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Old Feb 4 2008, 7:15 AM
rob1984 rob1984 is offline

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Quote:
In general though, film composers to me very rarely produce anything original, new or revolutionary. When I listen to a new composition in the concert hall I hear it as an original composition. When I listen to a film score I only think of the pieces it sounds awfully similar to. This may just be because copyright requires film composers to have an original sound for each score (meaning they steal other people's sounds), but it still really annoys me when film composers get huge credit for regurgitating someone else's work in a heavily edited way...
Who says a composition needs to be original, new and revolutionary to be any good? I agree, some film composers go too far in their borrowing of ideas. The similarity between parts of Zimmer's Gladiator score and Holst's Mars from The Planets is uncanny; so much so that I can't believe it is a coincidence. But blatent examples like this are rare and are not a good enough reason to tar all film composers with the same brush.

Film scoring is an incredibly complex process and film composers are probably the most versatile composers in the world; a good film composer can write music in almost all styles without losing their own sound. John Williams, for example, is a master of his trade; it might not be the most original music but there are few better than him at getting the atmosphere exactly right at the right moment. And technically his music is well composed. In short he knows what he's doing and that's why he's been at the top for so long.

Film scoring isn't about revolutionary music (although it can be). By comparing film scores with concert music you're comparing apples with oranges and that's not fair. They're composed for different purposes and one is not inherently worse than the other because of this.

Quote:
That is why I don't regard film scores as genuine compositions and why I see the need to nominate film composers as the world's worst reputable composers.
Yep, completely disregard an entire profession and an entire body of works stretching back almost a century, that's sensible.

Are you seriously dismissing John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Korngold, Elfman, Fenton, Herrman (!) etc. and saying they were some of the world's worst reputable composers?

Furthermore, would you not regard film scores by the likes of Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Copland, Shostokovich, Glass, Walton, Bernstein and Arnold as geniune compositions?

The line is a blurry one. Be careful before you dismiss a whole genre of music and a whole generation of composers. I don't have a problem with you nominating a particular film composer or even two or three in this thread, but the fact that you "see the need to nominate film composers as the world's worst reputable composers" suggests to me you know little of what you're talking about - ironic given your username!
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