The release of the La La edition of John Ottmans score for Superman Returns ( Havnt bought it, think its a horrible film and score ) has reminded me of scores which really go overboard on choir.Both Ottmans X2 and Superman Returns sound so ott to me because of his overuse of it.
There are times in movie scores where choir ( be it adult or child ) can be very effective.Williams Duel Of The Fates and Battle Of The heroes from the SW prequels for example, or John Powells scoring of the Dark Phoenix scenes in X Men 3.
What do the rest of you think? Any other examples of choir being overused in movie soundtracks?
The more choir the better. Love the stuff. It's more a matter of how it's used. I actually can't stand the choir in the Star Wars prequels. It's very distracting as the choir doesn't fit the orchestrations.
I like the choral stuff in "Superman Returns". I also love the film and think it's tons better than "Man of Steel".
Wow.Well i guess your entitled to your opinion.
I just think the overuse of choir in the film made it way too heavy handed.Williams score for the original was a masterpiece and didnt need choir ( It didnt need Margot Kidder warbling ' Can you read my mind? ' either but nobodys perfect! ).
For the record i absolutley loved Man Of Steel and thought Hans Zimmers score was fantastic.I really liked the fact that the filmakers went for an all new incarnation of the character and were smart enough not to use any of the Williams material ( It is great but would have been completely inappropriate for its use in Man Of Steel which has no links whatsoever to previous films, it would have been like having Elfmans Batman themes in the Dark Knight trilogy ).
Count me as somebody who definitely can get enough choir. To me, it's a device that benefits from being used sparingly. Too often, it's used to suggest "here's something super-important!," and overuse can be laughable to me.
That said, there are of course a million ways to use a choir, and dozens of exceptions to my aversion. But it definitely gets to be a bit much for me.
I never felt Superman Returns had that much choir. It's there but not over used at all. I don't understand the concerns. The original Superman 1 and 2 had choir too. On the original album I think I remember it only on 4 tracks.
Not too much choir, but the way the choir is miked and a bit too forward in the mix for THE ABYSS has always bothered me. It almost makes me laugh when I hear the little bit too prominent ooos and ahhs from the male chorus. Still, I love the score as a whole.
I embrace vocals in a score and have never encountered a film score where the choir was particularly off-putting. My favorite examples of perfect choir enhancement are the two Candyman film scores by Philip Glass. While not the easiest listen outside of the film these scores elevate the films from being just "slasher horror" films into dark almost opera, more so in the first film. They would be lesser films without these memorable choir components.
It depends on how the choir is used. If it gets used like another instrument, or in splitted parts (SATB) like an orchestra (just like Desplat and JNH used it on recent scores), or just to make something to sound epic.
Someone who I think that overuses the choir is Danny Elfman. As much as I love the choral parts of X-Men 3, Powell abused of female voices and it would have been better if he would have used male voices (according to the original sheets, some cues originally had male choir but it wasn't recorded).
And there's also the choral pieces which are mixed below the orchestra and electronics that are a waste since you can't hear them other as filler in the background, and can ruin the impact of a score (Desplat's Potter scores and JNH's King Kong and Hunger Games comes in mind).
Pretty much anything by Brian Tyler.
Except that other than his Marvel scores and Battle Los Angeles, he never used a lot of choir on his scores. I do think that the choir in Iron Man 3 wasn't needed (Debney's use of it in the second film was perfect for Whiplash's Russian origins and the most dramatic scenes of the film) and it fited more in Thor.
