Some more of the Great Composers

Alrighty, so, basically I am going to give a list and short analysis of some of the last composers that I wish to mention.

The first is Harry Gregson-Williams, This man composed the scores to films such as Prince of Persia. The film was interesting of itself. However, as an adaptation, It was rather lacking. However we are talking of music.  He also did X Men: Wolverine Origins, Kingdom of Heaven, the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and Shrek 1&2. 

The next Composer is Howard Shore. I would imagine that he is most well known for his Composition of the Lord of the Rings Score as well as recently, The Hobbit Score. He did others as well. such as the Twilight Eclipse.

Then there is Joe Hisaishe. This man is actually a composer for animated films. Films such as Spirited Away, Howl's moving castle, Nausicaa Valley of the wind, my neighbor Totoro and Kiki's delivering service. 

The Last one that I would like to mention is Jeremy Soule. Many people may not know this name but you all know the games. He is the composer for the recent Elder Scrolls games starting with Oblivion and  the newest game Skyrim. I love the Skyrim Soundtrack. It is incredible and so descriptive of the landscapes and the atmosphere. It is almost like it draws you into that place. 

Oh! One other that I forgot( my deepest Apologies) Martin O'Donnell. This composer is responsible for the Halo Video Game soundtracks. These as well are some amazing Compositions. If you have not actually heard them. I  recommend them.

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Indiana Jones and the Jurassic Star Wars

Alright lets begin! I apologize for the wait. It has gotten pretty busy here at school but I am making a new post now. This next post is about John Williams. This man is another brilliant composer and director. Most of you, I should hope maybe all of you should know his music from gigantic blockbuster films such as the Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones Trilogy and The Jurassic Park Franchise. I refer to the Indiana Jones film as a trilogy because (this may sound a bit harsh) I am a total, huge and complete fan of the that series that I considered the 4th film to be an utter failure as compared to the former three films. Enough on that though. The music for these franchises I have just named, are simply fantastic. They are of such a powerful stirring nature that one might go from lamenting over his favorite character who has just been killed off, to riding off to some other country to fight opponents who happen to also be seeking out the same artifact that you yourself have decided to find. So, enough said! here is The Man John Williams conducting the Boston Pops orchestra for his Star Wars Theme!

A digression for an exceptional film

Alright, so, this film about which I shall be writing of is the 2004 Phantom of the Opera. As far as accuracy to the book, well, that is a story for another time. I shall for the time, speak of this strictly as a film. The film Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Weber is, to put a word to it, eyecandy. Now do not get me wrong, it is brilliant and mesmerizing. Even the score is fantastic. The film is done, as I saw it, very sensually and even a bit of an erotic persuasion to it. It is quite seductive in its nature, even for a tragic love story. I believe this was done to show the intentions of the Phantom. The Phantom is a disfigured, deformed man who has never been shown what true Love is or how to truly love. From birth he was shunned by society and his own parents. I have heard many opinions that people have had about him. One of the most prominent ones is that they find him creepy because of the figure he keeps of Christine or the way he sings to her. If we go deeper than the creepy side of it in order to find the intentions, the way that I looked at it was that he saw in Christine a model of human perfection and innocence who might be able come to love him for who he was. However, he did not know how to go about showing his affection and thought that she had to be seduced. So he used the power of his incredible vocal gift in order to attract her to him. So he would teach her to sing. However, she did not know who he was. So he then decides to seduce her down to his lair. When he does so, she takes off his mask in an attempt to find out who he is. He then gets angry and thinks she has betrayed him because she was trying to see how hideous he really was. But in reality she did not truly know. In the end, he realizes that the way he was trying to show his love was not right at all and was confused as to what true Love might be. I enjoyed this film quite a bit. I thought Gerard Butler did a fine acting job. all in all I would give it a 9/10 for the fact that I thought the sensuality was a bit overdone. but other than that it was pretty good.

The Orchestral Chair

Alright Folks, it is on to the next genre which shall be...*queue 20th Century Fox Fanfare* Film Scores and Orchestral Music! Now to start this off, I believe the first podium shall be awarded to one of my personal favorites and hopefully a favorite to many of my readers as well, to Hans Zimmer. This man is a very great and legendary composer of this 21st Century. Granted, there are many excellent composers such as John Williams, Harry Gregson Williams, Joe Hisaishi etc. However Hans Zimmer has done many scores from most all of the popular films today. Films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean Series, Inception, Man of Steel, Gladiator, The Batman films with Christian Bale and Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr just to name a few. He has also composed some Video Game scores such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This man has made for himself quite a name. If you consider what it is to be a conductor and a Composer. Zimmer has quite a gift in music. The man is, as many call, him a genius.

This is Hans Zimmer himself performing "Time" from Inception

Enjoy!

