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After a couple of years I decided to buy the set. (Wasn't sure in the first place, because I was already familiar with Beck's promo discs of S2 and 3 and had the album of Reprise records for the S4 and 5 cues.)
What strikes me the most is that after Beck left the show the music started to become quite restrained in it's approach. The first couple of tracks of Wanker's S5 score sort of have the same bombastic approach Beck utilized, but after that I becomes conventional and very subdued.
Beck was great in giving every episode a unique instrumental flavour (say Hush and Restless obvisously) but Wanker's material just softly rumbles on in the distance. Honestly, while listening to Tough Love and The Weight of the World I couldn't tell the scores apart.
Does anyone know why that is? Episodes like Fool for Love or Wrecked or the nicely scored farewell scene with Giles at the Airport in Becoming prove Wanker can throw a punch. So why didn't he for the remainder of the episodes?
Did Whedon asked Wanker to tone it down? (Which wouldn't make sense because he turned again to Beck for The Gift which was a breath of fresh air!)
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Is it possible that after he went all out to impress early on, Wanker decided to take it easy at some point? Or maybe there were simply budgetary constraints which ended up affecting the score, who knows? (Season 6 reuses a lot of music from Season 5.)
But the best of Wanker's music is right up there with Beck, for me. The sequence for Riley's departure several episodes into season 5 is particularly superb and heartbreaking.
Yavar
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Posted: |
Jun 17, 2022 - 2:24 PM
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By: |
acathla
(Member)
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Wanker did have some great moments! When he was good, he was amazing. At least ALMOST up there with Beck.
A lot of stuff during season 6 was indeed reused from season 5. And he didnt seem to have any character/relationship themes. Just general fighting theme, action theme, sad theme etc. I love that "sad" theme he created which first appears at the end of "Buffy vs Dracula" where Buffy asks Giles to be her Watcher again. Really wish this would have been included in the LLL set. Also a really great version of it at the end of "Fool For Love" with Buffy and Spike sitting outside her house. And of course "Riley's Departure" (the original tv version is miles better than the released version), "Love Montage" from Shadow, "They'll Take Dawn Away" from Tough Love, Giles departure from Bargaining 1 and the Buffy/Spike sex scene (the vocals were actually included in Riley's Departure. Which made it a bit weird, imo).
While Beck had all these amazing character and relationship themes which were all so cleverly put together for the scenes. Always different variations. And you could tell he really cared while writing the cues, he often even made sure the notes appeared between lines so that we could catch both the dialogue and the theme. He also made some very good episodic exclusive themes. Like Hush, Restless and other unreleased episodes like "Gingerbread" which had an amazing theme just made for that episode alone. Sadly (and this is just my honest opinion!), he dont make score like this anymore. Never was a fan of his film score. Imo, he works best with tv score. WandaVision is the best thing he's done since his Buffy days, imo.
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Does the recurring Buffy/Riley theme not count as a relationship theme? I don't remember it being applied to other situations after Riley leaves.
I agree that WandaVision is something of a return-to-TV-form, from Beck... incredible stuff. But did you really not care for his Ant-Man scores at all? I think they're also terrific! Can't wait to hear what he does for the Shazam sequel.
Yavar
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Oh! Somehow I forgot that Wanker was adapting Beck for the season 5 Riley cues. I had thought all of his scoring was original to him. Is this the only case of him reusing a Beck theme?
Yavar
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I finally picked this up about 18 months ago but haven't got around to listening to it yet.
One of these days...
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Is it possible that after he went all out to impress early on, Wanker decided to take it easy at some point? Or maybe there were simply budgetary constraints which ended up affecting the score, who knows? (Season 6 reuses a lot of music from Season 5.)
But the best of Wanker's music is right up there with Beck, for me. The sequence for Riley's departure several episodes into season 5 is particularly superb and heartbreaking.
Yavar
I liked that sequence as well, even more so because Wanker used Beck's Buffy/Riley Love Theme as previously stated.
But I find it hard to imagine a composer 'takes it easy' when a story offers so many potential for good music. Clearly Wanker didn't had to hold back (like, say, the Star Trek composers had to do under Berman's regime). Especially with Whedon who once in an interview (https://www.gamesradar.com/joss-whedon-heroes-and-inspirations/) said John Williams was an inspiration for him as a kid (and letting Elfman go all-out on Justice League and Age of Ultron).
