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High Adventure Music

Jablonsky seems at his best, though, in the film's more poignant moments, and he demonstrates a gift for both melody and motific development in these tracks. "Scarlet" is a standout cue, a very pretty, old-fashioned styled romantic melody for winds and harpsichord over a throbbing pulse of keyboard, strings, and percussions, beautifully capturing the delightfulness of this character and effective in conveying the feeling of mid-19^th Century England without becoming too Victorian. "London World Exposition" is a grand and noble celebration of science and invention, its melodic eloquence soon melting away into a sinewy pattern of furtive violins and low-end piano chords as the festivities are threatened. But Jablonsky's composition here is quite confident and capable; the cue carries an air of triumph that overcomes the dark ominousness that flavors its cadence. The sprightly English melodies of "Scarlet" return in "The Atelier of Ray," a pleasing, albeit brief musical frolic. "Crystal Palace Waltz" mingles the dignified sentiments of "London World Exposition" with a congenial waltz pattern that works a more than a simple dance tune. "Fly in the Sky" is a heroic, triumphally soaring symphonic overture that is, unfortunately, over way too soon. The 8-page fold-out CD booklet includes notes from director Otomo about the score, and complete music performance and staff credits. www.colosseum.de

Composer Guy Gross has taken his cable-TV series FARSCAPE into the expansive realm of full-length film scoring with his soundtrack to the [IMG2R]Sci-Fi Channel's upcoming miniseries, FARSCAPE: THE PEACEKEEPER WARS, released this month by La-La Land Records (LLLCD 1026). The music is exotic and eloquent, ranging from fierce bombastic battle tonalities, to dark, shadowy mysteriosos, somber choral broodings, punctuated by profound orchestral statements. The larger nature of the miniseries has given Gross the opportunity to develop his episode scores, normally recorded by synthesizers and samplers, into the vaster orchestral textures of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, enhanced by a 40-voice choir. The score is vibrant and energetic, pulsing with unrestrained tenacity. An 8-page booklet is included with notes on the music from exec producer David Kemper, producer Andrew Prowse, and Gross. The CD label is following this release with the first of what should be several collections of episode scores from the series. www.lalalandrecords.com

Film Score Monthly's three-CD November release of Bronislau Kaper's score to MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (FSM Vol 7 No 16) is one of the [IMG3L]specialty label's best releases thus far. Not only is it a thoroughgoing majestic orchestral soundtrack, mighty and melodic and flavorful and about terrifically swashbuckling. The score's first release on CD is embellished by this comprehensive package: complete original film recordings, a cornucopia of alternate takes and a variety of native source cues, outtakes, and the like. All is appropriately analyzed in a 48-page booklet that covers in depth the history of the film and each track on the CD. (It's interesting to note, by the way, how alike the first half dozen or so notes of the main theme are to that of Gerald Fried's acclaimed and excellent theme from the TV miniseries, ROOTS, although the latter went off in an entirely different sensibility; but you may recall the journeys of Kunta Kinte in 1700 Virginia when listening to some of Kaper's original flourishes). One of the '50s best scores, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is most welcome in this important release (now if only FSM could put a release together of Kaper's visceral sci-fi/horror score to 1954's THEM!...)

Bobby Johnson's score for the disturbing and unsatisfying KING OF THE ANTS, a cruel and conscienceless revenge story from Stuart Gordon, has also been released by La-La Land (LLLCD 1024). Johnson, who also scored DEAD DOLL, WE ARE PHAMALY, and A LITTLE CRAZY) provides a fairly static rhythmic undercurrent that accentuates the film's relentless drive, if little of its pathos. The score creates a layered hybrid tonality from the start and fails to develop it into much of anything else, in the end becoming a little too redundant for pleasurable listening. www.lalalandrecords.com

Writing in Film Score Monthly's weekly online news report, Scott Bettencourt notes that Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has "decided not to give out an award this year in their confusingly titled category 'Best Original Musical.' This category was established in 2000 and replaced such earlier categories as "Best Song Score" and "Best Musical or Comedy Score," but no nominations have ever been announced, mostly because there are so very few original song scores being written for movies today (to qualify, there must be five original songs by the same songwriter or team). Although this year there was technically a sufficient number of films eligible (five) to allow for the activation of the category BIG IN GERMANY, THE CHORUS, HOME ON THE RANGE, OPEN HOUSE, TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE the branch understandably felt that five eligible movies did not warrant an award after all 'Practically Only Original Musical' is not much of an honor." -filmscoremonthly.com

The classical label Chandos continues their notable and important series of British "Film Music of" collections (Ron Goodwin recently appeared, [IMG4R]following several volumes of Malcolm Arnold, William Alwyn, Richard Addinsell, proving the label doesn't only release CDs from film composers whose surnames begin with "A." A forthcoming release that has me very excited is the first collection of the film scores of Clifton Parker, who's intense score for Jacques Tournier's NIGHT OF THE DEMON (CURSE OF THE DEMON in the US) is among the genre's finest unsung scores. It appears on this collection, along with material from Disney's TREASURE ISLAND, the original BLUE LAGOON, the war film SINK THE BISMARCK!, and Disney's historical swashbuckler, THE SWORD AND THE ROSE, among others. The restored music is performed by the BBC Orchestra, conducted by Ramon Gumba. www.chandos.net

