As I was watching the 2010 Academy Awards show last night, I always look forward to the award presentation for the Original Score.  Michael Giacchino won the Oscar for the movie Up.  One thing I noticed as I was comparing the various works was that the music from Up had a stronger melodic presence.  The piece they played was in 3/4 and reminded me of something I would hear performed in Vienna.

Lately, as I watch various movie trailers, it seems, at least to me, that they all are sounding the same.  Mainly some strings with a bunch of large drum hits and cymbal crashes.  Maybe I'm being too critical here, but it seems that one score could be used across many movies -- they are all starting to sound the same.  The score from Up seemed more unique and lyrical.

I was wondering how the rest of you felt.........

I started to loose faith back in 2005 when John Williams had two nominations, one for Munich and one for Memoirs of a Geisha.  Both I felt were good but Memoirs featuring Yo-Yo Ma on Cello and Itzhak Perlman on Violin was fabulous -- only to loose to Broke Back Mountain.

Go figure.......

hm... i wonder how you can offend something that is not there in the masses :)

i mean: the usual joetheplumbermoviesgoer will watch anything anyway... besides: the "ordinary" audience has not the slightest clue about music. they don´t even recognize there is one.

and i wonder how good writing can be offensive...

I hear people make comments like this a lot.  I assume you're probably being hyperbolic, but it should still be pointed out that over 30 million people watched this year.  Sure, that's down a fair amount from the peak years (and up a bit from last year), but it will still be one of the top rated shows of the year.

Personally, I think people tend to romanticize Oscar's past.  The show has almost always been pretty dull, and the awards have often missed the mark in all categories.

I'm glad Giacchino won and thought his score was way more interesting and original than the other nominees I've heard.  I can't think of many that can match his versatility.

Surely you're not referring to, "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp?"  Let me be clear, I have nothing against Hip Hop music, in fact I think artists like Alicea Keys and Beyonce are very talented and deserve recognition, but IMO the Academy chose this song purely for political reasons.  It was a case of, 'we don't have enough Hip Hop music on our winner's list and we want to be more diverse.'  In reality, it should never have been nominated.

This is the problem I've had with the Academy Awards in the past and I think that's why the ratings for the show have dropped so much.  What I meant when I said, "insult the intelligence of the masses" is I think the masses are smart enough to know that the Academy was acknowledging works that filled some kind of political correctness void instead of recognizing the best talent so the masses just got tired of the same ol' same ol.' 

And what was with all of the political activism in the past?  People who live and work in fantasyland getting up on a stage and bagging their political drums about the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the fight against the big greedy corporations, gay rights, Save the Shrimp, etc.  Whether one agrees or disagrees with these positions they have no place at an Academy Awards Show.  Now I don't know how Europeans feel about it but the Academy Awards Show is as much an integral part of Americana as the Superbowl, apple pie and the World Series.  It's an American cultural icon and this proud card carrying member of the usual Joetheplumbermovie goer doesn't want to see the show tarnished with political correctness and political commentary.  There is a time and place for that and it's not at the Academy Awards Show.

For the record, I did watch some of this year's show but only because my wife is Peruvian and The Academy Awards is a big deal in Peru especially since one of their own was nominated for Best Foriegn Film.  It's ironic how the show is huge in other parts of the world but kind of just hum drum here in the states. I'm wondering how many of those 30 million viewers were international.  Also, for the record, I did enjoy the parts of the show that I saw.  It looks like the academy is at a turning point.  Maybe I'll start watching again.

I was wrong, this year was around 42 million, and that's only counting US viewers, I don't know if there are any international figures.  That's about the middle of the pack for ratings over the past 20 years.

oh no... maybe we were talking about different things or i misread your initial post. i was talking about good writing that does not get recognized.

the award for this particular tune rather was a desperate attempt of the academy to be contemporary and to suck up to the 15-year-old bourgoise "kidz" who indulge in ghetto-romanticism...

I know this thread has moved on, but I just wanted to toss my agreement in with Chuck Green that the "Titanic" score was memorable.  It seemed to go perfectly with the sea, with just the right amount of melancholy to produce that emotional response.

I kind of miss the soundtracks from the nineties.  John Williams--"Angelas Ashes" Hans Zimmer--"Beyond Rangoon"  John Barry "Dances with Wolves" James Newton Howard-- "Snow Falling on Cedars."  There was a fresh lyricism & vibrancy then.  These days there seems more reliance on the big hit chase scene cues, which often do sound the same, at least to my ears.  I've bought a lot of soundtracks in the past five or six years that I only listen to a few times.  I realize you can't really appreciate one's work if you don't really give it a fair listen, but so often there seems nothing that pulls me in and gets me to keep playing.

I'll take a listen to "Up."  Any other recommendations out there?

All best, Tom

Richard Struass wrote some of the first movie scores with his heavy drive to create 'program music;' ironically before there were any soundtracks on movies. Indeed his scoring techniques are closely studied by the likes of John Williams and others.

Movies are usually made in committee style of functions with the majority reports winning out or the person with the most rank pulling things in their direction. I've often wondered how much control directors really have over the final cut of the movie; seems to me that the process goes something like this:

Director decides, after consulation with the arts committee and the production committee, (which committee is often just one person), which scenes require a musical backdrop and then requests the mood to be set, the style and the thickness or thiness of the music, one insturment, chamber group or Straussian dimensions to the max.

Interestingly, one of my favorite movie scores is Stanley Kubrick's '2001, A Space Odessy' which uses only music that was previously composed, a favorite technique of Kubrick.  I wonder if any one has some statistics on how many times that music has been quoted in other contexts (Strauss's fanfare to Thus Spake Zarathustra) where the implications are either Mocking or serious. In other words, Kubrick wanted his audience to notice it:

• Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra
• Johann Strauss, The Blue Danube Waltz
• György Ligeti, Atmospheres, Lux Aeterna,
  and Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra
• Aram Khatchaturian, Gayane Ballet Suite