[ozshadow]

I would like some suggestions for modern orchestra music. It needs to be very moving music.

As an example, I really love the Braveheart main title song, and to a lesser extent, a lot of the music from the Titanic soundtrack.

 

[seacard]

Dances with Wolves
Last of the Mohicans
Gettysburg
Legends of the Fall

 

[Oistrakh]

Arnold Schoenberg

 

[ozshadow]

Sampled a few of them on Amazon.

Gettysburg sounds awesome. Gonna have to get that. One or two on Legends of the Fall sounded good, but the others you listed, nothing just "grabbed" me.

 

[seacard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh Arnold Schoenberg

Don't think this is a good recommendation for what you are looking for, but what do I know. Some of my other favorite soundtracks are The Last Samurai and Schindler's List, but not sure if you would like those to the same degree. You really should give Dances with Wolves an extended audition -- it's a good soundtrack and I have a feeling you would really like it if you liked Gettysburg.

 

[Oistrakh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by seacard Don't think this is a good recommendation for what you are looking for, but what do I know. Some of my other favorite soundtracks are The Last Samurai and Schindler's List, but not sure if you would like those to the same degree. You really should give Dances with Wolves an extended audition -- it's a good soundtrack and I have a feeling you would really like it if you liked Gettysburg.

he did not necessarily say it had to be movie music...

 

[gratefulshrink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh he did not necessarily say it had to be movie music...

I agree.

The thread title is misleading. I don't really view film scores as either "modern" or "orchestral" and certainly not "modern orchestral music" (although I suppose they could be considered a sub-subgenre of such music). I really just think of it as film music, which can be great in it's own right.

That being said, modern orchestral music that reminds me of film music includes works by aaron Copland and Vauhn Williiams....

 

[eyeresist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozshadow I would like some suggestions for modern orchestra music. It needs to be very moving music. As an example, I really love the Braveheart main title song, and to a lesser extent, a lot of the music from the Titanic soundtrack.

Ozshadow, do you mean you want modern recordings of orchestral music (written any time), or music written recently?

If you want recently-written music like the examples you have given, then yes, film music is the way to go. Find out who wrote the music for Braveheart and Titanic and see what else they wrote, and check further recommendations on Amazon.

If you want music written any time, then there is classical music I can recommend that sounds like the examples you gave. Rachmaninov's symphonies, first of all, especially the 2nd (I recommend the boxset conducted by Ashkenazy). (Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto has also been very influential.) Elgar's 2 symphonies. Mahler's 1st and 5th symphonies. Sibelius symphonies 1, 2 and 5. Maybe someone else can make further recommendations...

 

[FalconP]

If you like the Braveheart soundtrack, you may take a whiff at The Celtic Album by Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Their Rodgers-Hammerstein project My Favorite Things is also quite well produced.

Erich Kunzel has released truckloads of Hollywood/Broadway adaptations under Telarc, and you may wish to listen to some selections. He also did a Celtic album years before, which I think is worth having for the guest performers alone.

Some other things that I can think of (these are all film-based incidentally):

1. Memorial -- Michael Nyman
2. Cinema Paradiso -- Ennio Morricone
3. Preisner's Music -- an arrangement of film scores by this Polish composer as an orchestral suite, recorded live in an underground cavern.

 

[Enverxis]

Elend - Winds Devouring Men should have you weeping in no time

Quote:

Having completed the trilogy of scary, religious based music, Elend has since taken a little time to ask the friends of Satan to take up vocal positions elsewhere and have instead created a much more soothing sound with their latest release, Winds Devouring Men. Elend's sense of neo-classical darkwave composition remains fully intact, drifting a bit more towards the terrority of Black Tape for a Blue Girl. The somber tenor voice is backed by lilting female singing and everyone who ventures near a microphone sounds just a bit down on their spiritual luck. Winds Devouring Men is by no means a cheerful record, despite the lack of hoarse screaming and shrill demonic ranting. Moments on this album drift into deconstructed territory, but for the most part the darkwave framework remains intact. Winds Devouring Men is an impressive album that should well serve artsy black metal fans who desire classical music for the demented. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the men from Elend were given a full scale orchestra and an unlimited budget, but unfortunately the small Prophecy Productions label wouldn't have resources such as that. However, given the confines of synthesized orchestration and the power of their imaginations, Winds Devouring Men is a powerful, seductive CD that follows up previous Elend releases with impressive results.

 

[Asr]

Look into James Newton-Howard's film scores, his work usually tips towards the emotional side than anything else.

 

[Gamemako]

Nobody said anything about the Gladiator Soundtrack (composed by Hans Zimmer (orchestral) and Lisa Gerrard (vocals, of Dead Can Dance fame)).

Also, I would take Enverxis' recommendations, as he has a music library that makes mine look like an ant under a steamroller.