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  4. Howard Shore's rejected "King Kong" score.......

  • Howard Shore's rejected "King Kong" score.......

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    Howard Shore's rejected "King Kong" score.......

    Hey,

    Did anyone here work on it, or hear it?
    Is it available?


    I would love to know what it sounds like.

    SvK
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    I also asked about this earlier, but was more interested in why Jackson fired him than in actually hearing Shore's music.. That is really amusing, since they were both so "hot" at the time. Two tempermental little twats, if you ask me. With delusions of grandeur.

    Of course, I do not have delusions of grandeur. In my case they are not delusions. I am in fact the King of the World. Would someone please tell that to James Cameron?
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    Heh .. well I dunno. I rather like Peter Jackson for his fine work on LOTR. I certainly have no problem with that. As for Howard shore .. well, I like the soundtracks .. but they're not my favourites. Of course he did have a much harder job than most composers so it's far to say that it's okay for him to repeat melodies quite alot.

    It seems weird that they would have fallen out, as they obviously had a lot of repsect for one another .. but these things happen I guess.

    Was listening the the commentary on the 'Name of the Rose' DVD, and the Director, Jean-Jacques Annaud and James Horner clashed terribly. And didn't speak to each other for 15 years ... and then they recently worked on a project together and now they're best buddies ... so there you go. It can happen.

    But all these big name composers should bugger off and give us nobodies a chance [:P]
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    James Horner is not a "big name" to me. He is Little Jack Horner sitting in the corner. ripping off every composer within his grubby little mitts' reach and then winning an Oscar for it. I could not care less if that plagiarist works, doesn't work, is hated, hates someone, etc. There are probably twenty or thirty people reading this right now - including YOU! - with ten times the talent of that hack.
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    James Horner has brought such suspicion upon himself that one could never honestly evaluate his work i.e. what obviously isn't from the repertoire and therefore his. What happens is you just wonder what other piece he lifted from that you may have not heard. I will say this: some of the music in Titanic IS obviously his and just the most dreadful stuff you could imagine.
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    The theme music to King Kong was given to a local composer in my neighborhood.
    He got a half for it. I don't want to give his name of-course or the amount. but you guessed it.
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    Just to clearify, I made it sound like its me. OOps nothing of the sort. Sorry

    I'm working on a mozartish/haydnish string trio.

    Doesn't do any thing to the movie industry. But its fit for a KING.

    I guess I'll return to my ford falcon, sitting on blocks in my parents driveway.
    I'm having a slight short running my daw system off of the cigarette lighter. Its difficult to light up when its taken. I might just put the neigbors tires on in the middle of the night again, and move on. Not far from the truth.
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    Sounds like an awesome system you've got there R.K. Maybe the music will cut down on your smoking so that could be an advantage.
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    Just come across this thread. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahaha. HahahahahahHAHAHAHA. Yet again, Bill: you crack me up ,with your incision and demolition. A man of words is a dangerous animal. You are a literary serial killer.

    Re: Howard Shore. LOTR is his worst work, in my humble. He was out of his depth, scoring a project of Wagnerian proportions without the musical sinew to come up with the goods. I mean, there is a "theme" he came up with which accompanies much horse riding, and it sounds like an old western chord progression, but BAD. Really: listen to it and laugh.

    He really impressed me, though, in se7en. Those evil-sounding brass swells: they're only ever hinted at in LOTR.

    To be honest, I've really had it up to here with the crashing abominations that amount to some "scores" these days. Particularly the trailers. As Shakespeare (sort of) said: "...all sound and fury, signifying naught..."

    To make it worse, libraries like these make superficially impressive sounds available to the least talented, who plonk their juvenile mitts (sorry, Bill) on the keyboard, hold down a few minor chords, which amount to 12 trombones playing in awful phase incoherance, backed by some crashing SD loop, then procede to proclaim grandly on their websites that they are:"Composers For Film."


    As you can tell, I'm not in a good mood.
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    Hey Strawinsky,

    Why so glum?
    The muse not ticking?

    SvK
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    I said when they started on this film - why bother. Someone please ask me if I've seen the Jackson remake.
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    You know you've maid it , when you become a national security threat.

