ANGELS IN AMERICA, music composed by Thomas Newman
- Newman's best, hands down. This is probably the highest point of career, though a few still have yet to realize it. This gather many of the orchestral techniques and quirky compositions that make him do damned original into one complete package, with over 60 minutes of score! From the haunting opening of "Threshold of Revelation" to the peaceful conclusion of "Tropopause" not a breath of talent is wasted here. And that main title cue! Simply a mini-masterpiece. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get this one, considering my fanboy attitude towards director Mike Nichols and my unabashed love for this HBO movie (the best they've produced, and they've done some fine ones) but I'm finally glad I broke down and am now free to enjoy it anytime.

THE CELL, music composed and conducted by Howard Shore
- This one is actually a May purchase but I completely forgot! A must for any Shore fan, like myself. This is some of his best writing, pre-LotR. In fact, this one predates the Tolkien movies by a few months, and you can sense what kind of an impact that this score had on his later music. The suspense writing is very dark and atonal, and perfect if you ask me. The film is beautiful, if a little lacking but Shore's music certainly elevates it to a level that all of his scores do.

THE RED VIOLIN, music composed by John Corigliano
- So what's the reason that Corigliano doesn't work much? He seems like the film score world's Terrence Malick; disappearing into the grain to come out and surprise with a unique little gem. Like Altered States, this certainly isn't for everyone; but that's a shame for those who can't seem to appreciate what's here on this album. His working within different time periods and musical settings is second to none, and soloist Joshua Bell's violin is a thing of beauty, extracting more emotion out of the instrument than HIlary Hahn on The Village (though it's an exceptional performance on her part) though he ties close to Itzhak Perlman's work for John Williams on Schindler's List. Maybe Corigliano has a very high asking price?

Went to my dependable Half Price place, and found a few deals:

The $5 pile:
Good Will Hunting (promo cd score)- D.Elfman...still sealed
Michal Collins - E.Goldenthal...still sealed
Planet of the Apes (1968) - J.Goldsmith
Avalon - Randy Newman
Escape From L.A. - J.Carpenter/Shirley Walker
To Gillian On Her 37th B-day - J.Horner
Children of Dune - B.Tyler

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
THE RED VIOLIN, music composed by John Corigliano
- So what's the reason that Corigliano doesn't work much? He seems like the film score world's Terrence Malick; disappearing into the grain to come out and surprise with a unique little gem. ...Maybe Corigliano has a very high asking price?

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It's not that at all. He's a composer for compositions' sake, and has no trouble getting the commissions that will let him write what he wants to write. (Accordingly, he has done opera, ballet, symphonies - the magnificent second of which netted him the Pulitzer Prize, string quartets, concertos...) He has cited the mixing of his music under effects in REVOLUTION as one reason for his disaffection for working in film, suggesting it's an example of the sort of lack of power over musical content and effect a composer can have in film.

It's a shame, but I can understand why he does it. I wish he'd scored THE FOUNTAIN. And Soderbergh's SOLARIS too actually... both would have been great for his sound.

Here's an excerpt from an interview with FSM's Doug Adams about THE RED VIOLIN and why he did it:

quote:

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DA: What exactly was your hesitance at first to do another film score?

JC: Well, a film score, basically, is not yours. It's the director's. What you are doing is realizing someone else's vision, which is not a bad thing to do. It's not that I'm against that. But, in my field, when I write things -- if I write a symphony or something -- the performers try to realize what I'm imagining. I find that it's this sliding scale in that relationship. In concert music, the composer's view is usually what the performer tries to [convey], at least while he's alive and there to present it. Then when you get to the world of opera, it's sort of a hybrid between film and concert music in the sense that, yes they listen to you, but not quite as much. The director of an opera does have a lot to say, and very often intrudes upon the music and changes it. I don't mean he rewrites it himself, but he makes sure that it is changed. Then there's the diva and all the other theatrical elements of the opera that tend to do that. When you get to film, in a sense it's a director's art form -- the actor's and the director's. The composer is called at the very end to add the sounds to help envision the image of the director. So you do that. And if you don't do that the director simply cuts it or changes it.

All these directors, [the composer] gets to see at the end of the movie. There they are, they've spent 40, 50 to 100 million dollars, the studio is waiting to see if they're idiots or geniuses, and they're, at this point, very paranoid and crazy. That's the craziest time for them. It's right after they've done all this work, spent all this money, and the last thing is the music. So, [after] all of the tension, that's the last thing. It gets very tense.

I've done two films before this: Altered States with Ken Russell, who is quite musical, and a film which nobody ever saw [laughs] called Revolution with Al Pacino, Nastassja Kinski and Donald Sutherland. It was Hugh Hudson's film. That was done in England and I really didn't have a very good experience with the soundtrack of that. Not because of Hugh, who is a lovely man, but the people there who were in charge of mixing and dubbing. I thought they really didn't do that great a job. Then there was no [album] recording because the film was so unsuccessful. I had [flutist] James Galway playing very beautifully, but you couldn't hear him during most of the film. I said, well, maybe I'll just go back to my world which is what I know and I'm comfortable with. And I told that to Peter [Gelb]. But in this film [The Red Violin] I felt I could do something structurally that would be good for the film, which was to unite it thematically. The Red Violin takes place over 300 years with five different stories in five different countries and languages. That's a lot to pull together, and there's nothing in common with these five [stories] excepting one thing, and that is the piece of wood: the violin. So I made the point to Francois that what he was originally intending to do -- which was [to use] source music for various live sequences, use Bach and Vivaldi and Paginini, and have me underscore it -- would not be the way I would do it. If he had not agreed to that I wouldn't have done [the film] because I felt that it would have been bad, not only for me but for the film.

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Pre-Ordered:
EVAN ALMIGHTY by John Debney
RATATOUILLE by Michael Giacchino

The Devil's Brigade
In Love and War
Spellbound
The Pianotuner of Earthquakes
Last Stand at Sabre River
Inheritance

Will probably be ordering...

McKenzies Dragonheart, New Beginning
Newman Themes
new Satan Bug and Rebecca
and Lust for Life, FSM