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Barry's "sound" is always present in his scores. I can generally pick out a Barry score from any variety of others. Sometimes I can hear the upsweep of the Bond intro, but mainly its the deep moaning background using cello or base, while horns or lighter strings supply the foreground -- that is Barry signature music across many soundtracks. So no, I don't buy the idea that Bond music is simply a style


Barry has a musical style. That's why it's present in most of his scores. Just like Herrmann, Rozsa, Williams, Morricone, Korngold and most of the great composers. We learn to identify their style. The Bond theme is just one of many musical pieces composed by Barry. What unites them all? They are done in the Barry style. The style and the Bond sound existed before he wrote the Bond theme.

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If I remember Goldfinger and From Russia with Love correctly, Barry creates special themes in addition to that of Bond.


He does that in all his Bond scores. But brace yourself, the Bond theme plays only once in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. However, what I like to think of as "the other Bond theme" -- "007" -- is played in its entirety twice in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. And to keep it from being a mere recapitulation, the orchestration and tempo is different in each one.

GOLDFINGER does not use the Bond theme completely at all.

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I just reserve the right to be critical when he doesn't meet my criteria.


That's certainly your right. I just think the criteria should be the quality of the music, not whether one theme is present in its entirety. Thankfully, the producers of the Bond films didn't feel the same way or we wouldn't have all of Barry's great scores in those films.