Intrada Soundtrack Forum

August 07, 2001

Planet Of The Apes
Composed by Danny Elfman
Conducted by Pete Anthony
Sony Classical/Sony Music Soundtrax SK 89666
Total Time = 58:27

A sixties classic remade. Not the same movie, not the same music.

I'm not gonna spoil things for anyone planning to see it. Judging by opening box-office figures tons of people went already. There's been plenty of hype, TV specials, so forth. You've got an idea what to expect.

Jerry Goldsmith wrote music for the original 1968 movie and left a mark that remains to this day. Often labeled a serial score, 12-tone and such, it wasn't. The innovations were largely imaginative uses of instruments and players. Combine the novel orchestration with Goldsmith's peerless originality in composition and you've got your landmark.

Danny Elfman had the challenge of scoring this new remake. He didn't attempt to mimic Goldsmith's novel orchestrations and his work stands on it's own.

Highlighting his score are percussion and low brass figures that won't quit. Lower strings and woodwinds are also featured. The textures are dark but the composition itself is bright. Rather than keep everyone in the nether regions there are numerous displays of bright, flashy writing. What results is a dark but aggressive, flamboyant score. Certainly a tour-de-force!

There's structure to everything. Elfman creates an ascending three-note idea, uses it throughout. No matter how far into the suspense or action Elfman moves, his tiny motif hovers nearby.

Happily, director Tim Burton allowed an opening credit sequence. Wow, talk about innovative! How often today do composers get to score main titles? I'm not talking about opening scenes of a movie, with dialog and action to score under. I mean just titles, where you're watching names and hearing music and that's it. Like an "overture" to whatever's coming up!

That's what happens here. So Elfman gets three and half minutes to put you in the mood. He creates one of the best main titles in years.

It starts with nothing but low strings repeating a solitary note, punching it. Percussion players enter, suggesting their own three-note ascending idea. Soon brass introduce the main three-note theme without further ado. What follows is a masterpiece of technique. The tiny theme is heard often, twisted, played with. But everything continues to monkey (neat pun) around with all these three note figures.

The second track, titled "Ape Suite #1", launches immediately with the main three-note theme on French horn. Here it culminates however in a fourth note, actually a chord. As rhythms take over, the idea of adding fourth notes or chords continue, eventually transforming the entire theme into a series of chords. During the cue Elfman begins exploring a high string figure but never allows anything to interfere with the lower textures. Even an extended middle section focuses on violas and violins in middle and lower registers. Elfman finally introduces a chordal style that eventually dominates much of the score's formal structure.

"The Hunt" is a highlight. It's a set piece in both movies, exciting to watch. Elfman unleashes a tremendous amount of energy with low, yet brightly scored, action figures for brass and percussion. Of particular note are bass trombone pedals that cut through the huge orchestra like a knife through butter.

Percussion get lots to do, especially with some triplet figures. Stereo effects are amazing, too.

Interesting, fun footnote here. "The Hunt" highlighted Jerry Goldsmith's original score, yet was never issued on any recordings until Intrada premiered it to the world as track 4 of their CD. Danny Elfman's "The Hunt" appears as track 4 of this new version. Coincidence? You make the call.

One of the neatest, and shortest cues, is "Branding The Herd". Different from all other cues, a strikingly noncomplex rhythm towers over melody. For a brief moment Elfman affords the entire orchestra a go at it.

Ultimately Elfman brings two main ideas into the spotlight. Fierce, aggressive action and dazzling chordal stuff.

There's lots of action, of course. One of the strongest cues here is "Preparing For Battle". The three-note theme grounds everything, the low brass bury it even deeper. It all gets pretty savage, unrelenting. Ultimately Elfman hits a stride, every player "breaks loose" and runs.

Without pause the orchestra launches into "The Battle Begins". Massive chordal ideas get examined, then the players up and run again. This is also one of the few tracks where high strings have things to say, but it's still that low brass that dominate. Late in the cue brass play variants on the theme. It wraps in a rare moment of high violins against low ideas everywhere else.

Chordal passages dominate the following track. The harmonies emphasize major sonorities. As elsewhere in the score, major chords lend brightness to overall dark timbres of the orchestra. Elfman skillfully manages to combine dark and edgy composing with spectacle and brilliance.

This final sequence in the score is massive, nearly seven and a half minutes long. Elfman manages a number of his ideas in the duration, emphasizing the major chords, sometimes pounding his three-note theme. It grinds, roars towards a conclusion.

