Intrada Soundtrack Forum

May 02, 2000

The Sixth Sense
Composed By James Newton Howard
Conducted By Pete Anthony
Varese Sarabande 302 066 061 2
11 Tracks Total Time 30:19

I’ve been spending a lot of time with this one. Last year produced some big scores but my favorites turned out to be quiet, mostly underrated stuff. Girl, Interrupted and Angela’s Ashes and The Sixth Sense. All three got released but only Ashes got noticed.

A lot of people saw The Sixth Sense. Many are catching it now on video. Still no one mentions the score. I’m in the minority on the acting front too. Yea, Joel Haley Osment, playing Cole, is terrific. But my top acting choice last year was Bruce Willis. Playing a child psychologist named Malcolm, he was as good as anyone playing anything last year. No one noticed. Shows what I know.

So to the music.

It’s profound, haunting, subtle. And, like Willis, incredibly controlled. That’s a pretty hard thing to do in a ghost story turned tense thriller turned love story. Some composers would go over the top. Not James Newton Howard. Yea, he has some clusters and stingers. But the set pieces come from the heart. And this one has an ending. Readers here know my fetish for musically satisfying conclusions, be them dramatic or subtle. The Sixth Sense has my favorite for last year. More on it later.

There are several important musical figures and two major themes. The way instruments are used is also important. Take the piano. It’s there a lot, but almost never requiring more than one hand. The right hand.

A simple motif starts things off with "Run To The Church". It’s a bell-like motif (for piano, right hand) that underlines almost everything concerning Malcolm and Cole that’s not scary. In this instance it underlines Cole’s retreat to the local church, or more accurately Malcolm’s observation of same. Though simple the figure takes on the role of a theme, outlining an important harmonic scheme of two alternating minor chords. Whenever it’s heard there’s usually a scene of Cole reaching out for attention, for help. You’ll hear it again in "Photographs".

"De Profundis" uses another important motif, again a pair of chords. This time the chords alternate between minor and major. Over the major chord Howard uses a new, though still simple, melodic idea.

"Mind Reading" plays with material from the opening, adding oboe to the colors. A brief section for solo woodwinds stands out, scored in chamber fashion.

Stingers and dissonant clusters play a role during the spookier scenes. "Suicide Ghosts", "Hanging Ghosts" and "Help The Ghosts" showcase chilling string effects with jabs of brass, pointing to an unpleasant other world Cole deals with.

But the haunting and melodic stuff continues to lead the way. Warmest of all is a rich melody that swells first in "Malcolm’s Story" and later highlights the final cue - the title of which is certainly a "spoiler" shaming all involved. Anyway, this theme moves the score from the predominant minor to the rare major in brilliant fashion. First used when Malcolm observes his wife bathing, it returns for the finale of the score.

It’s this last cue that stays with me, and particularly the ending. Covering tremendous ground, the cue uses cluster effects, the minor to major chord motif, and dramatic, urgent material to bring the movie to a climax - and to the richest statement of the major key theme. Coming from so much gentle and haunting minor key music the effect is magnificent. Howard brings it to a glorious moment, gently brings it back down.

And that final chord. We’ve moved from minor to major. But it’s more. As the final scene faded to black a solo credit for M. Night Shyamalan emerged on the screen. Howard used that moment, not to start any end credits, but to finish his score proper. A rich low major chord, yes, but embellished (with an augmented fourth) to provide complexity rather than end in simplicity. While some ears may not pick out the notes they’ll surely notice the resonance. Musically it’s just perfection. As simple as that.

The album has terrific, detailed sound. Every instrumental nuance is captured. For such an important movie, packaging is surprisingly slim however. The album also omits numerous cues. I miss stuff for angry Vincent, for Cole’s Excalibur scene, several others.

But I thank Varese Sarabande for making the album happen. It proves movie music today has stuff to offer. The Sixth Sense has quality, real musicality and then some. And it’s got an ending!

May 09, 2000

Dinosaur
Composed By James Newton Howard
Conducted By Pete Anthony
Walt Disney Records 60672-7
16 Tracks Total Time 51:45

Howard’s on a roll. The Sixth Sense, Snow Falling On Cedars and now Dinosaur. One full of shivers and restraint, one full of sadness and reflection, one full of everything.

Dinosaur has yet to open as of this writing so it’s just music I’m spotlighting. The images must be grand. The score certainly is. And there’s a beginning, a middle and an end. You get a complete meal with this one.

