> > Liz'The theme music to "Jurassic Park" is very cool...ohh and The "Truman Show"'zie
>

The Jurassic Park soundtrack R0xx0R!!!!!11 I particularly enjoy it when i'm driving down the road in rain. It was composed for that mood, i think.

> Agreed. Although I'm of the opinion that Jurassic Park is one of John William's lesser works (his "greater" works being soundtracks such as Star Wars, Indy Jones, Superman, and more--the list could go on and on) I still think that just about any music written by him is worth owning.
>

*sigh*

John Williams' popularity (though i do not doubt that he s an accomplished and intelligent musician) seems mostly due to movie work which is HARDLY original. He has, quite frankly, ripped most of his recognizable themes (e.g., Superman & most of Star Wars) from the likes of Gustavus von Holst (Mars, the Bringer of War = Vader's March), Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, and other great Romantic composers.

I enjoy Williams' work as much as anyone else, i just hate knowing hordes of people think he is that innovative. His work is good, in that he quotes excellent sources, then doesn't manipulate the themes enough to make them much more than remotely his own, barely distinct from the original work.
I loved the music for Episode One, bought the soundtrack, but i wasn't very surprised when i later found that Duel of the Fates (high point of said soundtrack IMHO) is merely a rip-off of the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem.

And he's quite capable of innovative work, if he'd do it more often (e.g., he wrote the minimalist theme for NBC's The Today Show).

>
> I don't care much for modern symphonic musical trends. Discord and cacophany is not music in my book, it's simply, well, discord and cacophany.

Careful how you say that--even some of Beethoven's later work dabbled in atonality. Pinpointing where such trends started is really difficult, but rest assured that the most disfunctional-sounding stuff came out of the World War