Tag Archives: film music

Star Trek III “Stealing the Enterprise”

Credit to Bob Peak

Having composed two Star Trek films back to back, James Horner was asked once if he preferred one above the other. Horner replied that, for his part, he preferred the score to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, only because he felt it completed the musical themes he began in The Wrath of Khan.

“Stealing the Enterprise” is the musical cue for the segment where Admiral Kirk and co. well…steal the Enterprise. Right out of Spacedock. In front of everybody. Because they can (and need to).

“Stealing the Enterprise” soundtrack version

“Stealing the Enterprise” Film version

The first part of the cue takes place as Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), the unwitting bearer of Spock’s soul, is rescued from a detention cell (Starfleet is unwilling to believe Kirk’s explanation and believe McCoy is mentally ill.) Meanwhile, Scotty (James Doohan) is seen leaving the prototype ship Excelsior.

Uhura, in the meantime, is seen working at a communications station in a quiet area of Spacedock, paired with a smarmy lieutenant who only wants “to get in on the action.” Lo and behold, here comes Admiral Kirk and party. When the lieutenant gets suspicious that the admiral has arrived without any orders or advanced notice for that matter, Uhura shows him plenty of “action” (she pulls a phaser on him and forces him to sit in the closet.) The group then beams over (Uhura will follow later and meet them on Vulcan) to the Enterprise, still badly torn up from the battles in The Wrath of Khan, but Scotty has rigged the ship so that it should run smoothly enough to reach the Genesis Planet and Vulcan afterwards (unfortunately it won’t be nearly that simple, but our heroes don’t know that just yet).

“Good…now get in the closet!!”*

The ship then begins departure, rousing the entire station in the process. Orders are sent to the captain of the Excelsior to power up and pursue the Enterprise. The Excelsior carries prototypes of trans-warp engines, which means they could easily catch up to the older Enterprise, so Kirk and co. need to work fast to get out of the station. This leads to a hilarious exchange between with the captain of the Excelsior:

Bridge: “Captain to the bridge, Yellow Alert!”

Captain: “Bridge, this is the captain. How can you have a Yellow Alert in Spacedock?”

Bridge: “Sir, someone is stealing the Enterprise!!”

Captain: *befuddled pause* “I’m on my way.”

When I say they barely made it out of the station, I mean just barely!!*

After just opening the station doors in the nick of time, the Enterprise makes preparations to jump to warp speed while Excelsior closes in. Just before the jump, the captain reaches out to Kirk, reminding him that “You do this, you’ll never sit in the captain’s chair again.” The look in Kirk’s eyes makes it clear that he doesn’t give a d-mn about the captain’s chair, as long as he can have his friend back, and the order is given to go to warp speed.

Enterprise makes a run for it*

Excelsior prepares to pursue, but just as the engines begin to revv…nothing happens. Apparently Scotty had been up to no good in the Excelsior’s engine room…and the prototype stops dead in space, providing Enterprise with a clean getaway.

This is one of my favorite Star Trek cues, Horner’s music is so detailed you can almost follow the scene just by listening to the music alone (which is good). My favorite part is when the ship is backing towards the spacedock door and they still haven’t opened. The music builds and builds, and just when it seems they won’t make it through, the doors begin to open and the music almost explodes with released tension as the Enterprise just barely fits through the opening.

Another cool technique that Horner uses is, at the very end, when Excelsior is trying to follow, Horner opts for simplicity and holds out a single note as the crew looks around in confusion. Musically, Horner has set up the listener “to wait for the other shoe to drop.” Normally when you hold out a tone like that, you’re going to progress to a new thought, only Horner never gets there and deliberately leaves us hanging (just like the Excelsior.)

*all screencaps taken from the film, property of Paramount

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See also:

Star Trek II: “Inside Regula I” (1982)

Star Trek II “Surprise Attack”

“Enterprise Clears Moorings” from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

O, Canada: Howard Shore, Film Composer

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This post is part of the O Canada Blogathon hosted by Ruth of Silver Screenings and Kristina of Speakeasy.

