Intrada Soundtrack Forum

February 01, 2000

Girl, Interrupted
Composed By Mychael Danna
Conducted By Nicholas Dodd
TVT 6500-2
29 Tracks (Mychael Danna - 11 through 29)
Total Time 73:17 (Mychael Danna - 34:02)

A new movie with Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Vanessa Redgrave, Whoopi Goldberg. Writer/director James Mangold played songs during production, used many of them in the finished film. They’re all here. So’s the score by Mychael Danna.

A Canadian, Danna is best known as the composer for many Atom Egoyan movies including Exotica, Felicia’s Journey, The Adjuster, The Sweet Hereafter. For Ang Lee he scored The Ice Storm and recently Ride With The Devil.

He’s well-recorded. All the above have CDs as do others like Kama Sutra, Regeneration, Lilies, 8MM.

Danna writes in numerous fashions, whatever helps the movie. Unusual, ethnic, atmospheric, intellectual, symphonic. He gets more interesting all the time. As with Girl, Interrupted.

Finding a vocabulary with strings, woodwinds and assorted glass instruments Danna has written subtle stuff. Haunting. Almost simple-sounding. But simple it’s not.

Piano figures start "You Need A Rest". Woodwind solos, strings emerge. Incredibly transparent lines tinged with warm, occasionally brittle harmonies. It’s a gentle, almost Thomas Newman-ish sound. "Lisa" brings some percussive effects into the fabric, and "Meds" explores the thematic ideas with an edge to the harmony.

I find "The Tunnels" a highlight. Effective writing for solo flute, guitar, clarinet and strings over a buoyant rhythm. Another is the passionate, richly melodic second half of "Toby/My Friends". Always present are the warm yet slightly dissonant harmonies. Plus outstanding writing for woodwinds. Combined with swelling strings the sound is particularly expressive.

A neat device: open intervals in piano and guitar. Weaving in and about, outlining chords, these simple figures take on characteristics of a melody.

Another neat sound: glass orchestra. Goblets, glass harmonica, pieces of glass. It's a shimmering effect, gorgeous when combined with strings and woodwinds.

I emphasize this score isn't simple. Danna keeps it complex, layering strong harmony and instrumental color to deceptively simple ideas. His primary melodic idea may be just a few notes, but it's carried along by unique chords. Also, by no means monothematic, many ideas come and go throughout, related by the harmonic language. But the primary theme does connect throughout. And it finishes the score.

The recording is clear, distinctive, has strong dynamics. Woodwind colors are especially rich. Most of the numerous tracks are assembled into longer ideas, coherent pieces with little pause. Film music cues get bad reputations for being fragmented. That issue appears to have been tackled here.

Danna scores a touchdown!

February 08, 2000

Titus
Composed By Elliot Goldenthal
Conducted By Steven Mercurio & Jonathan Sheffer
Sony SK 89171
22 Tracks
Total Time 61:53

Music for Shakespeare. Give the chore to composers and they should be off and running. And its what Goldenthal did. Took off, ran. Right off the page!

This one goes over the top. It goes under it. And when necessary it just goes smack through it. There’s size and sound to spare. The London Metropolitan Orchestra and English Chamber Choir captured in some of the most detailed and dynamic sound on a soundtrack. Numerous locales were used to get it on tape, from London to New York to California. Musical color from delicate to overpowering, from cerebral to smartass, from sublime to just plain bonkers.

Need styles and contrasts? Here you go. Symphonic little, symphonic big. Contemporary, primitive. Rock and roll, big band. You name the ingredient, Goldenthal stirs it in.

The movie depicts early Roman barbarism, mingles it with attitudes of today. The director asked Goldenthal to “blend and collide timeâ€