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Die Another Day in the Chamber of Secrets

This Week's RecommendationS

It should come as no surprise that the score for HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, released last week on Warner Bros. (83574-2), is based largely on material from the first HARRY POTTER movie. Because of scheduling conflicts with Spielberg's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, John Williams was not able to complete the score by himself, although he did compose a massive amount of new material for this second film. But he left it up to composer William Ross to adapt it and shape it into the final score. That said, this is nonetheless clearly a John Williams score. He and Ross spotted the film together and worked closely on the development of its material, including a pair of new themes ("Fawkes The Phoenix," an elegant and stately march that opens into an adventurous overture for full orchestra, its melody becoming a heroic and confident statement; "The Flying Car," a jaunty and clever mogul-shaped cue full of hidden mischief; plus the actionesque "The Chamber of Secrets"). The music is as wondrous and magical as the film and its story, exemplified by a vivid performance by the London Symphony Orchestra.

David Arnold's third go-around as 007's new composer can be heard in DIE ANOTHER DAY (Warner Bros. 48348-2). While I wasn't as taken with this effort as I was with TOMORROW NEVER DIES and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, Arnold still out-John Barry's any other Bond composer, and the score, amid its omnipresent rock-oriented rhythmatics, has plenty of neat musical moments rising above the perfunctory electronic beats. The score has much more of a techno edge to it, plenty of synth percussion beats, but there are also moments of compelling passion. Arnold's theme for Jinx Jordan (Halle Barry) is a tender melody for strings over low brass, which somehow recalls to me the lyrical melody John Barry created for Aki in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (especially noticeable in the opening of the climactic track, "Going Down Together"). "Icarus" suddenly summons forth heavy orchestral surgings, and a huge upswelling of large chorus in a massive crescendo of expressionistic sound. The same sensibility is reprised in "Antonov," which also seethes with reprocessed voices, and a tremendous crescendo of brass and choir (think: "Duel of the Fates" 007 style). "Welcome to Cuba" is also a terrific touch of cubanissimo in this nicely flavored worldmusic track. The title song, written and performed by Madonna, is a low caliber Bond song, although embracing a higher techno end than Shirley Bassey ever imagined. Eschewing the rhythmic sensuality of most previous Bond songs, Madonna opts for a techno beat whose sudden starts and stops become simply annoying. It's followed by a dance floor remix version of the James Bond Theme, adapted by master mixer Paul Oakenfold, but again, it's pure techno dance music. For the legitimate score, skip cues one and two and go straight for the Arnold music. The enhanced CD also contains a bunch of extras, including Madonna music video (and a making thereof documentary), Oakenfold music video and a variety of Bond-related photo galleries (Bond women, Bond movie posters, etc).

This month's [IMG2R]Golden Age classic release from FSM is another Miklos Rozsa rarity, following on the heels of last month's GREEN BERETS. One of only a handful of fantasy scores composed by Rozsa, THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL (FSM Vol5 No 15) was a post-apocalyptic story released in 1959, along the same lines of Stanley Kramer's ON THE BEACH (that was released later that same year). Rozsa's score is a massive, weighty composition in his finest action-adventure style, with plenty of pathos, filigrees of high woodwinds often contrasting with the chordal swayings of the low end strings and brass. The "prelude" is very much along the lines of that from THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, the composer's finest fantasy score, and in fact much of THE WORLD, THE FLESH, and THE DEVIL's music will recall the sensibility of his music for that 1974 Harryhausen fantasy. FSM has included the complete score (53:26 mins), including a couple of alternate cues, and a characteristically thorough booklet full of details on the film and its music. It's a lavish release and a fine score. FSM has evidently used the same sources as the German bootleg release issued last year (Tickertape tt 3018; clocking in at 53:21), although to my ears the sound dynamic is somewhat richer and more vivid on the Tickertape edition. Still, as a legit release, FSM's, with better packaging and better identification of the tracks, is certainly the definitive recording of this music.

SOUNDTRAX NEWS

Speaking of [IMG3L]bootlegs, Germany's prolific Tsunami Records has issued  original soundtrack music by Hans Salter from THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, 8 cues, accompanied by 10 cues from Salter's THE MAGNIFICENT DOLL. Salter's complete GHOST music remains best represented, however, on the splendidly rerecorded Marco Polo Classic Scores of Mystery and Horror issued in 1999.

Want an early listen to Howard Shore's massive return to Middle Earth in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS? The Soundtrack.Net website is featuring an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of Shore's new score, including a sampling of 30-seconds of audio per track. Explore the score at http://www.filmmusic.com/.

Composer Jim Dooley, who so far has kept a low profile providing additional music and musical assistance to scores like THE RING, THE TIME MACHINE, and HANNIBAL while scoring a few small films on his own, has launched a new website at http://www.jimdooley.com/news.html.

Walt Disney Records has issued James Newton Howard's score for TREASURE PLANET. This is Howard's third Disney animation score, following DINOSAUR and ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. The CD will contain 15 score cues and two songs (one from Goo Goo Doll's John Azeznik and one from BB Max).