    I am not an animal !! ( the elephant man )
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    Strawinsky,

    I disagree on Howard Shore.....I think he restrains himself and scores "lean" ....this way the scores never get "in the way"...I really enjioyed much of the score in LOTR......I think the main theme for the Ring is really haunting and stays with me...

    That's the beauty of music everyone has a different take, taste etc..

    PS: I think his weakest effort was Aviator.......


    SvK
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    LOTR was bland, and indicative of much of today's film music. I just couldn't get past the same theme relentlessly reminding me that's all there was. And such a big movie too. It could have been magnificent. As for Titanic? Blech..
    Rozca would have made a much better job of it.

    James Horner?
    I'm with Bill on this one, and he put it a lot more politely than i ever could.

    Interesting point about the block troms though, and the lack of real compositional adventure.
    Nah, i'll leave that one alone. I'd only be repeating myself.

    Alex.
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    HEHEHE,

    Well, James Horner remains one of my favourites .. but let me explain and clarify before everyone starts having a go.

    First of all, I like the stuff that he did upto abbout 1986 .. after that I just don't wanna hear it. So "Battle beyond the stars", "Krull", "Star Trek II and III" and "Aliens", are really great pieces. I'm the first to say that BBTS is a complete rip off of Jerry Goldsmiths Star Trek: Motion Picture score .. listen closely and you'll hear several cues that are very similar.

    All this being said I find these scores melodically interesting, stiring, and adventurous. I'm fairly discerning over music and sound, but despite what you may think of the guy, I like these scores. Everything he did after those was pretty crap! and he's ripped off his own music so much that it's hard to imagine him still being able to work .. but there it is. I like early Horner and no amount of hate for him will change that .. seperate the art form the artist.

    I guess that Svonkampen said it best:

    "That's the beauty of music everyone has a different take, taste etc.."
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    edited due to PUI.

    Should have used a Designated Poster.
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    Here is what I think happen On "King Kong"..........when they finally started editing and realised that they had a BAD movie....

    They just couldn't bear to admit it to themselves......SOOO : "It's the music! It's destroying our masterpiece!)

    They go and get JNH, and realise, finally that it wasn't the music to begin with, instead it was the movie that was bad.

    SvK
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    @hetoreyn said:

    I like early Horner and no amount of hate for him will change that .. seperate the art form the artist.


    You mean you like Mahler, Prokofiev and Britten. So do I but that's why I don't like Horner's verbatim lifts of their work. I mean, change a note or key here or there. Horner's middle period is another story I'll grant you that: it's Shostakovich.
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    @hetoreyn said:

    I like early Horner and no amount of hate for him will change that .. seperate the art form the artist.


    You mean you like Mahler, Prokofiev and Britten. So do I but that's why I don't like Horner's verbatim lifts of their work. I mean, change a note or key here or there. Horner's middle period is another story I'll grant you that: it's Shostakovich.

    Agreed, Dave.
    Horner, as i understand it, works from a score.
    Somebody else's score.

    Alex.
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    @svonkampen said:

    Here is what I think happen On "King Kong"..........when they finally started editing and realized that they had a BAD movie....
    They just couldn't bear to admit it to themselves......SOOO : "It's the music! It's destroying our masterpiece!)
    SvK


    That's probably a lot closer to the truth than you think. Of course, it's not the first time that's happened. Take Troy and back through to loads of examples.

    OTOH - who are you trying to appeal to and why, as a producer/director of a film? The average 18 - 30 year old? Yes - probably - or at least the focus group's current fashionable age range with the greatest disposable income.
    These people do not know who Horner, Williams etc are in the first place - never mind Britten, Mahler etc.

    When you have conversations like this, you have to separate things out. You've got to understand that's why cgi was invented. It's the equivalent of cefax for the hard of hearing. You can't take the financial chance of imagining for one nanno second that today's audience has an imagination of it's own. Impossible if you want to at least break even.
    That's why editing happens - that's why there's music in films - that's why they don't make many films in black and white anymore.

    I for one, support all new films being made in sepia - being clinically colour blind myself.