This website was created partly to promote the book series, Musique Fantastique [Second Edition] 100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music by Randall D. Larson, but more importantly is intended to be a resource for news, views, & interviews about music for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films. As an extension of the books, it provides additional material and links to further resources about this unique genre of film and television scoring. For news on the book series, scroll down toward the bottom of this page.

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New Postings on Genre Film Music: 

Behind the Scenes Interview:

• George Shaw scores STAR WARS fan-film WAY TO THE REBELLION

Genre Film Music News:

• Veteran Composer Alf Clausen Fired from THE SIMPSONS

The Freakishly Effective Scare Scores of Cris Velasco:

• Freakish, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Dimension 404 – An Interview by Randall D. Larson

New Genre Soundtracks:

• WaterTower Music presents IT – the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Score by Benjamin Wallfisch

• Herrmann’s JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH is Varèse Sarabande’s latest “500 Series” release

• John Paesano’s MARVEL’S THE DEFENDERS Soundtrack Out Digitally

• Lakeshore Records to Release Remixed & Remastered HELLRAISER: 30th Anniversary Soundtrack Edition

• SHARKNADO 5, THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM, IRON FIST albums

Features & Interviews

• RIP Composer Daniel Licht – 1957-2017

• Ryan Shore Interview: Soaring Into the STAR WARS Universe: Scoring Star Wars: Forces of Destiny 

New Genre Soundtracks:

• GAME OF THRONES Season 7 Soundtrack Coming in on CD Sept 29th

Genre Film Music News:

• Jóhann Jóhannsson scoring Aronofsky’s horror thriller MOTHER!

• Bear McCreary Scores Futuristic Smart-House Thriller TAU

• Nathan Barr assigned to score FLATLINERS remake

• Lakeshore to Release Horror Musical Soundtrack to THE LURE 

• Zimmer & Wallfisch to assist Johannsson on BLADE RUNNER 2049 Score

• THE DARK TOWER scored by Tom Holkenborg – Soundtrack on Digital & CD

• John Powell To Score Untitled Han Solo Movie

New Genre Soundtracks:

• 2-CD Release Of Tangerine Dream’s MIRACLE MILE Original Soundtrack Cues + Album Remix

• ANNABELLE: Creation Soundtrack Due Out On Cd Aug 25

• German Composer Klaus Pfreundner Scores A New  BLOOD FEAST

• Music by Giona Ostinelli for Spike TV’s THE MIST has been released

• Patrick Doyle’s EMOJI MOVIE soundtrack out today

• tomandandy’s Tooth-Grinding Horror Score for 47 Meters Down – Digital Soundtrack Out July 28

• Final copies of limited, double-LP STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE vinyl album available from La-La Land Records

• Sample a Track from Trevor Morris’s CASTLEVANIA score

• Michael Giacchino’s New APES Score Released by Sony

Genre Film Music News:

• Ryan Shore Scores STAR WARS: FORCES OF DESTINY

• DESPICABLE ME 3 soundtrack out today from Back Lot Music

• Joseph LoDuca is into some child’s play with Don Mancini’s CULT OF CHUCKY

Book Reviews:

• The Twilight Zone: A Dimension in Sound/Wissner

  The Outer Limits: We Will Control All That You Hear/Wissner

New Genre Soundtracks:

• Trevor Morris’s CASTLEVANIA soundtrack coming out from Lakeshore

• Shie Rozow’s mesmerizing soundtrack to horror film JASMINE coming out from Varese Sarabande

• Stuart Hancock Scores Quirky UK Horror Comedy CRAZYHEAD – Soundtrack Now Available On Digital Platforms

• Sharks Behind Bars! Cirino’s Prison Shark Massacre Soundtrack Makes CD Premiere

• SKY PIRATES – Australian Composer Brian May’s Exciting Orchestral Score Reissued

• tomandandy’s wistful, scary score for THE MONSTER comes out on this week

New Syfy Series BLOOD DRIVE 

• Features Original Music By Composer Michael Gatt

The Mummy’s Music

• Brian Tyler Enters The Dark Universe : An Interview

Genre Film Music News:

• Sneak Preview: Michael Giacchino’s SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Suite Shared

• SHARKNADO 5: Chris Ridenhour & Christopher Cano Score the Swarm

• Rise of the Classic Movie Monsters: A Glimpse Into Universal’s Dark Universe

• Giona Ostinelli: From CARNAGE PARK to TV’s THE MIST

• Mark Isham to Score Marvel’s CLOAK AND DAGGER

New Genre Soundtracks:

• Update: Gerrard-Orr Score to 2:22 on Digital June 30, CD forthcoming

• Song CD & Score Download Coming June 16 for Disney·Pixar’s CARS 3

• THE MUMMY, SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING, VALERIAN, DRAGONEART 4

• Rupert Gregson-Williams: WONDER WOMAN Soundtrack Released on CD & Digital

• New PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Score Arrr-ives on May 26

• Brian Reitzell Scores AMERICAN GODS – Soundtrack due June 16th 

The Music of Slumber Mountain Along the Moonbeam Trail

• Terry Huud: Scoring the Stop-Motion Art of Illusion

Threatening Voices

• Michael Abels: Scoring GET OUT

James Newton Howard to Score new TOMB RAIDER film

• see: Genre Film Music News

Georges Delerue and the Sci-Fi & Fantasy film

• Author’s Post,  March 20, 2017

Something About Monsters…

• Henry Jackman on Scoring KONG: SKULL ISLAND

SOUND OF FEAR to Examine Horror Film Music Via Podcast

• Crowdfunding Sought for Ongoing Series

Harry Manfredini’s TIMEMASTER soundtrack comes to CD

• Premiere soundtrack release for the 1995 family sci-fi adventure.

