79, or as we knew it in the U.K. Airport 80 - sounds spectacular. A stunning recording which is great because this is the score I’ve wanted for a long time.
And of course, the UK quad poster fuelled that fire by erroneously stating that the soundtrack was available on MCA records and tapes. Much the same as the JAWS THE REVENGE advance one-sheet declared.
77 has been a grail for me since a long time, that majestic main theme, the plane fall cue and those underwater sequences that sounds like Barry in Thunderball plus the 70’s vibe on the suspense tracks with some sinths mixed, it all works for me. The only issue is that it is too short! The movie uses music sparingly and I was hoping that there could be more left on the cutting flor. If Cacavas had scored the 3 hour tv version then probably we could have more of the love theme/main theme bridge variations.
79 sounds fantastic and is great fun too. Waiting for this release I rewatched both movies and 79 is one of the most unintentional hilarius fun movies ever. I watched it with my 9 year old daughter and she began to laught at some sequences, like when the pilots say they’re feeling some ”slight vibrations” in the controls and it shows the controls completely shaking, really Airplane!-like moments. Shifrin score is very adventurous and exciting, which against the ridiculous sequences makes it all more fun.
Good memory of Airport 80 when it was released in France - with delon highlighted on the poster, of course. Not a great movie, for sure, largely saved by his music, but fun. It was a "Star Wars meet Airtport" type of movie, when we were 10-15 years old we did not ask for more! And thanks to the logo of the European distributor CIC, we had a pinch of goldsmith to get started !
And thanks to the logo of the European distributor CIC, we had a pinch of goldsmith to get started !
I've never heard this (or heard of this) before today - how interesting!
Cinema International Organisation logo from mid 70's... HD (Jerry Goldsmith)
Yeah, I grew up seeing a million films in the UK on the big screen with that logo. It wasn't until the late '70s, when A GATHERING OF EAGLES was on the telly that I realised, "What? That's that"!!!
The LP and the suite from the Lalo box are enough for me, so my would-be copy is up for grabs.
Enjoy!
Enjoy I do. Got this 2-CD set during La-La Land's 30% off sale, and I'm liking both soundtracks more than I anticipated. I especially like Lalo S. when he writes monster movie/disaster movie music. The Concorde is as an engaging a listen as his Abominable. Thanks, Onya, for letting me buy your copy. I'm curious, though, why OnyaBirri doesn't care for Schifrin's Airport '79?
After the interesting main titles, I find most of the samples to be very generic in nature. These are definitely not compositions by someone like John Williams.
Nope...they're compositions by someone like Lalo Schifrin (and John Cacavas)...obviously.
Yavar
Honestly, much of John Williams' ouput is conservative, middle-brow & conventional according to my aesthetics & sensibilities. Cacavas doesn't sound generic to me ... plus I find Schifrin's orchestral stylings to be unique and highly identifiable.
Since I place greater value on sonic textures and adventuresome harmonic vocabularies, my listening experiences do not require that the music needs to have constant melodic line.
If I was a producer, I'd be more inclined to hire Schifrin to write a music score than to commission John Williams for such.
After the interesting main titles, I find most of the samples to be very generic in nature. These are definitely not compositions by someone like John Williams.
Nope...they're compositions by someone like Lalo Schifrin (and John Cacavas)...obviously.
Yavar
Honestly, much of John Williams' ouput is conservative, middle-brow & conventional according to my aesthetics & sensibilities. Cacavas doesn't sound generic to me ... plus I find Schifrin's orchestral stylings to be unique and highly identifiable.
Since I place greater value on sonic textures and adventuresome harmonic vocabularies, my listening experiences do not require that the music needs to have constant melodic line.
If I was a producer, I'd be more inclined to hire Schifrin to write a music score than to commission John Williams for such.
You obviously never listened to IMAGES, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, MINORITY REPORT, and his Violin Concerto. Is he Bartok or Penderecki? No. But please don't insult his craftsmanship as a composer and has been working consistently for over 60 years and whose knowledge of the orchestra is rivaled only by Previn, Mehta, and other conductors. And while I love Schifrin, he could never tackle something as sophisticated as the first STAR WARS score and something like HOME ALONE and back. Your snobbish opinion couldn't be more uneducated.
You obviously never listened to IMAGES, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, MINORITY REPORT, and his Violin Concerto. Is he Bartok or Penderecki? No. But please don't insult his craftsmanship as a composer and has been working consistently for over 60 years and whose knowledge of the orchestra is rivaled only by Previn, Mehta, and other conductors. And while I love Schifrin, he could never tackle something as sophisticated as the first STAR WARS score and something like HOME ALONE and back. Your snobbish opinion couldn't be more uneducated.
Those 4 titles that you mention first are all in my music collection. Images is even one of my favorite 50 soundtracks. Craftsmanship isn't my focus here, though. Lots of composers have lots of talents and abilities.
Collecting and listening to albums for over 35 years, though, I tend evaluate any composer's lifetime output in terms of dodecaphony, sonorism, spectralism, etc. This is not to say that I do not listen to Romantic music, but my appreciation of such is further filtered by how much more modern a composer can be in other compositions. This is how my mind prioritizes purchases and 'ranks' albums within my collection. I own around 47 soundtracks by Williams, but only 2 of these reside on my favorite 100. The other 45 or so simply do not engage me enough for me to like them more. So call me a snob, but there is surfeit of other composers whose music I like better.
[Overall, I don't like Star Wars; I much prefer the type of music that Armando Trovajoli provided for Mario Bava's Ercole to get a better feel for where I'm 'at']
You obviously never listened to IMAGES, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, MINORITY REPORT, and his Violin Concerto. Is he Bartok or Penderecki? No. But please don't insult his craftsmanship as a composer and has been working consistently for over 60 years and whose knowledge of the orchestra is rivaled only by Previn, Mehta, and other conductors. And while I love Schifrin, he could never tackle something as sophisticated as the first STAR WARS score and something like HOME ALONE and back. Your snobbish opinion couldn't be more uneducated.
Those 4 titles that you mention first are all in my music collection. Images is even one of my favorite 50 soundtracks. Craftsmanship isn't my focus here, though. Lots of composers have lots of talents and abilities.
Collecting and listening to albums for over 35 years, though, I tend evaluate any composer's lifetime output in terms of dodecaphony, sonorism, spectralism, etc. This is not to say that I do not listen to Romantic music, but my appreciation of such is further filtered by how much more modern a composer can be in other compositions. This is how my mind prioritizes purchases and 'ranks' albums within my collection. I own around 47 soundtracks by Williams, but only 2 of these reside on my favorite 100. The other 45 or so simply do not engage me enough for me to like them more. So call me a snob, but there is surfeit of other composers whose music I like better.
[Overall, I don't like Star Wars; I much prefer the type of music that Armando Trovajoli provided for Mario Bava's Ercole to get a better feel for where I'm 'at']
Thank you. I appreciate your response. I just wish your first statement concerning Williams had been as balanced as your last. You made some good points that clarify what you were trying to get across. To be honest though, I can't understand how anyone who really loves and appreciates music, is unmoved by the first STAR WARS score. While it's reminiscent of iconic "romantic" works of the past, it nonetheless is one of the most rousingly magical and intelligent film scores of any generation. By no means though is he the end all of composers, yet he is certainly, one of the most gifted. And deserves more respect then writing off the majority of his work as conventional. That's all.
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