Years ago, back when my Dear Wife and I lived in Arizona, we saw film composer Jerry Goldsmith conduct an evening of his music with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. Now, more than 25 years later, I still think about what an incredible evening it was hearing his music and the stories behind it.
Jerry Goldsmith’s music from Star Trek
And from Chinatown – which I consider his masterpiece of scoring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=aOSxC_HFAKo
Great scores by composers like Goldsmith, James Horner, Michael Giacchino, and – of course – John Williams are such a key part of so many movies that I love. Lately at the gym I’ve been watching movies with isolated scores – that is, with no dialog or sound effects, just the music. And in many cases this is with a more complete score by the composer, much of which didn’t make it into the finished film.
I got interested in looking for these when it was announced that Star Wars: The Last Jedi would have an isolated soundtrack as an online bonus feature where there would be no sound effects, no dialog (and no subtitles), just the soaring John Williams score. That got me interested to see how many movies I own copies of that have an isolated score.
John Williams conducting the Star Wars fanfare.
So far I’m working my way through science fiction/horror movies with Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien, James Horner’s Aliens, and John Williams Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And while Dunkirk does not offer an isolated soundtrack, one might come close to arguing that the movie as shown in the theater has an isolated soundtrack. (For those of you who haven’t seen it, Christopher Nolan’s movie about the World War II boat lift has very little dialog and Hans Zimmer score that is a major part of the movie’s storytelling.)
James Horner on writing the score for Star Trek II – The Wrath of Kahn
And here is the complete soundtrack for Wrath of Kahn
Watching a familiar film this way is an interesting experience. Seeing the movie as essentially a silent film forces you to focus on the visual storytelling within it, along with the score.
Take a look at the movies you own as DVDs, Blu Ray or digital downloads. You might be surprised how many have an isolated score audio track, or even a composer’s original score track.
Take a step back and just watch and listen to the movie and its music. You might be surprised at what a great experience it is and how much more you will discover.