The Phantom Menace CD Review
by Jeff Bond
Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace ***1/2
JOHN WILLIAMS
Sony Classical SK 61816. 17 tracks - 74:13
Well, maybe you can't go home again, but on first listening, the new
Star Wars score seems to indicate that you can at least go to your
home's back yard again. Considering the considerable alteration of John
Williams' style over the past 20 years and the evidence of the "Duel
of the Fates" single released last week, I was surprised to discover
that The Phantom Menace does, indeed sound like a Star Wars
movie score.
Just about everything you'd expect from a Lucasfilm space epic resides
within the Sony Classical CD's 74 minute running time: that indelible,
much-anticipated opening fanfare, the creepy, mysterioso textures that
always follow as we pan down from the opening crawl to the horizon of some
strange new world, the Prokofiev cum Stravinsky comic stylings as blundering
comic relief alien characters go about their business, and the stuttering
explosions of brass triplets that inevitably accompany fleets of well-armed
spacecraft arcing through the cosmos. There's a rousing march that's clearly
Williams' version of Ben Hur's "March of the Charioteers"
(with some trumpet fanfares straight out of Franz Waxman's Prince Valiant,
which seems to have been a building block of Williams' Star Wars
style from the beginning), eerie choral moanings in the style of the Emperor
music from Return of the Jedi, and a strange piece of alien culture
music for the film's finale that's neither "Cantina Band" nor
"Lapti Nek," but something a little closer to Philip Glass's
music to Powaquaatsi.
What may be missing for some people are two things: the powerful and
memorable melodies that made the first three scores pop culture touchstones
(although many of the original trilogy's themes are quoted within the score)
and the stupendous orchestral showcases that Williams constructed for the
previous movies. While there are concert pieces written for the album,
I doubt any of them will become the hummable signatures that the themes
for Luke Skywalker, Yoda and Ben Kenobi (or the Force) have become over
the years. Williams' music here is more self-organic and less showy than
the original trilogy music was.
Ironically, the biggest departure from the previous Star Wars scores
is the "Duel of the Fates" cue, which is kind of a fanciful,
choral take on Williams' Nixon music. Aside from the Nixon-esque
choral theme, there's a sprightly five note ostinato and a more sinuous,
foreboding but still strangely bright motif that runs through the cue and
appears briefly at a couple of other crucial junctures in the score, but
all of this is somewhat out of character with the rest of the music and
I can only assume (because damn it, I'm NOT reading those giveaway cue
titles!) it all deals with the threat of Darth Maul.
The post-title crawl opening ("Arrival at Naboo") is simply
sublime, full of brass flourishes and a lilting, dizzying introduction
to the CGI cityscapes we've all seen in the trailers. And there's a rousing,
epic climactic cue in which, well...something bad probably happens. I don't
wanna know! Of course, we have no idea how this score will work in the
film, and I have to say that the release of all this teaser merchandise
(including the script and a novelization as well as this CD which has major
plot points spelled out in its track titles), while fun in its way, really
makes going into this movie with an open mind virtually impossible. But
even with only part of the score released (and yes, I've already heard
at least one record store employee talk about the arrival of a second volume
sometime in the future), my initial fears about the sound of the new Star
Wars movies have been somewhat allayed. Will Williams gradually shape
his second and third scores in the new trilogy to meet up with the style
of A New Hope? Or will he drift even further from the true path?
We don't know...always in motion is the future...
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