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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2012 - 11:54 AM
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By: |
Mike West
(Member)
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Mike, thank you so much! You really never fail me with your insight into composition and orchestration. This is exactly what I meant, and Vaughan Williams and Hovhaness are exactly the composers where I have heard this sound before.
Do you, by any chance, have also an idea why all the higher registers of the strings should be on the right side in WAR HORSE?
thanks 
it is really interesting that Willams channeled that british pastoral idiom so much, also using a lot of what could be called modal harmonies and shifting them completely with the melody.
Also the spacing of the chord in the strings is essential for that sound, there is some space between the notes of the chords which gives that open sound.
But no idea why the higher registers are on the right - I did not notice that so far.
Could be a mistake in recording engineering?
There are some alternatives in positioning the groups in the strings, but the first Violins are on the left side normally, actually in every possible arrangment of strings.
I'll listen to that again the next days and try to figure out.
Shame on me I did not notice, maybe my dolby surround system did mix it in other ways.
Did not notice it in the cinema either.
Just that the string sound sounds somewhat muffled sometimes, lacking some sonority and brightness.
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2012 - 12:48 PM
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By: |
Gunnar
(Member)
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it is really interesting that Willams channeled that british pastoral idiom so much, also using a lot of what could be called modal harmonies and shifting them completely with the melody.
That's one of the things I like about this score - it's unmistakeably Williams, but it is also unmistakeably WAR HORSE. The score as a whole has a unique voice that sets it apart from others of his scores. Yes, there are similarities to JANE EYRE and FAR AND AWAY, but still, it's very much a one-of-a-kind score.
There was a time, I think in the early 2000's, when Williams was very productive, but at times in the action music it became a bit hard to tell from which film it actually was. Not this time - there's really nothing I had noticed that had seeped over from TINTIN, for example. Although, admittedly, there were probably many months between the composition of the two scores.
I also noticed a certain structure in the writing that I think Williams hasn't employed that often, where a melody line is played in one section, and is repeated with perhaps one or two bars delay by a different section. So it's sort of a canon-like counterpoint that goes on only for a few bars. Is this perhaps something specific to English music as well?
What I liked, as sort of a cheeky self-reference, was the end of "Horse vs. Car", where the music goes into full, trademark Williams "taking flight" mode, only to be stopped short by the horse refusing to jump.
Finally, my impression is that "The Homecoming" is sort of a love letter of Williams to English music. Although it's, IIRC, the End Credits suite, he completely eschews the action material (which, in a normal end credits suite would take a central role) and focuses instead on the more romantic, pastoral material. Or perhaps it's his way of saying "Thank Goodness the war is over, now let's be happy that we're back in Devon again."
But no idea why the higher registers are on the right - I did not notice that so far.
Could be a mistake in recording engineering?
There are some alternatives in positioning the groups in the strings, but the first Violins are on the left side normally, actually in every possible arrangment of strings.
I also looked up some orchestra seating positions and couldn't find anything that matched what I think I hear. If this wasn't the product of the best people in the industry, I would venture the thought that the first violins simply weren't recorded - which would also account for the muffled sound, as the strings become quite sonically unbalanced if you leave out the first violins. But as this clearly cannot be the case, I'll have to continue to scratch my head...
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