Re: Music to Game by

From: "Aaron Teske" <ateske@HICom.net>

> >Emerson Lake and Powell's orchestration of Gustav Holst's
> >"Mars, the Bringer of War". Other orchestrations are OK, but
> >this one is far, far better for SF combat.
>
> Hmm.	Will have to find this one, I have a Bernstein.

We have about 3 on various CDs - Karajan/Berlin Symphony is
a distant no 2. AFAIK only available on "Emerson Lake and Powell"
the album.

> >The Charge of the OUDF Light Horse;
>
> Charge of the Light Brigade!	('Course, I haven't heard that piece
since I
> played it back in high school... what, 8 years ago?)
>
> >Mike Oldfield's "Ommadawn" Track 1 15:49 to 18:40
> >(at 16:55 it's impossible not to visualise a horde of
> >Grav Bikes crossing a ridge on the run in to the target...)
>
> Hmm, sounds like something to find as well.  Any pointers as to a CD
title?
> ^_^

This isn't the Charge of the Light Brigade as such, it's something far
better.

Mr Treske, you've done a lot for this list. This is one occasion when I
can
do something in return, and makes me feel really good.

You obviously haven't heard of Mike Oldfield, or have forgotten. So
you're
in
for real treat.

I'm not a Mike Oldfield fan. I just consider him to be the best composer
of
symphonic works of the 20th century. Given that it only has 2 1/2 months
to go, I feel safe in saying that.
My music collection isn't extensive - a bit here, a bit there. No more
than
a
half-dozen Pink Floyd.	But I have 95% of all non-bootleg MO in
existence.

As a composer of song's he's OK. Sure, he's had a few hits like "Moon
Shadow"
and "5 miles out". As a guitar player, he's really good, but not one of
the
Greats.
And his short pieces aren't generally good as his long ones. But the
long
ones,
the symphonies (though the record companies don't call them that...)...
look,
just listen to some of them, OK? You may not like em of course. But be
warned,
they're addictive. You have to play them at least 50 times with
different
settings
on a graphics equaliser to get all the complexities though, more
leitmotifs
on
any one than Wagner used in the entire tedious Ring Cycle. One of the
few
composers whose work just doesn't translate to MP3 format, which
discards
most of the complexities.

OK, here's a few:
Tubular Bells ( Excerpts used for the Exorcist) - there's an excerpt
here
that's perfect for a Highlander attack.
Ommadawn
Hergest Ridge
Incantations
QE2
Five Miles Out
Platinum (contains one of my favourites, "Punkadiddle" , which I would
love
to do a short film of the history of space exploration from V2 to Apollo
11
to)
Crises
Discovery
Amarok (that has the most hilarious send-up of Margaret Thatcher near
the
end..)
Songs of Distant Earth (Music for the AC Clarke novel, contains a
Mac-only
multimedia prequel on the CD).
The Killing Fields (Soundtrack to the movie)
Tubular Bells II ( "I got fed up off other people ripping me off, so I
ripped
myself off" - MO) I'm listening to this now, excellent piece.
Tubular Bells III - The Horse Guards parade in London was filled with
people
from 16 to 60 in the pouring rain listening to the premier - and the way
he
managed
to time things in concert (so to speak) with Big Ben... I have the
video,
the only
music video I own.
The Millenium Bell - a musical history spanning 1000 years. I defy
anyone to
listen to "broad sunlit uplands" (WW2 and just after) and listen to the
words
of Anne Frank without shedding a tear. And the section covering the
Romantic
Poets is just plain flawless.

Just do a search under "popular music" for "Mike Oldfield" on
http://www.amazon.com
and hear some (really badly distorted) samples - though their
"punkadiddle"
is mis-labelled.
Try "Mount Teide" on "5 miles out" or the title track. By no means the
best
of his work, but
good.

> Now, the Senso mix (made for 90 minute tapes, don't have a CD burner
or
> anything like that yet...):

Nice one! Thanks.