Re: OT: Musical languistics

--- Adam Walker <carrajena@...> wrote:
> --- James Worlton <jamesworlton@...> wrote:
> > --- Adam Walker <carrajena@...> wrote:
> > >
> > > Williams is probably my second favorite 20th c.
> > > composer.  Another example of good movie music
> was
> > > that composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su
> for
> > > The
> > > Last Emperor.  It did a good job of translating
> > > Chinese musical traditions into a Western
> > symphonic
> > > form that would be suitable for the movie and
> its
> > > audience by bridging the gap between two
> disperate
> > > traditions.
> >
> > Hate to break it to you, but Williams is a hack,
> and
> > is not considered to be a composer in the
> tradition
> > of
> > Mozart, Beethoven, et al. Most of what he writes
> was
> > written first (and better) by earlier composers.
> > (Listen to Gustav Holst's _The Planets_ and tell
> me
> > that Williams didn't base his entire Star Wars
> music
> > on it.)
> >
> > =====
> > James Worlton
>
> I have listend to The Planets.  Great music just
> like
> great litereature constantly draws on what has been
> done before.  Shakespere drew on gazilions of
> sources.
>  Even copied whole plots, but who even remembers the
> works he "stole" from.  what he did with the raw
> material is so much more.  I'm not going to say
> whether Holst or Williams is "greater" but I will
> say
> Holst mostly sits in his dusty little cd case while
> Williams get played again and again.  Also Star Wars
> is only a drop in William's bucket.
>
> adam
Certainly artists draw on the past. It is a waste of
time to continually re-invent the wheel. :)) Film
music composition is an entirely different process
than *classical* composition, and for a different
purpose (except for the few examples of incidental
music to plays -- Mendelssohn's music to A Midsummer
Night's Dream, for example, which is an AWESOME piece
BTW). Film music is written to accompany action on
screen, and not specifically to stand on its own.
Certainly some film music works on its own. But as you
can probably judge by the one soundtrack that I
own[1], I don't think of film music in the same way as
I do about *classical*.

[1] The soundtrack is to _Stargate_ (the movie, not
the TV series). And it is probably as dusty as your
Holst. :))


=====
James Worlton
-----------------
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
                 -Unknown

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