Standing out is the sound. It’s simply one of the best recordings I’ve heard. Caught by Shawn Murphy, the instrumental detail is astonishing. Crisp low brass, woodwind solos right in your listening room, bows on the lower strings. All that kind of stuff. It’s a challenging score, played to perfection. Dynamic, powerful, pulsating with rhythm and energy. There’s melody, two major themes (the secondary one is my favorite of the year so far) and an African choir. Plus the most exciting, frenzied action music of late. What more could you want?

A unique trailer has been running in theaters, on videos, the DVD to Tarzan, probably elsewhere. Long, and with no dialog, Howard’s music carries it up off the ground, through valleys and gorges, into the sky. An entire scene plays, scored end to end. Majestic music for an egg. An egg journey.

One of the neat things about the album is that magnificent scoring for the trailer scene is included as "The Egg Travels". Following introductory material for percussion, bassoon and clarinet, the choral activity begins. Soon horns soar, trumpets ring. The main theme emerges, soars, crescendos. A trumpet announces danger and it crashes to a halt.

There’s a lot of territory covered in the score. The highlights are many. The mixture of African vocal ideas, a huge symphony orchestra, and Howard’s unique harmonies for example. It’s a feature of "Aladar & Neera".

There’s delicate beauty, astonishingly recorded, in the transparent opening of "The Courtship". For a moment. It’s during this segment that Howard goes over to the other side, the aggressive one. And thus begins the action.

It’s those raptors. Using a menacing trombone effect, Howard launches into a percussive sequence, brings in horns. And then that secondary theme. More angled than the main theme, this one is rugged, punctuated with orchestral jabs that give it a forward-moving drive. It’s one great musical moment. Late in the cue a solo horn quotes the main theme as a reminder.

The secondary theme gets some majestic treatment during "Across The Desert". The main theme takes back in charge during "Finding Water", especially during a grand moment towards the end.

Throughout track after track are instrumental details, choral moments, bursts of rhythm. And standing thick in the middle is that aggressive, crisply recorded, bass trombone punctuated action music. If its orchestral fury you want, this one should do you wonders. If its melodic richness you prefer, this one fits the bill.

That’s probably what stays in my mind the most. Here’s a rare bird. A symphonic essay combining both melodic strength and roaring excitement. Themes are especially rich. But the action music is unusually dense and aggressive. Two rather distinct musical worlds here.

Dinosaur is a major score successful in both of them.

May 16, 2000

Gladiator
Composed By Hans Zimmer And Lisa Gerrard
Conducted By Gavin Greenaway
Decca Records 289 467 094-2
17 Tracks Total Time 61:38

Here’s a movie that stays with you. I saw it, liked it well enough. Then I found myself thinking about it for the next couple of days. Ditto the album. They both made impressions, stuck around, nagged, grew.

I’m especially big on the first three tracks. They make a great suite. And what battle music! More on it shortly.

It’s a knockout recording. There are great sounding albums coming out lately, this is one of them. It’s got dynamic range to burn. Scored for orchestra and electronics, it’s Zimmer bringing something new to the Roman arena. Rozsa’s a mere ghost here. Perhaps his power and might lingers, but nothing else remains.

We’re in the land of the duduk, solo voices, layers of cello, rhythms of today. Zimmer comes to the party with fresh ideas and it’s one of the strengths of Gladiator. The ethnic colors, low strings, solo trumpet, wailing duduk and the combined forces of a large orchestra. And that battle music. I’m still coming to that soon.

The movie has roots in other Roman movies - Fall Of The Roman Empire, Spartacus. But it goes sideways, turns different. It’s a movie with vision. It’s acted, written well. It neither trashes the spectacle of Hollywood’s past nor pays homage. It’s just a different animal. Maybe too much CGI, and a drop-frame editing technique in the fights is distracting. But the movie works.

Zimmer introduces a key element of the score in the first pair of tracks. His colors are dark, the harmony spare. Heard without pause they lead into the third - and most stunning - track.

Clocking at ten minutes, "The Battle" is a staggering example of power unleashed by increasing density and constant repetition of ideas. At the core, rhythm. Rooted in Holst (the angry Mars), Zimmer stacks shifting major chords over a repeated ostinato in similar fashion, interrupts with motifs of his own. A trumpet call, outbursts of brass. Unrelenting forward motion. More outbursts, increasing power. It’s truly massive in feel.

And considerably different in approach to action cues from previous historical spectacles. It feels like one of the great battle cues done for movies.

There are melodies and Zimmer uses them well. Long dense passages, a melody emerges, dwindles. Sometimes fragmented, other times swelling in full. Play the score a couple of times and you’ll find it has some complexity not often associated with Zimmer.