Jerry Goldsmith's [IMG4R]aggressively heroic score for STAR TREK: NEMESIS lands on November 26^th. The soundtrack CD from Varese Sarabande (302 066 412 2) contains 14 tracks and has been described as being "as epic as anything the legendary composer has ever written. Even the musicians themselves gave Goldsmith repeated ovations during the recording sessions and a triumphant round of applause on completion. Ingeniously dark textures are mixed with action music that soars to apocalyptic heights." To have an advance listen yourself, one slow-loading Norwegian STAR TREK fansite has managed to post 30 second clips of every track from Goldsmith's score. Surf over to http://www.startreknorge.com/index.php/article/articleview/243/1/12/.

Less than [IMG5L]a month after releasing their techno "song" soundtrack to BALLISTIC: ECKS VS SEVER, Varese Sarabande has released a CD of Don (MATRIX) Davis' underscore (302 066 420 2).

Varese has announced their latest limited edition Club Releases: HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK (John Williams), BIG (Howard Shore), STUDS LONIGAN (Jerry Goldsmith - his fourth motion picture score), and THE RACER/DADDY LONG LEGS (Alex North). While HOME ALONE 2 did receive a soundtrack CD at the time of the film's release, Varese's Club edition will be a special two-CD "Deluxe Edition" release featuring cues never before available. Notably, this release corrects a very odd anomaly that afflicted the original CD which was not inadvertently mastered from the first-generation session masters! More info on these titles is available at www.varesesarabande.com.

Just in time for the holidays, Intrada will issue for the first time Bruce Broughton's music for Twentieth Century Fox's 1994 remake of the 1947 holiday classic MIRACLE ON 34^th STREET. Broughton composed a score for massive orchestra, plus mixed choir and boys choir. The result was a beautiful, heartfelt work, capturing the mystery, sentiment and power of the Christmas holiday. As Broughton describes his score, "It has one uncommon 20th Century emotion in it: joy. No one is being pushed out a window, no one's being stabbed or shot or run over. So when you hear the music from beginning to end, it just makes you feel good." An album was released at the time of the film, primarily consisting of songs with some 12 minutes of Broughton's score. This new release features Broughton's music alone and runs approximately 68 minutes. For artwork, track listing, and audio clips, please visit http://www.intrada.com/vol8.htm.

FSM announces, [IMG6R]for the first time ever, an original soundtrack release of the music from THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. FSM has compiled 25 tracks (150+ minutes) of the best music from all four seasons of U.N.C.L.E. on two CDs. In addition to suites drawn from the three first-season Goldsmith scores, the album includes music by Lalo Schifrin, Morton Stevens, Walter Scharf, Gerald Fried, Robert Drasnin and Richard Shores. The music is newly remastered from the original monaural session tapes, with fourth-season music remixed in stereo. Veteran film-music journalist Jon Burlingame, who has written extensively about the series through the years, chronicles the entire history of U.N.C.L.E. music in a lavishly illustrated 28-page booklet. Look for the CD the first week of December. For details see https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/detailCD.asp?ID=245.

As sort [IMG7L]of a prelude to the U.N.C.L.E. CD, FSM released this week the Jerry Goldsmith score for Mark Robson's Hitchcockian thriller, THE PRIZE (hitherto unreleased except for a 4-track score compilation LP in 1963). With frequent dabblings in the kind of "'60s spy cool" music that Goldsmith (and others) would write for U.N.C.L.E., this release is quite a "prize" itself.

Silverline Records (www.silverlinerecords.com) has released the original soundtrack to Stephen Gagnon's thriller, ABANDON, with music by Clint Mansell, formerly of the group Pop Will Eat Itself.

Walt Disney [IMG8R]Records has released William Ross's splendid orchestral score for Jay Russell's romantic fantasy, TUCK EVERLASTING (60063-7). Ross's poignant and powerful score is rooted in both Americana and in world music stylisms (at the director's request, so as not to identify a specific setting for the film).

The third and final boxed set volume of the complete Kurosawa film soundtracks has been issued in Japan from Toho Music. FILM MUSIC OF AKIRA KUROSAWA THE COMPLETE EDITION VOL. 3 (eight CDs) includes complete scores to the director's last seven films, including DODESUKADEN, DERSU UZALA, KAGEMUSHA (two discs, including the unused, alternate, rehearsals cues, trailer music and other bonus tracks), RAN (ditto), with DREAMS, RHAPSODY IN AUGUST, and MADADAYO contained to a single disc. The eighth disc is a bonus disc called "Before SEVEN SAMURAI" (music from SANSHIRO SUGATA to SEVEN SAMURAI that was not included on the first volume). The CD is available from www.intrada.com and www.arksquare.com.

Italy's Hexacord Records [IMG9L]has released Mario Nascimbene's score for the 1967 Italian spy film, DICK SMART 2007 (HCD 13). The CD contains 18 tracks, plus three bonus tracks with Mario Nascimbene at the recording sessions.

Soundtrax is our bi-weekly Movie Soundtrack column.