The last two weeks have been some of the busiest weeks I’ve had since re-launching the mailbag.  Last week, in fact, was so busy that I didn’t get a chance to do the mailbag.  I usually do it on Wednesdays, but there was something important that came up last week.  You see, there was a movie that came out that has made nearly a half of a billion dollars worldwide, so far.  Being a child of the 80s, I had to see it.  Twice.  On opening day.  Yes, I am a geek, and no, I don’t recommend this movie for children to see.  But I won’t be reviewing it entirely unless I am asked to write further on it, the film is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I loved it.  Not every minute, but I thought it was great overall.

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Variety.com asked Harry Gregson-Williams, who served as composer for both The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.  What he said about Narnia really shows the humility of the man.  I hope to one day get a proper interview with him.

Here, he recounts a memorable moment in his life as a composer:

“The hush as I picked up my baton before the first note of the concert I did with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (a suite from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’). That was totally thrilling and also incredibly alarming. What in heaven’s name am I doing here? I’m a film composer, not a concert composer. It was fantastic.”

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The Dove Awards are currently happening, and I’m going to be updating this as the awards are given to Narnia related music artists.

The score for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian wins the award for Instrumental Project of the Year!  Congratulations, Harry Gregson-Williams, Lisbeth Scott & Company!

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Regina Spektor "The Call"

Regina Spektor is among those eligible for a Best Original Song Oscar nomination.  According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, there are 49 songs from films in 2008 that are eligible.

“The Call” was the song that played at the end of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which sums up the feelings that the characters were going through at the end of the adventure quite well.

There is, however, pretty stiff competition in the field.  Beyonce Knowles  co-wrote the song “Once in a Lifetime” for Cadillac Records this year, and Miley Cyrus co-wrote “I Thought I Lost You” for Bolt. Peter Gabriel could also earn a nomination for “Down to Earth” from Wall-E, and Bruce Springsteen for his song “The Wrestler” which he wrote for a film of the same name.

Nominations will be announced on or around January 22, 2009.  Let’s keep our hopes up for that possible nomination!   Hopefully the Academy loves the song as much as we do!

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Regina Spektor is the songwriter whose music was heard over the final moments of Prince Caspian. I had the opportunity to meet her at the premiere, and she told me, then, what she wrote here. That she was shaking when the movie was ending. She wrote in her MySpace Blog about her experiences writing for Prince Caspian:

i had an amazing spring last spring. i got called up and asked if i wanted to see an unfinished Disney movie called “Narnia: Prince Caspian”. I said of course, i love movies. So me and my manager went to a movie theater all by ourselves, and were shown the movie by Monica (who ended up being my Disney fairy godmother, but i didn’t know it at the time) and it was incredible on all kinds of levels… actually some of its magic was from being unfinished- one minute there’s an animal, the next it’s just a pencil drawing… all the centaurs were just guys pacing around in funny pants… i loved everything about it, but then it was over, and i was supposed to have drinks with my very good friends. Who canceled on me. So i went home. And wrote a song for the movie, and i was sure no one would let it actually be in the movie. But they did. And 3 days later i was in London, at Abbey Road studios, listening to Harry Gregson Williams, the composer of the score, and very talented and lovely human, record an 80 person choir… and i was meeting Andrew Adamson the wonderful director, and all the amazing people who work on movies, and then going into Studio B, the one and only, and recording “The Call” into Beatles gear… in their room… with Strings and a horn and a harp… yes, i know. it sounds like my own Disney movie… but it was real, and it was awesome, and i still can’t believe it happened… at the premier i had to hold it together when i heard the song come on, for the next 15 minutes my knees were shaking… movies are intense… i’m so happy i had this experience…

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Just after the release of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, composer Harry Gregson-Williams shares about his return to Narnia, his feelings about moving on from the franchise, what he’s doing with up-and-coming-composers like David Buckley and Stephen Barton at his Wavecrest Studios, and his upcoming projects which include X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

CC: Outside of the relocation, what would say your biggest challenge was musically on PRINCE CASPIAN?