There’s actually shape to the entire score, uncommon in film music by nature of the beast. Zimmer carefully draws you into his music, pounds savagely, then settles into fashioning ideas. Upon completion he draws you again into his power. When ready he settles into his melody, plays it fully, brings it to a quiet, and most satisfying, close.

Zimmer keeps much of his score dark. Even quieter textures remain dense. And when it goes for scale the strains suggest music no less thicker than Mahler and Wagner.

Whether a fan of Zimmer’s modern approach to film music or not, you’ll find Gladiator a powerhouse example of movie music with vision. Listen to it awhile and it’ll win you over. You’ll become a fan just like me.

May 23, 2000

Gormenghast
Composed By Richard Rodney Bennett
Conducted By John Harle
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Additional Choral Music By John Tavener
Sony Classical SK 89135
24 Tracks Total Time 67:18


Gormenghast, a recent BBC production, scored by Richard Rodney Bennett. One great British composer we don’t hear from enough.

He’s been around doing films, concert music, other things. Sixties fans know his music to Far From The Madding Crowd and Billion Dollar Brain. Also Lady Caroline Lamb, Nicholas and Alexandra and Murder On The Orient Express. Then comes Equus and Enchanted April. After that it thins out. Occasionally something comes up like Swann but it’s not enough. We need more.

So cherish Gormenghast.

It might be his most powerful. In terms of harmonic vocabulary it’s his richest. He knows how to write intense, severe music. And he’s done some very pastoral work. With this one he gets to show off just about everything he can do with an orchestra. It’s got passionate strings, intense brass, warm melody. There’s dark music, exciting music. All in one score. Plus several gorgeous choral pieces by John Tavener to score ceremonial scenes.

Gormenghast is a castle. Titus is heir to the throne but wants something else. He populates a fairy tale, a story with lust, corruption, murder. And comedy. It’s a wide target for a composer. Bennett chose to root it in English music.

The opening track uses strings, woodwinds, and a boy soprano. The effect is otherworldly. Soon brass enter with a fanfare of Waltonian proportions. The melodic side of it all is rich, pastoral of sorts, but remains dense. In "Celebration" the orchestra launches into a brief, exciting romp. Strings return in "The Cat Room". Then things get dark with "Burning The Library". And so the score goes, moving within a broad symphonic canvas, usually serious, occasionally lighter.

Highlights are many. "Fuchsia & Steerpike" is slow, deliberate, using strings colored by complex harmony. In similar manner comes "Fuchsia & Lord Groan". With long lines, layers of harmony, both cues demonstrate serious string music.

There’s brass too. "The Death Of Swelter" punctuates a dramatic mood with generous doses of trombone, later trumpets. Note the striking moment when it swells into the Waltonian fanfare-ish idea. And "Keda" unfolds with rich, complex harmonies for full brass. Everyone gets pretty dramatic in "The Death Of Barquentine", climaxing with the splendor of brass, colored by darker chords. And there’s some splendid moments in similar fashion during "Sarabande For The Sisters".

But it’s not all splendor and dense harmony. There’s a nice waltz for "Irma’s Romance". And delicate, haunting work for solo harp during "Ceremony In The Rain".

My own favorite part would be the imposing drama of "The Death Of Steerpike". Low brass, French horns, later trumpets. The orchestra slowly works at a single idea, ultimately bursts forth in a fortissimo. When all is finished the brass, quasi-off stage, conclude in meditative fashion. Curiously the album identifies this as choral music by Tavener but must surely have intended that credit for the following piece which actually is for choir.

The disc is long, well recorded. Great packaging includes sufficient notes and numerous color stills. Only one liability, small enough for most listeners, a nerve with me. Readers know my fetish for endings. If a score takes me on a journey I want to arrive at some destination. Someplace new or simply back to home. Either works.

This score kinda whizzes out. Brass play, things appear to be coming back to home, and then a fade. I’m not familiar with what happens in the picture. Perhaps things just wind down.

But the journey throughout is rich and rewarding. Bennett manages music that hints at Walton, Vaughan Williams, goes further. There’s complex music here, and beautiful music. It’s a winner.

May 30, 2000

On The Beach
Composed And Conducted By Christopher Gordon
Varese Sarabande 302 066 153 2
26 Tracks Total Time 73:47

Easily my pick of the week. Sobering, eloquent music for a remake of a classic. And a score that has somewhere to go, a destination.

