!

Cheers!!

P.S.: BATMAN is cloned from Williams' THE FURY and Young's HELLBOUND in case you don't know yet...

Hey, not everyone can write winners all the time. And sometimes they just don't have the time to do anything but go through the paces. Would you turn down a fat check just because you weren't sure if you could turn in Handel's Messiah in the time they were giving you?

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Originally posted by Big Bear:
What about [b]Sommersby, Dolores Claiborne, or even something like Black Beauty? All fine scores, and if they are ripping off anything, I sure haven't heard it. And those are just a few examples.

Hmm. Didn't think so. [/B]

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Thank you,Bigbear!!

[Message edited by André Lux on 06-11-2001]<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

I hate Goldsmith's Deep Rising.It's one of the cheapest soundtracks i've ever listened to.That's what i stated earlier!!

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Originally posted by Big Bear:
What about [b]Sommersby, Dolores Claiborne, or even something like Black Beauty? All fine scores, and if they are ripping off anything, I sure haven't heard it. And those are just a few examples.

[/B]

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Indeed those scores mentioned by the Big Beer are fine. Never great or outstanding, since they are just the repetition of one theme all the way - known as "the John Barry way". But we can be thankful to the fact mr. Funfa didn't ruin another movie with his usual amateurish tunes.

But lets be honest: we shouldn't expect something much better than that from someone who isn't skilled and crafted in music and wasn't even an average rock'n roll player...

BTW, I like some scores by mr. Donuts: MIDNIGHT RUN, INSTINCT and the songs from NIGHTMARE BEFORE X-MAS are among them.

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Originally posted by Kyriacos S:

I hate Goldsmith's Deep Rising.It's one of the cheapest soundtracks i've ever listened to.That's what i stated earlier!!

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Then I feel sorry for you.
But believe me: in time you will learn to appreciate the true art of film music.

N.P.: DEEP RISING (J.G.) ***1/2

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Originally posted by André Lux:
<BLOCKQUOTE>But lets be honest: we shouldn't expect something much better than that from someone who isn't skilled and crafted in music and wasn't even an average rock'n roll player...

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Was Edward Scissorhands ever released on Brazil?

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Originally posted by André Lux:
But lets be honest: we shouldn't expect something much better than that from someone who isn't skilled and crafted in music and wasn't even an average rock'n roll player...

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Right, sure... Elfman's gotten by on his looks alone.

Have you ever heard Nightmare Before Christmas? Now that is a major creative work from a man of prodigious talent.

Maybe Elfman's style is not up your alley, fine. But to say he has no talent is just plain ridiculous. End of story.

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Originally posted by André Lux:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Kyriacos S:
[b]

<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Then I feel sorry for you.
But believe me: in time you will learn to appreciate the true art of film music.

N.P.: DEEP RISING (J.G.) ***1/2

[/B]

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What are you talking about!!!!!Deep Rising's main theme is soooooooooooo simple.The orchestrations are very poor.All you get to hear is a snare drum,the penetrating sound of trumpets and a lousy beat in the final tracks.
Don't take me wrong;i really appreciate other scores by Goldsmith.It's just that this one lacks the complexity of dozens of themes composed by your 'Donuts'Elfman.
Just remember that Danny Elfman is self-taught.He did all he did because he IS a major talent.

You can't deny that.

I think Deep Rising is an average '90s Goldsmith score, but I love his theme and the Caribbean (or whatever) stuff on the last track. I don't know who could not love a theme containing fantastic Goldsmithian blatting trombones!

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Originally posted by jonathan_little:

I don't know who could not love a theme containing fantastic Goldsmithian blatting trombones!

[Message edited by jonathan_little on 06-12-2001]

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You see,that's the problem Jonathan.When the theme is simple,the composer tries to make something really great out of it by using these blatting trombones as you stated earlier.He even manages to make the theme sound as if it was a part of a Dvorak Symphony.

Any composer in Hollywood can compose a score full of trombones and trumpets;not only Goldsmith.It just gets a bit repetitive after a while.

it's great fun.

If you've ever seen the film, you get the sense that the whole thing is tongue in cheek, and Goldsmith gave it an appropriate score.

well, I do anyways.

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Originally posted by felipevasquez:
Was [b]Edward Scissorhands ever released on Brazil?

Felipe[/B]

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No, but I bought the imported vesion anyway.
Cute little score, but plain mediocre with just one or two memorable cues, being the rest his usual "fun-fa funfa La-la-la".

Morricone, Rota and Donagio did it a longe time before - and much better one must add.