Hoosiers

For the 1986 Hemdale film Hoosiers, Jerry Goldsmith wrote one of his most endearing masterpieces—warm in its Americana, stirring in its basketball athletics and as rich in emotion as the movie it accompanies.

His trumpet solos for the nostalgic Hoosiers theme rank with his finest melodic work and scoring a basketball in motion over a 7/8 rhythm is simply inspired. The expertly choreographed basketball sequences are among the highlights of Hoosiers, and Goldsmith's surprising mix of orchestra and electronics is most prominent here, supplementing a rousing game motif with a sampled sound of an actual bouncing basketball, giving the cues a modern and effortlessly catchy rhythm. The result was an Oscar-nomination for Best Original Score.

Using the original digital mixes, Intrada worked with the entire score to make this definitive presentation. The original 1986 Polydor album featured 38 minutes, including a couple of beautiful cue assemblies (created by the composer himself that differed from the finished film edits). This album retains those unique assemblies where possible, while otherwise presenting the music in chronological order in this nearly hour long album.