SNAKES ON A PLANE
© New Line Cinema
Coiled Fusion
By: Randall LarsonDate: Thursday, March 22, 2007
The scores to Snakes on a Plane, Zodiac, and Shooter at first glance seem to bear little resemblance to one another, although each in fact embodies a type of musical fusion to develop and enhance its effectiveness as a score and as a soundtrack CD. Whether scoring snakes or serial killers or military snipers, these three scores are potent hybrids of instrumentation, texture, and tonality that work as well off-screen as on.
CORRECTION
Thanks to bmiami for being the first to correct by brain fart last week – Zodiac was indeed scored by David Shire and Snakes on a Plane by Trevor Rabin, which I knew but for some reason the synapses between brain and fingers convulsed and the result was a strange metamorphosis of Shire into Shore and Rabin into Gregson-Williams (the latter perhaps more reasonable since both hail from the same stylistic mold). Anyway, my apologies for the error. We’re looking at both scores in more detail – and getting the names right – in this week’s column.
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Varese Sarabande has rescued from oblivion Trevor Rabin’s high-octane, cold blooded, m-f’ing score for Snakes on a Plane. Originally issued in a pleasing song soundtrack last year (which included a 4-minuite score suite, “Snakes On A Plane – The Theme” which doesn’t appear in that form on the Varese CD), Rabin’s score as typically neglected in favor of the film’s omnipresent songs. The songs did a great job of setting the film’s environment and humor, but Rabin’s music gave the raging serpents their venom and drive. For all its dumbness, this was a fun and energetic film that I thoroughly enjoyed and can watch over and over with renewed glee. Its dynamic was beautifully bolstered by Rabin’s aggressive score. Presented here as a 37-minute original soundtrack recording, Rabin’s music for SoaP is a rampant fusion of synths and symphs, effectively layered and vibrant as any CGI-incarnated striking serpent. Propelled by an insistent rhythm that is as amped-up as the pheromone-enflamed reptiles unleashed upon the unwary passengers of South Pacific Air Flight 121. Rabin builds up a tremendous, percussive vibe in tracks like “Snake Chaos;” while tracks like “Sorting It out” and “Going Down” seethe with restrained hostility and sinewy chord progressions as they anticipate that sudden fangy attack from the shadows (kind of an “ostinato for ophidiophobia,” if you will).
Mostly obscured by sound effects and shrieking serpent-scared passengers, Rabin’s score intensified the ferociousness of the snakes and the panic of the victims, and even occasionally humanized the situation, as in “Snakes Kill” and “Anti-Venom Hope.” For the former cue, Rabin composes gentle and very sorrowful tune for the death of the older flight attendant. The melody is reminiscent somewhat of the opening notes of Harald Kloser’s The Day After Tomorrow, and it serves a similar purpose: to eloquently suggest the human toll even in the midst of the frenetic chaos of SoaP’s entertaining violence. In the cheerfully titled “Snake Kabob,” Rabin lets loose with a rock vibe that really gets the viewer/listener going – this is as anthemic a tune as SoaP will get; its rhythmic drive encouraging as the enplaned victims, led by uber-hero Samuel L. Jackson, build a strategy to fight back. “Evacuation” closes the score with a reprise of the tune introduced in ”Snakes Kill” arranged with more of an air of relief that sorrow, then fusing it with the rock anthem from “Snake Kabob” to herald a sense of triumph as the boa-besieged passengers emerge into the safety of the Los Angeles sunshine; the tune is punctuated by a couple of striking and self-assured riffs from a solo trumpet, which provide a new and previously unheard texture that enhance the viper-violenced characters’ emergence from the darkness of their cobra-corrupted flight into the sparkling sunshine of safety and respite. A likable keyboard motif rolls us into the end credits, followed by an inevitable coda of the film’s serpentine suspense stinger, just to give us one final jolt.
