this is a collection of improvments, or importnant events in film music history
Created by gerardclark on Feb 8, 2011
Last updated: 02/09/11 at 02:47 AM
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Avatar - Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic.[113] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008.[114] He also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.[115]The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in Spring 2009.[116] During production, Horner promised Cameron that he would not work on any other project except for Avatar and reportedly worked on the score from four in the morning till ten at night throughout the process. He stated in an interview, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken."[117] Horner composed the score as two different scores merged into one. He first created a score that reflected the Na'vi way of sound and then combined it with a separate "traditional" score to drive the film
The Twilight soundtrack is the official music for the 2008 film Twilight. The score was composed by Carter Burwell,[1] with the rest of the soundtrack chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas.[2] The album was released on November 4, 2008 by Patsavas' Chop Shop label in conjunction with Atlantic Records.[3] The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, having sold about 165,000 copies in its first week of release, 29% of which were digital downloads.[4] Twilight: The Score was made available for digital download on November 25, 2008, and the album was released to stores on December 9, 2008.[5] Twilight is the best-selling theatrical movie soundtrack in the United States since Chicago.[6] Both the soundtrack and the lead single, "Decode" by Paramore, were nominated for the 2010 Grammy Awards.[7]
The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, who planned the score for over two months and completed it in two weeks.[83] Danny Boyle has said that he chose Rahman because "not only does he draw on Indian classical music, but he's got R&B and hip hop coming in from America, house music coming in from Europe and this incredible fusion is created."[17] Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two out of three nominations for the Academy Awards, including one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for Jai Ho. The song "O... Saya" got a nomination shared with M.I.A., and the song "Jai Ho" won the Oscar, which Rahman shared with lyricist Gulzar. The soundtrack was released on M.I.A.'s record label N.E.E.T.. On Radio Sargam, film critic Goher Iqbal Punn termed the soundtrack Rahman's "magnum opus" which will acquaint "the entire world" with his artistry.[
Verbinski managed the score with Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, who headed 15 composers to finish the score quickly.[3] Alan Silvestri, who had collaborated with Verbinski on Mouse Hunt and The Mexican, was set to compose the score, but Bruckheimer decided to go with Zimmer's team as he felt more comfortable with them, and Silvestri respectfully left the production before he recorded anything.[19]
Finding Nemo is the original soundtrack album. It was the first Pixar film not to be scored by Randy Newman. The album was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score, losing to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. All songs written and composed by Thomas Newman, except 40 (Charles Trénet, Jack Lawrence and Albert Lasry).
8 mile - "Lose Yourself" won the 2004 Grammy Awards for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and for Best Rap Song. The song was also nominated for Record Of The Year, for Song Of The Year and for Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.
8 mile - "Lose Yourself" won the 2004 Grammy Awards for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and for Best Rap Song. The song was also nominated for Record Of The Year, for Song Of The Year and for Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.
Amelie - If anything is going to get YannTiersen wider attention then it is this soundtrack to the film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and he deserves every bit of it. Tiersen's music is not immediately recognisable as conventional film music but it is great in the context of this film, known as "Le Fabuleux Destin D'AmeliePoulain" in the Original French, or simply Amelie in the English speaking world where it is presented with subtitles - mfiles
Two soundtrack albums were released, with the second coming after the first one's massive success. The first volume featured the smash hit single "Lady Marmalade", performed by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa and Pink. The first soundtrack, Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, was released on May 8, 2001, with the second Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, Vol. 2 following on February 26, 2002.
The music of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. Shore wrote many hours of music for The Lord of the Rings, 10 hours of which have been released in The Complete Recordings CD/DVD boxed sets. (Additional music including alternate, unused compositions are set to be released in late 2010.)[dated info] Shore composed the music in an emotional, operatic way, threading through the scores over 80 specific leitmotifs, which are categorized by the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate. Shore began his work on the music for The Fellowship of the Ring in late 2000 and recorded the first pieces of music (the Moria sequence) in spring of 2001. Additional music for the extended DVD version was recorded in March, 2002. A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers and The Return of the King, with the final sessions taking place in Watford on March 20, 2004.
Harry Potter - Williams was happy to take on The Sorcerer's Stone because J.K. Rowling's work had multi-generational appeal in his family. "I have grandchildren who read them (the Harry Potter books) and love them. I have children who read them and love them. In my family, there are three generations of American people enjoying Rowling," he told The Times of London. Williams said that his score for Sorcerer's Stone was to be, naturally, "theatrical, magical and to capture a child's sense of wonder in the world."
