La Ligne Droite -Patrick Doyle

Patrick Doyle has evidently had a bit of time off with only a very obscure score for 2010 (Main Street), but is back with La Ligne Droite for Régis Wargnier, for whom he composed Indochine, Est-Ouest and Une Femme Francaise. La Ligne Droite is a little smaller in scale than some of Wargnier's other films and that extends to Doyle's intimate score, written for 11 players, a double string quartet, bass, piano and harp. The film is about a young runner released from prison who helps a blind athlete train and the music is delightfully lithe, with moments of introspection as the two bond during their training.

There is a distinct Philip Glass/Michael Nyman vibe running through the score, although it's not strict minimalism but Doyle weaves the fetching melodic content around repeated patterns. I've often felt that action music, or any music depicting motion and momentum can be achieved very - if not more - effectively with a smaller ensemble than a huge orchestra. Sometimes rows of horns, banging percussion and the rest of the 100 odd players pounding away cancels itself out and all you are left with is aural stodge. The clarity in La Ligne Droite is extremely refreshing.

As an aside, Doyle was interviewed (by his daughter) at Glasgow University in early 2011 and a video of it is available here. La Ligne Droite is mentioned and his comments about an 11 member chamber orchestra being recorded to sound big are especially interesting. He makes some fascinating comments about working on the then upcoming Thor, plus experiences of working with Kenneth Branagh on earlier films. As it's a bit less formal than a DVD extras type interview, the anecdotes and asides are especially interesting. In any event, if you only learn one thing from it, it's that Doyle is a delightful and charming chap. Thoroughly recommended for any fan of film music, whether you're particularly a fan of the composer or not. Which you should be, he's terrific and La Ligne Droite is another gem.

Apparently not yet available in Americaland, so run across to somewhere importing or European to acquire in haste.

Doctor Who: Season 5 - Murray Gold

...and so it came to pass, David Tennant did regenerate into Matt Smith and Russell T Davies did regenerate into Stephen Moffat. For a show that, until 2005 (and ignoring the 90's TV movie), had a budget of approximately £3.96 an episode, the Doctor Who of 2010 seems almost improbably well made with a movie scope, even if it has a budget per episode that would make about 1.2 seconds of Avatar. For all the on and off screen change of cast, Murray Gold remains the show's in-house composer and doing a pretty good job at being the same, but different, for Matt Smith's 11th Doctor.

For my money, Matt Smith is every bit the equal of Tennant, although the writing has been disappointingly uneven and, despite delightfully sparky rapport with his new companion, Amy Pond hasn't quite hit Rose Tyler levels of popularity. Similarly unpopular is Gold's new arrangement of Ron Grainer's classic theme tune. The opening trumpet fanfare is a bit naff and makes it sound more like a kids' show theme, knocking out some of its more adventurous impact and almost completely neutering its mysterious quality. His new Doctor theme is, however, a lot more adventurous than Tenant's more wistful tune and right enjoyable it is too.

As ever, Murray traverses as much musical time and space as the show itself. From WWII heroics when Spitfires face the Daleks in Victory of the Daleks to unusual low end wind timbres for the Silurians (one of the less successful reincarnations of an old school Who monster, although the crappy new Dalek design... OK, don't get me started... back to the music) to eerie effects for the Weeping Angels (proving many is sometimes less scary than one) to the typically grand score for the season finale, Gold is still coming up with the goods.

The wild eclecticism of the previous albums is replaced by a more cohesive style, so there's less standout stuff but it does flow better. Call it a maturing of style or simply the new producers wanting a more through composed sound, but Gold has modulated his approach to some extent; the same but different. It is, fortunately, still by and large, rollicking stuff replete with full orchestra, choir, vocal soloists and everything fans of the show have come to expect.

