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Author	Topic: Carpenter's Music

sakman Standard Userer	With the theme from "Hallowween" being imitated on many a practice room piano here, and an expanded release of "Escape from New York" on the way, my question to the "community" here is: what do you think of Carpenter's film music contributions? I remember dismissing this stuff whole-heartedly at the time. It seemed like it was the end of "good music" (you know those Goldsmith and Williams related orchestral scores). Of course, we know it was not the case. The music worked pretty well with his films. My first reaction at the time was that he had one idea that just reappeared from film to film and what he lacked in creative imagination was covered up by the "innovation." (Pretty harsh I know.) [Richard Band is another of these composers working in B-pictures whose music ended up in films that ended up with cult-like status. But "From Beyond" is a wonderful score from this same period.] Since there has been so much focus on the Media Ventures crew of late, how about some thoughts on early electronic scores during those wild 1980s? It's hard to believe that 1981, the year of "Escape" also was the year that awarded Vangelis for his "Chariots of Fire" score. Other thoughts on this period of film music history some 20+ years later?
posted 11-02-2005 11:10 AM PT (US)

nuts_score Standard Userer	Well, as Sean knows, I am a huge Carpenter fan and have devoted much of my time watching his earlier works. His music is also something to note as it always, always works with whatever he has; whether it be Halloween or Ghosts of Mars. His music really helps drive his films forward, especially in works like Escape from New York, The Fog and, my personal favorite, Prince of Darkness. As soon as my next paycheck comes in, the expanded release of Escape is sure to make its way to my mailbox. I also have to agree with your comments on Band's scores; his work on Stuart Gordon s films is extremely fitting, especially the aforementioned From Beyond. The advent of what some "composers" could do using synthetically created artificial music actually drew a bigger crowd to the possibilities of how easy a score could be done. Both Carpenter and Band are prime examples as well as the current batch of Media Venture alums
posted 11-02-2005 12:20 PM PT (US)

SFT Standard Userer	I really haven't followed Carpenters career very much the last years. The last film of his I remember liking was In the Mouth of Madness - and that was ten years ago. His early films I love though - Halloween of course, but then there is The Fog, Christine, The Thing...all wonderful films in their own right and with very effective scores (The Thing was scored by Morricone though). The score to Halloween is a classic and in my opinion one of the best ever written for a film in that genre - perhaps even as effective within the film as Herrmann's score for Psycho. The Fog is another favourite of mine, wonderfully atmospheric and spooky and great in the film, especially the "Reel 9" cue, which I suspect Wojcieh Kilar had in mind for parts of his Dracula score So, if I were to judge solely based on his early work - which is all I can do - I would say that Carpenter is one - if perhaps not the - most talented director/composer I know of. SFT NP: One Nite Alone Live, Prince
posted 11-02-2005 02:05 PM PT (US)

BMikeJ Standard Userer	In a discussion about Carpenter's music, someone ought to mention Alan Howarth, who was his frequent collaborator on his earlier (and in my opinion, better) works. His scores without the association of Alan Howarth don't do much for me, although his Vampires theme does make me snap my fingers, mostly because it recalls better days and better scores.
posted 11-02-2005 02:29 PM PT (US)

sakman Standard Userer	Thanks BmikeJ for reminding me...Howarth was an important collaborator on "Escape" and is responsible I think for this new presentation.
posted 11-02-2005 04:33 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	Sakman, I agree with your original opinion of Carpenter's music, the one you have modified in the past thirty years. I still think that Carpenter is his own worst enemy when it comes to music. Yes, HALLOWEEN and stuff like that are effective, but I still think most of his scores are kind of infantile sounding, almost like an adolescent's view of what is cool and spooky and creepy. And all that head-banging music in GHOSTS OF MARS? Some of the scenes in that were like an Alice Cooper concert, what with the make-up and thrashing score. But I loved his THING movie. Music largely not by himself, coincidentally.
posted 11-03-2005 04:26 AM PT (US)

SFT Standard Userer	"largely not by himself"? I was under the impression that Morricone wrote all of it. Granted, parts of the score sound like Carpenter had a hand in it, but there was no joint credit. Do we have any details on the collaboration? SFT NP: Nightbreed, Danny Elfman
posted 11-03-2005 11:49 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Standard Userer	SFT, someone cleverer than I should be able to direct you to some concrete info about the Morricone/Carpenter musical partnership on THE THING. I read about it somewhere, but I can't remember where. I seem to recall that Carpenter did indeed do the throbbingly boring bits.
posted 11-06-2005 04:49 PM PT (US)

Alexborn007 Standard Userer	If memory serves, I think Morricone was tapped to provide a certain amount of music after seeing the movie, and Carpenter would fill in the blanks where he saw fit. [Message edited by Alexborn007 on 11-06-2005]
posted 11-06-2005 06:40 PM PT (US)

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