Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Recommended Film Scores

Bob Kauflin, the Worship Director for Covenant Life Church and Sovereign Grace Ministries studies while listening to film scores. He sites that though film scores don’t always make good reading/studying music, they typically are purely instrumental so they are less distracting to focused studies. I thought his recommendations were interesting so thought I would pass them on.

Here are ten of Bob's favorites, in no particular order:
Flyboys (Trevor Rabin) - beautiful, grand and majestic. Lush orchestrations.
Tuck Everlasting (William Ross) - folksy at times, more organic. One of the most peaceful songs I've ever heard is "Winnie and Tuck"
Amistad (John Williams) - dark at times, contains some choral stuff, but it's in another language and wonderfully joyful. "The Long Road to Justice" contains one of the most hauntingly beautiful trumpet solos I've heard.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Thomas Newman) - great variety, creative string arrangements combined with synthesizer sequencing. "The Letter that Never Came" is simple, beautiful, and moving.
Rudy (Jerry Goldsmith) - a little short, a little repetitious, but stunningly beautiful melodies.
Cinderella Man (Thomas Newman) - Newman is very gifted with strings and moving melodies. This CD contains a number of jazz tunes from the 30's. I leave them off my I-tunes. This is a movie I've seen and recommend, especially for the example of marital commitment between Jim Braddock and his wife.
Dreamer (John Debney) - The main theme is repeated throughout, but again, it's beautiful and worth hearing a number of times. A Bethany Dillon song is included at the end.
Little Women (Thomas Newman) - Vintage Thomas Newman. Very enjoyable soundtrack.
Pride and Prejudice (Jean-Yves Thibaudet) - classically influenced, piano and strings throughout, nice variety. "The Secret Life of Daydreams" is beautiful.
Searching for Bobby Fisher (James Horner) - This is one of my favorite family movies (for kids 11 and older) and the music is excellent.

(HT: Worshipmatters)

    3 comments:

    Unknown said...

    I always listen to soundtracks when I study, too. Some more for the list: Shine, Gladiator, and these wonderful cd's I got from Barnes&Noble a few years back called Movie Adagios, vol. 1&2. I use these for writing and doing my devos, too!

    Scott Sterner said...

    Cool Jenna. I don't know why I never thought of listening to film scores while doing devos or studying. Anyone else have some film score recommendations?

    Jason Kanz said...

    I have been trying to post this for days, so I apologize for the delay.

    For me, it would have to be Horner's "Braveheart" soundtrack. This piece can literally bring me to tears. It illicits so much emotion.