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| CD Reviews: Pranks and Final Cut |
| Posted By: David Coscina, Luke Goljan on May 17, 2005 - 9:00 PM |
CD Reviews: Pranks and Final Cut
Pranks *** 1/2
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
Citadel Limited LEC 8000
17 tracks - 30:33
Citadel has resurrected fan favorite Chris Young's first foray into
film scoring. And what a score it is! Considering that this little seen
film deals with a crazed killer preying on college students, the score
eschews the staples of low-budget horror films from the early '80s.
Scored for string orchestra, mixed percussion, two pianos and bass
harmonica, Young's freshman work sounds rich, organic and most
important, scary. It is easy to see the solid compositional chops that
would lead the composer onto projects like Hellraiser, Invaders From Mars, among others
in his early film scoring days. What is more impressive is that
although the instrumentation is similar to Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste,
a piece Stanley Kubrick used to eerie effect in The Shining, Young never treads
into exact passages and comes up with an assortment of interesting
textures and playing effects that stand on their own. In fact, all of
the tracks on this well produced disc encompass a divergence from the
tonality of the Romantic era preferring to root itself in the modernist
mentality of shifting string clusters, portamento effects, growling
bass harmonica utterances, an occasional Herrmannesque vibraphone
arpeggiation and sul ponticello tremolo effects.
Now buyer beware; Pranks
doesn't contain the warm sonorities of Young's Murder in the First, nor does it
have the lyrical sadness of Flowers
In the Attic. Although I wouldn't say it's as aggressive as
Goldenthal's Alien3, it is a
genre score filled with creepy moments. But then again, tracks like
"Farewell to Brian" have a melodic lilt with the strings paired down to
a quartet in places while a celeste figure dances around the menacing
low string sforzandos. What is especially interesting is this CD has
been assembled in a way wherein the score plays like a concert piece.
The following "Moonchill" recapitulates the material from the
aforementioned track in a variation, giving the flow of the music a
cohesion.
Ultimately, it's hard to classify this as a modern classic because of
the film this score is attached to. However, Citadel is to be commended
for making it available. Honestly, I wish that Young would get larger
profile projects. His compositional skills are solid, and his ideas are
imaginative and well presented. Special mention should be made about
the great sound quality of this limited edition CD. It's clear and
sonically very detailed. The performances by the musicians are first
rate too. But you might want to play this effective score with the
lights on and the doors locked! -- David Coscina
The Final Cut ** 1/2
BRIAN TYLER
Varèse Sarabande 302 066 615 2
28 tracks - 62:00
Nowhere is formulaic film music championed more than in the thriller
genre. It seems that ever since Christopher Young introduced his
tinkling piano, the only other innovation was the James Newton Howard
brand of electronics. So when The
Final Cut punches all the right buttons and delivers exactly as
expected, it oddly disappoints and pleases at the same time.
Borrowing a page from Bernard Herrmann's Hitchcock scores and blending
it with a bit of Goldenthal, the main title sets the proper mood right
away. But then again, this is a mood that has been set a million times
before. Mysterious. Unsettling. Take the piano theme "Claire's
Nocturne" from In Dreams.
Lift the same exact sound effect from Robin Williams other creepy
movie, One Hour Photo. Throw
in a hefty dose of the Herrmann-flitered-through-Williams sound of Minority Report and even A.I. Then add a final dash of
Danny Elfman's The Hulk. The
problem isn't that the score is bad -- far from it. It merely treads
ground we've all been over many times before. There are no dips and
lulls to the emotion; there is virtually no progression at all. Even as
an album, this approach doesn't really work.
The instrumentation is as expected, though the woodwind section does
get a little bit more a workout than in most thrillers, with lines that
don't sound like they're intended to be solos pushed prominently to the
fore of the mix. There is very little action at all, which helps the
music fade into the background, even with an enjoyable main theme that
surfaces from time to time. Honestly, it's a pretty cool score, but
then again, I liked it the last 47 times I heard it in other
films. -- Luke Goljan
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
March 23 |
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| Aaron Copland wins his only Oscar, for The Heiress score (1950) |
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| Alan Blaikley born (1940) |
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| Damon Albarn born (1968) |
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| David Grisman born (1945) |
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| Elliot Goldenthal wins his first Oscar, for the Frida score (2003) |
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| Hal Mooney died (1995) |
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| James Horner begins recording his score for Braveheart (1995) |
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| James Horner wins his first and last Oscars, for Titanic's score and song; Anne Dudley wins the third Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, for The Full Monty (1998) |
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| Lionel Newman re-records pre-existing Jerry Goldsmith cues for The Last Hard Men’s replacement score (1976) |
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| Michael Linn died (1995) |
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| Michael Nyman born (1944) |
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| Philip Judd born (1953) |
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| Richard Shores records his score for The Wild Wild West episode “The Night of the Burning Diamond” (1966) |
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| Trevor Jones born (1949) |
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