Memorable Soundtracks of Hollywood - Part II
Here are the next six memorable soundtracks in this series:
’Wallace courts Murron’ from’Braveheart’ - James Horner shot to fame with Titanic. After Titanic many began to take him seriously, but Braveheart came much before that and has some good music of which this track has to be mentioned specially. This track opens with some ethnic Irish percussion, Uileen Pipes, some kind of a stringed instrument being strummed. A brief melody and then it passes on to the love theme which is primarily played on the Kena which sounds very similar to a bagpipe but has a very unique timbre. A pipe also conveys the romance in the air beautifully and strings join in. This track is the essence of Braveheart, so much emotions and feelings. The only drawback with James Horner is that he keeps repeating his motifs and movements regularly which sometimes make you feel like you are listening to another movie. This track ends with a String movement which was afterwards again heard in Titanic, but then when the music is good who cares.
’Close Encounters of the III kind’ theme - This movie is spooky movie, atleast it sounds to be one. But then the genius of Steven Spielberg creates a movie which is not only out of this world but also close to the heart. What happens when this genius collaborates with John Williams, the result is great music. This movie delves into the bond an alien forms with human beings, especially children but the music is anything but childish. It’s very serious and meaningful. This tracks opens with the sounds of a musicbox, then strings and culminates in a full orchestral treatment complete with Trumpets, Basoon, Percussion and what not. One things to look out for is the new version of this movie, why would not one want to hear this soundtrack in the most modern soundsystem. John Williams hit bull’s eye this year with two historic soundtracks, the other film was Starwars and the year was 1977.
’007 theme’ from Bond movies - This theme can be referred as the most recollected, most plagiarised and most repeated themes in the history of cinema. Who can forget the role it plays in announcing the arrival of James Bond on screen. John Barry who has done a lot of memorable movies in Hollywood is the most under-rated music director after Elmer Bernstein and lately Thomas Newman. This track is firmly grounded in Jazz. Trumpets sound the opening of the piece, there is a bass track which plays the characteristic bond notes and then the track gets more of a Swing treatment. This is a benchmark track for any Brass Ensemble, there’s so much they have to do with their Tuba, Trumpet, Basoon etc to recreate the original feel. David Arnold who’s been doing music for Bond movies lately has cleverly incorporated this theme without loosing it’s essential feel at the same time making it new.
’Devil’s Advocate’ theme - This movie was in a way a Music Director’s movie. Because apart from the acting, special effects and directing faculties, sound had ample scope in this movie. Since it was dealing with the concepts of evil and good it was apt for the music director to create earth-shattering pieces of music. Any movie that deals with this concept of good and evil has primarily choral music which is very good and soothing to hear almost divine. But James Newton Howard’s prowess lies in the fact that he’s not relied primarily on chorus and pipe organs. We get to hear a healthy mix of both without having the chance to label it as a Christian album, because the pipe organ was only used in the Churches. Apart from this we also have solo aria singing a chant which is afterwards forcefully supported by a strong male choir, strings and brass instruments. All along there’s ample support on the pipe organ. A pipe organ is a very unique instrument because it is huge, one could call it the largest instrument and took years to build. It had pipes that were sometimes 25-50 ft high, and had huge bellows which had to be manually pumped by an assistant. It has atleast two rows of keys for the right and left hand and keys for the the foot to play. This track ends on a more sombre note and all along the way it manages to convey the mood of the movie.
’Shakespeare in Love’ theme - Honestly I heard Stephen Warbeck for the first time in this movie. This movie was wonderfully shot with sterling performances from the cast which included Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck. Since the crux of this movie is entrenched in Shakespeare’s romance this piece has some material to work on. It starts with Strings as any other track and builds up into a wonderful crescendo with flutes, strings and harp. It’s a romantic melody which manages to convey passage of time and overcoming of various obstacles by the writer. One could even hear guitar’s in the end. There’s another guitar/mandolin music in this movie, it’s more like a popish-tango meets the queen track. This track scores over it only because of the orchestral treatment that it gets from the music composer.
’Flight to the park’ theme from’Jurassic Park - Here I am with another John Williams’ gem. Jurassic Park had more to do with cinematography, special effects and music than any other film, only Titanic could come close to it on these terms. Once again we have John Williams doing what he does best, writing scores for the orchestra and backing it up with a massive human choir. A trumpet signals the opening of this track and it is harmonised by some air instruments, a different sounding flute and strings with harp. It drifts into a melody which is repeated primarily by violins, cellos and contrabasses, each time the melody is repeated it is joined by a new instrument. After a couple of times the melody is repeated, it culminates in a big orchestral crescendo with timpani and cymbal hits. The next time the melody continues with a massive human choir joining the orchestra. The music that follows this piece is also phenomenal, in the movie this is when the helicopter lands at the helipad in Jurassic Park, but I selected this piece for the varied orchestral treatment. Everytime I hear this piece I get goose pimples visualizing John Williams conducting such a huge orchestra. This is one of the few times when we get two historic soundtracks from the same composer in one year because in this same year Schindler’s List was released, the year was 1993.
This brings me to the end of the next six of this series. Till now many would have noticed the absence of epic soundtracks like for eg Titanic, please don’t be angry at me, it’s coming soon. I’ll be right back with the next six . Till then, here’s a quote about music by John Williams - *“There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”