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: My biggest challenge was to embrace Andrew (Adamson’s) notion that I should bring forward themes from the first movie. Of course, there are a number of new themes that I had to write, but the real conundrum for me was figuring out just how much of the thematic content I was going to bring with me from the last movie. It’s strange not starting from square-one. I actually worried about this quite a bit, so what I ended up doing was to push all of that to one side and write Prince Caspian’s theme and the cue for the first 8-minutes of the film. I knew this piece would have no reference to the previous movie, so this was good for me because it made me feel as though I was on a fresh musical journey.

CC: Would you say that, at least in some ways, it is more difficult in doing a sequel?

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: Yes. I would say that. I don’t know what David Arnold would say when one does Bond movie after Bond movie. Perhaps intellectually it’s not so difficult for him because what would a Bond movie be without ((hums James Bond theme)) – because you just need those John Barry moments. But somehow he is able to make the scores feel fresh. So for me, once I could see the arc of the story that I’d be able to follow, it all became much clearer.

CC: David Arnold is the composer taking the reigns, as it were, for the franchise…..How does it feel? Is it easy to cut the chord and say, “I’ve done my part and so whatever he does, great!”

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: I think if Andrew Adamson was directing the next movie and I hadn’t been asked to do it, then I don’t think I could help myself from feeling extremely disappointed.

Check out the full interview here!

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Animated Views’ Jeremie Noyer e-mailed us to tell us that his newest Caspian article is online: an interview with Narnia composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Here’s the summary from the top of the article, followed by a link to the rest!

For any film music buff, Harry Gregson-Williams is no stranger. We owe him such notable scores for all three Shreks, Gone Baby Gone, Chicken Run, Man on Fire, Flushed Away, Domino, Phone Booth, Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason, Enemy of the State, Antz and Kingdom of Heaven, among others. Such impressive credits that prove his being as comfortable in live action as in animation to provide elegant, smooth and at the same time strong scores.

Born December 13 1961, Gregson-Williams began his career as a music teacher at the Amesbury School in Hindhead, Surrey, England, then at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he had been a pupil, and also for a short period in both Egypt and Africa, thus experimenting music as a universal language, before stepping into film music.

Prince Caspian is his fifth collaboration with director Andrew Adamson after composing the scores for his Academy Award-winning Shrek (co-composed with John Powell), the hit sequels Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which he collected Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for his score. From the delicate and otherworldly notes of an electric violin to the stabs of a furious, full orchestra, let him be your guide through the sounds of Narnia…

Harry Gregson-Williams: Scoring the Return to Narnia!

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iF Magazine has interviewed composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Check out the full interview at the source link, or just read the portion below.

iF: There’s a real flow to PRINCE CASPIAN. Talk about how you integrate the orchestra with your samples for its unique, and melodically pleasing sound?

Harry Gregson-Williams: Caspian is more or less an acoustic score, as was LWW. As I often do, I integrated some of my customized sounds (nothing heinously electronic!) alongside an orchestra, a choir and various ethnic instruments from all around the world to create the sound of Narnia. It is amusing to me that on LWW I seemed to ruffle some people’s feathers for sounding too electronic. Please! I enjoy and listen to plenty of ‘electronic’ music and sometimes create scores along those lines, but…. well…. I don’t know what some people’s idea of ‘electronic’ is, but it’s not mine.

iF: You make ample use of choral music in PRINCE CASPIAN. Do the words have any actual meaning, a la Howard Shore’s use of Elvish in his RINGS scores?

Harry Gregson-Williams: As it happens they do, and they did for the most part in LWW. There are many sections where I used various Runic phrases (a very old English language) which served as exclamations that the choir would sing – usually small, rising phrases that I always thought of as a sort of ‘Greek Chorus’ commenting on the action as it happened. Also, in the more noble and heroic parts of the score there is a large use of Latin. Secular Latin.

iF: Is it more difficult writing “lighter” fantasy scores like SHREK and the first NARNIA, or going for the more sophisticated sound of epics like PRINCE CASPIAN?