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Howard Shore was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on October 18th, 1946. Over the course of his career, Shore has composed the music for over eighty films, most notably for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

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After learning to play music at an early age, Shore studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His first film score was created for a low-budget thriller entitled I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978). The next year, he scored David Cronenberg’s first major film The Brood (1979), which established a working relationship between the two (Shore has since composed the music for all but one of Cronenberg’s films).

In the 1990s, Shore composed the music to the breakout hit The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for which he received his first BAFTA nomination. During this decade he also composed the music for Philadelphia (1993) (for which Tom Hanks earned his first Oscar), M. Butterfly (1993) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) (a film I enjoy and never knew that Shore composed the music for until now!)

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This is the film series that brought Shore to international attention

The composer received international fame with his scores for The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). His score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) earned him his first Oscar as well as a Grammy Award (plus BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations). Two years later, Shore received two additional Oscars: one for his score for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Into the West” (the song that plays over the closing credits of the final film). In the 2000’s, Shore also contributed a score to the Twilight Saga, scoring The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010).

Besides his collaboration with Cronenberg, Howard Shore has also collaborated with director Martin Scorsese on multiple occasions, including writing the scores for: After Hours (1985), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006) and Hugo (2011).

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Howard Shore is also noted for creating a concert arrangement of his scores for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Entitled The Lord of the Rings: Symphony in Six Movements, Shore created two movements for each film and since 2004, the production has toured the world (to universal acclaim). Naturally, when Peter Jackson announced that he was adapting The Hobbit to film, Shore was brought in to score that trilogy as well.

Shore has also worked in television music, and is responsible for penning the original theme song for Saturday Night Live, as well as co-writing the theme song for Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Thus far in his lengthy career, Shore has received four Academy Award nominations (winning three), six Golden Globe nominations (also winning three), three consecutive Grammy Awards, and five BAFTA nominations. Given that Shore is only 69, one hopes that he will be able to compose the scores for many films to come. Thank you Canada for giving us Howard Shore.

See also:

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook

Marco Beltrami talks 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

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Marco Beltrami talks 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

The 2007 film 3:10 to Yuma is a remake of the 1957 film of the same name, and tells the story of impoverished rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale), who agrees to transport wanted outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the train station so he can board the 3:10 train to Yuma Territorial Prison. This mission is far from simple as Wade’s gang is in hot pursuit of their leader and will kill to free him again.

Evans, on the other hand, is seeking the $200 he will earn for safely delivering Evans to the train because it will greatly help his family. It also comes out that he wants to restore some sense of honor to his life so his sons will have something positive to remember about their father when they’re grown.

By the end of the story, Evans is the only one of Wade’s captors still alive and the outlaw has developed a modicum of respect for the rancher (though an outlaw, Wade does have his own principles and he respects those who also have a firm sense of principles). Evans gets Wade all the way to the train only to be fatally shot by Prince, one of Wade’s men (despite Wade’s order that Prince not shoot).

Disgusted at the loss of a good man, Wade steps off the train and executes his entire gang before cheerfully surrendering to the authorities (thus ensuring that Evan’s contract is fulfilled and Evans’ sons will receive the money). Though he’s on the train to prison, he whistles for his horse, which follows along, implying that he’ll be on the loose again before long.

As a general rule, I am not overly fond of remakes. However, this film is an enjoyable way to pass a few hours, and the score is well done. The interview provides a great insight into how Beltrami put the score together. Enjoy!

See also:

Marco Beltrami talks Blade II (2002)

Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson talk Resident Evil (2002)

Marco Beltrami talks Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Marco Beltrami talks The Wolverine (2013)

Marco Beltrami talks World War Z (2013)

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

Become a patron of the blog at: patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook 🙂

Before John Williams, there was…Korngold!

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People have asked me before who my favorite film composer is. And I usually answer with “Jerry Goldsmith” or “James Horner” because it’s true, their scores rank among my absolute favorites. But…if I were to be completely honest, the film composer I love the most, above all others, is Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Adventures of Robin Hood Suite

If film music were a religion, Korngold would be a god, that is the influence his work made in the industry. And yet…for all that, there are many people who have no idea who this man is! I can understand that, since he passed away in 1957. His film score output is relatively small…but when you look at the scores he did, especially compared to his concert and operatic output, this man was a genius!

