A River Roars Through It

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2005

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS

David Newman's expressive and expansive score for SERENITY, Josh Whedon's big-screen incarnation of his short-loved TV series, FIREFLY, recently released by Varese Sarabande (302 066 682 2), is as quietly passionate as was the director's epitaph to his FIREFLY series. Musically, there's very little relation between the TV show and the feature film. The modern-folk music style of FIREFLY composer Greg Edmonson, whose TV series music is available online from FoxMusic and will be issued on CD from Varese Sarabande in two weeks, is nowhere in evidence in SERENITY, which displays a very different musical sensibility and style. Newman came to the project well-versed in virtually every genre of film, from quirky sci-fi jaunts of the 70s like CRITTERS and THE KINDRED to all kinds of comedies, like THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER, THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN, GALAXY QUEST, THE FLINTSTONES, SCOOBY DOO, and MONSTER-IN-LAW, but also had a strong background in drama and thrillers, like BROKEDOWN PALACE, THE PHANTOM, and episodes of both AMAZING STORIES and TALES FROM THE CRYPT. To SERENITY, Newman brings a stirring orchestral atmosphere, far removed from his comedy scores, which provides an unusual ambience beneath the film's drama while also heightening its dynamic. Much of the music washes around and over the listener, as Newman crafts a musical fluidity amid an intricacy of texture and tonality, tinged by moments of poignancy and feeling. Newman's SERENITY music has its share of bombastic moments ("Space Battle," for one, is a furious aggression of orchestral attacks; and "Run To Black" is a burbling stew of rampant percussion solidified by sinewy strains of violins; "Jane & Zoe/Final Battle" is a provocative mix of synths and orchestra that builds to a very dramatic crescendo, featuring a rendition of the main "Serenity" Theme that nearly soars, but, as much of the score's melodies, it kept in check from becoming too grand). Everything musical in SERENITY is kept quite restrained, the score is defined by its intimacy; it has as much to say in its quietude as it does in its comparatively less frequent activity. Joss Whedon's influence on capturing a character-driven score rather than one derived from action or environment us well served by Newman's composition. SERENITY is characterized by its sublime yet subdued melodies and tonalities. Gentle violins waft through various orchestral and electronic passages to reflect upon human interactions and character growth, embellished by a peculiar sound Newman emanated from a square baby grand piano that becomes associated with the character of River. Newman's Theme for River Tam is both simple and eloquent, truly capturing the heart of this character that often belies the ferociousness that is occasionally revealed. Very nice score. The CD booklet includes a nice appreciation of Newman's score and the intentions for the film's music from writer/director Whedon.

Also released by Varese Sarabande is the completely wonderful score for WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT (302 066 686 2). As revealed in last week's column where we interviewed composer Julian Nott, the feature film score has Nott's signature WALLACE & GROMIT theme and style, but enlivened and enlarged to a Hollywood spectacular sensibility through the collaboration of a team of Hans Zimmer protégés, including Rupert Gregson-Williams, James Michael Dooley, Lorne Balfe, and Alastair King. The music maintains the characteristic wit and brass band style invented by Nott, which served the previous trio of short films so perfectly, but is enriched by an orchestra about a third larger, which gives the music a size and scope that wasn't possible nor appropriate for the more intimate short films. An evocative new Main Theme for large orchestra and choir gives the film a truly larger-than-life

sensibility and a sense of grand heroics afoot. The music is classical in style yet usually with tongue firmly planted in cheek, from the stately motif for Lady Tottington to the suitably heroic crescendo that accompanies the introduction of Wallace's humane pest eradicator, the Bun-Vac. A choir enhances "Brainwash & Go," which also includes some thereminlike electronics that give way to a heady cartoonlike rush of brass, keyboards, and percussion in its "Go" half. "Harvest Offering" morphs from a soft, hymnlike grace into a raging, pulse-pounding and percussion-driven crescendo. "Arson Around" is a cute scherzo for woodwinds over strings. The Wallace & Gromit Theme crops up unexpectedly throughout the score, also. A pleasing variation is heard from strings in the midst of the rich, lush violin performance of "Your Ladyship," and "A Big Trap" contains a wondrously large-form variation from full orchestra is one of the score's standout cues, all stops pulled out to provide a madcap swashbuckling overture that could have come straight from Erich Wolfgang Korngold, if only he'd had an expressive canine companion. Occasional touches remind one of the brilliant Warner Bros cartoon scores of Carl Stalling, what with WERE-RABBIT's dramatic turns of phrase, abrupt changes in musical style, and simply sense of musical delight. It's a fun and funny score without being humorous, and thoroughtly delightful in every way. Cracking music, Gromit; but nothing cheesy about it. www.varesesarabande.com  

Silva Screen Records has released a stirring soundtrack recording of Joby Talbot's music from the British feature film incarnation of a popular recurring TV series, THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN'S APOCALYPSE (SILCD 1189). The BBC TV series, which debuted in 1999, was a bizarre comedy set in the fictional English town of