Harry Gregson-Williams: If you know me, you’ll know that I find it stimulating and creatively necessary to move between genres. I wouldn’t say I find any particular thing easy, either. Working on the NARNIA movies has been a blessing and I have been aware of what a responsibility this has all been. I’d follow Andrew Adamson in to any old battle at any old time, too. He’s a brilliant director who has an amazing ability to get the best out of the people around him, and he’s a good friend too.

iF: How do you see your NARNIA sound developing for the next film THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER?

Harry Gregson-Williams: No idea. Ask David Arnold — he might have given this subject some thought!

iF: In addition to scoring CASPIAN, you also voice the swashbuckling squirrel Pattertwig. What’s it like to finally be part of the fantasy universe? And do you hope for an action figure?

Harry Gregson-Williams: When I phoned my two children from a London ADR stage to tell them that I was about to voice one of the characters in the movie, there were squeals of utter delight- initially. But as my son, not so much his sister, discovered that it was to be Pattertwig’s voice that I was going to do and not some mighty Minotaur or something, he had great difficulty hiding his disappointment! It was fun to do nonetheless, and yet another reason I feel amazingly fortunate to have been a part of the Narnia adventures thus far. Of course, a Pattertwig action figure would have to be kept on a very high shelf, well out of sight …

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By now, whether you are Christian or not, you have heard at least one hit song from the beloved Christian rock band Switchfoot.

While all the band members are Christian, they prefer to be known as just a rock band because they say their music contains broad themes that everyone can enjoy, whether it be “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move” or their newest hit single, “Awakening.”

The San Diego-based group now has a new original song out called, “This is Home,” which plays in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” the latest “Narnia” film which this past weekend seized the box-office crown, with $55 million in ticket sales over its debut weekend.

The Switchfoot song is featured during the end credits of the film, and appears on the Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack CD, which released May 13.

The Christian Post caught up with Jerome Fontamillas, who is often found jamming on the guitar or keyboards for the band, to discuss the new “Narnia” song and to get the 411 on Switchfoot’s latest projects.

The following are excerpts taken from the interview:

CP: Tell me a little bit about “This is Home” – Switchfoot’s new song, recorded for the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” How does the song tell the journey of these four kids?

Fontamillas: Well, the whole idea of the song – if you read the Chronicles the series from beginning to end – it’s this idea that the place you live now is not the place you are really meant to be. You feel this is just a passing by and there is something bigger for you beyond this place. This song has a longing to go to that place. ‘This is Home’ is about longing to be in the place where you belong and destined to be.

CP: What do you think is the destiny of these four kids?

Fontamillas: Well, I’m sure for the four kids, Narnia is their place to be. But you know, you can relate it to you. ‘This is not my place. I belong in a place bigger than this.’

CP: Now, have you read the books?

Fontamillas: Yes, I have … when I was a kid.

CP: Was it surreal to work on a story you read when you were younger?

Fontamillas: Yeah. It was surreal to be a part of a work like this. Reading C.S. Lewis all my life, it’s an honor and a privilege to work on something like this. So when they called us up and said, ‘Hey can you work on a song for the movie?’ we were like pretty floored. We were like, ‘Really? For Chronicles of Narnia? That’s amazing.’

CP: A lot of your songs are known to contain messages that Christians can relate to. Do you see any such messages in this song?

Fontamillas: Oh, yeah. I mean a lot of our songs have Christian themes because C.S. Lewis is a big part of us. We read a lot of it at work, so a lot of the themes he had put in his book, you can see them in a lot of our songs.

We have a song called, ‘Meant to Live.’ The idea is that we are meant to live for something more, something bigger than where we are at.

