Monday, July 1, 2013

Musical Monday: Movie Scores For The Win!

One of the most surefire ways to get through Mondays? Movie scores! The orchestral compositions are made to be somewhat in the background so they compliment rather than compete with the visuals.
without vocals or lyrics to distract my groggy Monday morning typing.

I also enjoy how there are small melodies and themes that get repeated throughout the movie, usually changing just a bit each time. Movies without music would be so flat and less engaging; I like to pretend that my life has a soundtrack (and so is more interesting and fun), and I would gladly invite any of these composers to create the score!

Hans Zimmer: Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End
At World's End
Known for composing the scores to the THE LION KING(!), Batman Trilogy, the Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and now the Man of Steel, just to name a few. I could listen to this particular song 10 times in a row, and in fact I'm sure I have at least once.

The Chemical Brothers: Hanna
Hanna's Theme

Escape 700
I LOVE this movie score! It is such a great example of how a superb score can take a movie to the next level when it compliments the scene and overall tone of the film. The songs are creative and fun and different from most music I listen to.

Steve Jablonsky: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Forest Battle
Perfect for powering through a memo or research or some task, another law grad introduced me to this score when we were studying for the Virginia Bar Exam and I was very grateful (although the weakest of the three movies, the score is great!); music got me through most of that summer (wow was is just last year).
Mr. Jablonsky's work includes all the Transformers movies (including the upcoming 4th film), Battleship, and plenty of horror films, I'm looking forward to hearing his score for Ender's Game.

John Williams: War Horse
The Soundtrack Suite (kind of a sampler of the different musical themes)

Remembering Emilie and Finale

Another movie score superstar! you might've heard his talent in small films such as Star Wars, Indiana JonesJurassic ParkSchindler's List, Lincoln, E.T., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone you know, small indie films. Also, as Jack Black's character in the Holiday noted, he uses two notes to create a terrifying villain in Jaws

Alexandre Desplat: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Lily's Theme

Severus and Lily
Speaking of Harry Potter, Alexandre Desplat took over the composing role for the last two movies. For a list of all Harry Potter composers see here. I can always listen to some Harry Potter to get me through a Muggley day. Desplat is no slouch either, composing the score for numerous Oscar best picture noms and at least two winners: Argo, The King's SpeechExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Tree of Life, and one of my FAVORITE all time movies: Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Harry Gregson-Williams: Chronicles of Narnia the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Evacuating London

The Battle
This particular score helped get me through numerous finals in undergrad. And what's up with these Williamses being so super talented? Note to self: if I want to change careers to a movie composer, change last name to Williams. This hyphenated composer is responsible for the scores to Spy Game, the Shrek franchise, Gone Baby Gone, Kingdom of Heaven, and the classic Team America: World Police to name a few.

What movie scores are your favorites to listen to?

1 comment:

P!nky said...

Love all of these songs, they are key when i need to focus.