One of my all-time favorite movies is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I’ve seen the animated one from 1991 more times than I can count (I do like the live-action one, but I haven’t seen it enough times to accurately determine how much I like it). Belle is relatable, the songs are catchy, the animation is wonderful. […]
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This week I found work called “All of Them!”, part of the score for the 2004 movie King Arthur. It’s a wonderfully emotional bit of music (thanks to legendary film score composer Hans Zimmer); the opening features a melancholy line that develops into a battle-esque climax. Zimmer is known for his driving rhythmic percussion and soaring […]
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Today I’d like to share with you my “thinking music” playlist – music that has gotten me through hours of homework, studying, research, etc. It’s a mixture of film scores, ambient music, and more. Cascade by William Basinski: This is a wonderful example of simple electronic music that can be used for meditation. It’s quiet, understated, […]
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I found a new composer today named Marcos Balter. Born in 1974 in Brazil, he’s been a musician his whole life. Read more about him here. Balter’s compositional style is characteristic of 21st century composers in that it’s exploratory and unique. He makes new and colorful sounds through various extended techniques, unlikely instrumentation, and complex […]
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In 2014, the movie The Theory of Everything won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (it was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category). I don’t normally pay attention to those sorts of things, but I was intrigued by the composer – Icelandic musician Jóhann Jóhannsson – so I looked up the score. […]
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Yes, that’s right. Beethoven and Star Wars. What do they have in common? This post will explore that very question, but I am not going to explain the correlation until you have a little bit of background, so stay with me. First, a brief history of Ludvig van Beethoven – pianist and composer extraordinaire. A […]
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