John Beal Music MP3s

John Beal was, before he moved on to other things, a prolific arranger of film music, usually “homages” for use in movie trailers. His two cd collection of trailer music Coming Soon is out of print now but readily available used. Recently I discovered Amazon has a collection of some of his trailer music and score arrangements available for download. These include in particular arrangements made from the Judge Dredd trailer and the Basic Instinct theme, both written originally by the late great Jerry Goldsmith and featured frequently in 1990s film trailers.

Also of note, especially this close to Veterans Day, is Beal’s military service. He is an inactive US Marine and Vietnam veteran.

If You Like Horror Movie Music….

You now have a one stop four CD or 600+ megabyte mp3 collection available from Silva Screen Records: The Definitive Horror Music Collection.

This collection is a virtual history of horror film music, going back as far as Nosferatu(1922) and Bride of Frankenstein to as recent as Twilight and Drag Me to Hell (2009).

If that isn’t enough, you can also get an excellent two CD mp3 download of Gothic goodness: Hammer: The Studio that Dripped Blood, from Silva or Amazon. This album benefits immensely from majoring on the music of James Bernard, who was a far better classically- trained composer than one might expect from Hammer horror films. The film music here ranges from the classic Dra-cu-la theme to the heady mix of thundering and ethereal in The Devil Rides Out to She and Creatures the World Forgot.

Download then, and shiver for Halloween!

Music Resources- Yet Another Link List

Four lists down the right sidebar you will see the addition of five music stores in their own grouping. That’s three mp3 stores, one classical music review site (alas, where did you go, Gramophone?), and one soundtrack CD specialty store.

Amazon serves most of my music needs (and books, and movies, and….), but sometimes you have hit the specialists.

Christmas Comes Sooner Than You Think

Well, at Wal*Mart anyway. They’ve already started putting out Christmas music. Obviously they are not followers of any sort of church calendar. Or even most secularists’ calendar, either, who are still stuck on Halloween. Or as Southern Baptists call it, “Fall Festival”.

Since the bible publishers aren’t putting out any revised editions this year, I don’t have an easy Christmas gift for the family (Dagnabit, Roy!). I guess it’s good I get a reminder to start shopping early.

My taste in Christmas music runs to the classical and sacred, as I documented last year here. Those albums(?) are all on my hard drive still, so I can listen to Christmas music all year round, should I choose. Which, come to think of it, isn’t a bad idea.

Speaking of music….

Useless Entertainment Roundup

So I finished reading Eight Lives Down(salty language alert!) and The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament. Two thumbs up for both.

Seeing as we are studying Psalms this new quarter in Sunday School, I’ve taken up Emmanuel Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible again. It doesn’t seem so scary as last time.

I’m still on my Japanese jidaigeki kick in DVDs, but I’m about to switch over to the two Ghost in the Shell tv series.The two newest American Doctor Who releases are about to reach my door. And I’m contemplating an episode a day of Discovery Channel’s A Haunting in preparation for Halloween.

Oh, and did I mention I hanker to listen to some Celtic fiddle again? Amazon MP3 has quite a selection.

Now, how will I find time to work and do Sunday School notes with all this going on?

In the Mail, Yet Again

Thanks to the generous contribution of an Amazon gift certificate from Nick Norelli, I was encouraged earlier this week to order two more collections of patristic excerpts:

The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Olivier Clement and Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary by Tomas Spidlik.

I say two more because I recently purchased Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church and They Still Speak: Readings for the Lesser Feasts, both by J. Robert Wright, along with a faded copy of The Desert Fathers by Benedicta Ward.

I purchased these readings collections assuming that they were better intros to the church fathers than trying to dive into those thirty-eight or more volumes, since a tour by a knowledgeable guide should teach more and better than being self-taught, as it were.

Nick’s gift certificate was originally intended to fund the purchase of Paolo Pandolfo’s new cd of Carl Friedrich Abel ’s viola da gamba works, The Drexel Manuscript. I am happy to report it is already available for download from classicsonline for less than half the cost of the cd. Would that Susanne Heinrich’s Mr. Abel’s Fine Airs was also so available. The two cds feature much the same music, but in very different performances, making them intriguing comparative listening.

So thanks to Nick for his gift certificate, and if you are looking for good classical music or an intro into the Church Fathers, give some of these a try.

Christmas Music- The Goulablogger Selection

For those who need hints on what to listen to or for those who want to know I am nearby during the Holy Days, here is my standard selection of Christmas music, courtesy of the Amazon mp3 store:

John Rutter:

1. Candlelight

2. Carols from Clare

3. Christmas Night

4. Christmas Star

5. The Holly and the Ivy

6. The John Rutter Christmas Album

Early and Victorian Christmas Music:

7. A Medieval Christmas Feast

8. The Carol Album

9.  Christus Natus Est

Anonymous 4

10. Christmas From Medieval Hungary

11. On Yoolis Night

The Christmas Revels

12. Christmas Revels

13. Victorian Christmas Revels

Of course, if these don’t float your boat, Amazon MP3 has an entire Holiday MP3 Store for you to choose from. Personally I would stick to the Classical and Traditional selections. The prices are good, and the ability to listen to clips and read reviews before you buy is even better!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

So You Like Your Music Loud? Trailer Music for You

I’m talking about the thunderous bass, brass, and screaming chorus made popular by modern action movies scored by Remote Control Productions (formerly known as MediaVentures), whose most famous composer and stylistic godfather is Hans Zimmer.

So if you’ve worn out your CDs of _The Rock_, _Peacemaker_, _Gladiator_, _Pirates of the Carribean_, _Batman Begins_, _The Dark Knight_,  _Transformers: the Score_ and even the multi-CD _LOTR_ soundtracks (to name just a few),  I give you new albums to try:

Position Music- Orchestral Series Vol. 1 by Tom Salta

Position Music- Orchestral Series Vol. 2 by James Dooley

Position Music- Orchestral Series Vol. 3 by Magnus Christensen and Ryan Franks

Unearthed by E. S. Posthumus

Epicon by Globus

Trailerhead by The Immediate

These albums are basically commerical sample music for video trailers of all sorts, be they movie trailers, video game trailers, sports trailers, or business product trailers. They are short pieces done in the same bombastic style as Zimmer and his cohorts. They are meant to grab your attention and work you over emotionally in about four minutes or less. These do their job quite well, I think, and their sound quality is as good as any I’ve listened to.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add the name of John Beal to this post. Beal is pretty much the godfather of modern movie trailer music, which was built on close homages to popular pieces from movie scores (still a popular practice). Sadly the two CD collection of his more famous trailer pieces, Coming Soon is out of print and not so easily found.

So crank up the volume and enjoy! Just don’t blame me if you go deaf.