Howard Shore will be composing the music for Sun: Soul of the Ultimate Nation, an online videogame from Webzen due in early 2005. He'll be writing the entire score, not just a theme or two like Danny Elfman did on Fable. Shore is also signed to do David Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and he has a cameo in Peter Jackson's KING KONG, where he'll be seen conducting a 40-piece pit orchestra in period arrangements. fsm

Shipping after Christmas are FSM's December limited Silver/Golden age releases, Miklos Rozsa's score for the 1954 film VALLEY OF THE KINGS, which starred Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker. The CD includes the complete underscore plus bonus tracks of the film's source music (cues that Rozsa himself supervised). The CD also includes the Rozsa's trailer score for the 1950 KING SOLOMON'S MINES, and the soundtrack to MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY (1954). All except for the MINES trailer music, all is presented entirely in stereo - remixed from the original 35mm masters. Also available is a 2-CD set containing John William's 1966 comedy score for PENELOPE. The score was one of "Johnny Williams" earliest soundtrack releases on LP, although, except for the title song, the album was entirely re-recorded and emphasized the film's source music. Disc one of FSM's release features the never-before-released original soundtrack followed by the complete LP program. Outtakes and alternate tracks are also included. Filling out Disc 2 is the complete Henry Mancini soundtrack to the 1962 Jack Arnold romantic comedy, BACHELOR IN PARADISE, starring Bob Hope. www.filmscoremonthly.com

Ark Soundtrack Square reports that the soundtrack CD to
GODZILLA FINAL WARS has been released. Keith Emerson of "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" and the rising Japanese creators wrote the score for what is being purposed as the final Godzilla (but we've heard that before). The CD includes unused music by Keith Emerson as bonus tracks.

Other notable new Japanese released include:
INUYASHA THE MOVIE: GUREN NO HORAIJIMA, a fully orchestral score by Kaoru Wada from the fourth film in the animated series.
MONSTER Vol. 2, the second soundtrack to the TV anime series based on the popular comic by Naoki Urasawa.
Coming soon from Japan is a second box set of complete soundtracks to Toho's second wave of Godzilla movies, Anniversary GODZILLA Soundtrack Perfect Collection [BOX2]. Like the first set (which contained the seminal scores to the first four Godzilla films), Box 2 includes individual CDs containing the complete scores to GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO (1965, Akira Ifukube), GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER (1966, Masaru Sato), SON OF GODZILLA (1967, Masaru Sato), DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968, Akira Ifukube), and GODZILLA'S REVENGE (1970, Kunio Miyauchi). A 6^th CD contains a reissue of Toho's out-of-print LP, GODZILLA 2.

On December 29^th, soundtrack CDs will be issued in Japan from KUNG FU HUSTLE (score by Raymond Wong), and SHIN SILKROAD (documentary score by Yo-Yo MA).
www.arksquare.com/index_main.html

Sony Japan has released a notable game soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams (SHREK, SPY GAME, PHONE BOOTH) to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, latest entry in the action game series from Konami. The soundtrack has been released initially in a two-CD deluxe edition, which has reportedly sold out (but copies may be had from a number of retailers, such as www.arksquare.com). The First press limited edition contains a special cardboard slipcase and the skeleton liner cards; the CD contains 43 tracks including Polygon Demo cues and the MGS3 Ending theme. A regular single disc edition will follow. Gregson-Williams, who also scored the MGS2 game, is joined by Norihiko Hibino and several notable performers, including Cynthia Harrell, Elisa Fiorio, and others. "Metal Gear Solid 3 is an incredible game, and the music strives to complete the whole experience of gaming. I hope MGS fans will find the music both powerful and exciting," Gregson-Williams has said of this release.

Also released in Japan are game soundtracks to the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII, score composed by Koichi Sugiyama. The long-awaited the new game of DRAGON QUEST series. The 2-CD soundtrack release includes 58 tracks. Nobuo Umematsu has released a sophomore recording entitled The Black Mages 2: The Skies Above. The CD compiles rock-arranged versions of BGM soundtracks selected from the popular game Final Fantasy.

The soundtrack for Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War has been released as a big four-CD set compiling theme songs, BGM soundtracks, and more. The Nintendo Sound History Series has released a best music soundtrack to Nintendo's game series, Zelda, containing music from Gamecube's The Legend Of Zelda: The Four Swords and others.

IGN has nominated Jesper Kyd's soundtrack to Hitman: Contracts for Best PC Soundtrack of 2004. For more details please visit www.jesperkyd.com.

Recommended soundtrack sources:

www.buysoundtrax.com

www.intrada.com

www.screenarchives.com

www.footlight.com

Soundtrax is our weekly Movie Soundtrack column.

For questions or comments, contact the author at Soundtrax@cinescape.com.