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The composer at work

He truly was a genius, a prodigy in fact. The story goes that the young Korngold was brought to play before the great Gustave Mahler (1860-1911) and after hearing his piece the aging composer declared “A genius!” At one time, Korngold was the toast of Vienna, even performing before the Emperor’s Court. He loved opera, and his 1920 opera Die Tote Stadt made him an international success at the age of 23.

Captain Blood Main Theme

Korngold actually came into film music quite by chance. In the early 1930s, Warner Bros. needed an arrangement of Mendelssohn’s “An Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for a film based on Shakespeare’s play of that name. Someone brought up Korngold’s name, and he was invited to come to California to do the work. Intrigued, Korngold accepted, did the score and went back to Vienna. He was asked to do another score, Captain Blood (1935), again agreed, but then returned because another opera was nearing completion. Just at this time though, Hitler was rising to power (and keep in mind, Korngold was Jewish). Just before Austria was joined to Germany, Korngold received an invitation to score The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and the composer did not want to accept. He asked some of his friends and one finally told him to “take it as a sign from God and go!” So he went…and the next week Austria joined Germany and Korngold did not see his home again until after the end of the Second World War.

Since he had to reside in the United States for the time being, Korngold passed the years by working in Hollywood (he found it enjoyable work, as he saw great similarities between film and opera).

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During the war years, Korngold composed: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939); The Sea Hawk (1940); The Sea Wolf (1941); King’s Row (1942); and Deception in 1946. After 1946, Korngold did not write film music ever again.

At last, after the war, he was able to return home, but to his unending sorrow, he discovered that the times had changed greatly in the years he had been gone, and his music, once hailed as genius, was now considered old-fashioned and “boring.” The knowledge broke his heart, and he died in 1957 at the age of 60.

While in Hollywood, Korngold was treated as no composer has been, before or since. Because he was already a composer of such renown, he was allowed to, among other things, dictate his own contract. He could choose to score whatever films he wished, and however many (or few) he wished. And one of the biggest impacts came from Korngold’s request to have solo credit (meaning having only his name appear on the credit page for the music). This was unheard of at the time: go and look at the credits as they appear in any movie before The Adventures of Robin Hood and you will see, if the music is credited at all, it is one line in a page full of other credits. Korngold changed that.

And the reason Korngold is so special to me? It was by listening to his music, I mean really listening to it, that I realized that film music really could (and did) stand on its own, by its own merits. Listening to those film scores is what pushed me to specialize in film music, and I have never regretted it.

Overture to The Sea Hawk

Overture to Star Wars

In the title of this post, I linked John William’s name to that of Korngold. I did this because William’s style has been referred to as “neo-Korngoldian,” meaning he writes in a manner similar to Korngold’s, but reinvented for this era. In fact, listen to Korngold’s overture for The Sea Hawk (1940) and then the overture for Star Wars (1977) and hear for yourself the similarities: a loud brass fanfare followed by a romantic melody in strings (it’s not a coincidence).

If you have a favorite Korngold score, I would love to hear about it! Have a great day!

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Troy (2005): The Trojan Horse, The Fall of Troy

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Credit to The Cimarron Group

As I’ve mentioned before, I have an obsession with the film music of James Horner. One score of his in particular that I really love is his score for the epic Troy (2005), starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, and Orlando Bloom as Paris. At the time this film came out, I was deeply interested in ancient Greek and Roman culture, to the point where I was considering archaeology as a career. My high school Latin teacher put this film on while we were discussing the Iliad (which is Greek, not Roman but that’s beside the point) and I was in love. Horner’s score grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go for the entire story.

Horner crafted distinct themes for this film: The Greeks have their theme, as do the Trojans, and Achilles is gifted his own unique theme as well. But one moment in particular, musically as well as visually, has always stood out to me. And that is the scene involving the Trojan Horse.

As the Trojans walk into view on the now-abandoned beach, the music begins low and alread ominous (with the faintest echo of the Greek theme dying away) before the camera begins to pan to the right and up to reveal….a giant horse. The music builds as the camera moves, climaxing in that reveal (because if you know the story of Troy, you know perfectly well what’s about to happen).

