By happenstance I came across a terrible Charles Band-produced B-movie from the late 80's called TRANSFORMATIONS recently. I was immediately struck by the score, which is big, orchestral, highly varied and as a result - combined with a lack of a composer credit at the onset - made me surmise that this film was probably spotted with library cues. Lo and behold, come the end credits, I see a tag reading "Music Scoring by Associated Production Music".
There's a recurring love theme that sounds a LOT like an Alfi Kabiljo composition, esp. the love theme from SCISSORS. I can't help but wonder if some of the music is his.
There are two pieces that, in particular, really interest me: The opening and closing title cues.
The opening title is an exciting piece with rhythm-setting woodwinds performing over a long-lined string/brass motif. The main title can be found here:
And then there's the end title, which is a wonderful, ravishing, faintly melancholy theme for piano and orchestra. Though the video calls this piece a love theme, it is not sued in the film as such, and is only heard during the end title. I've had this piece stuck in my head for weeks and I'm dying to know who composed it"
Alternatively, you could look for composers working at APM during the time the film was releases, and simply e-mail them (if you can find a way to contact each), and provide the linsk and ask.
Here's a quick list to possibly get your started:
John Cacavas (unfortunately he's gone now, but maybe somebody at his estate answers his e-mail still) Harry Edwards Jonathan Jans Johnny Sedona
Also, you might want to try and reach the music supervisor for the film: Jonathan Bogner (he's also a producer, so you might have to hunt him down that way)
Alternatively, you could look for composers working at APM during the time the film was releases, and simply e-mail them (if you can find a way to contact each), and provide the linsk and ask.
Here's a quick list to possibly get your started:
John Cacavas (unfortunately he's gone now, but maybe somebody at his estate answers his e-mail still) Harry Edwards Jonathan Jans Johnny Sedona
Also, you might want to try and reach the music supervisor for the film: Jonathan Bogner (he's also a producer, so you might have to hunt him down that way)
Funny you should mention all of this - I did in fact email Bogner months ago (no response) and Jay Kamen, the director, who stated that post on the film was taken out of his hands and he has no idea who the composers involved were.
I searched for all the composers you mentioned above fairly exhaustively and alas, no dice. It DOES sound like it *could* be a Cacavas composition a little, both of them...
I emails APM music again, here's hoping for an answer before too long!
The opening title is an exciting piece with rhythm-setting woodwinds performing over a long-lined string/brass motif. The main title can be found here:
Wow! Thank you so much! That whole album is fantastic. I'd never even heard of that composer. Shame none of this is on iTunes, as a lot of EMI library music can be found there now. Well, now half the battle is done, now I just need to find out how on earth to track down the album!
I searched through the KPM and APM libraries for this piece as well, using a wide variety of search terms and filters, but came up empty. It almost sounds like a piece from a 60s or 70s European film, or even something by Christopher Young. I'm probably way off...
I searched through the KPM and APM libraries for this piece as well, using a wide variety of search terms and filters, but came up empty. It almost sounds like a piece from a 60s or 70s European film, or even something by Christopher Young. I'm probably way off...
It strikes my ear as sounding very "British" especially, and yes, indeed it sounds like it's definitely not written with use in a horror film in mind, though the twice-heard fanfare in the middle and at the end definitely sounds like it'd be right at home in a sci-fi or gothic melodrama.
It almost has a Trevor Jones-ian quality in the lyrical string writing, and I know it's been mentioned that he DID write some library music in the 80's. I wonder...? Probably a stretch, I'm sure as with the former piece you identified, it's by a composer I'm completely unfamiliar with.
Cant's stop listening to Hymas' album. What a talent. And finally listening to that exhilarating "Spirit of Achievement" in excellent sound quality is a huge revelation for me. Once again a thousand thanks!
It amazes me how much incredible music is out there still, waiting to be unearthed...
Knew it must have been an english composer; Who'd have thought it would be an Oscar nominated one?
What's your method for searching? I've been on the hunt for both these pieces for almost a full year, so clearly you're doing something far more intelligent than I am!
What's your method for searching? I've been on the hunt for both these pieces for almost a full year, so clearly you're doing something far more intelligent than I am!
