CD Reviews: Signs and The Sand Pebbles
The following reviews have beenedited down for FSD. For the
full text, please see FSM Vol. 7, No. 7.
Signs ****
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
Hollywood 2061-62368-2
13 tracks - 45:30
Admittedly, it'd be pretty difficult to ignore Signs' gutsy opening
sequence even had it been scored with "The Irish Washerwoman," but James
Newton Howard achieves a lasting unsettling presence by presenting a diorama
of the film's construction. The cue opens with the motionlessness of rural
portent represented by a scordatura fiddle (meaning the strings have been
retuned from their usual G D A E to G D A Eb). The top three strings are
played as an open chord, and right off the bat Howard provides the key
to the entire score/film. Everything following regards the perception of
interactivity, namely the intersection of a very grounded rural framework
with outside forces either threatening, inspirational or both. Howard quickly
reassembles his D A Eb trichord into a three-note motive, A D Eb, which
is spun into a swirling whirligig exploration of the three pitches. The
overture so forcefully burns the rising notes into the audience's mind
that each time they return we recall that forceful first statement and
await their explanation.
That sense of expectation runs trough the entire score as Howard allows
his three-note motives (set in the orchestra's highest registers, usually
several piccolos, flutes, harp, piano, etc.) to slide over and through
a slowly evolving bed of strings and horns. The two ensembles are kept
entirely separate through the majority of the score, apparently for both
the sake of clarity (notice that Howard uses no high brass anywhere in
the score so that he stays out the "three-note range") and to underline
the notion of one idea acting upon the other. Each element colors the other,
affecting its cast but never changing its essence.
Howard continually rearranges the building blocks of the elements themselves,
so as to keep the meaning of all this interaction veiled. The three-note
motive is forever wandering to new pitches-at certain points it's presented
as C G Ab, which plays over C triads switching between major and minor.
One presents hope, the other dread. Likewise, the more grounded writing
is colored with quartertones, bent pitches, overlapping pointillistic textures,
touching string lines, and the smallest handful of brass bites.
But portent without payoff is a tease, and eventually Howard has to
swing away. The score's ominous tones create a long-form build up of tension,
and every ounce of amassed angst is directed towards Signs' penultimate
sequence. This sequence makes good on the expansive promise of the overture
as the two elements of the score are melded together into an enormously
powerful statement that's violent and moving in equal measure. But as the
film's plot elements are resolved, we find that the three-note motives
do not disappear, they learn to coexist with the string palettes. Or perhaps
they relearn, for as they're combined it sounds as if each has now found
its missing partner -- as if the orchestral palette has been recombined
and is now able to hit a comfortable stride. Howard refuses to peg down
the message behind his three notes, as does the film. Did the pitches represent
a threat or a comfort? Neither, it seems. They simply reflected the film's
non-literal level -- the idea that the characters' lives had been acted
upon by external forces. Did the score play the motive through the end
to represent a victory, or to suggest that the pitches never represented
the villains in the first place? It's up to the audience.
It's unfair to review Howard's work solely as a score or as a stand-alone
piece of music. The film is so musical and the music so narrative that
it functions nearly the same in either existence. Hollywood Records' album
requires attentive listening, and there's always the risk that something
this subtle and textural may go above the heads of non-musical listeners.