As they debate what to do with this “gift,” Paris (sensibly, for once) suggests that they burn the horse, while the others say it’s a gift to the gods and should be brought inside. The music, though low at this point, contains a haunting up and down motif, a brief foreshadow of the musical proclamation to shortly come. Paris urges his father one more time to “burn it.” While Priam (Peter O’Toole) gives no answer, the following scene (and its music), shows what his answer must have been, as we next see the great horse being dragged into the streets of Troy.

Troy- The Trojan Horse

Horner was in his element with this moment. Though the music is framed as a fanfare, something of a triumphal march, the melody is keyed between major and minor: the major representing the Trojans happiness, the minor because they’ve just doomed themselves to total destruction. This is the epitome of musical irony, and I get chills down my spine every time I hear it.

Troy- The Fall of Troy

After everyone’s gone to sleep, the Greeks break out of the horse and the music changes note entirely. During the procession and celebration, the music was bittersweet, now the tone is altogether “sneaky.” It’s the Greeks theme, but much faster (and softer) than usual (they have to be stealthy or the plan won’t work). Of course, with Odysseus (Sean Bean in a rare film where he doesn’t die) in charge, the plan goes off perfectly and the gates are opened with the enormous Greek army waiting outside. The Trojans don’t stand a chance. Two themes develop here: one is the theme of the sacking of Troy, which is very dark and action-filled. The other tracks Achilles’ progress as he frantically searches for Briseis (Rose Byrne) before the Greek army reaches the palace. All is chaos visually and occasionally musically. But the spot during the Fall scene that hits me the hardest is when Priam staggers out onto his balcony to see the city in flames. The music says it all: he’s failed his people, he knows it, and he knows there’s nothing he can do about it.

The Trojan Horse and the Fall of Troy-Soundtrack version

I’ve attached links for the corresponding scenes in the film and the soundtrack version of the music. Watch, listen, and please enjoy!

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Jerry Goldsmith talks The Sand Pebbles (1966)

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Jerry Goldsmith talks The Sand Pebbles (1966) Part 1

Jerry Goldsmith talks The Sand Pebbles (1966) Part 2

Jerry Goldsmith talks The Sand Pebbles (1966) Part 3

Jerry Goldsmith talks The Sand Pebbles (1966) Part 4

Video interviews of Jerry Goldsmith (who died in 2004) are few and far between, so when I saw that he gave an interview in 1989 for The Sand Pebbles (released in 1966), I knew I had to share it with you.=

The Sand Pebbles was directed by Robert Wise and stars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna, and tells the story of the (fictional) gunboat USS San Pablo as it patrols the rivers in 1920s China. The people refer to the boat as “The Sand Pebble” and its crew as “Sand Pebbles” (hence the name of the film).

The plot follows Holman (McQueen), a machinist’s mate who joins the San Pablo. After an offscreen incident, tensions between the boat, the crew, and the Chinese grow tenser than ever. The boat is ordered to leave the river and return to the coast, but the commander disobeys in order to rescue two American missionaries, who will surely be killed by the Communists if they are not taken away.

It’s been a long time since I saw this movie, but I remember the ending (I won’t tell you how it ends, you’ll have to see for yourself), had me very upset (but in a good way). Enjoy this interview from one of the masters of film music.

Jerry Goldsmith talks about Alien (1979)

Jerry Goldsmith talks Lionheart (1987)

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

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Brian Tyler talks Rambo (2008)

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The Rambo franchise is a series of films consisting of: First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008). Of these films, the first three were all scored by Jerry Goldsmith. For the fourth (and ultimately final) entry in the series, the score was composed by Brian Tyler (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron). It’s been a while, but I’ve seen most of the franchise, including this film, and I remember enjoying it very much (though I found some of the violence hard to take, but that’s just me.)

Rambo is set twenty years after the events of Rambo III and finds John Rambo living in Thailand barely making a living from catching snakes and providing boat rides. He ferries a group of missionaries up the Salween River into Burma and drops them off at a village of Karen tribespeople. The group is later captured when the ruthless Major Pa Tee Tint attacks and massacres the village.

