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 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 3:02 AM   
 By:   Graham Watt   (Member)


... overlong and repetitive soundtrack presentations. A properly arranged album by the composer or producer will ALWAYS be preferred, but when that's not the case, you resort to "emergency measures".


overlong.

repetitive.

properly arranged album.

I wonder how you whittlers would react to Morton Feldman's String Quartet No.2 which exceeds 6 hours in duration without breaks! big grin

The reverse side of the whittler's coin might very well reveal 1) the listeners' intolerance towards duration & reiteration of content in addition to 2) their preconceived notions on what an album should be ... and, also, their expectations that what they listen to should be an album in concept.

... I'm blissfully unattached to such limiting notions ... but then I'm not a whittler. smile

No emergency measures needed with me.


Yeah Zardoz, I'm not a whittler either, but I am a glutton for punishment. You've already touched on the point of "preconceived notions on what an album should be", and "expectations.... an album in context". So we know what you mean.

The trouble with your Morton Feldman string quartet example is that (as you know) that's the way it was conceived. With complete or even semi-complete film score presentations we're often dealing with everything but/ and the kitchen sink, which - out of the context of the film - might end up being a chore to listen to without "whittling". In fact, it would be hard to imagine the result being otherwise.

I'll finish with one of my anecdotes (switch off now ye of low-tolerance levels regarding blarney) - You may know that Morty Feldman (he liked to be called "Marty" - that tickled him) wrote the entire score for the long-running Venezuelan soap opera "Fuera de mis Bragas, Cabrón" (1959 - 2001), the longest-running Venezuelan soap opera ever, and the only one with a specially-composed musical score for each episode. Marty wrote approximately 1,590 hours of original music for that, and when released on the independant Venezuelan CD label "Loco" - in 24 box-sets of 15 CDs each - even Marty exclaimed that it was "too long" and "jeez I coulda done with a whittler there".

Normal service shall now be resumed.

THE RUSSIA HOUSE is, in my opinion, Jerry Goldsmith's last truly great score, and I don't find it a second too long on album. And I mean that most sincerely folks! I really do.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 5:05 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

SBD =
THIS is what I'm talking about. I will check out THE RUSSIA HOUSE CD this weekend and see if The Deal needs to make the cut.
I know I'm not on the same page as Graham re RUSSIA HOUSE album though.

THOR =
My edition is mainly the nicer, ambient tracks - 2049, Sapper's Tree, Rain, Mesa, Joi, plus Tears In Rain and the song, Almost Human, which has strangely grown on me - Sea Wall is the only (mainly) discordant cue I include, which I love and hate in equal measure.

Yavar =
Great MISTS OF AVALON playlist (I hope). I will check it out asap.

JTW =
No, BLOWN AWAY wasn't whittled by me. I don't have that CD.
I can't believe you're only a lurking whittler.
You need to get your hands dirty! wink

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 5:09 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

THOR =
My edition is mainly the nicer, ambient tracks - 2049, Sapper's Tree, Rain, Mesa, Joi, plus Tears In Rain and the song, Almost Human, which has strangely grown on me - Sea Wall is the only (mainly) discordant cue I include, which I love and hate in equal measure.


Yeah, pretty much similar to mine, then (except I didn't include "Tears in Rain" as it wasn't original to the film).

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 5:37 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

Tales From Whittle-Dom..

It's always fun to revisit a CD, many years later and do a re-whittle.
The number of times I've changed the playlist, bringing in cues I didn't care for on the original whittle and losing tracks that suddenly sounded less palatable to my tastes.
I remember the JOHN CARTER CD, wherein I wanted a 30 to 45 minute playlist, but I just kept adding tracks with subsequent CD plays, cos it kept getting better and better. I think, in the end, I only jettisoned 2 or 3 tracks.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 5:57 AM   
 By:   1977   (Member)

JTW =
No, BLOWN AWAY wasn't whittled by me. I don't have that CD.
I can't believe you're only a lurking whittler.
You need to get your hands dirty! wink


You mean like this?



