Intrada Soundtrack Forum

I've been meaning to ask this for a while: what are some scores (or perhaps classical pieces) that you like which are clearly "acquired tastes?" Music which you don't listen to that often, but when you do, you want to clear out the cobwebs, or you want it to take you to a dark place, or you simply enjoy it more on an intense intellectual level, rather than emotional? (Or, put a different way, music that you will only listen to alone, because most people you know wouldn't necessarily like it.) It doesn't necessarily have to be atonal and dissonant, but just... unusual.

Off the top of my head:

1.) A Life in Suitcases (Borut Krzisnik) -- one of my favorite scores from last year. An extremely complex, densely-textured classical score that ranges from minimalism to tango. To me, this is addictive; I hear something new every time I listen to it.

2.) The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (Chris Slaski) -- another densely textured classical score for this weird independent film

3.) Ghost in the Shell (Kenji Kawaii) -- haunting and ambient

4.) The Cell (Howard Shore) -- intense music for madness

5.) Symphony #6: Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven (Glenn Branca) -- the first movement of this is a head-banging piece for drums and a dozen electric guitars, and it's dynamite

6.) Piano and String Quartet, Crippled Symmetry, Rothko Chapel, Why Patterns (Morton Feldman) -- extreme hypnotic minimalism

7.) Preparation for the Final Mystery (Alexander Scriabin) -- a visionary classical piece from the early 1900s

Other honorable mentions: Beltrami's The Omen, Goldsmith and Rosenmann's Planet of the Apes scores, Goldsmith's Mephisto Waltz, some of Chris Young's more experimental work (like The Vagrant), and of course, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

So, what's on your "difficult listening" playlist?

-- Jon

Xenakis.

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I'm an old cowhand ...

I picked up "A Life in Suitcases" about a month ago, and I can't stop listening to it. Absolutely fascinating music.

Back at ya later

Hey Jon, great topic! For me, the very first one I can think of is Goldsmith's PLANET OF THE APES. I played the LP initially having not seen the movie and I was left scratching my head when it was finished. Then some time later I saw the film and around the time the Apes first appeared -- you all know the moment -- my jaw was on the floor. After that, Goldsmith's APES score quicky rose to be one of my favorites. Of course it's hard to believe that "The Hunt" cue was not on the original LP, which fortunately was corrected on Intrada's 1992 CD release and Varese's subsequent expanded CD.

As far as Chris Young, you mentioned THE VAGRANT which is a great choice. But there's a piece of his called "Masses" which is on an old out-of-print Bay Cities CD (MAX AND HELEN) which I often played a lot with the lights out. Odd, odd stuff.

Also Horner's BRAINSTORM comes to mind. Time to give that score another listen!

-- Jeff

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