We have a song called “This is your life,” where you are talking about ‘Is this all there is or is there something big you could be living for?’ And a lot of C.S. Lewis themes are in that area.

CP: How about for this song?

Fontamillas: ‘This is Home,’ like I said before … this song has a longing to be in a place where you are destined to be at.

ChristianPost.com for the rest

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Walt Disney Records will release the original soundtrack for Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on May 13, 2008. The recording features score written by award-winning composer Harry Gregson-Williams and songs performed by Switchfoot (”This Is Home”), Regina Spektor (”The Call”), Oren Lavie (”A Dance ‘Round The Memory Tree”), and Hanne Hukkelberg (”Lucy”).

In 1950, the scholar, critic and writer C.S. Lewis published The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of his seven-volume series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and established a modern legend. Adults and children alike fell in love with his stirring, action-packed adventure that was set in the middle of World War II bombing raids yet transported readers into an alternate and far more enchanted universe of mythological creatures waging an epic battle between good and evil.

Harry Gregson-Williams reunites with director Andrew Adamson for the 5th time after composing the scores for his Academy Award®-winning Shrek (co-composed with John Powell), the hit sequels Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which he collected Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for his score. He is one of Hollywood’s most sought after composers, working on a variety of high-profile projects, both animated and live-action.

Over the last several years, Gregson-Williams has composed such notable scores for Shrek the Third,Gone Baby Gone, Chicken Run, Man on Fire, Flushed Away, Domino, Spy Game, Déjà vu, Phone Booth, Veronica Guerin, Smilla’s Sense Of Snow, The Replacement Killers, Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason, Enemy of the State, Antz and Kingdom of Heaven, among others.

The multi-platinum selling rock band Switchfoot has written and recorded the original song “This Is Home,” which is heard in the body of the film and over the end title credits. They shot a video for the song with director Brandon Dickerson, who filmed their most recent video for “Awakening.”

“We are so honored to be a part of the Prince Caspian film with ‘This Is Home,’” says Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman. “The Narnia stories have a really special place in my brother Tim and my lives. Our dad used to read these to us at bedtime when we were boys. Our imaginations were shaped on these amazing novels.”

The characters of C.S. Lewis’ timeless fantasy come to life once again in this newest installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series, in which the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure and an even greater test of their faith and courage awaits them.

“As [the film's director] Andrew Adamson and I began early discussions about the musical possibilities for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” composer Harry Gregson-Williams said, “it became clear that the movie could take a score with plenty of edge and bite to it this time around, supporting the fast moving action and adventure that quickly unfolds.”

One year after the incredible events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Kings and Queens of Narnia find themselves back in that faraway wondrous realm, only to discover that more than 1300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct, Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy.

The fast forward 1300 years in the future allowed Gregson-Williams to re-address themes from the first film as well as creating new ones. Director Andrew Adamson described, “For Prince Caspian, Harry drew not only on the beloved themes of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but also developed original, sympathetic themes for Caspian and the Telmarines. Harry has threaded these themes with the same beauty and originality as he has woven all the notes that form his wonderful scores.”

The four Pevensie children will soon meet an intriguing new character: Narnia’s rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne.

Gregson-Williams embraced the challenge of composing for these new characters. He described, “The early introduction of a fearful Prince Caspian fleeing for his life from the dangerous Lord Miraz gave me a wonderful opportunity to introduce this new and somewhat darker musical landscape right from the opening.”

Also drawing inspiration from C.S. Lewis was Switchfoot. “‘This Is Home’ was inspired by the book after re-reading it for the opportunity to write for the film,” continues the band’s frontman, Foreman. “I am always taken by [C. S.] Lewis’ ability to write about the bittersweet beauty in this world; this home we aren’t really made for but is the place we work out our humanity in the midst of our longing for our true home.”

Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in theaters on May 16, 2008. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Original Soundtrack will be in stores on May 13, 2008.

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