A terrific cue titled "Main Title Deconstruction" acts as musical postlude to this audacious score. Both three-note ideas and percussive rhythms have their day. In a final stroke of genius, Elfman builds layers of sound to a final crescendo, then tacets the entire orchestra save the solitary French horn section.

Their final comment? The ascending three-note theme.

A special remix of the theme by Paul Oakenfold actually closes the album. It uses Elfman's track as a foundation, then builds additional layers of voice and electronics. It's not without interest but the previous cue brought everything to a definitive close. This remix isn't needed.

Special mention need be made about the sound. It's an absolute knockout! Superb playing by the orchestra, superb recording by Dennis Sands. The orchestra is large, the amount of percussion and brass stuff sounds formidable. Everything's captured with astonishing detail, even when the material is massive. You can hear every bass trombone note, pick out each percussion stroke, yet still notice what strings and woodwinds are doing.

Probably one of the best-sounding soundtrack albums I've heard.

With dynamic music to match.

August 14, 2001

Solo Instrument Movie Scores
Various Composers

Upon playing David Shire's THE CONVERSATION someone recently asked me to suggest other scores featuring just one instrument. It sounded like an interesting, different topic.

Shire's score features almost all piano and nothing but. Reasons become clear when you watch the movie. Gene Hackman's "Harry" lives alone, stays private, plays jazz for himself. He's meticulous, ordered. He's also paranoid, his existence a world of blips and bleeps on tape recordings. Solo piano makes Harry's private world audible, coherent to the rest of us.

When Elmer Bernstein tackled HUD in 1963 he found totally different needs. Nothing about Paul Newman's "Hud" was private, ordered or paranoid. He lived on the outside of life, bullied it, defied any order to it. The ultimate "heel". The setting is small-town Texas. It's all ranching, partying. Fighting with friends, fighting with family.

Bernstein found his voice for Hud in guitar. Other instruments weren't necessary.

Small town atmosphere, dry western setting. Most of all - Hud, the classic loner. Someone you might like, someone you might hate. With sparse color and judicious placing of cues, Bernstein makes a truly lonesome sound. Refusing to take sides, he jockeys the tonal center of everything, one moment in minor, the next in major, an emphasis on neither. He even starts his score with one, ends with the other.

Dave Grusin used solo piano to weave in and out of Tom Cruise's rise to success in THE FIRM. His music was fluid, part of the movie's pace, ducking into, out of numerous sinister thrills. Interesting footnote here: both THE FIRM and THE CONVERSATION have Gene Hackman. Golly.

Single instruments without accompaniment produce limited colors. Scoring most movies, with their myriad of emotions and action and settings, becomes impractical with solitary players. But imaginative composers often find single instruments within larger ensembles can be most effective.

One of the best is CHINATOWN by Jerry Goldsmith. Jake Gittes' smalltime detective is easily outclassed by a bigger mystery he happens upon. But he won't quit. He digs away at it, unraveling one layer at a time. He ends up not the wiser, but instead back where he started.

The setting was pre-World War II Los Angeles, but the audience was watching in 1975. Goldsmith juxtaposed an ensemble of strings, pianos, harps and percussion playing complex, contemporary ideas with a solo trumpet playing lazy period stuff. Goldsmith balanced Jake's "film noir" movie world with real, modern audiences. The trumpet really made the score. No matter where the twists and turns went Jake and his trumpet went too. When the mystery is solved and the movie ends Goldsmith wraps everything up with his solitary trumpet.

Goldsmith assembled an extremely limited array of players for his music to SEVEN DAYS IN MAY in 1964. Removing brass, woodwinds and strings from his orchestra, Goldsmith worked primarily with percussion. Snare drums were featured, it being a military movie. Cues ticked like clocks, counting down the suspense. Using hammering piano sounds, assorted mallet percussion instruments, Goldsmith managed some tuned ideas. Matching a stark, documentary-like narrative, however, Goldsmith reduced the tonalities to octaves, to extremely limited notes. Variety was instead achieved by things like multiple snare drums combining snares on with off and so forth.

Just for the fun of mentioning it, when I scored Jeff Johnson's movie HOLLY VS. HOLLYWOOD, I tried something along similar lines, limiting our ensemble size, trying to find a "voice" for Holly within a semi-documentary narrative. Since there was humor I had to keep lines buoyant, fluid. Since there was drama I had to develop stuff with weight. We wanted some string sounds, occasionally using violin, piano, but mostly we needed Holly's complicated, funny, anxious, frustrated and finally angry voice. No simple challenge. Ultimately I fashioned her particular sound by combining solo clarinet with marimba.

