Cinemusic.net is new again

After some furious work, the newly redesigned Cinemusic.net is online. This blog will function as an archive of soundtrack news, etc. from the past year. Please visit the new site and say "Hi".

Oscar noms for Music categories in

Music (Score)
Babel - Gustavo Santaolalla
The Good German - Thomas Newman
Notes On A Scandal - Philip Glass
Pan's Labyrinth - Javier Navarette
The Queen - Alexandre Desplat

Music (Song)
"I Need To Wake Up" - An Inconvenient Truth
"Listen" - Dreamgirls
"Love You I Do" - Dreamgirls
"Our Town" - Cars
"Patience" - Dreamgirls

Score one for the team

The once-solitary job of film scoring is becoming a collaborative effort.
By Jeff Bond
Jan 5, 2007

(via The Hollywood Reporter) As most filmmakers will attest, making movies is an immensely collaborative process. While producers, directors and writers often end up getting the lion's share of the credit when a film succeeds, the reality is that great movies are never the work of one person. The same cannot be said of film scoring. The life of a film composer is frequently a solitary one, with weeks, months and sometimes years spent painstakingly writing and rewriting the cues and themes that can bring a movie to life.

Lately, however, the traditional view of a film composer slaving away all by his or her lonesome has changed, and it's more and more common to see multiple composers on a movie receive screen credit, whether they start out as composing teams or when extra hands are brought in to help out late in the process.

This year boasts a number of high-profile collaborations, some between composers and artists who might be considered outside the music world altogether -- namely, directors. Read more...

Thinking in Colors and Textures, Then Writing in Music

By JON BURLINGAME
Published: January 7, 2007
(From The New York Times)

The trouble with Hollywood film scores these days is that so many sound as if you have heard them before. That’s less the fault of composers than of directors, who commonly prescore their films with temporary music during editing, then frequently expect the final score to emulate that “temp track.” So originality, when it occurs, can be startling, as when American audiences first heard the enchanting waltzes of Girl With a Pearl Earring in 2003, or the fairy-tale flutes and surging orchestral drama of Birth in 2004.

Both scores were the work of Alexandre Desplat, a 45-year-old Paris composer who also scored Syriana in 2005. His music for The Queen and The Painted Veil has raised his name as a potential Oscar nominee this season.

He wrote and recorded the score for The Queen in just three weeks, after Stephen Frears, the film’s director, decided another composer’s score wouldn’t work. “The first thing I said to Stephen was, ‘It’s very tricky,’ ” Mr. Desplat said on a recent visit to Los Angeles. “You can’t go too dark, too suspenseful, too funny or too sweet. What I felt was necessary was music with some grandeur and elegance, but still wit. It’s a witty movie.” Read more (subscription req'd)...

"Movie and music: It's a package deal"

Director Tom Tykwer knows the score -- because he wrote it. His latest film is "Perfume."
By Richard Knight Jr., Chicago Tribune

"There are a lot of renowned collaborations between film directors and their favorite composers — Steven Spielberg and John Williams, Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, Tim Burton and Danny Elfman. But it's rare to find a film director who also serves as his own composer. Clint Eastwood is one; another is German-born director Tom Tykwer, whose latest movie, "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," opened in L.A. last week". Read more...

2006 "Best Music" Awards (so far...)

Chicago Film Critics:
The Fountain - Clint Mansell

Phoenix Film Critics ("Best Use of Music"):
Dreamgirls - Various

San Diego Film Critics:
Babel - Gustavo Santaolalla

Las Vegas Film Critics:
The Good German - Thomas Newman

The Black Reel Awards:
Best Original Score
Akeelah and the Bee - Aaron Zigman
Dreamgirls - Harvey Mason, Jr. and Damon Thomas
Idlewild - Antwan Andre Patton
Inside Man - Terrence Blanchard
Something New - Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin

Satellite Awards:
Babel - Gustavo Santaolalla

Critics' Choice Awards ("Best Soundtrack" & "Best Composer"):
Babel
Cars
Dreamgirls
Happy Feet
Marie Antoinette

Philip Glass - The Illusionist
Clint Mansell - The Fountain
Thomas Newman - The Good German
Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel
Howard Shore - The Departed
Hans Zimmer - The Da Vinci Code

Los Angeles Film Critics:
The Painted Veil and The Queen - Alexandre Desplat

New York Film Critics Online:
The Illusionist - Philip Glass

Annie Awards (Animation):
The Ant Bully - John Debney
Bah Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas - Gordon Goodwin
A Monkey’s Tale - Laura Karpman
Cars - Randy Newman
Ice Age: The Meltdown - John Powell

THR: 'Clef Notes'

"Clef Notes", an interesting article from The Hollywood Reporter (appearing way back in November) on this year's scores predicted to get an Oscar push. Read more...