As with most scores, sorry, no.

Not to alienate myself before my foot's in the door, but I saw "Speed 2" twice--the second time, just to hear Mancina's music again.
I hope there's a reconsideration to release that score on CD...

Um, which movie might that be? Your email doesn't work by the way.
Thanks for stopping by anyway.

I am a song writing student at BYU, studying with Ron Simpson and Newell Dayley, and am eagerly trying to persue a this same type of career. I have recently found easy axcess to a midi recording studio with Cakewalk. I 'm curious how popular this is with Sam Cardon and with most modern day songwriter-composers.
Thanks for all your time and I am eagerly awaiting your reply.

Sincerely,
Hollie Carr

Grin, always welcome to enjoy the site, but nothing is free, there's always a cost at some point.

Anyway, thanks for the comments about him. I also really liked the stuff you all had on Mancina, J.N. Howard and Hans Zimmer. Very cool stuff!

Carry on and best of luck!

Robert Jolley

Thank you, and you're most welcome.

Can't review it if I don't have it - anyone care to do it?

Blame the highly compressed QT, by Pepsi.

Thanks for stopping by.
A few things:

• Your HTML tags are fine, yet unnecessary, unless you want the effect of my first 2 lines.
• Just press 'enter/return' to make typing your message easier.
• The form is an L-Page server CGI script, not mine.
• You are a student - discover learning HTML (rather simple).
• You didn't finish writing what you think that I am doing with this site.
• This is a voluntary site, and unless users pay a subscription, I am not going to force myself to work on it.
• I now have a job, to at least recover the $1,000 plus spent on this.
• I don't have as much time now as I'd like to to work on the site, nor is it cheap having to pay $10 an hour to logon.
• This is not an academic music student resource text site.
• I am a SOUND recording engineer (and other things) by choice, not a MUSIC one.
• You may wish to look up Film Score Daily where there a lot of MUSIC analyses (Doug Adams is a good read for music students).
• But they mostly negate Hans' work.
• The best thing for a STUDENT to do, is to write their OWN work, to be based on LISTENING to the actual scores on CD (and/or video).
• If you want contrast by Hans, try POWER OF ONE, CRIMSON TIDE and THE FAN - they are all available in Oz.
• If you (and the others) haven't, try Brian's site (HZ Worship Page) for all bios and an analysis of THE LION KING.
• I'm NOT fond of theory, including music theory. I prefer listening.
• And we're not drongoes - both of us.
• Skadoodles! =:)

Sincerely,
Raymond Muniz

Chicago Hope is miles better, grin. The BETTER soundtrack is available November 4th on Sonic Images Records, featuring Mark Isham (Fly Away Home) and Jeff Rona (White Squall).

Grin,I like Hans better =:)

It's just busy when that happens, or they're uploading stuff.

There is a Silvestri page already - link via Filmmusic.com

Yesterday (August 12th) I went to a screening of "THE PEACEMAKER" and what a great movie it is. It is nice to see that they still can make great action movies, without the usual patriotic crap and so on.....

As for the music - I've been looking forward to this score alot!!!
The music starts out like the "Crimson Tide" Hymn, while we watch Russian's loading up a train with nuclear warheads and it goes on for about 5-6 minnutes during the credits. Then as we watch the train being hijacked by special forces from the Russian army, the music really kicks in like "The Rock" when Gen.Hummel steals the rockets.

But after this long introduction, the music turns to a more lowkey and untraditional Zimmer music, nothing I have ever heard before. It is not that this is bad, but I was looking forward to some more great driving themes like "Broken Arrow", "The Rock" and "Backdraft" just to mention some !

Overall I was a bit disappointed about the the score, but I think this is one of those scores you have to listen to a lot before you like it.
But I am still looking forward to the CD release in september with around an hour of Zimmer's music.

This is copied from his email (GB was down at the time).

Since the moment that Mancina believes that using old techniques is the best method to reach effectiveness, it cannot work. I think, for instance, of Mancina's use of the guitar. He uses it (most of the time) to underline sentimentality (you know, in the scenes where the heroes are moved etc..). That specific use of the guitar for those particular scenes was already used in 1987 by Mike Kamen for Lethal Weapon (and for the whole trilogy actually). Since the moment that the audience has "understood" that famous technique, it cannot work any longer in...1997 ! I mean, when I saw Money Train and Con Air, I was laughing in the movie theater when I heard such an unimaginative approach of calm and romantic scenes. Please Mark, just be a little more courageous for God's sake !

