The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer
Natasha Richardson wasn’t in Love Actually, but her husband, Liam Neeson, was, and in that film he played a role he can now sadly play in real life: a bereaved husband.
From Love Actually, here is the Glasgow Love Theme, by composer Craig Armstrong. You can ignore the slideshow of images from the film; I selected this clip because the sound is better than some others.
Sigh….
Something a bit different for today. Celestial Navigations is a group that does music and storytelling, featuring actor Geoffrey Lewis doing the spoken-word bits. Here’s a selection of theirs, “The Winner”.
Since this week I’ve seen a whole bunch of instances of blogs with much higher traffic than mine commenting on things I’d commented on days before, with my teeny-tiny traffic, this particular selection’s been on my mind.
I ain’t makin’ a move, I ain’t sayin’ a word…until somebody links me!
The day before yesterday would have been the 80th birthday of film composer Jerry Goldsmith, who passed away in 2004. I’m a big admirer of Goldsmith’s work, and note the occasion of his 80th with a remarkable cue he wrote for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This is heard during the scene where Admiral Kirk flies to the Enterprise for the first time, early in the movie; it’s basically five minutes of looking at a starship. But what a starship she is, and with music like this, well….
For a taste of what Goldsmith at his height could bring to the table in terms of action scoring, here is what is, for me, the single best action cue he ever wrote (and he wrote a lot of ’em). It’s “Raisuli Attacks”, from The Wind and the Lion:
There are actually two cues here, put together: the second is “Guest of Raisuli”, which begins at about the 3:12 mark. It’s a delicate statement of the film’s gorgeous love theme. I listened to this score for years before I saw the movie, and I was a bit disappointed, I must admit, when I finally saw the actual action scene “Raisuli Attacks” underscores. Hearing that music initially, I pictured a pitched battle of Ragnarokian scale. It’s not, at all. I got over it; The Wind and the Lion is really a terrific film.
I’ve always been of the opinion that Goldsmith’s output after around 1990 or so dropped off in quality a bit, but he still had an amazing career, and I think his music tended to get lost in the shuffle a lot because, unlike John Williams, Goldsmith tended to end up scoring, for lack of a better term, bad movies that are mostly forgotten except for their wonderful Goldsmith scores. Anyway, Goldsmith left behind a giant legacy in film music.
A beautiful theme from the film Princess Mononoke, composed by the masterful Joe Hisaishi. Here’s “Ashitaka and San”.
Ashitaka And San – Joe Hisaishi
Enjoy.
Warning: this is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. It was featured on an episode of A Prairie Home Companion, and…well, it’s sad.
Here’s Suzy Bogguss and “In Heaven”.
Sigh….
Been a few weeks, owing to the holidays…but here is a small snippet of Howard Shore’s towering Lord of the Rings music: “The Road Goes Ever On, part two” from The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Road Goes Ever On… Pt. 2 – Featuring “In Dreams” – Howard
I always get in the mood for those movies around this time of year…maybe the New Year makes me feel like the Dawning of an Age or something….
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, played by Hilary Hahn. Pure magic. Here’s The Lark Ascending (it’s in two parts):
The first time I heard this work was at a performance in Buffalo by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. I went to that concert because they were going to be playing Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, after this thing by RVW that I’d never heard before. This piece rocked my world, though. I think I held my breath for the entire work, for fear that my respiration would break the gossamer tapestry the violinist and the orchestra were creating that night….