Royston Vasey, about the doings of a number of very unusual characters. The motion picture version expands the characters and their interactions as they face apparent annihilation as the world speeds to an untimely end. Talbot, who composed the original series music and who also scored the recent movie version of THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, has composed an effective and likable adventure score for LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN'S APOCALYPSE. This is quite a neat little score, ripe with orchestral flourishes and flavors, ranging from quiet soliloquies to huge surging crescendos, and plenty in between. Harpsichords and other unusual instruments creep in from time to time, but the score's major thrust is simply making the little town of Royston Vasey come to life in a larger than life way. Talbot accomplishes this with aplomb in this very nice orchestral score. www.silvascreenmusic.com  

James Horner returns to Latin music territory with his score to THE LEGEND OF

ZORRO, which follows the same path taken by THE MASK OF ZORRO, which Horner also scored. A soundtrack CD was released this week by Sony Classical (SK 97751). Horner crafts a new score around the same essential themes from MASK, while investing the score with a degree of new material. It's an eloquent romantic score build around a predominant Latin American theme that characterizes much of the music's tonality. It's all highly entertaining and provocatively conveyed, if ultimately un-spectacular and a little overly simplistic. www.sonybmgmasterworks.com  

FILM MUSIC NEWS

For more information on David Newman's score to SERENITY, reviewed above, see www.soundtrack.net for Dan Goldwasser's interview with Newman about this score. "It was mixed in a more conventional way, though there is plenty of music in those scenes," Newman says about the score's intentional restraint. "We were always trying to stay away from being too 'big,' but in the large space battle near the end of the movie, we went all out." Read the full story at www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=165  

Disney has released a soundtrack CD to their latest CGI animationfest, CHICKEN

LITTLE. The CD includes six cues (about 15 minutes) from John Debney's score, and nine songs from the likes of Patti LaBelle & Joss Stone, Barenaked Ladies, the Cheetah Girls, Five for Fighting, R.E.M. etc. No word yet on whether a more substantial release of Debney's score will be made available or not, but the composer will be well represented this Fall, with three other soundtrack albums due out soon: DREAMER, featuring violin solos by Joshua Bell, was released by Sony Classical last week; and Varese Sarabande will release DUMA on November 8, 2005 and Debney's sci-fi adventure score to ZATHURA on November 22, 2005. see www.johndebney.com

Film Score Monthly magazine has announced that it will cease publication with its next issue, Vol. 10, No. 6, due in around a month. "The reason is purely financial, and absolutely necessary in that regard," said publisher Lukas Kendall. "The costs of printing, overhead and the staff have become untenable." FSM won't completely die, however; their web site will remain an active source for film music news, research, and review; and their monthly release of Golden Age and Silver Age limited soundtrack CDs will continue indefinitely. "This is a move for the better as we join the rest of the 21st century," said Kendall. "Still, it's been a long run for the print mag 15+ years and probably around 150 editions and I'm immensely proud of our efforts." With the demise of Soundtrack Magazine in 2002 after a 25-year run, this leaves England's Music From The Movies as the primary English-language print journal for film music aficionados and collectors.

As relayed in Cinescape's Music News last week, Universal Pictures has confirmed that Howard Shore will not be scoring Peter Jackson's big-budget remake of KING KONG. James Newton Howard will compose the music instead. "I have greatly enjoyed my collaborations with Howard Shore, whose musical themes made immeasurable contributions to THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy," Jackson said. "During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realize that we had differing creative aspirations for the score of KING KONG. Rather than waste time arguing with a friend and trying to unify our points of view, we decided amicably to let another composer score the film. I'm looking forward to working with James Newton Howard, a composer whose work I've long admired, and I thank Howard Shore, whose talent is surpassed only by his graciousness." According to industry insiders, all indications are that most - if not all - of the score has already been recorded in New Zealand. The replacement score will be recorded in Los Angeles. KING KONG is scheduled for release on December 14, 2005, which means that James Newton Howard has his work cut out for him to composer, arrange, and record nearly two hours of music. via musicfromthemovies.com (and others).

In a similar situation, LAND OF THE DEAD and THE CAVE composing team Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek have been dropped from AEON FLUX, the action adventure starring Charlize Theron they were slated to score. Graeme Revell (PITCH BLACK, DUNE, DAREDEVIL, TOMB RAIDER) has been signed to score the film. The picture, based on the MTV animated series, has had a troubled musical history composer Theodore Shapiro was originally hired but was replaced by Heil and Klimek before he'd written anything. Heil and Klimek did write and record their score, but it hasn't been indicated yet whether or not any of their music will remain in the picture.

EIGHT BELOW, a dramatic adventure taking place in the Antarctic, will be scored by Mark Isham, reported Music from the Movies. The film is directed by Frank Marshall. Like his 1993 film, ALIVE, EIGHT BELOW tells the story about two explorers who fight for survival under extreme climate conditions. The film a remake of the Japanese 1983 film ANTARCTICA, which had a score by Vangelis. Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Jason Biggs and Panou play the leading roles in the remake, scheduled to premiere in February next year. Isham is also slated to score Disney's upcoming INVINCIBLE, a sports drama about an American football fan who makes it to the big time. Isham's other current projects include RUNNING SCARED and In Her Shoes.

