Swashbuckling Scores!

So: what are the greatest swashbuckling scores?

The most recent great example is probably Debney's Cutthroat Island, and the oldest probably Korngold's work on such as Adventures of Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk and so forth. In between there's all kinds of good stuff. Particularly notable, I think, are the Sinbad scores: by Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa, Harry Budd and Harry Gregson Williams, ranging from fun to spectacular. And there are tons of others. What are your favorite swashbuckling scores?

 

Great topic! Cutthroat Island is amazing, but I also love JW's "Hook"! Despite the fact that the album cuts it in less than half(!), the "The Ultimate War" track has the score's highlight of the fun swashbuckling music, and watch the film to hear the complete cue, too! Also to be pointed out is "Prologue," the music for the theatrical trailer.

 

As for recent great swashbuckling scores, I'd have to say Stargate (David Arnold) and Treasure Planet (James Newton Howard) rank up there for me.

 

I'll list three that are not usually mentioned, then:

James Newton Howard's excellent - and mostly swashbuckling - score for the unjustly maligned "Waterworld" is, sadly, often forgotten. The same goes for Philippe Sarde's score for Roman Polan'ski's "Pirates". Jerry Goldsmith lovely "King Solomon's Mines" should be definitely listed as well (its followup, "Allan Quatermain", by Michael Linn, is almost a carbon copy of JG's score )

 

All the good ones were said dammit. I'd say Independence Day by Arnold, and a guilty pleasure of mine is Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

ID4 and StarGate are fun favs of mine, but do they really count as swashbuckling?

And I personally don't find PotC swashbuckling at all. Loud, yes, but it has no buckles and isn't even remotely awash with swash.

 

James Newton Howard's excellent - and mostly swashbuckling - score for the unjustly maligned "Waterworld" is, sadly, often forgotten.

Yes, and yet it still gets used in trailers time after time after time! I was glad to finally figure out what that music was that was from Galaxy Quest and The Emperor's New Groove and Clockstoppers and...

Wouldn't it have been great if Bruckheimer had kept Silvestri for PotC?

 

Another new-but-good one is Alexandre Azaria's score for FANFAN LA TULIPE. Definitely worth tracking down and picking up.

 

And one that I'm quite looking forward to is James Newton Howard's PETER PAN coming in about a month.

 

JNH is doing Peter Pan?! Sweet! This I'll have to hear. I'm already looking forward to the movie!

 

well, I don't know what this pretty word "swashbuckling" means, I thought it meant:

action-packed, non-subtle, unrestrained, thematic, loud, bombastic, shake the room, no holds-barred, tongue-in-cheek etc.

Pirates falls in all of those criterias

 

You'll go a long way to find better than Hans Zimmer's Muppet Treasure Island
Fantastic stuff!

 

Michael Kamen's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ranks pretty high, in my book.

 

Why didn't I think of this topic???

My fencing instructor and I made a fencing/swashbuckling CD that we sometimes play at our lessons with our groups. It includes some POTC, Mortal Kombat (for our Sabre matches ) a Star Wars track, Cutthroat Island, etc. I'll get you guys the track names soon.

The ID soundtrack was good, but I haven't seen the movie in a while, so I forget most of it.

How about stuff from The Mummy Returns? Also, the track from FotR Amon Hen is a good swashbuckling track. Geez, there's so many I have used in the past...

What do you mean the stuff from POTC isn't swashbuckling?? The sword/fencing scenes were definitely swashbuckle worthy.

Can you still find the soundtrack from Cutthroat Island?

 

"I'll get you guys the track names soon."

Yes, please!

 

Can you still find the soundtrack from Cutthroat Island?

You sure can! It's at amazon. Thirty bucks, import, but as I understand it's the better release of the score, and I'm sure we'll all agree it's well worth the money.

 

Yeah, Cutthroat Island is great, but I can't find it (I likedthis score by watching the film, and it was the only good thing about the "film").