It ultimately comes down to brute force sampling, after utilizing the tag filters based on instrumentation, era, year of release, etc. Knowing an approximate length of the track can be helpful as well. In the case of the end title, I filtered on piano, release date up to the end of 1988, sorted by length, and then started sampling tracks no longer than 4:18 (the length of the YouTube video) until I hit the right track.
While it didn't apply in this case, I also initially check to see if it's a piece by composer Richard Harvey from the KPM music library. 60% to 70% of the time, it is. His music is/was used quite frequently in promos, trailers, commercials, documentaries, etc., with "Reach for the Stars" possibly being his most known piece: https://search.apmmusic.com/#albums/KPM-0001 (track 1). For years, this piece eluded me, until a fellow FSMer (Ed Kattak) finally id'ed it for me from a space-oriented documentary film titled DESTINATION: UNIVERSE (thanks, Ed!!).
This track had grabbed my attention as underscore for an extended promo for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series that appeared at the start of a RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK VHS tape that I had gotten at McDonald's back in the early 90s, and as music heard outside of a motion simulator ride at Santa's Enchanted Forest in Miami. Others may recognize the theme, for better or worse, from the Handi-Man sketches seen on the TV show In Living Color.
Just wanted to write that this is an excellent thread and thank you thx99 for finding the Hymas and Cameron tracks, which I'd never heard before ("Transformations" is one of the very few Empire Pictures productions I didn't see while in elementary/middle school) and thank you bobbengan for starting the thread. Both are lovely pieces indeed.
And thx99, thank you very much for the bit about the Richard Harvey piece. I remember hearing that all the time throughout the 90s, particularly in promos/commercials on the Sci-Fi Channel (I seem to recall it being used for ads about "Seaquest DSV," in particular) and I always wondered where it was from (I think I always assumed that it was from a TV show). As you wrote, it was ubiquitous for a long time. But at some point it stopped being used at I hadn't heard it in over a decade before this thread (though I had probably heard it 1000 times growing up so I know it by heart). I have to assume it stopped being used once that early 1980s John Williams sound went out of fashion. Most of the time when I see an ad today that calls for "heroic" or "cinematic" music, it's in the Zimmer/Pirates style (not my cup of tea).
Ha! I actually own that piece of music; The album it's from ("Fantasia", a 40 min. CD full of Richard Harvey compositions) is one of the few library music CDs I actually own. I also have his "Lifecycles" which is also very good. Both are performed by the Royal Philharmonic if I recall correctly.
Man, I can't stop listening to all of this stuff. I thought library music was supposed to have a generic wallpaper quality to it? This stuff is cut from a very different mold.
I've been exploring the music of Tony Hymas in particular and find his work incredibly evocative. Some utterly fascinating extended techniques and lyrical impressionistic tonalities are explored in a lot of his nature-oriented music, more akin to John Scott's wondrous musical evocations of nature heard in his Cousteau and Jules Verne scores than the more straightforward nature scoring of, say, George Fenton. Very impressive to say the least.
And I could listen to that 'Romantic Concert' endlessly. I just adore that piece of music and its evocative, hypnotic central theme. It deserves a longer form to explore its melodic nature.
Man, I can't stop listening to all of this stuff. I thought library music was supposed to have a generic wallpaper quality to it? This stuff is cut from a very different mold.
Couldn't agree more! There is some amazing library music out there, just waiting to be discovered.
Richard Harvey is my personal favorite, which should be no surprise based on my post above regarding "Reach for the Stars". That cue launched me into a listening binge of Harvey's music, and there are a number of fantastic releases of his music primarily from the KPM library, including the following just to name a few:
Man, I can't stop listening to all of this stuff. I thought library music was supposed to have a generic wallpaper quality to it? This stuff is cut from a very different mold.
Couldn't agree more! There is some amazing library music out there, just waiting to be discovered.
Richard Harvey is my personal favorite, which should be no surprise based on my post above regarding "Reach for the Stars".
Really digging FANTASIA 2, which I don't have nor had ever heard - Thanks for sharing! He's got a very good voice for the kind of bustling, Respighi/Ravel-inspired orchestral sweep that his fellow Brit Trevor Duncan embodied in the generation of prior "library" composers.
It almost sounds like a piece from a 60s or 70s European film, or even something by Christopher Young. I'm probably way off... 