About Mancina's action scores, I have to say that action scores make action scenes eventually more "romantic" (or say, softer) in a way because whatever music sounds like (electronic or symphonic; cold or spectacular), it breaks the realism in a scene, considering that music is, by definition, metaphysical or say, not concrete. Indeed, the "presence" of music (and so of imagination) reminds the audience that those action scenes are just fictional. I'm sure Mancina is not the one responsible to decide when to put music in certain scenes, but I find that much scenes in Money Train or Con Air could have been far more realistic, and so effective, if there were less music in them...

I also see again Zimmer's NINE MONTHS.What a beautiful score ! Subtle and interesting. I'm looking forward seeing (and hearing) The Peacemaker...

Still good pages, Chris. Alexandre Tylski.

I had no idea that we are that many devoted fans. Acctually I've only been a fan for about a year, but trust me, I'm making up for the time I've lost!
Well, you have my E-mail adress, so don't waste any more time (if you are as eager to "talk" to other Zimmer-fans).

Great page by the way!!!

Bye everyone!

As good as ever!

Thanks for correction to my post in rmm about Trevor Rabin - I knew
there was a connection there somewhere, just didn't quite recall the facts
correctly.

Anyhow, duly tickled, Nigel signs off ;).

There is the MCA release which features the one brilliant track by Hans.
It is a score Hans does like, and may see a full release.

If you think that Mark only immitates Zimmer, and only in a bad way, I must disagree with you. First of all, of course his music is INSPIRED by the techniques Zimmer uses, Mark was taught the craft by Hans. This doesn't mean, however, that he has no ideas of his own. Just listen to any piece from "Twister", you'll hear it's not only the synth-technique courtesy of Zimmer, but it is more a great use of full orchestra and choir in a way I've never heard Zimmer use them. Okay, maybe his first few scores sounded a little like Zimmer's stuff, but Mark has developed his music writing skills enormously and now has developed his own distinctive style.
About the "effectiveness", sure his music is effective, it's suppost to be, coz it's FILMmusic for crying out loud. If you want something solely artisticly, go look for a concert piece. But I have to say I completely disagree with you on Mark not having written music that is art. If you listen to his music closely, you can hear how much time and effort he put into it, to make it all sound so balanced and beautiful as it does. You cannot deny his craftmanship and his capability to create beautiful cues. If you're not at all convinced, I suggest you listen to "Moll Flanders" and then talk to me again about art.

It's okay to criticise someone's music, but you will have to give good reasons for it, coz as far as I am concerned you may have some personal problem with his name or something, coz your judgment is clearly not based on repeated listening. It's just flamebait remarks, so here you have it. If you want to, Alexander, please e-mail me and we can continue this discussion. In the meantime I suggest you check out my homepage to get to know more about Mark.
Thanks for listening.

Alexandre Tylski. cci@insat.com

Since practically every film composer has come from a unique background, it is not completely fair to compare skills. Williams is obviously a symphonic master and it shows in his work. Yes, adventure/epic scores seem to be his strength (however, recently I have begun to realize that there is more to this man than Star Wars/Jurassic Park/Indiana Jones/etc.). Williams has also had about twenty years more training than JNH, and has been formally (classically) trained as a composer/orchestrator. Howard started as a touring/session keyboard player, and then made the jump to Hollywood. As a result, much of his music bears a pop/rock stamp that is specific to him. What made Fugitive/Trigger Effect/Outbreak (and to an extent Primal Fear) effective and fun to listen to? The JNH stylistic stamp.

The Neo-Romantic symphonic score is being badly overused for the wrong reasons these days. Every big-budget production now has to have a big-budget score to go along with it. Just listen to Stargate,Indpendence Day (two David Arnold creations),Volcano (Silvestri),Dragonheart (Edelman) and you'll see what I mean. It seems to me that at the end of this decade, guys like Zimmer, Howard, Goldenthal, and Serra will be looked upon as ushering in the 90's movie score. Film score writers have to be musical chameleons in order to work in the constantly evolving film industry. In my opinion the aforementioned guys have done that quite well. In addition, older greats like Goldsmith and Williams have also evolved to an extent and at the same time they are maintaining their respective signature sounds.

Both John Williams and James Newton Howard are fine film score writers, each with his own strengths and skills. Each one of them deserves praise for their work. (the good ones, at least)

Try Grand Canyon and Restoration

Previous - Unfortunately, James Newton Howard, like so many other composers today, lacks the STYLISTIC DARING of the great composers of the past, such as Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rosza or Dimitri Tiomkin. Howard is only a good technician.

We can theorize all we want - but scores were (originally) meant to be incidental (an aural mise-en-scene), unless pivotal to the narrative. I think it (any given score) works if it enhances the movie for you; whether it gives you recurring pleasure on CD is of a polysemic nature. Other opinions?

Guess we should tell John Williams the same thing, lol.

lol, yoo tell me!

Zimmer - who? bah! lol