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Season two is the best season of the show, from the writing, to plotting, to foreshadowing, etc.
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I finished S1 earlier this day and I quite like this Show. What a surprise to see Armin Shimerman without a Ferengi mask. Most of the Charakters are really good and entertaining to watch (except Buffy's mom) and I liked most of the episodes. The only negative I can think of is the Villain of S1 (hella generic) and the score. There was like 15 minutes of music that was ok and 3 of those is the piano version of the main theme at the end of Ep13. I've heard that some guy named "Christophe Beck" scored the following Seasons and I hope his stuff deserves the term 'music'. Well... chances are that I already listened to some cues of his on Youtube... 'Slayer's Elegy' is fucking brilliant... Off to Season 2!
Yeah, there's a reason that no season 1 music made LLL's 4CD set (even if I wouldn't have minded a little bit of it like that piano version of the main theme). I suspect there will be some season 2 music that underwhelms you; Christophe Beck doesn't immediately become the sole composer and there's some so-so stuff mixed in with his. But season 2 is indeed where we start getting some really excellent stuff from Beck, recurring themes which get developed, etc.
Then I agree seasons 3 & 4 have the absolute best music from Beck (season 3 is my favorite...the show itself gets weaker in season 4 but the music arguably hits its peak!). Then for seasons 5 & 6 it's mainly Thomas Wanker, who did some solid work (occasionally great, approaching Beck's level), but probably had a much lower budget to work with because in season 6 in particular there seemed to be a lot of reused/tracked in cues. The season 5 finale brought back Beck and he did a great job on that. Then season 7 is a weak season but it has some pretty great music by Robert Duncan (and another composer did a couple episodes and did them well, IIRC).
Honestly, you don't have to worry about the music ever getting actively bad again, now that you're through the worst of it (well, maaaybe once or twice in season 2 before Beck fully takes over).
Yavar
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I finished S1 earlier this day and I quite like this Show. What a surprise to see Armin Shimerman without a Ferengi mask. Most of the Charakters are really good and entertaining to watch (except Buffy's mom) and I liked most of the episodes. The only negative I can think of is the Villain of S1 (hella generic) and the score. There was like 15 minutes of music that was ok and 3 of those is the piano version of the main theme at the end of Ep13. I've heard that some guy named "Christophe Beck" scored the following Seasons and I hope his stuff deserves the term 'music'. Well... chances are that I already listened to some cues of his on Youtube... 'Slayer's Elegy' is fucking brilliant... Off to Season 2!
Yeah, there's a reason that no season 1 music made LLL's 4CD set (even if I wouldn't have minded a little bit of it like that piano version of the main theme). I suspect there will be some season 2 music that underwhelms you; Christophe Beck doesn't immediately become the sole composer and there's some so-so stuff mixed in with his. But season 2 is indeed where we start getting some really excellent stuff from Beck, recurring themes which get developed, etc.
Then I agree seasons 3 & 4 have the absolute best music from Beck (season 3 is my favorite...the show itself gets weaker in season 4 but the music arguably hits its peak!). Then for seasons 5 & 6 it's mainly Thomas Wanker, who did some solid work (occasionally great, approaching Beck's level), but probably had a much lower budget to work with because in season 6 in particular there seemed to be a lot of reused/tracked in cues. The season 5 finale brought back Beck and he did a great job on that. Then season 7 is a weak season but it has some pretty great music by Robert Duncan (and another composer did a couple episodes and did them well, IIRC).
Honestly, you don't have to worry about the music ever getting actively bad again, now that you're through the worst of it (well, maaaybe once or twice in season 2 before Beck fully takes over).
Yavar
True - while Christophe Beck would send in Chris Bleth's woodwinds to give the score a more accoustic flavour from time to time - soloists all but dissappeared in S6 and onwards, and the quality of Robert Duncan's synths aren't on par with Beck's (or Wanker's for that matter), but the latter composer certainly pulled some punches musically speaking.
Although not as great as Beck's contributions and sounding way more synth-esque than the Buffy music, Robert J. Kral's music for Angel never became dull en kept using one or two real instruments all the way up to S5.
So do budgetary restrictions merit a weaker score? I don't think so. Personally I think that when S6 came around Wanker's heart - for whatever reason - just wasn't in it anymore.
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). You'll love it!