Favorite low brass movie soundtracks?

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MStarke
Posts: 1031
Joined: Jan 01, 2019

by MStarke »

What are your favorite soundtracks that feature lots of low brass? Which soundtracks make best use of our favorite instrument?

Today I came across the "Children of Dune" soundtrack. Nice music with some fun low brass parts!

Some others:

Lord of the rings trilogy - especially the longer versions of the soundtrack have some really nice trombone parts

Star Trek, especially First Contact

Gladiator

Starship Troopers

Pirates of the Carribean

For the Germans: The original Winnetou soundtracks has some interesting trombone parts!

How to train your dragon

Some of the James Bond tracks
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill »

Game of Thrones

<YOUTUBE id="vTDEVUlCClk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDEVUlCClk</YOUTUBE>
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill » (edited 2025-03-16 11:47 a.m.)

[quote="ghmerrill"]Game of Thrones[/quote]

<YOUTUBE id="vTDEVUlCClk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDEVUlCClk</YOUTUBE>

A quick shot of the cimbasso. I had thought that Basil Poledouris had used cimbasso heavily in the Conan music, but can't seem to verify that now.
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

Inception has some meaty low brass stuff in it. This clip briefly states one of the orchestrations:

<YOUTUBE id="W1FIv7rFbv4">[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1FIv7rFbv4</YOUTUBE>

6 french horns

6 tenor trombones

6 bass trombones

4 tubas

Like much of Zimmer's scoring, he uses the setup to capture the sound quality and mood, and doesn't really care about creating fancy licks.
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Burgerbob
Posts: 6327
Joined: Apr 23, 2018

by Burgerbob »

Not probably what you're asking for, but I've listened to maybe 15 John Williams soundtracks recently. The two that really stick out in an awesome way are

E.T.

Superman

E.T. may be my favorite soundtrack of all time. It's amazing. And yes, great low brass parts.
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SwissTbone
Posts: 1138
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by SwissTbone »

[quote="Burgerbob"]Not probably what you're asking for, but I've listened to maybe 15 John Williams soundtracks recently. The two that really stick out in an awesome way are

E.T.

Superman

E.T. may be my favorite soundtrack of all time. It's amazing. And yes, great low brass parts.[/quote]

Absolute favorites! Those two are probably my all time favorites actually.

Two not low brass heavy soundtracks that stick: Schindlers Liste and La vita e bella.
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EriKon
Posts: 636
Joined: Apr 03, 2022

by EriKon »

I saw the new Wicked movie a few months ago and the opening was killing from the low brass section. Well worth listening!

In general those musical films are often very brass heavy, more than the original show. Same with Sweeney Todd although the show is very trombone heavy too if I'm not mistaken. Would love to play that one once...

<YOUTUBE id="lYdPAwliQn0">https://youtu.be/lYdPAwliQn0?si=zLpSH7mnCABelX9I</YOUTUBE>
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Doubler
Posts: 435
Joined: Jan 07, 2019

by Doubler »

I immediately thought of this:

<YOUTUBE id="twWzxZAiZvI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twWzxZAiZvI</YOUTUBE>

Okay, so this particular recording is overindulgent... it's still music to my ears!
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MStarke
Posts: 1031
Joined: Jan 01, 2019

by MStarke »

Great ideas! My kids and I love to listen to low brass-heavy soundtracks, plus this is more or less the only trombone music that my wife also enjoys from time to time ;-)

Erik, the musical stuff can be really great, I had also listened to the Wicked soundtrack recently. John Williams is also nice, only a few weeks ago I went to a concert with only Star Wars music.

Any more recommendations?
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MrHCinDE
Posts: 1039
Joined: Jul 01, 2018

by MrHCinDE »

[quote="EriKon"]I saw the new Wicked movie a few months ago and the opening was killing from the low brass section. Well worth listening![/quote]

I second this, was a bit skeptical about being dragged to it in the Cinema by by wife but shot up in my seat when I heard the brass.
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AtomicClock
Posts: 1094
Joined: Oct 19, 2023

by AtomicClock »

Not really a soundtrack, but this popped up in my YT feed:

<YOUTUBE id="nrMzZcKHgQ4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrMzZcKHgQ4</YOUTUBE>
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MStarke
Posts: 1031
Joined: Jan 01, 2019

by MStarke »

[quote="AtomicClock"]Not really a soundtrack, but this popped up in my YT feed:

<YOUTUBE id="nrMzZcKHgQ4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrMzZcKHgQ4</YOUTUBE>[/quote]

Saw that already a few days ago!

Fun fact: Daniel Ridder (the tuba player and pretty active in the tuba/brass scene in Germany) is about the same age as I am. Probably 20 years ago we both played a few concerts with a regional wind orchestras together.

It's great that guys like him are so active and also create so much content that is publicly available.