As is becoming apparent, James Newton Howard can provide something much
more than a big theme, loud horns and exotic percussion. This is the work
of a distinctive stylist. I only hope that the high-profile nature of the
score will persuade more filmmakers to come to Howard seeking his voice,
allowing him to apply his notions as well as his skills. Signs is
one of Summer 2002's best scores. Don't miss it. -- Doug Adams
The Sand Pebbles **** 1/2
JERRY GOLDSMITH
Varèse Sarabande VCL 0702 1010
30 tracks - 76:45
Reportedly Alex North was to have scored The Sand Pebbles but
had to drop out at the last minute. Thus, it's to Jerry Goldsmith's enormous
credit that only a half dozen years or so into his movie career, he was
able to write a score that in all likelihood equaled, and possibly surpassed,
what North might have done in his stead. The Sand Pebbles featured
overtures based on two love themes written for the film: one popular tune
written for Steve McQueen's (Holman's) romance with a missionary played
by Candace Bergen, and another for Richard Attenborough's relationship
with a Chinese girl. Goldsmith's title music set the template for later
Asian-styled scores like Tora! Tora! Tora! and The Chairman,
building from a whispered, bittersweet phrase and gathering shattering
emotional power over the silhouetted image of the American gunship solidifying
onscreen. The title theme forms the basis for Goldsmith's remarkable "Death
of a Thousand Cuts" cue in which Mako's character is killed: in a sequence
of tremendous violence and cruelty, Goldsmith chose to underscore the interior
anguish of Holman rather than the brutality evident on the surface, a perfect
example of the composer's loftiest instincts at work. Steve McQueen's all-but
expressionless face was the perfect tabula rasa on which Goldsmith could
paint his emotional landscapes, and while the composer fashioned thrilling
moments of action, menace and spectacle, the emotive component of the Sand
Pebbles score is enormously powerful.
A primary element of the score is Goldsmith's brassy, harmonic nine-note
theme for the San Pablo, a melody which comes to speak not only to the
sense of belonging that the vessel evokes in Holman, but for the binding
element of patriotism that brings the crew together in their final conflict
with the Chinese revolutionaries (it's no accident that the San Pablo theme
is itself a variation of the score's primary love theme). On LP, the score
was more a collection of set pieces than an epic journey, with two dynamic
but rather shrill action cues ("My Secret" and "Maily's Abduction"), one
stupendous action showpiece ("Repel Boarders") and one truncated climactic
cue ("Final Mission") in addition to several incarnations of Goldsmith's
love theme. Goldsmith favored his romantic melodies on the rerecording,
which was only a disadvantage in that it showcased the weakest element
of the film: the pat Hollywood love story between McQueen and Bergen. The
new album shows Goldsmith's love theme more than capable of holding interest
over several additional and quite lengthy developments, and the emotional
journey of Holman is thoroughly illustrated from the first presentation
of the love theme to the beautiful "Hello, Engine" and "Training a Coolie"
-- two brief but pivotal cues that portray the engineer bonding with both
his new vessel and Mako's character.
On the original album and rerecording, "Final Mission" ended its militaristic,
driving horn treatment of the San Pablo theme midway through the cue --
here, finally, we hear the snare-driven transition as the ship theme crescendos
brilliantly over the symbolic raising of the American flag as the ship
steers toward a Chinese blockade at the film's climax. In the film Goldsmith's
music climaxes sharply after suspenseful snatches of staccato piano and
shrill string writing, leaving the final, brutal hand to hand fight over
the blockade sanpans unscored. It's a technique that works well for the
movie but leaves the score itself without a climax. Happily, Goldsmith
actually wrote a final piece of battle music that thrillingly contrasts
the jagged, serpentine action motif developed midway through "Final Mission"
against heroic statements of the San Pablo theme for brass: not only does
this provide the album with a stunningly satisfying payoff, it also has
to rank as the most important piece of previously undiscovered Goldsmith
music since the elaborate, unused "abandon ship" cue from Planet of
the Apes.
On the down side, the score's signature action cue, "Repel Boarders,"
has somehow been lost and is now only available in mono -- everything else
on the album sounds so terrific it's painful to make the adjustment to
the shallower mono sound on this fantastic piece of action music. It's
just too bad Varèse wasn't permitted to use the stereo album masters
since the performances are identical. But it has to be said that the thrill
of hearing "The Battle Continues" for the first time more than outweighs
the loss of a stereo "Repel Boarders." Varèse's The Sand Pebbles
easily qualifies as the best album in what's been a good year for film
scores: Bob Townson, Nick Redman, Mike Matessino and everyone else who
worked on this historic project deserve our sincere and profuse gratitude.
-- Jeff Bond
For the full reviews to Signs and The Sand Pebbles,
check out FSM Vol. 7, No. 7...
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