David Fincher’s Zodiac is light years away from SoaP in terms of style and scope and story, and David Shire’s score has little in common with the rattler-rhythmed, python-patterned, venom-varied (ok, I’ll stop) style of Rabin’s music. But it retains a sinewy fusion of layered textures and the same kind of evocative fusion of textures and tonalities that bolstered Rabin’s far more assaultive musical approach. Shire is in many ways the perfect composer to score Zodiac. As the composer of such iconic 1970s thrillers as The Conversation, The Taking of Pelham 123, Farewell My Lovely, All The President’s Men, and all manner of TV movies and series – shows the real-life Zodiac may well have been watching in between his heinous crimes – Shire’s music, released on CD by Varese Sarabande, perfectly embodies the kind of psychological musical environment needed by this film. Interestingly, Fincher originally wanted to have no score at all, with the movie scored solely with period source music – the songs of the era (which, by the way, Lakeshore has released separately as a neat compilation of late 60s and early 70s rock, pop, and R&B tunes in their song soundtrack to the film); but as the project came together the need for dramatic scoring was realized, and Shire was brought in (on the basis of having parts of his score for The Conversation used as temp tracks) and the film made way for 40 minutes of original music. Shore’s score is more of a harmonic score than a melodic one, built upon layers of transparent strings and, as Shire writes in his informative notes to this release, maintaining an intentional “irresolution.” Themes and variations never resolve – left hanging as was the investigation into unsolved murders themselves. The music builds a tremendous sense of unease, of tension, of discomfort, as Shire develops his layered, “motivic fragments.” An eloquent and distant ascending trumpet line in “Aftermaths” briefly suggests the vast, discomforting regions of Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien theme (reprised in “Confrontation”), an association not inappropriate to Fincher’s film of oblique associations, distant connections, and investigative obsession.
Shire, who has been fairly absent from film scores this decade with barely a quartet of original work since 1999), is eagerly welcomed back onto the A-list with this tremendous score. In its subtlety and barely melodic atmospherics, his score coils like the entwining rope of a concealed serpent, scales attentive and tongue flicking with anticipation. His strings hang in the air like San Francisco fog, obscuring the acts of violence and lifting only to reveal their aftermath, failing to provide any kind of resolution or justice in favor of the slain souls. Livelier tracks like “Graysmith Obsessed” with its insistent riff of string bass, viola, pizzicato strings, and piano over violins and trumpet, the guitar motif introduced in “Trailer Park,” and the interplay between violin and piano in “Closer & Closer” – most of which incorporate the piano-based Graysmith’s Theme, an only slightly less unmelodic, rhythmic motif humanizing the journalist whose investigations propel the film – provide a contrasting texture that drives the same intent: an obsession to learn the truth coupled with the seeming inability to do so. Shire crafts the film’s psychologies and subtexts into a pervasive musical atmosphere that supports and enhances the film’s brooding and documentarylike dynamic as well as the ambiguity of its denouement. The score builds an intensity of emotive interplay and a heaviness of dramatic ambiance that is extremely effective; on CD the score is likewise captivating and subtly provoking; Zodiac is one of the most interesting and persuasive scores of the year. The CD includes two bonus tracks, an unused melodic theme deemed too sentimental to fit the tone of the film and its score, and a piano demo of one of the themes.
Shooter Soundtrack © 
PS: For a cool photo-essay on the Shooter scoring sessions, see: www.soundtrack.net/features
FILM MUSIC NEWS
Klaus Badelt has replaced Marco Beltrami as composer for the forthcoming TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). The music is expected to be high-octane, though will be overshadowed by songs. The album, from Warner/Atlantic, features just two of Badelt’s cues (‘I Love Being a Turtle’ and ‘Nightwatcher’), with the rest of the album filled with songs such as ‘Roses’ by Meg and Dia, ‘Shell Shock’ by Gym Class Heroes and ‘Youth Like Tiger’ by Ever We Fall. The album will be released in the US on Tuesday March 20th. No word yet on a score soundtrack featuring more of Badelt’s music, although Badelt fans will be glad to learn that Varese Sarabande will release his score to Premonition on April 17th.