Rambo later transports a group of mercenaries on a rescue mission and secretly follows along after his offers of help are refused by the group’s leader. It is up to Rambo and his allies, a Karen rebel named Myint and the mercenary sniper nicknamed “School Boy” to save the mercenaries and the hostages when the former are also captured by Tint’s men. It’s a bloody fight that ends with Tint and all of his men dead (with Rambo personally dealing with the major). After all of this, Rambo decides it’s finally time to return to the United States and visit his family, which is where we see him as the story ends.

To help maintain continuity between this film and the rest of the franchise, Tyler was asked to incorporate Goldsmith’s original themes into his score. Tyler, in the interview, describes the score as an overall homage to Goldsmith’s work. At the same time, Tyler is incorporating new themes of his own, a sort of blending of the old and the new as far as the music goes.

I’ve been a fan of both Goldsmith’s and Tyler’s work for quite some time (if you’ve never heard of Brian Tyler before, I urge you to go look up his work, you can find just about anything he’s written on YouTube, he’s a phenomenal talent), and this interview provides great insight into his thought process. The interview also contains comments by Sylvester Stallone (who not only starred in this film, he also directed it and wrote the story.)

I hope you enjoy this interview and please, do check out Brian Tyler’s work, it really is amazing.

You can become a patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

See also:

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

See also:

Brian Tyler conducts The Mummy (2017)

Brian Tyler scoring Partition (2007)

Brian Tyler conducting and scoring Now You See Me 2 (2016)

Brian Tyler talks War (2007)

Brian Tyler “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” scoring session (2007)

Brian Tyler “Law Abiding Citizen” scoring sessions (2009)

Brian Tyler “Dragonball Evolution” scoring session (2009)

Brian Tyler talks Fast Five (2011)

Brian Tyler “Battle: Los Angeles” (2011) scoring session

Brian Tyler scoring session for Iron Man 3 (2013)

Brian Tyler “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2014) scoring session

Brian Tyler “Power Rangers” scoring session (2017)

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook 🙂

Film Music 101: Foley

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In the world of film music, Foley refers to the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added in post-production to enhance the audio quality of a film. And by everyday sound effects, I mean things as simple as the “swishing” sound that clothing makes, the sound of shoes “tapping” on the floor, the sound of glass “breaking” and so on.

Foley artists may be required to record sound effects if the props and set of a film do not react in the same way as their real-life counterparts might (for example, a prop sword made of rubber is not going to sound like the real thing, so a Foley artist would have to dub in the sound of a metal sword).

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A Foley Artist at work

A Foley artist might also be brought in to cover up unwanted sounds captured on a movie set, like the sound of an airplane or passing traffic. If the Foley artist has done their job correctly, the addition of these sound effects should be completely unnoticeable.

The history of what is known as “Foley” dates back to radio programs of the 1920s, when sound effects had to be created live and often on the spot.

Broadcasting_a_radio_play_at_NBC_studio

The man second from the right is a “sound effects man” That black board he’s holding helped make the sound of a ringing telephone or simulate the sound of a door closing.

As recording technology became more advanced, the Foley effects evolved as well. How interesting! Now you know what they mean when the credits refer to “Foley.”

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For more Film Music 101: see here

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Marco Beltrami talks Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

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Marco Beltrami talks Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

I have a slight confession to make: I’ve never actually seen any of the Die Hard movies. I’ve heard of them yes, but actually sat down and watched? No. I do know they all star Bruce Willis, and as far as I know they’ve all done pretty well at the box office. I happened across this interview by Marco Beltrami, who composed the music for Live Free or Die Hard and I found myself entranced by his work.

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Beltrami mentions (and I did not know this) that the late Michael Kamen composed the music for the first three Die Hard films, and that he did his best to live up to Kamen’s musical legacy. What I love about this interview is the depth that Beltrami goes into. He actually describes (in brief) the recording process, so even if you don’t like Die Hard, you should still watch this interview because of the detail he goes into.

After all, it’s not every day you see an interview like this one. Enjoy! (I know you will)

See also:

Marco Beltrami talks Blade II (2002)

Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson talk Resident Evil (2002)

Marco Beltrami talks 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Marco Beltrami talks The Wolverine (2013)

Marco Beltrami talks World War Z (2013)

My thoughts on: Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

Become a patron of the blog at: patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)