Doctor Who: The Specials - Murray Gold

The moment all Who fans thought would never come, David Tennant left the TARDIS after three years and a of occasional hour long specials, culminating in the understatedly titled The End of Time in which he made his last stand against the Master. Well, until they meet again of course... For his last year in time and space, Murray Gold's music receives the double disc treatment, with lengthy contributions from each Special score and over an hour from his last stand.

Tenant's last light hearted Christmas special was The Next Doctor; unsubtly playing with the audience's expectations over whether Tenant would leave sooner than expected. He didn't, but it was still a fine special, even if the Cyberking (a kind of Cyberman Iron Giant) was just a bit too silly. Gold takes the Victorian setting to heart with a grandiose main theme. Of course it's not long before it's going all action, although the swaggering Bondian brass is perhaps a touch incongruous, but Gold has always been good at setting styles off against one another. However, as the longest of the Specials outside The End of Time, it's rollicking fun throughout, although there's still time for a reflective pause in The Greats of Past Time. 

Planet of the Dead was the weakest of the Specials, seemingly dragging out a serviceable mid-season episode to an hour of unnecessary asides, a Potter-esque flying bus and creatures that seemed dimly reminiscent of Pitch Black. Gold's score is fun enough, but rather inconsequential. Waters of Mars was a much better entry; a thrilling combination of grand horror, sci-fi, time travel, a moral dilemma and the Doctor believing he can start to play god. The suite emphasises the gentler moments, touching gently on the horror and action in By Water Borne. Something of a shame that some fine action scoring was missed out, but it's properly dramatic, notably The Fate of Little Adelaide which is quite gorgeous.

Not since Tom Baker's epic send off has a Doctor's end been quite so heavily foreshadowed - indeed, previous regenerations, especially in the original series, were somewhat perfunctory affairs. However, for his last story, Russell T Davies decided to pull out all the stops, bring back the Master, the Time Lords and make it a grand epic. As ever, some of it works, some of it doesn't but importantly, it's the bits that really matter that work the best. The Master's madness and the Time Lord's (brief) return are great bluster, but the emotional substance of Tennant's last stand is brilliantly pulled off, even if the denouement is a touch drawn out, although as he enters the TARDIS for the last time, there may well have been sobbing at Chez Tom.

Gold throws more or less every trick in his musical book into the mix; gentle choirs for the Ood, a little perky town music for Donna's granddad, Wilf, a terrifically portentous version of his Gallifrey theme from the third series for The Council of Time Lords and a reprise of his whirling Master music from the same series. The circular string motif (inspired by the Wicked Witch of the West's theme from the Wizard of Oz), coupled with the four note knocking motif, never ceases to impress as an ingeniously unhinged theme for an unhinged genius. It would have been so easy to assign a fairly standard villain motif, but Gold manages to capture The Master's eccentric madness quite superbly.

As the moment approaches, Four Knocks finally tells the Doctor that his 10th incarnation's time is up, leading to Vale Decem as his regeneration takes place. As perfect a scene as the show has ever produced, Tennant's regeneration is spine tingling and wonderful, Gold's music is no small part of the reason why. Yes, it's overwrought to some extent, but when you have a lead character turning into a new man amidst huge explosions, nothing less will do. Then, as on the show, it's swiftly onto this new man as the real New Doctor starts dealing with a crashing TARDIS...

Please Release Me (let me go) - Part 6

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last week; lack of internet, but here's part 6 (possibly the final part as I'm running out of things I feel are desperately lacking...) of my summary of scores that could do with being re-released or released for the first time.