Will do my best!

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 6:33 AM   
 By:   1977   (Member)

Courtesy of The Mutant:


Posted: Jan 7, 2014 - 11:11 AM
By: The Mutant (Member)

I've made a fantasy "what if?" playlist that is roughly 29 minutes and reflects what I think a score album would have been like had it been released back in '94.
It's a good representation of all the major themes and flows nicely. Try it out.

1-Prince's Day (Main Title)
2-The Escape
3-Cortez Goes Boom
4-Gaerity Sets Up Shop
5-Saint Max
6-M.I.T. Arrival
7-Kite Fixer
8-Playing The Angle
9-Final Fight
10-Everybody Loves a Hero

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=100525&forumID=1&archive=0

 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 8:24 AM   
 By:   The Mutant   (Member)

Courtesy of The Mutant:


Posted: Jan 7, 2014 - 11:11 AM
By: The Mutant (Member)

I've made a fantasy "what if?" playlist that is roughly 29 minutes and reflects what I think a score album would have been like had it been released back in '94.
It's a good representation of all the major themes and flows nicely. Try it out.

1-Prince's Day (Main Title)
2-The Escape
3-Cortez Goes Boom
4-Gaerity Sets Up Shop
5-Saint Max
6-M.I.T. Arrival
7-Kite Fixer
8-Playing The Angle
9-Final Fight
10-Everybody Loves a Hero

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=100525&forumID=1&archive=0




Ahhh. I love that score....

See, this is the great thing about C&C releases. They allow you to choose your perfect playlist without leaving off your favorite little cues.

 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 10:09 AM   
 By:   Justin Boggan   (Member)

I don't whittle down, like say Thor, but on some rare occasions if I don't like parts of cues of some cues, I'll make a personal edit in a preferred listening order.

An example is "Contract on Cherry Street", which I made into an excellent listening experience that tells a musical story from start to end.


Sounds intriguing, please post an edit/playlist if you have a chance.



I don't make or keep any such records. At best all I have is a page noting what cues I would use and not use, what parts I wanted to use of certain cues.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 2:08 PM   
 By:   jenkwombat   (Member)

I like both album presentations and expansions, but I do whittle down to make my own playlists quite often. This should be a cool thread to check in on frequently....

Here's my own playlist for the Jaws Intrada release, sequenced more than a little like the original LP, but with more tracks, and of course, using the film versions:

1) Jaws - Main Title
2) The First Victim
3) Remains on the Beach
19) Three Barrels Under
9) Montage
10) Into the Estuary
11) Out to Sea
14) Quint's Tale
13) Man Against Beast

17) Great Chase
22) The Shark Cage Fugue
6) Father and Son
4) The Empty Raft
8) Ben Gardner's Boat
24) The Shark Hits the Cage
26) Blown To Bits
27) Jaws - End Title

Total Time = 39:28 (approximately)

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 4:11 PM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Crikey, it was difficult to boil down JUSTICE LEAGUE to a decent playlist. It's a bad score in the first place, and I wanted to remove 75% of the action material. I ended up with this playlist, which will have to do. I'm not going to play this very often anyway:

1. Justice League Theme/Logos
2. Hero's Theme
3. Cyborg Meets Diana
4. Home
5. The Story of Steppenwolf
6. Then There Were Three
7. Wonder Woman Rescue
8. The World Needs Superman
9. Spark of the Flash
10. Bruce & Diana
11. A New Hope
12. Justice League United
13. Everybody Knows

Total running time: 33 minutes.

As you can see, quite different from Kev's version.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 7, 2017 - 4:46 PM   
 By:   MCurry29   (Member)

Never "whittle" and never ever a thought to do so. I do not make playlists. I listen to albums all the way through: film scores, and all other music.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 3:21 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

I listen to albums all the way through: film scores, and all other music.

