Echoing Geronimo_Jehoshaphat before me, VERY underrated composer. While I do love a couple of his earlier scores (specifically "The Dark Crystal") I really feel like he reached his peak in the '90s-'00s with "Gulliver's Travels," "Merlin," and "Dinotopia." They are the three Jones scores I go back to the most often, and they work so well with the style of Hallmark's miniseries at the time - "Dinotopia" the miniseries is definitely, in my opinion, the weakest of the three (I mean, basically NONE of its main characters are likeable, for different reasons) I still enjoy watching it, but probably a big part of that is because of the score. That felt like such a sort of magical time in my childhood, that decade where Hallmark was really getting into big, adventurous (and ambitious) miniseries events; I remember waiting anxiously every year for an announcement of what they're next project would be, and then my sister and I would watch them as they premiered and record them on VHS, then watch all of them almost every Summer - while Jones didn't score ALL of them, even the others had superb scores by their respective composers; Richard Harvey's "Arabian Nights" makes such beautiful use of classic "Middle Eastern" harmonic/double harmonic scales; Anne Dudley excelled (in my opinion) with "The 10th Kingdom"; Rupert Gregson-Williams' phenomenal harp piece in "Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story"; and Ralf Wienrich did a really great job of channeling the classic "Williamsian"/Indiana Jones feel with his score for "Coronado" (though some of it does border on "plagiaristic," but it's still a fun listen and homage). So many great scores during that period of time where Hallmark was churning out these mega-production miniseries.
*The* Master Scorer -- and few people seem to grasp why: because of the thematic synergy that he bestowed on almost every film that he scored, for the sake of helping to reflect upon and convey the spiritual essence of a movie at every turn. Architecturally, the anti-Steiner, the anti-Korngold, the anti-Williams -- Jerry sought to tie everything together musically rather than dissect it apart, to complement the organic nature of a picture. A movie is a total, relational whole -- so, Jerry astutely reasoned, its score should be too.
I love Jerry's composing. This is the first time I've seen him conducting a session. I'm left feeling bewildered. Jerry could have done so much more than simply 'beat time' to such incredible musical emotions he has already put his heart into. The musicians already work with a click track; show them what you want them to...feel. Side observation: If you are the composer and conductor for a major recording se$$ion, why are you stopping for "shouldn't this be marked 'p'?" when it can be so very easily directed?
Great interview by the late great Jerry goldsmith! Just got through listening to my very treasured CD of this soundtrack and like always im blown away by the power of it's beauty!!
Such an original score, the theme for Norman Bates is eerily moving. Goldsmith is amazing at revealing the psychological elements of a film, I miss him greatly.
@@Tony-gq9yt Maybe it's become cliche because of the film, and i certainly didn't think they were cliche or overrated as a kid, in fact it made me more interested in music and excited to discover these pieces outside of the film. I think Kubrick's choices heightened the film into a sort of cosmic phenomenon, whereas if he used North's score it would have been just a good film. Opinions, of course. And North's score certainly deserves praise and attention, and makes for a very interesting alternative viewing.
