initial soundtrack reviews
Feb. 4th, 2005 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theladyroseHappy happy joy joy! My Secret Agent/the Saint and the Appointment soundtracks came in today. The Edwin Astley compilation has some wonderfully retro lounge/action/atmospheric music, and I adore the electric harpsicord on "High Wire." The version of "Secret Agent Man" is a really odd arrangement, though; it sounds like the Red Price Columbo instrumental titles for season 1 of Danger Man somehow got arranged into the traditional SA Man song with another singer who I don't recognize. But "Mio Amore Sta Lontano" is sung by a magnificent Italian alto instead of that Angelique person. And I simply adore the legato flute on "Mainly On The Plain."
The Appointment is lovely beyond belief. Michel Legrand, John Barry and Don Walker, and Stu Phillips's scores are all on here. Well, actually, you hear Legrand's most interesting excerpts of his rejected score, Barry's work with additional music and orchestrations by Walker, and Stu Phillips's score for the American TV broadcast of the film. Legrand and Barry's monothematic approach is highly effective; without seeing the movie (I should, I will someday!) one already gets the impression of Omar Sharif's character's single-minded obsession with Carla. I'm not as fond of the pop music aspects of Phillip's score, but the instrumental variations he uses on "The Beauty of Beginning" (the love theme) and "Solo e Triste" (Frederico's theme) are highly effective, especially with the guitar and flute solos. Barry's main theme has the lush, epic romantic feel, vaguely haunting and operatic and with hints of Hanover Street and Out of Africa. I rather prefer Legrand and Barry's scores overall to Phillip's mostly because Barry/Walker and Legrand comment on the subtly tragic, veiled operatic nature of the film while Phillips emphasizes the action in the dramatic scenes. Lucas Kendall's production of rereleased John Barry scores always includes the best liner notes I've ever seen, though Legrand's remastered Thomas Crown deserves an honorable mention in terms of combining commentary on the film, its context in pop culture, and a few comments about music and film scoring in general by Legrand.
My God, I must sound really pretentious there. I'm still attempting to learn some more musical terminology and identify instruments better. I still don't know what exactly a vibraphone sounds like, which drives me crazy because it's used a lot in 60's and modern soundtracks.
Ended up watching today's episode of Monk. I adore that show! "Nature doesn't clean nature!" And the bit when Monk ties Captain Stottlemeyer's foot to the bunk bed...priceless. *SPOILER* I figured out the fortune cookie scheme with the first fortune, though. Damn those evil Tong Chinese groups that inhabit San Francisco! */SPOILER* I tell you, Chinese(-American) women in the media are evil intelligent beautiful criminals, kick-butt martial arts princesses, and/or high-profile businesswomen/lawyers/doctors who are highly conflicted about their cultural backgrounds and had troubled childhoods.
But I don't get to merrily analyze the Appointment some more or work on my creative writing piece this weekend because I shall be leading the FOMF library group to Green. Ah, microfiching, how I've missed you! If you're not doing FOMF, please stop by for just a few hours because we can really use all the help that we can get.
The Appointment is lovely beyond belief. Michel Legrand, John Barry and Don Walker, and Stu Phillips's scores are all on here. Well, actually, you hear Legrand's most interesting excerpts of his rejected score, Barry's work with additional music and orchestrations by Walker, and Stu Phillips's score for the American TV broadcast of the film. Legrand and Barry's monothematic approach is highly effective; without seeing the movie (I should, I will someday!) one already gets the impression of Omar Sharif's character's single-minded obsession with Carla. I'm not as fond of the pop music aspects of Phillip's score, but the instrumental variations he uses on "The Beauty of Beginning" (the love theme) and "Solo e Triste" (Frederico's theme) are highly effective, especially with the guitar and flute solos. Barry's main theme has the lush, epic romantic feel, vaguely haunting and operatic and with hints of Hanover Street and Out of Africa. I rather prefer Legrand and Barry's scores overall to Phillip's mostly because Barry/Walker and Legrand comment on the subtly tragic, veiled operatic nature of the film while Phillips emphasizes the action in the dramatic scenes. Lucas Kendall's production of rereleased John Barry scores always includes the best liner notes I've ever seen, though Legrand's remastered Thomas Crown deserves an honorable mention in terms of combining commentary on the film, its context in pop culture, and a few comments about music and film scoring in general by Legrand.
My God, I must sound really pretentious there. I'm still attempting to learn some more musical terminology and identify instruments better. I still don't know what exactly a vibraphone sounds like, which drives me crazy because it's used a lot in 60's and modern soundtracks.
Ended up watching today's episode of Monk. I adore that show! "Nature doesn't clean nature!" And the bit when Monk ties Captain Stottlemeyer's foot to the bunk bed...priceless. *SPOILER* I figured out the fortune cookie scheme with the first fortune, though. Damn those evil Tong Chinese groups that inhabit San Francisco! */SPOILER* I tell you, Chinese(-American) women in the media are evil intelligent beautiful criminals, kick-butt martial arts princesses, and/or high-profile businesswomen/lawyers/doctors who are highly conflicted about their cultural backgrounds and had troubled childhoods.
But I don't get to merrily analyze the Appointment some more or work on my creative writing piece this weekend because I shall be leading the FOMF library group to Green. Ah, microfiching, how I've missed you! If you're not doing FOMF, please stop by for just a few hours because we can really use all the help that we can get.
