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INTRADA Announces:



THE MONKEY KING
Composed by CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nic Raine
Lucnica Chorus conducted by Allan Wilson
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 338

For the 2014 Chinese production of The Monkey King, composer Christopher Young composed a breathtaking, epic score. Hired well in advance of the visual effects completion, Young wrote most of his music without the benefit of finished effects shots or a locked film. Armed with this creative freedom, Young crafted an expansive score of a type not commonly seen in present-day Hollywood. The music brims and bristles with lush melody, ornamenting the ethereal beauty and majesty of the various gods, fueling the stormy wrath of the Bull Demon King, and charting Sun Wukong’s journey from a playful, wide-eyed innocent to a towering avatar of fury and divine retribution. "The thing that holds the score together, in a way that perhaps differentiates it from a lot of contemporary orchestral action scores, is the ever-presence of melody," comments Young. He infused the already sumptuous score with an array of Asian colors and textures, including ehru (a bowed Chinese fiddle), guzheng (a type of Chinese zither), shamisen (a three-string Japanese lute derived from the Chinese sanxian), pipa (a four-string pear-shaped Chinese lute) and assorted winds and percussion.

The sessions for The Monkey King took place at the Slovak Radio Concert Hall, with Nic Raine conducting the 80-piece Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and Young’s frequent collaborator Allan Wilson conducting the 40-member Lucnica Chorus. To present The Monkey King on album, Young drew inspiration from English composer Gustav Holst and his famous orchestral suite The Planets, arranging his cues into ten selections titled after Chinese deities and other prominent characters from the film.

The legend of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, and how he came to wreak havoc in Heaven and challenge the power of the gods, is one of the most enduring stories in all Chinese literature. Rooted in myth and folklore, the tale first appeared as an episode within the sprawling sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West. Published anonymously, though commonly attributed to Wu Cheng’en, the work is celebrated as one of the four great literary masterpieces of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Portions of Sun Wukong’s story have been retold many times for film, television and the stage, but no adaptation to date has rivaled 2014’s The Monkey King for sheer scale.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 338
Retail Price: $19.99
SHIPS WEEK OF 11/3
For track listing and sound samples, please visit:
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.9967/.f

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Christopher Young
Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 338
Date: 2014
Time: 73:26
Tracks: 11
Blockbuster Chinese fantasy "event" movie gets massive, full-blooded Christopher Young action soundtrack. Donnie Yen, Chow Yun Fat, Aaron Kwok star, Poi Soi Cheang directs. Legendary literary masterpiece from Ming, Qing dynasties gets elaborate, effect-laden, big-budget film treatment. Sun Wukong, China's legendary "Monkey King", challenges the gods in dynamic fashion. Epic battles in Heaven, on Earth abound.

Christopher Young fashions his most powerful, epic-scale work ever. Scored for large orchestra with augmented percussion plus choir, Young provides magnificent music full of rich melody, pulsating rhythmic drive and - in particular - incredible action sequences. Avoiding dissonance per se, Young hits the bullseye with lengthy, tonal harmonies, soaring themes even as his action material dominates. Action cues with emotion. Action cues with scope. Sensational, powerful music is the result!

Virtually every cue delivers but deserving spotlights are grand, emotion-charged "Nuwa, The Goddess Of Works" with it's alternating minor-to-major harmonic palette and crescendoing melodic line, and what might be the composer's single most exciting 17-minute sequence of all-time, "Niu Mo Wang, The Bull Demon King". Here Young launches with imposing energetic rhythm, then proceeds to increase density, musical ideas in single massive battle cue while (incredibly) maintaining accessible harmonic vernacular and epic action feel at the same time. Contrasting ideas, unrelenting rhythms, flamboyant orchestrations abound. This is grand, sweeping music delivered with ferocity, intensity. Wow! If epic film scores are your bag, it doesn't get any better than this today.

Nic Raine conducts Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, Allan Wilson conducts Lucnica Chorus. Intrada Special Collection CD available while quantities and interest remain!


01. Yu Huang Da Di, The Jade Emperor (7:14)
02. Tieshan Gongzhu, The Princess Iron Fan (3:23)
03. Ao Kuang, The Dragon King Of The East Sea (9:50)
04. Nüwa, The Goddess Of Works (7:58)
05. Ruxue, The Silver Fox (5:41)
06. Erlang Shen, The Three-Eyed Warrior (3:15)
07. Guan Yin, The Goddess Of Mercy (3:25)
08. Subhuti, The Old Master (2:32)
09. Niu Mo Wang, The Bull Demon King (16:53)
10. Sun Wukong, The Monkey King (8:40)
11. Just Dreams (4:35)

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