[Fmpro] Shore, Burton, Wood

[bipcress@comcast.net]

Ted, it's like you don't get it, or that you are obsessed with your own 
private notion of originality (read "innovation"). Obviously you are 
effectively educated and informed, and I have respect for your views (and by 
the way slick, you never sent me your offered reading list). You probably 
know more about music (technically, historically) than I ever will, but 
there is more to music appreciation than a hard-assed formal approach. You 
submit that it is effective, but still clearly imply that you at first 
thought highly of Shore's ED WOOD, and then lowered your assessment after 
hearing the library patchwork that Gordon Zahler tracked PLAN 9 with (some 
fine music there, especially by regular library-toilers Duncan and 
Phillips). To me this is dumb. It makes no sense for you to think less of 
Shore's compositions out of the simple fact of him (probably, and more 
importantly logically) referencing the by-now iconographic "rental score" of 
Wood's classic guilty pleasure. This was only the right thing to do for 
Burton's top-notch bio-pic, and it would have been unprofessional of Shore 
to ignore this particular conceit out of ego/snobbery (or perhaps out of 
listening to your advice). - JohnB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ted Peterson" <ted.peterson at tcsn.net>
To: <fmpro at nxport.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Fmpro] FMPRO Digest, Vol 38, Issue 4


> Shore is interesting. I was completely taken with his score for "Ed
> Wood" then went back and rewatched "Plan 9. . ." and Shore's score is
> a knockoff from that score. I still think it works for the film. I
> think Shore is a good composer just not innovative in the sense that
> Luigi Nono or Penderecki or Stockhausen are. I don't know how many of
> you read the LA Times but a couple of weeks ago, Mark Swed wrote a
> great column about some of the so-called "modern" composers who are
> being rediscovered and getting lots of airplay and cropping up in
> concerts once again. I think Licht is a flawed work but monumental in
> many ways. The libretto is really hack work and I wish Karlheinz
> would have used an editor or at least a good writer.  I write all of
> my libretti and all the words I use in music so the same sentiment is
> probably uttered about me too.  After we finish with the minimalistic
> foolishness and the return to neo-postromanticism, I think the
> "moderns" will have the last laugh. I think the American Academic
> school will probably die out because so much is not forward leading
> with a couple of notable exceptions. But one can never know the
> future and who knows, maybe music will head in the direction as
> depicted in "Demolition Man" where everyone listens to today's
> commercials.
>
> In the Star Trek IV movie, there is a great line in a discussion
> between Kirk and Spock about how the 20th century is. Kirk mentions
> the writers Jacquline Susan, Sidney Sheldon and such. Where as Spock
> intones: "Ah yes, the giants." It is sarcasm at it's best but closer
> to the truth than I care to entertain. It's like reading Trollop
> novels as great literature compared to Tolstoy or Dickens.
>
> Musically, we may enter a dark age because of world politics. It's
> possible that the whole classical aesthetic may go away or become
> more compartmentalized than it already is. And yes, The Fly is a good
> score.
>
> I don't agree that Goldsmith opened the language at all. He certainly
> used current trends but the stuff people thought was so innovative
> was already over 20 years old. Still he's a good composer and one of
> the better in my opinion.
>
> Ted Peterson