soundtracks

Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams’s long and fruitful collaboration continues with “Lincoln.”  The prolific Williams draws upon folk styles to create an impression of America’s 16th president.

For more than 50 years, John Williams' music has taken us to galaxies far, far away through adventures here on earth, made us feel giddy joy and occasionally scared us to death.

This month, KPAC is celebrating thirty years of broadcasting. Our hosts are having some fun sharing "30 lists" - artists, music, movies, and recordings you might enjoy, that help shape the sound of your classical oasis.

As the curator of Texas Public Radio’s film series, Cinema Tuesdays, I spend a lot of my free time enjoying movies, and their soundtracks.  Soundtracks make up a small but important section of our library at KPAC. Because we connect to movies on such a personal level, film scores often come with built-in emotional attachment. Below is a list of some of my favorites. While this is by no means a ‘best of’ list, these are the records I enjoy spinning most often on my CD player and iPod. I created a Spotify list, linked below, so you can listen to all of the tracks in a playlist, and in the article, each track is linked to Amazon when available so you can download a song or album for yourself. Have fun listening!

Click here to listen to the list on Spotify.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic has brought about the re-release of James Cameron’s masterpiece, “Titanic,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, retrofitted into the 3D format.  The soundtrack has been re-released, too, in a special ‘Anniversary Edition.’

Steven Spielberg has asked John Williams to score almost every single movie he’s ever directed since “Jaws,” which won Mr. Williams his second Oscar, and his first for Best Original Score.  It’s a working relationship that has lasted nearly 40 years, and given us some of the most memorable melodies of our time.

Probably my favorite movie I’ve seen so far this year, “The Tree of Life” approaches for me a kind of magical or spiritual experience. It was recently released on Blu-ray/DVD.