On The Beach was first a novel by Nevil Shute. Stanley Kramer filmed it in 1959. His movie had a great cast including Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins. Unforgettable music was supplied by Ernest Gold, who based his primary theme on the Australian song "Waltzing Matilda".

This new version helmed by Russell Mulcahy updates events to the year 2006 but tells the same story. It hasn’t aired as I write this but advance word hasn’t been kind. Bear this in mind. Discussing film music without seeing the movie is like half a discussion. Maybe this once it’s not a big issue though. Just from album packaging and reviews I gather we still have the big war, deadly fallout, survivors in Australia, sub commander Towers and his lady Moira, mysterious signals from the North, a desolate San Francisco. I know we have the submarine. And I’ll bet we get our beach. Any substantial changes in the story however and we’ll find out together. Should we watch.

It’s not about atomic war destroying our planet but how a few survivors live those last days before the "cloud" arrives. Sacrifice, courage, cowardice, anger, resignation. And, of course, love. All that good stuff.

It’s great fodder for a composer. Lots of emotion. The composers for each version made similar musical choices. Sad music, without optimism. No one gets blamed, no bad guys and good guys stuff. Everything’s just tragic. Like many scores dealing with somber images there are lots of strings, long lines, and harmonies as important as melody. To his credit Christopher Gordon brushes an unusual array of color and style within this doomed painting. And he’s got somewhere to go but more on that later.

Track one ("The World at War") reveals the folly. It’s symphonic, epic in scale. Track two ("A New Day") goes in the opposite direction, gentle, fading. Solo French horn paints a lonely picture as "Melbourne Decays" and martial percussion and trumpets take over in "Decommission". All this color and the score’s just getting under way.

But Gordon’s music does have a destination. You can feel it by now. Key points start coming into focus in "Through The Darkness". Strings, sad music, a Samuel Barber does Ralph Vaughan Williams sound. It’s here. It’s the heart of Gordon’s music. Amazingly, Gordon doesn’t rely on minor chords to make it sad. Major sonorities are as important as minor ones.

It begins with solo harp and a major key, then swells as strings enter, emerging with an important new motif. It recurs often, a sadly noble idea penetrating anything be it major or minor. During "On The Jetty" the somber full main theme comes into focus. It’s a rich, heartfelt piece, one of the most haunting television has produced. Though based in a minor key it uses major sonorities often. The results are stirring. It’s given deeper treatment during "The Great Ocean Road", both in terms of duration and rhythmic interest.

There are diversions, such as during "Prepare To Dive". On a mission to track mysterious signals, the submarine heads North to a rousing flourish. The "Voyage North" brings spectacular brass ringing to the fore. "Anchorage" is pretty grim, ultimately powerful.

Reaching the desolate city of San Francisco Gordon’s music grows intense, severe, challenging. "Alien Landscape" stands out. Furious percussion, complex layers of brass, swirling strings. Moving from clusters to musical pain, the lengthy sequence ends with a haunting solo trumpet giving way to a most intense brass unison. One powerhouse cue.

The sub still has somewhere to go though. Back home. Gordon devotes lengthy cues for the final chapter. "Hirsch" stresses strings, expressive viola and cello lines, moving music throughout.

And then comes "Flight Through The Apostles and Elegy". It’s a genuine highlight, perhaps Gordon’s bid at an award. Starting with a stirring variant of the main theme everything soars. Watch the horns! Unwinding it all, Gordon develops his main theme in those invaluable strings.

But Gordon ain’t through yet. He’s kept a big chorus at bay for some time now. They come out during "Lacrimosa". It’s his climax, his destination, as good as movie music gets. Quite simply it’s what this score comes down to. Chorus, supported by strings. Voices in two parts, in full chorus. Not ethereal, nor distant, this chorus opens the heavens with a fortissimo in the minor.

Having brought his rich musical journey thus far, Gordon closes with a pair of moving codas. First a brief solo for child soprano. Then in summary of emotion and musical ideas Gordon ends with his lengthy "From The Beach, Silently Weeping". With one final stroke Gordon paints a mournful, somber, beautiful portrait, and dots the eye with a last delicate major chord.

Christopher Gordon had a lot to say and knew how to come and go with all of it. Here’s movie music with vision. And a composer with an awesome career ahead. Moby Dick and now this. What a moment it’s gonna be to hear him write a score to something not a remake.

Varese provides a bare minimum of packaging, but does a great service by grouping the selections under broad categories such as "Melbourne" and "San Francisco". They give the listener a roadmap. And a bright and dynamic recording lets tourguide Christopher Gordon keep you glued to the path.