I feel kinda bad that I'm not desperately trying to get some obscure Alex North or Bernard Herrmann score released, but rather music written for films about submarines, bugs in space and psychotic toys. Having said that:

North by Northwest - Bernard Herrmann

Here's a puzzle for your little mind to dwell on, dear reader (the patronisometer is set to max, baby), how come the otherwise superb release of North by Northwest by Rhino is only let down by having variably crappy sound. Ok, it's a score from the 50's and there plenty enough scores from the 70's and 80's which haven't aged well (there's even debate, I recently learned, over the quality of the tapes on Elfman's Batman score, which is 1989. Worrying. It sounds fine to me, but maybe my ears are tin) but then there are plenty from the 60's which sound just great. However, in the specific case of North by Northwest, there is a DVD with the score isolated which sounds absolutely remarkable. Maybe there is some kind of mixing skulduggery at work here and they have somehow reduced the hiss by muddying the sound. I must confess my copy of the DVD is stuck across the seas in Guernsey but from recollection, it was neither muddy or hiss and certainly vastly improved on the Rhino release; in particular there are sections of the Rhino release where there was tape damage, but no such damage is obvious on the DVD. Presumably both were taken from different sources, but it would be rather jolly for a label to revisit those sources and perhaps give the tapes from the isolated score a spruce up for CD release. If anyone has any info on why there is such an obvious disparity in quality, I'd love to know. There is, of course, the fine re-recording conducted by Joel McNeely, but it's always good to have Herrmann conduct Herrmann.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - John Williams

OK, back to the magical, non-serious stuff again. While Williams' first two Potter scores provided the series with a core of famous thematic material, it was only with a change of director and tone on Azkaban that Williams could actually write something that didn't drench the film like treacle. There's an incisiveness to the music that simply isn't present in the first two scores which have a denseness that makes them quite tiring to listen to. I'm sure plenty of collectors would like expanded releases of all three of Williams' Potter efforts, but I'm not sure I could face 2 plus hours of the first two, but Azkaban has the scope to be of interest in a longer format. It's a rather unlikely prospect unless Warner Brothers decide they want to do an epic Potter music boxed set, not to mention the existing album is quite generously proportioned.


Sky High - Michael Giacchino
A rare, unreleased, but pretty mainstream effort from Giacchino for a good and somewhat underrated movie about a superhero school. It should be awful, but is surprisingly entertaining. Giacchino's score is a distant cousin to his wonderful effort for The Incredibles. Not quite as retro - indeed some of it is very modern - but his ability to tap into a bit of a John Barry vibe is still in evidence. Perhaps a bit of a lightweight effort compared to some of the other scores that have yet to see the light of day, but fun none the less.


Beauty and the Beast 2: The Enchanted Christmas (Rachel Portman)
Following up on Alan Menken's Oscar winning music for the now classic Beauty and the Beast was never going to be easy, but Rachel Portman's music for the straight to video (as was) midquel (i.e. the events are meant to take place during the original film) is a delight. The handful of songs don't quite hit Be Our Guest or Belle in their brilliance, but Stories and the title track, As Long As There's Christmas are both most charming. The latter is particularly interesting since the film version is a bouncing ensemble number (the film's Be Our Guest, I suppose) whereas it becomes a ballad for the end credits. I do (of course) prefer the film version. Only a better lyricist might have improved things. Unfortunately, the underscore gets possibly the shortest shrift in the history of soundtracks with a paltry 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Over 2 tracks, at that. Again, as another effort for Disney, the chances of more of Portman's charming score seeing the light of day are small, but we can but hope.

Film Music Free Friday: Reboot the Music Part 2

Where Batman was very successfully rebooted by Christopher Nolan after the original series went wildly off the rails in Batman & Robin, the Superman franchise hasn't restarted with quite such success. Expectations for Bryan Singer's Man of Steel reboot were sky high given his track record with the X-Men films, but it never really quite got its act together. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with it, but with its moniker as the most expensive film ever made - unofficially, of course - expectations were naturally ludicrously high. It was unlikely that John Williams would return - after all, he didn't score any of the sequels - but it was certain that John Ottman would take over given his working relationship with Singer. Ottman is a fine enough composer, but I've never been convinced that epic, orchestral scores are his forte. However, unlike Messrs Zimmer and Howard who didn't refer to Elfman's Batman music, Ottman used most of the major themes from Williams' classic original.

