MOTUnation.com

So says Ennio Morricone...

from the article wrote:]While acknowledging the many directors who understood the emotional power of music – with Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) and John Williams (Schindler’s List) among the industry’s most brilliant composers – he said: “The standard of composition for film has deteriorated. I have suffered a lot in watching many films because of that.

“There are some directors who actually fear the possible success of music,” he added. “They fear that the audience or the critics will think the film has worked because there was a very good music score.”

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/j ... are_btn_fb

What do you guys think?

It's a good article, and while I understand the cost factor that he mentions, sometimes electronic scores are entirely appropriate. The score to "Ex Machina" comes to mind. It is very sparse and minimal, and it compliments the elements of the movie very well. I am unfamiliar with any of Barrow and Salisbury's other works.

I'd also like to say that the work of Hans Zimmer has deteriorated significantly IMHO, since he's been working with Christopher Nolan. For example, the score to "Interstellar" is overly loud and obnoxious and is one one the worst things about the movie. The score constantly drowns out dialogue and made the movie an overall unpleasant experience for me. That leaves Williams as the only one with a consistent track record who has yet to disappoint. We'll see what the new "Star Wars" movies bring.

The score to "Ex Machina" comes to mind. It is very sparse and minimal, and it compliments the elements of the movie very well.

I liked that one quite a lot.

That leaves Williams as the only one with a consistent track record who has yet to disappoint. We'll see what the new "Star Wars" movies bring.

For myself and many others, Star Wars was the "Holy crap! Did you see that movie yet? How about that score?" film.

True, there were many movies with great scores before it but somehow, John Williams took it to a new level beyond How the West was Won, The Magnificent Seven, Lawrence of Arabia and so many other Big Music Movies that preceded it.

I love it when a score conveys the all the different flavors of magic, whimsey, tension, humor and other feelings. I especially love to hear themes that represent various characters or concepts that help create a hidden structure for the film. It is a very sophisticated craft ... well, at least it should be.

I've seen films where the score rides the emotional arc of each scene, but there is nothing going on compositionally. It sounds like things layered on (like we've seen in some process vids) without much "craft" or depth going into them.

That kind of scoring doesn't bother me as far as my experience of the film, but it often saddens me that it was such a missed opportunity.

But I'm talking about... well, "tasteful" isn't a strong enough word... masterful use of the tools and sounds at hand to create the very best support for the story and the film.

There's a good reason that many people have seen the first few Star Wars films again and again.

The masters of the streamers and punch (think Jarre and even Hamlisch) seem to have all died off. The DAW has replaced a lot of the arithmetic for sheer convenience. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and shouldn't be condemned, per se. The movie "package" of the 20th century included in the price of the ticket a concert. The theater was an entirely different experience from a Netflix stream. I can understand why a new director might be intimidated by a strong soundtrack, when his hard earned screen time might be interrupted with an instant message or an email.

Recent film scores of interest, (again "electronic") are the Reznor-Ross scores to the last couple of Fincher movies. These scores transcend the leitmotif-song structures of earlier scores and provide soundscape backgrounds that are something other than foley and sound effects. This doesn't mean I want to go out and buy the hit single, as there was never one intended.

Many of the "low-budget" VI-rendered "scores" I've heard these past few years, especially in the action genre, have been pathetic to the point that they defy description, at least by me.

Call up a sophisticated synth patch, strike a note, and make a cup of coffee. Done.
Call up a string patch, octave-double to taste, strike a note and check Facebook. Done.