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Michael McMahon got the joke -- but I didn't.
What does "comb-over era" mean?
***
As to SURROUND, I don't know your personal tastes, but speaking for myself I've always loved this album -- it's one of the first CD's I ever bought -- and for me the group of selections from Mancini's Universal sci-fi/monster days was worth the price of admission. It was a happily surprising rarity in those days, and the only one of its kind until the glorious advent of Monstrous Movie Music.
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Thanks, Graham. I have nothing against in-jokes, as perhaps you know if you've been reading the DIE, SISTER, DIE thread, but obviously I often need to have them explained to me -- if I can detect at all that they are jokes, which obviously I couldn't with all those other jokes.
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I did not like:
Opening fanfare
The White Dawn
The Prisoner of Zenda
Without a Clue End Title
The Cowboys (from Sunset).
Why not?
I was thinking the same thing since those are IMHO some of the best tracks on a outstanding CD.
To each his or her own...
Ford A. Thaxton
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Posted: |
Jul 15, 2014 - 4:52 PM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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I did not like:
Opening fanfare
The White Dawn
The Prisoner of Zenda
Without a Clue End Title
The Cowboys (from Sunset).
Why not?
Stylistically, I come from jazz and 20th Century music, which by default means that I tend to like dense harmonies and rich orchestration.
The tracks that I cite on the CD have very simple triad-based harmonies. I do not have anything against simple harmonies per se. In film music, I think they can be very effective in quiet cues that convey sadness, poignance, etc. But when I hear full-blown orchestral fury playing vanilla triads, it just sounds wrong to me. It sounds anachronistic and, in places, like self-conscious attempts at grandiose "film music."
The White Dawn track, in addition to the reasons that I cite above, also has an annoying melodic motif that sounds like an Irish jig.
Now, I realize that The Prisoner of Zenda - which I've never seen - seems to be going for a deliberately old-fashioned sound, coming off in parts as very 18th-century. These tracks bother me less than the others I mentioned.
I realize that Mancini was collecting a paycheck and delivering what was expected of him. While music like this may work in the context of the film, it doesn't mean I want to listen to it at home.
But having said all this, I will confess that I enjoyed these tracks more on a second and third spin. Maybe I'm losing a grip on my convictions, or maybe I'm getting to be a sentimental fool in middle age. Whichever, Mancini is and will always be one of my musical heroes, up there with Legrand, Jobim, Monk, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, Ellington, Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, Raymond Scott, and The Great Les Baxter.
We miss you Hank.
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