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Still can't find a retailer that has it available.
Anybody?
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The subject of Father Kolbe seems to bring out the best in composers. Wojciech Kilar's requiem is further testament.
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"C) The guy on the left side of the cover looks a bit like JNH"
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Haha. My first thought too!
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just listening to "max and me"...simply beautiful.
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Posted: |
Mar 15, 2018 - 11:16 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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I've listened to this a few times through and have debated how I wanted to contribute meaningfully to the conversation. I have mixed feelings about most of Mark Mckenzie's post-2000 scoring, including this, and here's why:
It's beautiful and thematic. There's more heart and sincerity in the music than in all of [insert Zimmerian Music Sequence Composer #25672981-3]'s entire career output. Inarguable.
It's also very... Simple and obvious. The melodies, harmonies and orchestrations aren't as richly imagined or creative as I tend to now like my film scores. When listening to this score I constantly found my mind filling in lines of harmonious counterpoint that would make the music shine with greater inspiration and originality, while maintaining the lofty spirit integral to the emotional tone of his music.
I think the truth with Mckenzie is that his sense of orchestration and counterpoint is, for my taste, too simple and obvious (ironic, I guess you might say, given him background as an orchestrator for other composers). His melodies are usually of a very high quality (sometime magnificent even) but the supporting harmonic development and sense of orchestrational creativity isn't really up to the task (in my opinion) and keeps the music feeling somehow too simplistic when it didn't need to be. It's just not his style to engage the full ensemble with lots of contrapuntal activity I guess, even though we know he CAN orchestrate like that when he so desire (BLIZZARD is brazenly colorful and florid, just how I like my "beautiful" music to be) but he usually shies away from that sound - in my opinion to the detriment of his music, which just begs for the full vitality that composers like Williams, John Scott and others imbue their music with. It heightens and enriches the listening experience.
The last cue of MAX AND ME is an exception to this. Rolling string lines, grand contrapuntal brass playing broad counter melody to the choir, chatting trumpets over big chords in the organ - feels inspired, exuberant, and full of life. While I understand the rest of the score builds to this moment so it's grandness feels "earned", at the same time I can't help but wish at least a little more creativity went into the music leading up to it.
What I really miss from Mckenzie is his earlier, more muscular stuff. FRANK AND JESSE, WARLOCK: THE ARMAGEDDON, BLIZZARD and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA are much more interesting efforts, with a richer harmonic vocabulary and more variety in the orchestrations, while maintaining the high level of melodic beauty he's known for. Those were inspired efforts that I love and listen to frequently - but his later music (especially the Hallmark stuff) is just too... Simple, light, obvious and incidental.
MAX AND ME is definitely more dramatically potent than those Hallmark efforts, but it's still a far cry from the resounding harmonic splendor some of the aforementioned titles afforded the listener.
But then again, I'm sure all these obscure faith-based things he's scoring are also "simple, light, obvious and incidental" fils unto themselves as well, so there's always that...
I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with this sentiment, and probably rightly so since I'm projecting my own tastes onto how I wish Mckenzie penned that score as opposed to judging it on its own existing merits. I hate to in any way disparage a melodic and thematic score with a big heart in such dark purgatorial for that type of music... But I also expect a lot from a composer this gifted and it's frustrating to hear an effort that's sincere but doesn't seem to push him creatively to deliver something transportive and brilliant, when we know he CAN do that/
I'll listen a few more and see if my opinion changes.
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I know exactly what you mean, re: much of McKenzie's work. It's lovely, well written and orchestrated, but doesn't have the depth I need to sustain repeat listens. Even Durango (one of his most popular scores) I was playing again recently and I got tired of it with the exception of perhaps one theme. Just not enough interesting stuff going on to hold my attention. I too feel a bit bad saying so, but I wanted to back you up since I know it took some guts to post that opinion.
Yavar
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I just wish he'd picked up the habit of using more unusual harmonies and such (instruments, time signatures, etc.) from his time spent working with Jerry Goldsmith.  Even Goldsmith scores I'm not wild about tend to reveal more with repeat listens. That's what I mean by depth -- not everything is there to absorb on the first listen. Same definitely goes for my other favorite composers like Alfred Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Basil Poledouris, Elmer Bernstein, Roy Webb, etc. Certainly true of the best works by today's masters as well (ie. Howard Shore, James Newton Howard, of course practically everything by John Williams and Ennio Morricone...)
I agree those three McKenzie scores you posted YouTube samples from are among his more re-listenable works, and I'm glad I have them in my collection. I do also like Blizzard, but I think I'm a bit more forgiving of festive Christmas scores going for the obvious.
Yavar
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