In order to use more of the image area, IMAX film does not include an embedded soundtrack. Instead, the IMAX system specifies a separate six-channel 35 millimeters (1.4 in) magnetic film synchronized to the film. This original "mag-stripe" system was commonly used to "dub" or insert studio sound into the mixed soundtrack of conventional films. By the early 1990s, a separate digital 6-track source was used via a precise pulse generator as the source for a SMPTE time code synchronization system. This development presaged conventional software. The software works in a similar style as the DDP except that instead of the audio file residing on discs, it plays directly off a hard disk drive as a single uncompressed audio file containing the 6 channels which are distributed directly to the amplifiers rather than using a decoding method such as Dolby Digital. Many IMAX theatres place speakers both directly behind the screen and around the theatre to create a three-dimensional effect.[10]
As with previous Star Wars installments, the score of The Phantom Menace was composed and conducted by John Williams. He started working in the score in October 1998, and began recording the music with the London Voices and London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios on February 10, 1999. Williams decided to use more electronic instruments such as synthesizers to enhance the sound, and more choral pieces to "capture the magical, mystical force that a regular orchestra might not have been able to provide" and reflect the different atmosphere, "more mysterious and mystical and less military" than the original trilogy.[40] One of the most notable tracks is "Duel of the Fates", that even received its own music video, which uses the chorus introduced to give a religious, temple-like feel to the epic lightsaber duel.[41] While composing Anakin's theme, Williams tried to both reflect the innocence of his childhood, and foreshadow his transformation into Darth Vader by putting slight suggestions of The Imperial March into the melody.[40]
DVD-Audio is a format for delivering high fidelity audio content on a DVD. It offers many channel configuration options (from mono to 5.1 surround sound) at various sampling frequencies (up to 24-bits/192 kHz versus CDDA's 16-bits/44.1 kHz). Compared with the CD format, the much higher-capacity DVD format enables the inclusion of considerably more music (with respect to total running time and quantity of songs) and/or far higher audio quality (reflected by higher sampling rates and greater sample resolution, and/or additional channels for spatial sound reproduction). Despite DVD-Audio's superior technical specifications, there is debate as to whether the resulting audio enhancements are distinguishable in typical listening environments. DVD-Audio currently forms a niche market, probably due to the very sort of format war with rival standard SACD that DVD-Video avoided.
Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the film of the same name composed, orchestrated and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical on November 18, 1997. Riding the wave of the film's immense success, the soundtrack shot to the top of the charts in nearly two-dozen territories,[1] selling over 30 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time, and the highest-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack ever.[2]
Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the film of the same name composed, orchestrated and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical on November 18, 1997. Riding the wave of the film's immense success, the soundtrack shot to the top of the charts in nearly two-dozen territories,[1] selling over 30 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time, and the highest-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack ever.[2]
"We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn't want to interfere with what was happening cinematically, The soundtrack reached a peak of second place on the Billboard charts.[82] The soundtrack went on to sell twelve million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the United States.The score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and released on August 2, 1994.
I`d never written for talking fuzzy animals before. I knew how to write to human emotions but these were animals. It took me a while to sort of get over that and do what you do which is just treat them like human characters. (On The Lion King (1994)] – Hans Zimmer
DTS - What is DTS? It's a digital sound technology that helps filmmakers create sound that moves. Speakers positioned to the left, right and center of the theatre produce sound effects that literally sweep around the audience. What this means to music composers is that they can make tracks come in from six channels, instead of two as in the earlier stereo system. – The Music Magazine
Schindlers List - John Williams composed the score for Schindler's List. The composer was amazed by the film, and felt it would be too challenging. He said to Spielberg, "You need a better composer than I am for this film." Spielberg replied, "I know. But they're all dead!"
Jurassic Park - One of William's big efforts in 1993, the other one being Schindler's List, but was strange enough not even nominated for an Academy Award. Go figure... Jurassic Park is a vintage John William's score with a big orchestral sound; bold brass, dramatic strings and choir. Two themes dominates the music. One fanfare like brass theme, heard in all it's glory in cues like "Journey to the Island" (used for the first time in the film when the chopper approaches the island) and "End Credits", and another more grandiose, slow, but powerful theme, for the dinosaurs. This is the theme heard in the film when we see those big creatures for the very first time. There are also some minor motifs, like a terrifying atonal one for the raptors. – audience member
Dick Tracey - First feature film with a completely digital sound track. Disney's The Black Hole would have been the first, but only had it's score recorded digitally.
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