Ironically, Bernard Herrmann's celebrated score for PSYCHO is often mentioned as music with limited color. Nothing but strings, mirroring black and white images of the movie. Imaginative use of those strings, however, creates a variety of sounds almost boundless. They're bowed, plucked, divided into groups, played soft, played loud. Extreme registers, from low notes down under to harmonics way up above. Unisons, octaves, chords, dissonance, consonance. Sometimes a lot of this stuff at the same time.

A limit to instrumental forces doesn't have to mean a limit on musical quality. Movie composers have been finding excellent opportunities for singling out instruments for decades now.

Enter sad Willy and North's flute for DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Philip Marlowe and Shire's trombone for FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. Kids-turned-gangsters and Morricone's pan flute for ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. Remnants of nuclear war and Horner's solo French horn for TESTAMENT. Millions of hushed voices and Williams' solitary violin for SCHINDLER'S LIST.

THE CONVERSATION and HUD are in great company.

August 21, 2001

The Community - Other Great Spanish CDs Coming Soon
A different column this time. An announcement, actually.

We're expanding our selection. Current targets are some impressive scores by Spanish composers. A few of the names are familiar but most are new to our ears. We'll cover various titles in capsule form as they arrive. Here's a spotlight on one exciting, very impressive example.

THE COMMUNITY, also known as LA COMUNIDAD. It dates from 2000, has music by Roque Banos. We'll be covering Banos more since several titles of his are heading this way already.

The music to THE COMMUNITY was recorded by the City Of Prague Philharmonic, conducted by Mario Klemens. The 45-minute album opens with quiet, mysterious chords in strings, followed by woodwind arpeggios over bassoon and basses. A rhythm begins to focus. Then Banos introduces his theme.

There's humor in the pacing and orchestration evident by the second track. Harp glissandos remind one of Herrmann, the pace and style suggest Elfman, Silvestri. Not a bad trio to follow.

Low trombones introduce a new, important idea during track three. Strings keep it mysterious. Things get darker, the new idea is developed. Low woodwinds, a variety of solo colors show off Banos knack for orchestration, which he does himself.

But there's excitement too. Track ten displays the aggressive, rhythmic action music of Goldsmith. Low piano, jabbing brass. Everything moves forward via ostinato-like rhythms.

There's also a strong finish. Hammering piano, a rush of strings lead to rhythmic workings of the main theme.

Roque Banos also has SECONDARY ROADS ("Carreteras Secundarias"), a drama by E. Martinez-Lazaro and a fashionable part of the new Spanish cinema. There's the comedy TREE OF THE PENITENT ("El Arbol Del Penitente") and a particularly strong, thematic score for LA VOZ DE SU AMO, recorded by the City Of Prague Philharmonic under Mario Klemens. That one's a 43-minute album full of rich, soaring strings set against shifting minor chords. Herrmann's a big influence.

And there's MASTERPIECE, also known as OBRA MAESTRA. Here Banos displays a score at times Walton, other times Rozsa. While his influences are those great, traditional movie composers, Banos reveals a style of his own. Melody is important, so's rhythm. Orchestral color, tongue-in-cheek writing are big assets too. An especially strong understanding of strings and their near-infinite myriad of sounds is a major plus.

Banos has a lot going for himself.

There are other strong composers we'll be bringing to your attention too.

You'll want to discover Angel Illarramendi and scores like CRAB ISLAND ("La Isla Del Cangrejo"), a delightful animated pirate movie recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the drama WHEN YOU COME BACK TO ME ("Cuando Vuelvas A Mi Lado") with a beautiful score recorded by the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.

Having discovered the dynamic music for THE OTHERS by composer/director Alejandro Amenabar (available from Intrada on the Sony Classical label) you'll want to hear his dramatic earlier work from BUTTERFLY'S TONGUE ("La Lengua De Las Mariposas"), a story told against the Spanish Civil War.

Watch also for strong work from Victor Reyes like LISBOA and OPERATION GONADA ("Operacion Gonada"), an exciting score recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

There's intensity to THE ART OF DYING ("El Arte De Morir") by Bingen Mendizabal, also responsible for WASHINGTON WOLVES ("Los Lobos De Washington") and rich, melodic music for RED INK ("Tinta Roja") recorded with the Orchestra of the Conservatory of Pamplona.

A particularly dramatic (also Herrmann-influenced!) work by Bernardo Bonezzi is worth noting. BETWEEN THE LEGS ("Entre Las Piernas") carries music with references to Hitchcock. Bonezzi is familiar for his work with Almodovar.

