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This month we compare the work of a master and their apprentice. Elmer Bernstein wrote some of the one of the most iconic and enduring scores in the history of cinema. However, he also has a legacy as one of the great teachers of Hollywood. Rising star, Bear McCreary owes a particular gratitude, having been mentored and essentially introduced to the industry by Bernstein. We compare McCreary’s most recent big score - Godzilla: King of the Monsters, with one of Bernstein’s absolute best – The Great Escape. Rounds for this month 1 – Main Theme 2 – Suspense 3 – Action 4 – Sadness and Loss 5 – Legacy Bonus: Bear McCreary’s Blog “My decade with Elmer Bernstein”  We hope you’re enjoying these Soundtrack Showdown episodes as much as we enjoy making them. An easy way to share us with your friends is to share the advertising posts of your favourite episodes from: https://www.facebook.com/tristellarmusic/ https://www.instagram.com/tristellarmusic/ And of course, it’s even better if you leave us a lovely review wherever you get your podcasts. We’re now available on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Overcast, Anchor, and virtually anywhere podcasts are available. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Christmas Special - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) v The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (2000) Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all, it’s the Soundtrack Showdown Christmas Special. This month, Ella and Tristan compare Danny Elfman’s score for The Nightmare Before Christmas and James Horner’s for The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Rounds for this month 1 – Christmas 2 – Villains 3 – Plots and Plans 4 – The Christmas Delivery/Raid 5 – Legacy We hope you’ve enjoyed another year of Soundtrack Showdown episodes. If so, the absolute best things you can do for us are to share us with your friends and family, and/or leave us a lovely review wherever you get your podcasts. To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com See you all next year! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

This month Ella and Tristan embrace the negative and talk about six soundtrack trends that really grind our gears. 1: Poor music placement/editing 2: Inconsistent Sound 3: Weak Hero Themes 4: Percussion tracks (and ostinatos) 5: The decline of Danny Elfman 6: Overuse of unusal instruments or non-instruments Warning: Some minor spoilers for the 2017 movie “It”. To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com And please, if you like what we’re doing and would like to help, the best thing you can do share our podcast with your family and friends and leave us a review wherever you listen. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

  This month we compare two social-message horror films. The Stepford Wives – Composer Michael Small, and Get Out – Composer Michael Abels  Rounds for this month 1 – Opening Theme 2 – Something’s wrong 3 – Reveal 4 – Suspense 5 – Legacy If you missed our September Episode (aka S02E05, or Episode 17) that’s because it was a Twitch stream. You can see the episode on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/GJAK5XFCZG0. You can also follow our Twitch Channel at https://www.twitch.tv/soundtrackshowdown To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com And please, share our podcast with your friends and leave us a review wherever you listen. It really helps us reach out to a bigger audience. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

This month we go Look at mega-fantasy film franchises from 2001. We analyse Howard Shore’s score for the Fellowship of the Ring and John Williams’ for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Rounds for this month 1 – Prologue 2 – The Ordinary World/Innocence 3 – Action 4 – Evil 5 – Legacy Special Treats The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films – book by Doug Adams, a great read if you are into the films and the music. The most comprehensive study on any film score that I have read - his blog is http://www.musicoflotr.com/ Tristan’s old, very nerdy blog post on fun facts about the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, going into far greater detail than we ever could here - http://tristankane.com/2016/05/7-super-nerdy-music-stats-about-the-lord-of-the-rings/ Keep an eye out on our Twitch Channel - https://www.twitch.tv/soundtrackshowdown for next months highly combative (or is that Kombative) episode. To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

A titanic battle between two small screen blockbusters as we compare Ramin Djawadi’s score for Game of Thrones (2011-2019) and Brian Reitzell’s score for American Gods (2017 - ) Rounds for this month 1 – Main Themes 2 – Characters 3 – Songs 4 – Musical Story Telling 5 – Legacy Special Treats Tristan’s video essay on the Game of Throne main theme  Excellent detailed analysis of Light of the Seven from ‘The Week’ (not Verve, or whatever I said in episode, which is not even a real publication) Spotify playlist of some of our favourite music from Game of Thrones and American Gods, including all the tracks we talk about in the episode To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

