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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2025 - 5:36 AM
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By: |
dkear
(Member)
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This is the score that ignited my lifelong passion for film music, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I first saw the picture in its initial roadshow engagement almost seventy years ago. Over the past few years I’ve transcribed some of the cues from the conductor’s score into Avid’s Sibelius software, so I can hear them played back with a clarity that’s sometimes lacking in the surviving recorded tracks (bless you, Intrada, for making all those finally available). At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others. So I finally settled on the sound of a piano, using unnamed treble and bass staves in Sibelius to mirror the four or five staves in the score. While it can sound a bit at times like banging on the keyboard, the piano, because of its percussive nature, tends to articulate the inner voices more clearly than can be heard in the recorded tracks, whether because of the way they were originally mixed down (heavy on the brass and lower registers) or because some are a generation or more removed from the master recordings or simply because of the ravages of time. The drawback of the piano sound, of course, is that it doesn’t fully do justice to legato passages and sustained notes. Interestingly though, because the musical language is completely straightforward and doesn’t depend entirely on orchestral coloring, as I listen to the transcriptions my imagination begins to fill in the orchestration.
That said, for anyone interested in hearing these, here’s a link to a folder containing what I’ve transcribed so far:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12YwZcgYh8tWnavrDOTYHBAbkdnkgs_PC?usp=sharing
Note that some filenames (those containing multiple cues) are abbreviated; the actual cue names (with dates) are listed in the accompanying PDF. Note also that some passages are not transcribed exactly as they appear in the score, for example, where the film version sounds more logical or where the sound needs some adjustment (doubling an octave or two, for instance) or where my copy of the score is missing a page or two and must be transcribed by ear.
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At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others.
I, for one, appreciate your wonderful "obsession" with this score and your superb results.
Any chance that you could offer your Sibelius results for “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly”?
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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2025 - 1:37 PM
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By: |
dkear
(Member)
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At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others.
I, for one, appreciate your wonderful "obsession" with this score and your superb results.
Any chance that you could offer your Sibelius results for “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly”?
Thank you, George. I appreciate your feedback. I've uploaded the orchestrated versions. I actually prefer the piano sound on God of Slaves, as the orchestrated version still sounds a little muddy. As I said, some Sibelius Sounds are less convincing than others. A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly sounds a little more robust, thanks to the fact that I was able to overlay the actual trumpet fanfares from the Intrada set [Disc 3 / 20-Shofars & Fanfares (Alternates)] and lift the Ready for Battle fanfares directly from that set [Disc 2 / 27-A Hardened Heart - Fanfare - Chariot Assembly].
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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2025 - 3:56 PM
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By: |
jkruppa
(Member)
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At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others.
I, for one, appreciate your wonderful "obsession" with this score and your superb results.
Any chance that you could offer your Sibelius results for “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly”?
Thank you, George. I appreciate your feedback. I've uploaded the orchestrated versions. I actually prefer the piano sound on God of Slaves, as the orchestrated version still sounds a little muddy. As I said, some Sibelius Sounds are less convincing than others. A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly sounds a little more robust, thanks to the fact that I was able to overlay the actual trumpet fanfares from the Intrada set [Disc 3 / 20-Shofars & Fanfares (Alternates)] and lift the Ready for Battle fanfares directly from that set [Disc 2 / 27-A Hardened Heart - Fanfare - Chariot Assembly].
As someone who's done a lot of MIDI score recreation over the last year or two, I applaud all that hard work and I appreciate your obsession. It's so satisfying to put all the elements together, especially when it's for music you love.
If you'd be willing to share a pdf of your orchestration, I'd be happy to do a more fleshed-out version of "God of Slaves" with the high end sample libraries I use. Here's an example of one of the pieces I've done recently: https://on.soundcloud.com/reH7xxGR7jdJ2tWX7
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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2025 - 6:05 PM
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By: |
dkear
(Member)
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At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others.
I, for one, appreciate your wonderful "obsession" with this score and your superb results.
Any chance that you could offer your Sibelius results for “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly”?
Thank you, George. I appreciate your feedback. I've uploaded the orchestrated versions. I actually prefer the piano sound on God of Slaves, as the orchestrated version still sounds a little muddy. As I said, some Sibelius Sounds are less convincing than others. A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly sounds a little more robust, thanks to the fact that I was able to overlay the actual trumpet fanfares from the Intrada set [Disc 3 / 20-Shofars & Fanfares (Alternates)] and lift the Ready for Battle fanfares directly from that set [Disc 2 / 27-A Hardened Heart - Fanfare - Chariot Assembly].
As someone who's done a lot of MIDI score recreation over the last year or two, I applaud all that hard work and I appreciate your obsession. It's so satisfying to put all the elements together, especially when it's for music you love.
If you'd be willing to share a pdf of your orchestration, I'd be happy to do a more fleshed-out version of "God of Slaves" with the high end sample libraries I use. Here's an example of one of the pieces I've done recently: https://on.soundcloud.com/reH7xxGR7jdJ2tWX7
Wow! That'd be great. Thanks, Jason. Your Star Wars example sounds terrific. I've uploaded what appears to be my latest version (God of Slaves 16E Version 2 - Full Score.pdf). You can pretty much ignore most of the dynamics (tremolos in the strings always stick out like a sore thumb unless pianissimo), and a lot of the doubling is just me trying to capture the sound I'm after.
Dennis
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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2025 - 6:49 PM
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By: |
jkruppa
(Member)
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At first I wanted to try to recreate a couple of the cues that suffer most from sounding muffled and/or distorted, namely, “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly.” These attempts sounded good enough to substitute for the original tracks in my playlist, but others not so much, because some Sibelius Sounds (the sampled instruments included with the software) are less convincing than others.
I, for one, appreciate your wonderful "obsession" with this score and your superb results.
Any chance that you could offer your Sibelius results for “God of Slaves” and “A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly”?
Thank you, George. I appreciate your feedback. I've uploaded the orchestrated versions. I actually prefer the piano sound on God of Slaves, as the orchestrated version still sounds a little muddy. As I said, some Sibelius Sounds are less convincing than others. A Hardened Heart/Chariot Assembly sounds a little more robust, thanks to the fact that I was able to overlay the actual trumpet fanfares from the Intrada set [Disc 3 / 20-Shofars & Fanfares (Alternates)] and lift the Ready for Battle fanfares directly from that set [Disc 2 / 27-A Hardened Heart - Fanfare - Chariot Assembly].
As someone who's done a lot of MIDI score recreation over the last year or two, I applaud all that hard work and I appreciate your obsession. It's so satisfying to put all the elements together, especially when it's for music you love.
If you'd be willing to share a pdf of your orchestration, I'd be happy to do a more fleshed-out version of "God of Slaves" with the high end sample libraries I use. Here's an example of one of the pieces I've done recently: https://on.soundcloud.com/reH7xxGR7jdJ2tWX7
Wow! That'd be great. Thanks, Jason. Your Star Wars example sounds terrific. I've uploaded what appears to be my latest version (God of Slaves 16E Version 2 - Full Score.pdf). You can pretty much ignore most of the dynamics (tremolos in the strings always stick out like a sore thumb unless pianissimo), and a lot of the doubling is just me trying to capture the sound I'm after.
Dennis
Beautiful, much easier to read than the sketch score! I'll start working on it this week. Could you add an mp3 of the track to the folder just for reference too? Thank you.
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