Me too. Which is why it's so crucial to have an album I can actually GET through all the way.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 4:20 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

I play my CD's through on many occasions, but like with a band who have one or two tracks on an album that you don't care for, more often than not, I find some score tracks are dull or filler-like, so they go, to streamline my 'on the go' listening experience.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 4:35 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

I think it was because I grew up with prog rock concept albums and instrumental electronic music, I always preferred to listen to whole albums all the way through. I was never one for "peacemeal" listening. Even compilations, I listened to as "one entity". That's probably why the album sequence is so important to me; that it's as listenable as possible, and often as far away from the movie as possible.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 4:57 AM   
 By:   SBD   (Member)

In case anyone has any thoughts, some WHITTLE-IFICATION candidates (in no particular order):

Innerspace
Ghostbusters
Goonies (as mentioned by Thor)
The Golden Child (Barry's)


Ah, what the hell. At a (comparatively) sleeker 60 minutes:

Main Title
Take Him Home/Broken Toe
State of the Art/The Charge
Gas Attack
Woman in Red
What is it?
Optic Nerves
No Messenger
No Pain
The Cowboy
Hold It
How Do I Look?/Save It
Transformed
Retransformed
The Womb
Stop the Car
Out of the Pod
Disengage
No Red Lights

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 5:09 AM   
 By:   MusicMad   (Member)

As I rip my CDs to a NAS I take the view that even if I don't like some tracks now ... I might appreciate them later so keep everything ... well, almost everything. There are always exceptions, such as Gravity from Cocoon (1985) and Disco Calypso from The Deep (1977) ...

But I do split CD releases, e.g. original album and bonus tracks (e.g. Giù la testa (1971)) or original score and re-recorded album(e.g. Wild Rovers (1971)) whilst, conversely, I will combine releases where the music is on more than one CD, e.g. Peur sur la ville (1975).

When a release is long, say over 1 hour, I do consider splitting this into 2 parts (maybe using the separation as per the CDs where 2 or more discs are involved) but this depends heavily on whether the score is too tedious for a complete play-through (e.g. Superman (1978)) ... I can always program the second part to play immediately ...

or: I am selective on when I play something and ensure I have the 80-90 mins available to enjoy the score/album (e.g. The Golden Child (1984) [Barry])

I used to compile cassette tapes of favourite tracks but have discovered that hearing a complete album (be it the original producer's idea or a full score) pays dividends. If I want a few odd tracks I can select and program them to play using the streaming software.

Mitch

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 5:20 AM   
 By:   Graham Watt   (Member)

I pretend that all my CDs are actually vinyl albums, so it's too much bother to whittle, skip tracks or whatever you want to call it. One of the results of having been conditioned by the LP experience is that, quite often, if I don't feel like listening to the whole thing (either because bits are boring, or because I don't have time), I'll play the CD as if it were an LP. So on a 40-min CD I'll play the first 20 mins then continue later. And on 80-min CDs I'll play it like a double album in four sessions. 60-min CDs are played like those rare LPs that lasted half an hour each side. By splitting things up like that, I don't get burned out, and it's surprising how refreshing a formerly "boring" track can sound when played as the first of a session.

I don't do that ALL the time though. Some albums (even C n' C ones) can hold my attention throughout with no whittling or breaking-up-into-chunks. Maybe that would be a good topic in itself.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 5:43 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

I used to be like Thor and Graham, in my LP days and early CD days, but with the advent of mp3 players and such like, plus expanded expansions, I took it upon myself to become my own record producer extraordinaire.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 6:58 AM   
 By:   jackfu   (Member)

I'm not that much into whittling as much as being more into chronological correctness. I have whittled action film scores that have songs in them if the songs impede my enjoyment. For example the LP of The Towering Inferno in which the song "We May Never Love Like This Again" is between "Trapped Lovers" and "Susan And Doug". I know some completists leave the songs in, but I sometimes find them a distraction.

Trivia note: One whittler was so famous they did a portrait of his mother!

wink

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:24 AM   
 By:   leagolfer   (Member)

Never "whittle" and never ever a thought to do so. I do not make playlists. I listen to albums all the way through: film scores, and all other music.

This 100%! Otherwise its pointless buying scores.

 
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