A long time ago I tried to start up a discussion about music with a friend of mine, only to find that our listening preferences didn’t have much in common. I liked mainly rock albums, and he said he mostly listened to film soundtracks. And by “film soundtracks”, he didn’t mean the ones compiled from a bunch of pre-existing pop songs, nor the songs from musicals, but rather the purely instrumental (usually orchestral) score that serves as the main theme and incidental music for certain films.
Now, I like a good John Williams theme as much as the next person, but it never occurred to me that anyone would want to listen to the entire instrumental soundtrack of, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Schindler’s List, without the accompanying film. (I think the only album I have that halfway counts as an orchestral film soundtrack is Yellow Submarine. Like most Beatles fans I bought it only for the Beatles tunes on Side A; I always skip the George Martin pieces on Side B.) In retrospect I suppose my friend’s predilection was not so unusual, since many of these soundtracks are just modern-day classical music, and I do listen to plenty of long-form classical pieces from long-dead composers.
Does anyone here seek out and listen to purely instrumental film soundtracks? Like, not just the catchy main themes, but the entire albums? If so, what’s the appeal for you, and which soundtracks or composers are your favourites?
I do from time to time. Lately, I’ve been listening to (and composing) a lot of classical music. I would not say I listen to entire albums though, but I rarely listen to entire albums of vocal music either. I only listen to the pieces I like. Even with classical music, I will skip things. For example, I listen to Beethoven’s 5th but only the 1st and 3rd movements.
The music needs to be distinctive in some way, usually melodic or with interesting orchestration. The modern school of film composition, where the composer is given a temp track of pre-existing music to emulate and produces a wall of music-flavored accompaniment in response (cf. the gaggle of Hans Zimmer acolytes and imitators), is therefore excluded.
I like Patrick Doyle, for example. His scores for Henry V and Dead Again are terrific and highly listenable. I also liked John Barry; his score for Dances with Wolves was great. And the old virtuosos like Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein are always worth a spin.
Of recent scores, I find myself going back to Mad Max Fury Road a fair bit. It’s more wall-of-noise than I typically prefer, but it has some real personality. (Doesn’t hurt that I also adore the movie.)
Oh, and one of my consistent go-tos at the moment is the Conan score by Poledouris. When I’m working at home and starting a task I know will be lengthy and difficult, the opening track energizes me, and then I settle down as the remaining tracks sustain the necessary effort. (His Red October score is also excellent, and gets occasional play.)
I do, although I should add that I also listen to excerpts/compilations from complete soundtracks.
I do this mostly because I like a particular track from the entire soundtrack and that makes me curious for the entire soundtrack, or also because someone recommended the soundtrack, or because I watched the movie and liked the music. I also listen to incidental music from TV-series. Admittedly I usually listen while also working, so maybe I do not listen in the sense you mean? Using it as background music actually seems to fit the original purpose of the music.
The availability of streaming facilitates this, as I am hesitant to purchase an entire soundtrack but can easily click in a streaming service.
The reason I listen to soundtracks is that the pieces I like are (in my opinion) actually good music, in the sense of pleasing and not trite, even if not groundbreakingly original. I’m interested in hearing the entire context and not merely the solitary piece.
What a fantastic idea. As befitting the seriousness of my (scientific) profession, the following will now serve as the usual soundtrack to my working day.
No, as much of it just seems like muzak to me. My oldest son and his wife, who are in their 50s, listen almost exclusively to soundtrack music, particularly from Marvel movies, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the like. I guess they can associate the music with the action going on in the films, as they also are obsessed with that genre. To each his own.
I have a pretty large soundtrack/score collection on CD. Back when I was making student movies in uni, I could drop bits of them into my shot-on-VHS student flicks. Nearly thirty years later, I find they’re great for either driving, or for studying/reading when lyrics would be distracting. Blade Runner, The Crow (Graeme Revell score album), a bunch of Eric Serra’s scores for Luc Besson films (especially the two-disc version of Le Grand Bleu) and Paris, Texas are some of my favorites.
Back in the day, I saw a music video for a track off the soundtrack from The Piano. I liked it, bought the album and discovered that, on the album, the same track was split between two or three places and not one four minute or so composition like in the video. That was disappointing and, although I still enjoyed the album overall, it was the start and end of my film instrumental soundtrack collection. Not that I’ve been tempted much; I prefer something I can sing along with.
I could say the same about “Gladiator”. I’ve got the DVD but haven’t bothered watching it for years. I also have the soundtrack CD by Hans Zimmer and listen to it every so often.
I have several on a playlist. I’m quite fond of The Human Stain, Battlestar Galactica, Antonia’s Line, Sixth Sense, and to a lesser extent Chocolat, all of which are good for when you’re doing the kind of work where lyrics are a distraction and catchy melodies a bit so as well, but mood music is perfect.
Frequently, and I have since I was a teenager. For me, they make great background music for reading, and we also often use them as background music for role-playing game sessions.
In addition to the soundtracks from all of the Star Wars movies (I know, you’re all surprised), some of my favorites are:
The Lord of the Rings soundtracks
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Mummy and The Mummy Returns (the Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz films)
The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.
A long time ago, in the 60’s, I had a vinyl album of movie music soundtracks. I remember now only some James Bond movie music, and the march music from Quo Vadis . I’ve always liked the common-man type of classical music (the highlights: Strauss waltzes, familiar bits from opera - yeah, ‘kill the wabbit, kill the wabbbbit!’)
There were a few ‘Hooked on Classics’ albums we enjoyed, short speeded up snippets jumping from one to the other. Only seconds long. It was like they picked out all the cherries from vats of fruit cocktail and put them all on one album.
I had the first of those albums; it was arranged by a guy named Louis Clark, who was also the arranger for the string sections on Electric Light Orchestra’s albums, so he seemed to have specialized in making classical-style music into pop music.
My favorite Philip Glass score is Candyman (the 1992 one), but sadly I don’t think it ever got its own proper CD release. I think the leitmotif pops up on horror compilations once and a while, but I’m not 100% certain of that.
Another lost one is Michael Been’s score for Light Sleeper, which does have a few vocal tracks but is mostly moody instrumentals. It exists, but they must have pressed about a dozen copies of it, as I’ve never once turned up a copy despite looking in several countries. Managed to download it years ago, though.
. I’ve always liked the common-man type of classical music (the highlights: Strauss waltzes, familiar bits from opera - yeah, ‘kill the wabbit, kill the wabbbbit!’)