Much though he did fine work using the main theme and its simple, but memorable rhythm, which is a perfect lead in to any heroic act, Ottman did make the odd choice to reharmonise the love theme. Ottman is reported as saying that he felt it sounded rather old fashioned. Possibly, although he could simply have made it a little less sweeping and more delicate but retaining Williams' original harmonies. Any theme can be made more sensitive and understated with the right approach but just simplifying the harmony does nothing but make it sound, well, simple. Having said that, his decision not to use the original March of the Villains was decidedly sensible and his Lex Luthor material is far more dramatic than Williams' and gives Luthor the kind of menace he deserves.

After the relative failure of Singer's film, the franchise is being re-rebooted by Zack Snyder, he of 300 and Watchmen and, erm, that Legend of the Guardians film about talking owls. It's unclear who Snyder is likely to ask to write the music. His favourite composer is Tyler Bates, whose work, I have to admit, I have found to be largely risible. The only time it seemed decent was 300 and that's only because Elliot Goldenthal wrote it, but called it "score from Titus". Perhaps Bates can pull one out of the hat should Snyder go with him, but I have strong reservations and certainly doubt it would be done with the general reverence that Ottman brought to the material. Needless to say, I don't think John Williams is in any danger of being surpassed.

Spider-Man is another franchise that rather lost its way on part 3. The same could be said for the music, to some extent, although the problems began during Spider-Man 2 when Danny Elfman, for the first time ever, walked. Christopher Young took over for Spider-Man 3, but basing his music on Elfman's in large part, but the film was a critical failure and enough of a commercial flop that the plans for a fourth were canned. Instead, we have a Peter Parker: The Teenage Years type take on the material. Could be interesting (probably won't be). It seems unfortunate that Sam Raimi appears to have gone a bit off the rails as the original two films really were superb entertainment. Give me them over Nolan's self important Batman films any day, but also occupying a world that seems rather more plausible than Burton's. The choice of composer isn't exactly clear as reboot director Marc Webb (who is about 12) has only 500 Days of Summer on his CV and that was scored by Mychael Danna. A Mychael Danna superhero score could certainly be interesting, although my hunch is that they will go for a lot of songs and rather more incidental score. Elfman's material seems unlikely to make a return.

Next time, Treks through the Stars and time travelling Doctors.

True Grit - Carter Burwell

Elmer Bernstein was at the peak of his western writing powers when he scored the 1969 version of True Grit, starring - of course - John Wayne. It was even Oscar nominated. For best song. Well, quite. The Coen brothers had quite a lot to live up with their 2010 remake, but have, by all accounts, acquitted themselves more than admirably and the film has received fine reviews. And yes, I must see it.

Carter Burwell's score was never going to be anything like Bernstein's, but is actually warmer and more lyrical than I had anticipated (something more along the lines of Beltrami's tense, but superb The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada was in my mind). The major melodic material is based on old hymn tunes, but of a fairly warm and homely sort. As Burwell noted, he and the directors were after "something that was severe (sounding). It couldn't be soothing or uplifting, and at the same time it couldn't be outwardly depressing." They are actually somewhat more pastoral and homely than that description suggests but there are hints of darkness with some subtle, but well placed bass notes. The delicate arrangements for strings and woodwind are very fetching.

The moments of increased drama - The Snake Pit and Taken Hostage, in particular - don't feel too intrusive in an otherwise surprisingly gentle album. The music merely surges to those points, then eases off again towards the low key finale. At a shade over 35 minutes, it's a surprisingly short album by 21st century film music standards, but it somehow feels just right. Western scores seem unlikely to return wholeheartedly to the Bernstein, Moross, Goldsmith, Broughton heyday and Morricone only ever seems to be referenced in parody, but this more sombre take on the genre is still highly recommended.

Shoot up varmints and git some of your cash over to Amazon.com to acquire it. Or steal it from a sheriff (just don't shoot the deputy).