what's the score?

Recently, I heard someone say that movie scores are the new classical music. I'd have to agree. There's something about a film score that draws me in. Our Nebraska NPR station has a program called "Classics by Request" on Friday afternoons, and we almost always listen to it in the office. Quite often, they will play music from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings, Titanic, and virtually anything by John Williams.

Last Friday, I spent about three hours working on yearbook pages. For some reason, there is no radio reception in the yearbook room, so I set out to find classical music on an internet station. I ended up finding a wonderful station--Cinemix. (I'm actually surprised Cinemix isn't blocked, since it's so close in spelling to Cinemax . . . and our firewall is annoying like that.) This site has a huge catalog of music, and it's really easy to make requests. In fact, I requested two things while listening this afternoon, and both played within 20 minutes of the request. This is great music to have on while studying, reading, working in the office, or even sleeping. Check it out!

In the spirit of my movie music obsession, here are my top six scores (I couldn't keep it to five!):

• While You Were Sleeping
  by Randy Edelman. You knew this would be there! I play this in the office at least three times a week--I call it my "happy music" :-)
• The Lake House
  by Rachel Portman. Yeah, another Sandra Bullock movie! Portman is quickly becoming one of my favorite modern composers. She also composed the scores for Emma, Chocolat, and many others, and she won an Oscar for Emma.
• Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
  by Klaus Badelt. I don't know why, but hearing a Pirates song in the middle of the workday just really perks me up!
• The Return Of The King
  by Howard Shore. I love all the Lord of the Rings music, but The Return of the King is slightly happier than the other two scores.
• The Man From Snowy River
  by Bruce Rowland. I bought this for "Jessica's Theme" and fell in love with the whole score.
• Ever After: A Cinderella Story
  by George Fenton. My favorite track is "The Royal Wedding," simply because that scene in the movie cracks me up! It's a wonderful score--just be sure to turn it off as soon as track 21 is over; the final song is a horrible song by Texas. I've just about killed myself multiple times as I vault over things trying to get to the cd player in time.