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MY FAVOURITE SOUNDTRACKS

Joel Wybrew

I’ve been looking forward to writing this one. Films and games are such cool storytelling mediums, and the soundtracks of a special few have profoundly enhanced their stories for me.


I’ve already mentioned soundtracks to The Lord of the Rings movies (“LOTR”), and Avatar: The Last Airbender (“ATLA”) in other posts. I will get into these, but there are others that also help comprise my favourite soundtracks. To be clear, I’m talking about soundtracks that have most immersed me in their respective worlds, emotionally impacted me, and stayed with me long after the credits have finished rolling. They're not in order, and they're not necessarily the ones I listen to the most currently.


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First off, Howard Shore’s score for LOTR. Shore’s work here is encyclopaedic for people studying the art of orchestral and/or cinematic writing, but it is more than that. When I think of Rohan, I do not just see it in my mind, I hear it. In fact, I hear it more clearly than I see it! When I think of epic fantasy, I hear the Fellowship’s theme. This score is on my favourites list not just for listenability (which it certainly has), but for being among the most effective examples of transporting me to another world.


Some of my earliest childhood memories are watching these films and hearing this music. Galadriel’s theme is such a dope tune, and one that is used so awesomely at the battle of Helm’s Deep. This melody played in my head while I fought imaginary Uruk-Hai in my backyard as a kid. Non-European instruments are used terrifically, albeit sparsely, throughout the music of LOTR, such as the Rhaita in Sauron’s theme. This is a big plus for me as I think there are a lot of wonderful musical colours beyond the borders of the European orchestra that are so worth exploring.


All in all, Howard has created something that is very dear to my heart, absurdly well-crafted, and worthy of much study. To play such a crucial part in creating a world so deep and vivid as Middle Earth is a high bar, and one that is reached stupendously. This soundtrack is also deeply personal to me for being one of two crucial scores that launched me into a love of composing.


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ATLA is my favourite show. It’s funny, develops deep characters over a grand and entertaining adventure, and has a lovely, distinct sense of identity. Jeremy Zuckerman’s music for the show represents all of this depth and joy in spades. To be honest, it’s actually a little difficult to even know where to begin with this one. The distinct identity of ATLA’s music is among its greatest strengths to me. In it, you’ll hear the guzheng, zither and hand percussion playing alongside Western orchestral instruments to create a fusion that totally works. Zuckerman’s use of kalimba for a love motif that plays occasionally throughout the show (and notably right at the end of the last episode) is also just lovely. In fact, all the leitmotifs – most famously Iroh’s, and also Azula’s, among several others – are very distinct and work so well with the spirit of their respective characters.


There is a vast array of emotions throughout the story of ATLA, with an abundance of playfulness, character tensions, love, danger, melancholy and grief, and the satisfaction of heroism from a character who undergoes one of pop culture’s best redemption arcs. The orchestration used to convey these many emotions and sometimes weave between them is superb. Particularly considering a lot of the soundtrack was achieved with MIDI instruments (due to budget constraints), I’m greatly impressed by the rich sonority and emotiveness of the music, without it being gratuitous or heavy-handed.


Perhaps my emotions with this work are more deeply tied in with my love for the show as a whole, but I don’t think I’m blinded to seeing a mediocre piece of art as exceptional; the work itself hits all the right notes, literally! From moments of action to meditation in the mountains, there is an artfulness to the music that works with the distinctively styled visuals. This creates a seamless cohesion that could easily have been missed with even perfectly good music. Jeremy Zuckerman continues his incredible musical collaboration with the Avatar team in the sequel series and that’s a whole other kettle of fish – brilliant, shining fish!


All sentiment aside, this soundtrack was an incredible achievement that resonated with many, many fans. So much so, that the fanbase's outcry for an officially released sountrack has finally been answered with an upcoming vinyl release. Great themes, great instrument choices, great emotiveness, great distinctiveness. I could go on, honestly, but I’ve said what I needed to.


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The Last of Us game made me cry more than once, and they wasn’t cheap tears – the game earned them. The soundtrack, likewise, in connection to this story, has brought tears to my eyes. There is something ineffible about how Gustavo Santaolalla puts the ache and the loss into this game’s score. The twitching strings sound so hollow and forlorn, much of it bearing a sound quality like that of rust, which feels so poignant for the post-apocalyptic setting. But when that main theme on the acoustic guitar plays, it’s the full swell of emotion, of an urging to survive and being afraid to think about all that could be grieved. It’s a masterfully done work, and even now I can hear the motif play in my head, and even now it makes my heart break. Santaolalla is a genius of tragedy.


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Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack for the video game Skyrim is one that shines for having such a particular sound and feel that it is instantly recognisable by fans. Sound-wise, it is largely understated, picking its moments to perk up and resound with a loud flourish of lush vocals and horns. Yet somehow, it doesn’t feel like the music is trying to fit the atmosphere of the game, but rather is itself a central pillar of is. Without Soule’s distinct touch on the impressively cohesive and yet easily distinguishable themes, Skyrim would be half the game it is. Perhaps less.


After the kinds of absurdly high praise I am giving to all of these scores, you might think I give praise easily, but this post is about my favourites, and Skyrim is just that. The entire global gaming world knows the main theme to the game – those grunting, shouting men are iconic now. But Kyne’s Peace, Ancient Stones and other pieces exhibit such delicious orchestration and sweet harmony whilst also providing excellent and memorable themes all at once. The timbre that Soule is able to bring out of the instruments is so bizarrely perfect, there's such a clean, lush, sweetness to the sound of its peaceful themes. And when percussion comes in to drive forth an action cue, it doesn't lean on exaggerated 'epic' hype, but tastefully blends with tense string staccatos and sheer quality of writing.


Skyrim is a ubiquitous title for more than one generation of gamers, and its score is unequivocally part of the reason for that, don’t fight me on this.


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I never cared for synths for a very long time. To some extent, that’s still true; I’m not a synth head. Without realising it, though, I was being wowed by them in scores and songs alike.

Enter: Hans Zimmer’s Dune.

I don't thing anyone has written anything quite like it.


It is everything a fan of the books could have hoped for and more. Composers, producers, and music students will be studying this soundtrack for years to come. The sound design feels beyond our world and yet somehow also grounded with just enough familiarity to keep everything feeling authentic and believable. It is chaos ordered with such meticulous care and skill that it’s borderline insanity. The beguiling percussive phrases, distorted vocal styles, bagpipe ensembles and electric guitar acting as bagpipes(!), completely new instruments, and custom synth patches by U-he made just for this score... all insanity. Musically, there are some really incredibly interesting things happening as well, so theory lovers have a deep trove of goodness to dig into.


To get a little more personal with what I’m on about, I really love the Dune soundtrack for breaking the mould of cinematic composing, which Hans is of course known for. No one writes like Hans - everyone tries, but none can do it like him. And the score is so effective; it punches you in the throat with grit, it creeps in with overlapping whispers to subvertly elevate tension. Humour me while I quote my own review of the film (from another blog that I am not linking here because it is somehow even more pretentiously written and now I feel weird about it):


[Dune has] a powerful and at times near-overwhelming soundscape and atmosphere of music... few people could deny the potency of the music Zimmer created for this story. It shone and smothered and struck me mercilessly. Hans Zimmer indeed shows his worthiness to be praised as a living legend of scoring.


You get the idea: Dune good.



If you’ve made it to the end here, you have my apologies and thanks for your time. In seriousness though, these 5 scores make a massive portion of my taste and creative influences, so I think I can be better understood as a composer and perhaps even person with an understanding of my relationship and history with these scores.

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