GODZILLA on the classical concert stage? GODZILLA's original composer Akira Ifukube, who is also a noted Japanese classical composer, is the subject of Naxos Records' recording of Sinfonia Tapkaara (8.557587) an orchestral work composed by Ifukube in 1954 (the same year, incidentally, during which he GOJIRA, a.k.a. GODZILLA). The composition is a celebration of nature ("Tapkaara" refers to a dance style of the Ainu, an ancient Japanese culture. The music is predominantly Western in style, eschewing unique ethnic instrumentations and textures. The recording also includes Ifukube's Symphonic Fantastic No. 1, a concert arrangement of motifs popularized in his scores for Toho monsters like BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, GHIDRAH, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, and, of course, GODZILLA. It's an interesting, large-scale 13-minute suite of Ifukube's best monster movie music, powerfully performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky.

GAMES MUSIC NEWS

Computer game composer Inon Zur took to the Warner Brothers scoring stage last week to record orchestral music for the new computer game, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. The third in the newly-resurrected Prince of Persia computer game franchise, the game called for a lot of bombastic action cues, and sweeping dramatic moments to accompany the gameplay and cinematics. The 50-piece orchestra, with a large brass section, was conducted by Zur. The powerful score was mixed and co-produced by Dori Amarilio and orchestrated by Paul Taylor. The game will be coming out from Ubisoft in time for the holidays this winter.

Award-winning composer Richard Jacques (Headhunter series) recently completed the original orchestral score for Empire Interactive's Starship Troopers (www.starshiptroopersgame.com), the ground-breaking, epic bug-blasting first person shooter capturing for the first time the chaos, action and pure adrenaline rush of the definitive blockbuster sci-fi movie. Jacques said, "The score is very much in keeping with the STARSHIP TROOPERS movies, and a variety of new themes and musical settings have been created. It is a 'symphony of bombast' that the fans demanded." Describing his approach to writing the major themes, he added, "The Bugs have a simple motif comprising of a rising interval, giving them a spikey edge as if they were to just come out of nowhere and lunge forward to attack. The Troopers, in contrast, have various heroic major key themes and the interplay between the two is evident throughout." For more information on the composer visit www.richardjacques.com. 

Tim Larkin's music from Myst® V: End Of Ages, the final chapter of the multi-million selling Myst series, will be released via Cyan Audio, featuring 50 minutes of original

music from the game. Larkin created the game's original soundtrack which serves as an homage, of sorts, to the entire franchise." Listeners will find a suggestive taste of the isolated and eerie moods, the vivid and bursting orchestral productions," goes the press release, "and the unique combinations of world music that have been present in past soundtracks combined into a new and invigorating 17-track album, woven together to carry the wonder and beauty of Myst V, and to bring the series to a masterful and worthy end." The soundtrack CD is available to order from http://www.cyan.com/games/soundtracks.php.  For more information on the game visit www.mystvgame.com. 

Sumthing Else Music Works, Inc., through its licensing relationship with Microsoft Game Studios, will release the Perfect Dark Zero Original Soundtrack on November 8th. The CD features original musical compositions and arrangements by David

Clynick, who is best known for composing the cinematic music in the first Perfect Dark® with Grant Kirkhope. For Perfect Dark Zero, Clynick has combined epic sci-fi soundscapes with a hypnotic, electronic dance feel that sets the pace and tone for one of the most highly-anticipated Xbox 360 launch titles. The progressive style of the game's surreal and melodic score is complemented with adrenaline-pumping tracks written exclusively for Perfect Dark Zero by the sexy, cutting-edge band MorissonPoe and acclaimed San Francisco house music DJs, Kepi and Kat. These artists were selected by music veteran and album producer Nile Rodgers to synergize their music with the immersive gameplay action, beautiful graphics and breathtaking special effects.

Rodgers said, "The Perfect Dark Zero soundtrack is one of the tightest, most exciting, kick ass high tech/emo/groove/dance soundtracks ever to drop. This is the beginning of the future of game soundtracks. Perfect Dark Zero brings it." Samples of the soundtrack are now available at the official soundtrack website www.pdzsoundtrack.com. 

Former editor/publisher of CinemaScore magazine, Randall Larson was for many years senior editor for Soundtrack Magazine and a film music columnist for Cinefantastique magazine. He is the author of Musique Fantastique: A Survey of Film Music in the Fantastic Cinema (Scarecrow, 1984) and Music from the House of Hammer (Scarecrow, 1995). In addition to Soundtrax and Music News for Cinescape.com, Randall reviews soundtracks Music from the Movies, writes for Film Music Magazine, and in many other fields.

Recommended Soundtrack sources:
www.buysoundtrax.com  
www.intrada.com  
www.screenarchives.com  
www.footlight.com  
www.arksquare.com/index_main.html  (Japan)
www.intermezzomedia.com/  (Italy)
www.moviegrooves.com  
www.moviemusic.com  

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