 This month we go back to the world of superheroes as we compare two African-American-centric Marvel movies. We analyse Mark Isham’s score for Blade (1998) and Ludwig Göransson’s Oscar-winning score for Black Panther (2018) plus the commercial music that was used in both films. Rounds for this month 1 – Heroes 2 – Villains 3 – Action 4 – Pop Songs 5 - Action To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Welcome to Season 2 of Soundtrack Showdown Kicking off our second year we compare two animated classics. Alan Silvestri’s score for FernGully (1982) and David Newman’s score for Anastasia (1997) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Ella and Tristan compare the music of Final Fantasy VII and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And yes, we talk about One-Winged Angel! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

It’s a very special episode as we review two scores for the SAME FILM. Ridley Scott’s 1985 film Legend was released with two different scores. A Jerry Goldsmith orchestral score in Europe, and a Tangerine Dream electronic score in North America (and Russia, go figure) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

In our first annual romantic special this month we compare Clint Mansell’s score for The Fountain (2006) and Anne Dudley’s score for Tristan + Isolde (2006) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Happy New Year This month we compare Thomas Newman’s score for Side Effects (2013) and Johnny Greenwood’s score for You Were Never Really Here (2018) Rounds for this month 1 – Opening Themes 2 – Murder 3 - Anxiety 4 – Production and techniques 5 - Legacy and Impact To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Merry Christmas everybody! This month we compare Michael Kamen’s score for Die Hard (1988 – totally a Christmas movie) and John William’s score for Home Alone (1990) Rounds for this month 1 – Christmas 2 – Schemes 3 - Action 4 – Emotion, Family, Relationships 5 - Legacy and Impact Added bonus – Does Kevin McCallister grow up to be Jigsaw from the Saw franchise? http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/did-kevin-from-home-alone-grow-up-to-be-jigsaw-a-deadly-serious-investigation/ To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

We discuss our favourite soundtracks. The music that moves us, inspires us and has shaped our development as composers. Soundtracks discussed – Braveheart (1995) Edward Scissorhands (1990) Shadows of the Colossus (2005) Interview with the Vampire (1994) Finding Nemo (2003) 3X3 Eyes (1991) A Page of Madness (1927) – Soundtrack 2004  Link to the Spotify Playlist featuring these (and more!) - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0uVGSMzGHMlSR8SD576Jxq To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com This month you can vote for what you’d like us to compare in our Christmas Special. Elf (2003), Die Hard (1988), Gremlins (1984) or Home Alone (1990) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

It’s our first annual Halloween Special! This month we compare Jerry Goldsmith’s classic score for The Omen (1976) and a more modern example, The VVitch (2015) score by Mark Korven. Along the way we share some of our (perhaps contentious) views on the horror genre generally.  Rounds for this month 1 – Opening music 2 – Missing Children 3 - Matricide 4 – Horror Scenes 5 - Legacy and Impact Added bonus – the Apprehension Engine by Mark Korven http://www.markkorven.com/Apprehension_Engine.html   Video at - https://youtu.be/1lTYPvArbGo To find out more, or leave us a message you can reach us at @tristellarmusic on your favourite social media (twitter, facebook and insta) or via our website - www.tristellarmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

This month we do two firsts, our first foreign language film (not counting Mad Max) and far more importantly our first movies scored by female composers - Micah Levi’s score for the disturbing Under the Skin and Emilie Simone’s for the adorable La Marche de l’Empereur (which was released with some changes for the English-speaking world as The March of the Penguins) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Two modern American TV scores do battle in this months Soundtrack Showdown – Dave Porter’s eclectic Breaking Bad versus the 80’s nostalgia synths of Stranger Things by Stein and Dixon. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

In the most explosive Soundtrack Showdown so far, we talk about the representation of women in film music, the politics of the Mexican-US border, and the meaning of the word 'doof'. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

Episode 2 of Soundtrack Showdown. We look at two movies about Batman vs his arch-nemesis the Joker. Danny Elfman’s score for Batman (1989) and Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for The Dark Knight (2008). In a spirit of light-hearted (but often quite heated) competition we break the scores down over five rounds, in which we discuss how well the music works in key areas, then declare an overall winner. This week, our rounds are – 1 – Batman Themes 2 – Joker Themes 3 – Style 4 – Action Music 5 – Legacy and Impact --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message

In episode 1 of Soundtrack Showdown, we look at two classic horror film scores, Bernard Herrmann’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and John Williams’ score for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). In a spirit of light-hearted but sometimes heated competition, we break the scores down over five rounds, discuss and analyse how well the music works in key areas, and then declare the overall winner. This week, our rounds are: 1 – Monster Motifs 2 – Main Themes 3 – Techniques and Production 4 – Suspense Music 5 – Legacy and Impact Who will win? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundtrack-showdown/message