And there's Suso Saiz, and Manuel Villalta, and Juan Bardem, and Javier Navarrete...

If you're up to new stuff, new names, obscure projects with a lot of merit, orchestral scores with color and flair, get ready for a new Spanish Armada!

And watch with open ears as we introduce more unusual stuff in the coming months from Japan, France, Italy and beyond.

August 28, 2001

The Score
Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted by Howard Shore
Varese Sarabande 302 066 267 2
Total Time = 38:37

What a great album! It's just for us background score geeks. With all sorts of source music - De Niro runs a jazz club! - it's all Howard Shore. Howard Shore and nothing but. What're the usual odds of that happening?

This one's deceptively simple. In fact, it's multi-layered. It's got a multi-layered function in the movie and it's got multi-layered orchestrations on top. Underneath, actually.

Robert De Niro likes jazz, runs a club. He also steals. Now he wants to go legit. Marlon Brando gets him to make one more "score", a big one, absolutely the last. Edward Norton's the new gun in town, the cocky upstart who wants De Niro's reputation. Put all these guys together and you've got your heist.

It's a story you've seen many times, just not with this cast.

Howard Shore has two layers of movie to deal with. There's suspense, of course. It's a heist movie! But it's also character driven. Stars get stuff to do. Since De Niro anchors everything, Shore tackles his character foremost. The results?

A suspenseful score, replete with pounding rhythms, layers of orchestral sound.

And jazz. Moody, distant jazz. Nothing vibrant, in-your-face, competing with source music already there. Just cool, lonesome sounds of trumpet weaving in and about the bigger orchestra.

Not ordinary trumpet either but trumpet with a harmon mute. Brass players have several mutes to choose from but a harmon's the most distinctive. It's barrel-shaped, made of metal and has a moveable shank through the middle. Players get thin, reed-like sounds from it, velvet sounds with a "buzz". Combine this unique timbre with the regular brassy sound and you've got a neat color!

No matter how dense, how orchestral everything gets, Shore keeps the jazzy trumpet nearby. De Niro's the guy we care about, Shore keeps him in focus!

There's another layer. Ranges instruments play in. Low brass provide pounding rhythms, a jabbing pulse. Shore emphasizes low registers, punchy bass lines throughout. Mixed in are tunes from the solitary trumpet. Shore keeps his muted soloist in a mid to high range, however. Trumpet and orchestra stay out of each other's way, maintain independence. A dual-layer feel by itself.

Another fascinating layer gets heard from the get go. Drums. Endless drums. Nonstop nervous, twitching, chattering drums, moving suspense ever forward. A solid bed of pitch-less rhythm everywhere you turn, banging underneath every other stark, clear layer of sound. It's truly distinct.

Still another trick up Shore's sleeve!

The structure, the unique shape to everything. Shore winds his music into a spiral of sorts. Everything actually tightens, growing denser as the heist gets under way. Tempos quicken, things grow more agitated. One feels tension as the music progresses.

One last interesting device. Shore's main orchestral theme is angular, moving up and down. Chords underneath are sparse. Instead of traditional harmonizing, Shore writes a parallel line, combining his main theme with a duplicate, one fifth below. By rarely filling in harmonies, Shore manages to maintain lean, crisp voicing of his melody in otherwise dense surroundings.

Highlights of the album are numerous. One's the overall tightening of material, of course. Here's an album that benefits from playing uninterrupted, in sequence. But there are standout cues within this spiral.

I'm fond of track 8, "The Score Begins". It lights up several layers at one time, in clear fashion. Smoky trumpet, lean melody, sparse harmony, crisp low brass, unyielding percussion. They're all here.

"Run Late" is another highlight. High French horns play against punchy low brass. Ever-present drums, their fellow verbose trumpeter weave throughout. Late in the cue a secondary theme enters, mimicking a frequent descending bass figure. After a couple of quotes it finally emerges high in the horns. It's tense, truly dramatic.

It all comes down to "Suspended" really. Seven-plus minutes of tension, little relief. All of the elements, the multi-layers of sound come into play. But it's all coming to a climax, a point where the spiral gets wound as far as it can go. Particularly striking are jabbing figures in the low brass, scored in parallel fifths. Shore keeps his climaxing rhythmic layers tied to his thematic layers while allowing them autonomy!

When all is said and done Shore wraps with quotes of his main material, cadencing with an emphasis on his open fifth.

THE SCORE has similarities with SE7EN in overall design. It's a tad more melodic perhaps. It's also far removed from traditional symphonic film scores.

And it's got more layers than my wedding cake ever had!