Avatar: First Listen

Disclaimer: I meant to post this last Thursday. I still haven't seen the movie and probably won't for another week.

Perhaps James Horner's great gift as a composer is being able to synthesize so many disparate musical influences and bring them together in a way that seems perfectly natural. He's been doing this for years; since the beginning of his film career, really. But I don't think he's ever brought a western orchestra together with all of his world music influences like this before. Avatar has clearly afforded him one of the largest canvases ever to put music to. Are there echoes of past scores? Naturally. A lot of people (crazed fanboys mostly) have hinged their entire argument for disliking Horner's music on the fact that he recycles his own music or steals from others then recycles it. You'll get no argument from me about the amount of music he reuses. I think, however, that one has to examine a little more closely the music before dismissing it altogether.

First the score is, as you would expect, exceptionally performed and slickly produced so there are no issues there. The things that appear from other scores are more like Horner's musical thumbprints. There is a chord progression that has appeared in several scores before. More often than not this progression appears as the "B-half" of a chord melody. Most prominently this progression has appeared in Glory and Apollo 13. For example, if we were in F, this progression would be: I6-4, iii 6-4, VII 6-4, ii 6-4, V (F/C, A-/E, Eb/Bb, G-/D, C).

Then there's the danger motif.

Sometimes I think Horner uses his "danger motif" (two ascending half-steps and a descending half-step. e.g. C-C#-D-C#) just to tweak people. I think that if I'd gotten to the point he has in his career, I'd do it just to annoy folks. I mean, really, it's a four-note motive that you can't really copyright. So it's kind of like his calling card. (Hell, the best use of it is 'Achilles Leads the Myrmidons' in Troy where he steadily builds upon it for a solid eight minutes.) It's appearances on the album are someone fleeting but you do hear it for the first time at less than a minute in.

As I stated earlier, I think Horner's gift as a composer is drawing together musical influences from all over the globe and incorporating them in a seemless and organic way. Almost everything he's ever used is here: qena, whistles of all kinds, shakuhachi, chorus, boy choir, vocal soloists both "classically" and "ethnically" mannered, electronics, instrumental solos from the orchestra and enough percussion to give Hans Zimmer a headache and I could swear at one point I actually heard flamenco dancing a la The Mask of Zorro. (Actually the percussion writing reminds me a lot of Jerry Goldsmith's for Congo on steroids). At first the main theme doesn't seem particularly strong or memorable. Then it gradually weaves its way through the entire score. The one complaint about the tune is that its shape is just a little too similar to his theme from Titanic. It's difficult to separate the two when the first two intervals/chords of each are the same but from there it takes off its own way.

One thing that stands out is Horner's mastery of orchestral color, balance and blend. He manages to come up with more striking colors and has a better sense of color than just about every composer working in Hollywood not named John Williams.

Overall, the album is a little long and there's the obligatory pop song (Horner's continuing attempt to recapture the success of "My Heart Will Go On"). It's not exactly a bad song but it isn't great either. For all the non-traditional elements of this score it's still firmly grounded in the traditional big Hollywood film score. And it's not a stretch to say that we haven't had a score like this in some time.

Star Wars: In Concert

Last Wednesday night the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra was here performing the music of Star Wars (website here). The following was the program order:

Main Theme
Duel of the Fates
Anakin's Theme
The Little People (concert version)
The Flag Parade
Across the Stars
Battle of the Heroes
The Imperial March

-intermission-

Entr'acte (consisting of a highly edited version of 'The Clash of Lightsabers' from The Empire Strikes Back)
The Asteroid Field (this seemed like a hybrid of both the film and concert versions)
Princess Leia's Theme
Binary Sunset/Cantina Band
Yoda's Theme
Here They Come! (The concert version of "TIE Fighter Attack")
Luke and Leia
The Forest Battle (concert version)
Light of the Force
The Throne Room and End Title (concert version)

The presentation was an entertaining multimedia experience. The HD screen on which clips of the movies were shown was absolutely huge and fantastic. The laser programming was highly polished and, not unlike the video clips, highly choreographed to the music itself. At the end of 'Battle of the Heroes' there was fire. Lots of it. I had to check to make sure my eyebrows were still intact (yes, we were that close). The narrator for the program was Anthony Daniels and when you watch his facial gestures while acting you begin to understand why his value is in his voice.

The performance by the orchestra was absolutely first rate. It was terrific. For the first time in my life I heard this music performed live by professionals playing the music professionally. There's something about the sound of the brass section in British orchestras that is practically unrivaled by anyone. Their sound is so huge, warm and round that it's difficult to beat. Most of the tempi corresponded roughly to their film versions. The only exception was "Here They Come!" in which the tempo is much slower and actually closer to that which Williams took when he recorded themes from the Star War Trilogy with the Skywalker Symphony on Sony back in the early 1990s. Conspicuously missing is the 'Parade of the Ewoks'. I suppose they thought they could represent both the forest battle and the Ewok theme by using the concert version of 'The Forest Battle'. One of the interesting things for me was that I could see the conductor's monitor from my seat and I could watch the series of streamers and hits on his screen as he was conducting the music.

My complaints about the presentation are few. The one thing I disliked was the cutting in of so much dialogue from the films. George Lucas has claimed that he's always thought of the Star Wars films largely as silent films. If that were the case the images alone would have sufficed. Also, one day I would like to see a presentation of the music that is more like what Howard Shore created for his Lord of the Ring Symphony (which, admittedly, isn't a symphony but is still damn cool) that reflects more the ebb and flow of the story using the actual score rather than trying to communicate the story through just the themes.

Still. Those are minor quibbles. The performance was terrific and I'm glad I got to experience it.