Basil Kirchin: The Forgotten Genius of UK Music

• A New Profile Posted at bbc.com

Tyler Bates, Genndy Tartakovsky, and Samurai Jack’s Conclusive Final Season

• New Samurai Jack Season 5 featurette focuses on season’s use of music

Albert Glasser at Large:

• Kritzerland Announces World Premiere Release of the Score to ‘50s Big-Bug Movie MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL

Kronos Records:

• Announces premiere 2-CD OST for French horror fantasy, LIVID

ScreamWorks Records:

• Kiss the Devil in the Dark and Creatures of Whitechapel by Gerrit Wunder CD release

Silva Screen’s “The GAME OF THRONES Symphony” Album

• Scheduled For Digital Release on Feb 24th

Ramin Djawadi Climbs THE GREAT WALL

• Behind-The-Scenes Score Featurette & Soundtrack Info

    Recent News on Musique Fantastique 2nd edition:  

Midnight Marquee Press to Publish Continuation of “Musique Fantastique, Second Edition” series

Click on NEWS for more details about the next volumes of MUSIQUE FANTASTIQUE

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Check our FURTHER EXAMINATIONS page for

• New Interviews

• New Reviews of Genre Film Scores

• Genre Film Music News of Note

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Check our ADDITIONAL RESOURCES page for

• Links to the author’s new online articles, books, blogs about fantasy, sci-fi, and horror film music

• Updates information, and resources about Musique Fantastique 

• Significant news about fantastic genre film music, composers, scores

 

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See!
Wondrous Alien Landscapes!
Giant Reptiles on the Rampage!
Strange Creatures Out of Time & Space!

Hear!
Massive Orchestral Thematic Variations!
Eerie Electronic Tonalities!
Haunting Hybrid Rhythms And Riffs!

Read!
Meticulous Commentary on Thousands of Film Scores!
Exhaustive Historical Analysis Of Genre Film Music!
Massively Expanded New Edition Of A Classic Film Music Book!

Musique Fantastique II, Book I: 2012 Rondo Award nominee!

 Follow Musique Fantastique on Facebook

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Original news announcements and press releases:

Announcing: Musique Fantastique, Second Edition
100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music
By Randall D. Larson
Creature Features Press: 2012

This thoroughly re-written and massively expanded new edition of Larson’s seminal 1985 book will be spread over a landscape of four large volumes, covering every aspect of music for fantastic films from the Silents through the Summer Blockbusters of 2011. Focusing on the composers whose work has enlivened the movies of monsters and madmen, fantastic lands and distant worlds, Larson analyzes fantasy, science fiction, and horror film music around the world, from A TRIP TO THE MOON in 1902 to TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON in 2011. Eschewing criticism for commentary, Larson incorporates interviews with hundreds of composers along with his own perceptive analytic commentary and the perspectives of a myriad of other reviewers, writers, and commentators, providing in Musique Fantastique, Second Edition a comprehensive historical overview of how music has been used in the fantastic genre.

Totaling 34 Chapters and more than 1700 pages, featuring a new introduction by film composer Christopher Young, Musique Fantastique, Second Edition offers a definitive historical context for the evolution and development of film music within science fiction, fantasy, and horror cinema.

Book One now available from Creature Features.
See: http://www.creaturefeatures.com/shop/books/musique-fantastique/

Musique Fantastique, Second Edition 100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music By Randall D. LarsonMusic for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films has always been a particularly unique area of film scoring. Just as fantasy has allowed the minds of writ­ers and filmmakers to flow into new and unexplored regions, so has it allowed the imaginations of film composers to create much of the finest music composed for motion pictures. In 1985, Randall D. Larson’s Musique Fantastique was the first book-length analytical commentary of these genres of film music. In this new edition, Larson has thoroughly rewritten and expanded that book into a massive comprehensive examination of music for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films and television, from the silents through the summer blockbusters of 2012. Intricately detailed and wide-ranging in its scope, Musique Fantastique 2 is presented in four books spanning some 1700 pages.“I would like to thank Randall on behalf of the entire music community for his years of commitment to promoting film music and the film composers that write it. Most importantly, he has always done it entirely out of true love of music and what it can do in these kinds of films.  It’s been this passion for genre music that prompted [this] analysis and commentary.” – from the Introduction by Christopher Young.One Book – Four Volumes – Encyclopedic Commentary – Essential ReadingBOOK ONE Now Available from from Creature Features.