Seven Years in Tibet: First Look
by Doug Adams
John Williams must be a happy man. James Horner once claimed that part
of his job as a film composer was to "manipulate the hell out of the
audience," and I suppose that's probably true a lot of the time. But,
I'm not sure if there was ever a point in John Williams' career where this
was strictly the case. Even on the occasions that Williams' scoring has
hit saccharine highs, I don't think that it was meant as a manipulative
gesture. It just seems that his emotions run deep--and we as listeners
find it very easy to get swept up in his enthusiasm. That doesn't mean
that the musicality is always at 100 proof brilliance, but I don't think
he often makes statements that he doesn't mean at least on some level.
I'd wager that his compositional sincerity has brought him a great deal
of the acclaim that he enjoys. Well... that and his considerable abilities,
which are pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point.
So why do I say that John Williams must be so happy? Just listen to
his music these days. So much of it is geared towards the inherent good
of the natural world, or the existence of some sort of underlying order
to everything. Even Rosewood, with it's horrific visages was portrayed
as occurring in a basically good world. The town is painted in shades of
gentle, nostalgic Americana. One of the great themes through Williams'
work is the representation of an orderly existence and the placid and safe
countenance it provides. Life is a noble thing in these worlds. Then as
the plot thickens and these honorable worlds are distorted, we truly want
to return to them. And when the music does reform, we are home again. Some
day I'd love to put some time into a decent analysis of how he's done this
so well in so many scores.
Though I haven't seen the film yet (it's not out as I'm typing this),
this journey is what I hear In John Williams' score to Seven Years in
Tibet. It sounds as if it's been written by a composer who doesn't
feel the need to jolt or jostle us with compositional fireworks. It seems
to seek to paint a complete world where events carry a dramatic weight,
not a flash-in-the-pan moment to moment thrill. In short it sounds like
it's been written by a person who has seen a lot of the world and understands
that at times it's petty, that its denizens can be ultimately insignificant,
but still believes that even within our own little spheres of existence
there is a true importance to what we go through. Judge this as you please
against the en vogue nihilism of the '90s (which isn't necessarily bad).
For better of worse, Williams is a true Romantic.
But cut to the chase, how is the score? Well, it definitely makes me
want to see the movie. Over the last few years, Williams has paid homage
to several different ethnicities--the Irish Far and Away, the Jewish
Schindler's List, the black Rosewood, and of course, most
of Williams early work, even the fantasy scores, bowed to whitebread WASPish
America. Seven Years in Tibet seems to be Williams' love letter
to Asian cultures. Yo-Yo Ma's cello playing is treated both in Western
and Eastern senses. The focal point of the Western element is another wonderfully
constructed string melody. Williams manages to takes a slippery collection
of minor chords and make them sound positively warm and loving. (The progression
of the opening is C minor, B minor, Bb minor, F minor, Db major, C minor,
G major.) The non-functional progression of the triads also serves to lend
the score an intimate-epic sound, and that's an incredibly difficult balancing
act for a composer. It stands in stark contrast to the bloated nothingness
that the Dragonheart music used in the trailers provided. The Asian scoring
is surprisingly textural for Williams. It tends to sway back and forth
between genuine ethnic instruments and Western timbral approximations--like
pads of harp, celeste, crotales, and wind chimes. I imagine that that's
probably very appropriate for the story, plus it probably makes the music
far for palatable for those unacquainted with true Asian music. As a matter
of fact, I was very surprised with the authenticity of the Asian writing.
The actual instruments of the region are used very often (save for one
cloying synth patch in the mix) and the harmonic motions are dead on the
money. The Gyuto Monks can even be heard chanting their overtone rich compositions
in a couple of tracks. The cello writing is very detailed and surprisingly
modernistic at points--the cue titled "Premonitions" is a fine
Twentieth Century cello solo and Ma's playing makes it leap off of the
page. There are all sorts of interesting pitch bends, enharmonic trills
(trilling the same note of different strings), quarter tones, and non-vibrato
techniques used throughout the solos. Even more so than the violin writing
for Perlman in Schindler's List, this music is tailor-made for the
soloist. And it never sounds like instrumental trickery--it's an integrated
and structural part of the score.
With the exception of a couple of fright tracks, and one nicely pumped
"actiony" cue, most of the album is pretty low-key. There seems
to be a bit of a repetitive sag in the middle--one low string motive turns
up just a few too many times. Maybe this will be rectified when one has
a dramatic context to place the score in. We shall see in a week or so--we'll
take another look then. I think Rosewood will probably end up as
the better Williams score of 1997, but I still think this CD is worth a
listen. And if you're a Williams completest, at least you'll now have something
to prop the right side of the flimsy Lost World disc again. I mean
that in several ways.
Very Brief ER Thought
I've never been a fan of the music on ER, but I've still managed
to enjoy the series on the few occasions I've been able to watch it. However,
I thought that the ultimate statement about modern television music was
made on the recent live episode where the majority of one cue was played
by a guy whacking drumsticks on a window for about four minutes. Probably
the scariest thing was that it sounded perfectly in place. On the plus
side, the Cubs game the doctors were watching in the lounge was the actual
live feed from WGN in Chicago. And George Clooney gave the accurate score--the
Cubs were losing 1 to 8. Go Cubs.
See you next time.
E-mail me. Doug@filmscoremonthly.com
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