Who's Next..and Who Are You

      Alright, although there are many good bands in the Prog Rock genre, and one might spend forever going into detail discussing each of them, I believe that I will exit this genre with this next band that I am going to discuss. I would like to get through the genres and then  once I do, I shall refrequent each of them in random order with different bands because that way there is more variety and my audience will have already gotten a taste of what each genre consists of. "Aaaaalrighty then" to quote one of my favorite comedians Jim Carrey. This next band goes by the name of The Who. In my opinion this band started out as more of a band looking to go beyond bounds in their music and their trademark of destroying their instruments after their performances. They formed in 1964. Their members were:
Roger Daltrey - Vocalist
Pete Townshend - Guitarist
John Entwistle - Bassist
Keith Moon - Drummer
I would consider Moon to be one of the greatest drummers in the Rock genre. Some of the bands best known albums were Who Are You and Who's Next. One of my favorite singles is Won't Get Fooled Again from Who's Next. The Who also wrote two Rock Operas. The first one was called Tommy. This one was about a child whose life was tragically upset by seeing his true father shot by the man whom his mother was with. He became so intimidated by the threats and pleads of his mother and the man she was with that he deafened himself to the world, forced himself blind to all around him and decided never to speak again. Through his life he is mistreated terribly time and again by all around him untill he finds a pinball machine with which he frequents and is in time known as the pinball wizard because he is able to attain the highest score ever. I would not recommend watching this with children and would advise caution even to adults. I myself did not finish it becuase it was rather disturbing and contained many immoral themes. The second one by the name of Quadrophenia contains also much immorality. It is about a man who has a personality crisis. He develops multiple personalities. I found the music to be quite good but still, the content in some of the songs contains immorality.

Here is the song Won't get fooled Again

A Surprise Emergence

      On August 8th 1976 a very unexpected and unanticipated album came out. It was titled Boston by the band Boston. This album was a great and huge success on the charts. It was the best selling Debut album in the U.S. It sold over 17 million copies. The band won a grammy award for best new artist and was first to make their debut performance in New York at Madison Square Garden. The sound of the album  was very unique in its sound and rather ahead of its time. The members consisted of Guitarists Tom Scholz and Barry Goudreau, Drummer Jim Masdea and vocalist Brad Delp. Scholz, who worked for Polaroid at the time, used his salary to make recording equipment which he used in recording the bands demo tapes. Scholz ran himself nearly broke making demo tapes and sending them in. No one really listened to them and just kinda added them to the pile. However, one company heard their tape and was instantly struck by the rich and powerful sound that the band had. These promoters were Paul Ahern and Charlie Mckenzie. Masdea had left just before the band was found by these two. So before they made a deal with Epic Records they recruited two new members. However, when they professionally recorded their first album they requested Masdea to play drums one final time before he left. He agreed and they produced the album Boston and also agreed to name the band Boston as well. I actually purchased this album a few years back and when I heard it for the first time, I fell in love with the sound and the songs because they were just so well done. My dad also told me that when he found the album, he was in college and it was finals week. He went to the record store and found the album. He brought it back to school and absolutely loved it. He played it all through finals week. I would highly recommend this album. This band came out with several more albums. However I found that these albums were not quite up to par with their first album.

Here is the first song on their first album. It is so well done

Apology and....Rush!

      I apologize for not posting anything over the weekend. I originally intended to post everyday but I got so busy that I didn't have the time. So, again I am sorry for keeping all of my readers waiting. It was kind of disappointing for me because This next band that I am about to discuss is my number one favorite band and legendary pioneers in the Progressive Rock genre. The name is Rush. They are a Canadian Trio formed in 1968. The band consists of Geddy Lee - Bass/lyricist, Neil Peart - Drums/percussion and Alex Lifeson -  Guitarist/backup vocalist.They have toured worldwide in various countries. Their fan base is up in the hundred thousands and, I dare say may well break into the millions. Through the remainder of the 60's and up through the 70's they had the influence of heavy rock that was mostly heavily guitar based featuring such songs as Working Man, What You're Doing and Fly by Night. one of my favorite albums from this period is 2112 which came out in 1976.
However, when they got to the 80's, they began a heavily synthesized period where they had a lot of great hits such as Tom Sawyer and Big Money. Coming into the mid 90's and 2000s, they leaned back again on more guitar based music and put out some great albums such as Counterparts in 1993 and Snakes and Arrows in 2007. Their latest album, Clockwork Angels which came out in 2012, has received Rock album of the Year award for 2012. I found this album quite good upon purchasing and would recommend it to any Rush Fan. This album has also spawned a book based upon the Concept of the Album and I anticipate to buy very soon in the future. The book is also under the same title as the album. It was collaborated on by Neil Peart(Rush's Drummer.) and Kevin J. Anderson. Kevin is an author of various Star Wars books. He has also has written 50 national bestsellers. This band has also been recently received into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This is the full 2112 title song performed live in 1976