The Dark is Rising, a fantasy adventure about a boy who discovers that he is the last of a group of immortal warriors dedicated to the fighting against forces of the dark, will get an original score composed by Christophe Beck. The film is produced by Walden Media and Mark Platt Productions, directed by David L. Cunningham and stars Christopher Eccleston, Jonathan Jackson and Gregory Smith. The Dark is Rising based on a five-book young adult/high fantasy series by Susan Cooper originally published in the 1960s and 1970s. The film will premiere on September 26. - via filmmusicweekly.com
La-La Land Records presents “the first ever official, studio-endorsed CD release” of Jerome Moross’ The Big Country, limited to 3000 copies and running seventy-four minutes long. The disc begins shipping at the end of March. www.lalandrecords.com
Brigham Young University’s latest archival soundtrack release is Max Steiner's action-packed romantic score for RKO’s 1935 The Three Musketeers. Conducted by the composer, the release (available from screen archives and other online retailers) includes a full color, 32-page booklet with notes by film scholar J.B. Kaufman and audio restoration by Ray Faiola. As with all Brigham Young University Film Music Archives productions, all proceeds from this limited edition CD go towards the acquisition, preservation of film music elements, and public future releases, of scores like this.
Composer Joel McNeely (Virus, Iron Will, The Avengers, Young Indiana Jones) has launched a new web site at www.joelmcneely.com/
His latest film, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was released on home video in February.
Film and television composer Christopher Lennertz has teamed with celebrated multi-cultural band Ozomatli to provide a tasty score to the indie release Tortilla Heaven. Lennertz and Ozomatli previously worked together on the band's "Street Signs" CD, where Lennertz's arranging work with an orchestra helped the 10-piece band take home a Grammy award for best Latin Rock Album of the Year. For Tortilla Heaven, Lennertz collaborated with members of Ozomatli to incorporate a rock'n Espanol sound into the comedy film. Starring George Lopez and Miguel Sandoval, the comedy based on a true story begins when the face of Jesus appears on a hand-made tortilla in a tiny New Mexico town, a miracle that threatens to turn the sleepy community upside down.
DaiMajin Soundtrack © 
FILM MUSIC BOOKS
Yale University Press has published Hitchcock’s Music, the first book-length study of the use of music in Hitchcock’s films. Based on extensive interviews with composers, writers, and actors, and research in rare archives, author Jack Sullivan discusses how Hitchcock used music to influence the atmosphere, characterization, and even storylines of his films. He examines the director’s important relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind the musical decisions. Covering the whole of the director’s career, from the early British works up to Family Plot (scored by John Williams), this engaging look at the work of Alfred Hitchcock offers new insight into his achievement and genius. http://yalepress.yale.edu
GAMES MUSIC NEWS
Renowned video game composer duo Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan have created the original musical score for Ubisoft’s TMNT™ video game based on the upcoming CGI feature-length film starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®. Developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal and Quebec City Studios, the TMNT video game is rated E10+ and available now at North American retailers.
Drawing on their diverse musical references, Velasco and Dikiciyan have composed a cinematic, action-driven score that encompasses orchestral, rock and break beats to match the acrobatic navigation, collaborative combat and powerful, fast fighting moves of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As characters from the movie and the original comic book series creep out of the shadows to face the Turtles, Velasco and Dikiciyan’s music captures the sinister landscape of New York City and immerses players in the intense video game adventure. The composers deliver a mélange of bass-driven electronic synths and orchestral swells with an overlay of raw guitar punches, staccato beats and Asian-flavored melodies.
Cris and Sascha’s other video game credits include the dark, epic orchestral score for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic™ and the main cinematic title for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent™. For more information, visit their respective websites at www.monarchaudio.com and www.sonicmayhem.com.
For more information on TMNT, please visit the official website at www.tmntgame.com.
Last week, composer Kevin Riepl (Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 2003) recorded his score for the anticipated massively multiplayer first-person shooter computer game, Huxley. Currently in development for the PC and Xbox 360, Huxley takes place in a post-Apocalyptic future where humans and mutants fight to gain control over a new powerful energy source. The music for the game is energetic and dramatic, with a driving rhythm and some electronic pre-records. But at the central core lies an 80-piece orchestra, featuring some of the best session players in Hollywood, which was conducted by Tim Simonec at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers. A photostory on the scoring session can be read at: www.soundtrack.net/news
Recommended Soundtrack sources:
www.arksquare.com/index_main
www.intermezzomedia.com/ (Italy)
www.moviemusic.com
