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.
7 comments:
I didn't like the pop song. It seemed really weak, and too close to "my heart will go on."
Even my wife stated that it was a little too similar to the titanic song, and not nearly as powerful (without Celine Dion singing.
I do agree that it is unlike most current hollywood scores and a half-breath of fresh air as one comes up from under all of the Remote Control scores.
I thought the score album was a fantastic representation of the film - well...mostly. I'd say lose the song, and then re-edit 3-and-a-half minutes of the "War" cue back into what's there. At this point, I'm more or less oblivious to Horner's..."tendencies". I heard that first "danger motif" 3 minutes into that first track and kind of groaned - then chuckled - then moved on from it to resume my listening.
I didn't have any real qualms with some of the more atmospheric qualities the way you did Reed. If anything, I found them refreshing - harkening back to the work he did on movies like Vibes. Brad, you and I were discussing the other day about the big difference between a composer like Horner, and say Zimmer (or one of his minions), is that Horner knows how to use woodwinds, ethnic instruments, and acoustic percussion. Something very evident in this score. People are griping that he had an extra year on this project and came back with the typical Horner result. I couldn't disagree more. If I were to guess, I'd say he spent that extra year's work refining his orchestrations to give everthing just the perfect color and texture. Then filled in the gaps with his usual schtick. One particular 'Horner-ism' that struck me as very well done and (sort of) different was what I call his 'climax ascention'. He's been doing it in one form or another going all the way back to Star Trek II. I can't tell you exactly what it is because I don't have a keyboard or the piano reductions to Titanic right in front of me (he does it during "Leaving Port" as the ship's engines crank to life). Anyway...in Avatar it happens in "Jake Enters His Avatar World" at about a minute-and-a-half in.
What struck me is how me more or less reinvented it. It's starts of with its usual back-and-forth between the I and bVI, but he resolves very atypically (for him). It then jumps into the climactic portion, which he's orchestrated INSANELY bright and shimmery and, again, completely atypical of what he'd normally do with that material. It was very refreshing to hear an old friend in a genuinely new manner. I was also rather amused at how you could hear the temp track through the final product (I'm assuming it was temp tracked - either that or ol' Jimmy's been listening to a lot of his fellow film composers over the last couple of years). There were some very obvious shades of The Ghost and the Darkness, Congo, and most surprisingly...GLADIATOR!!! (case in point, I submit the "Gathering the Clans for Battle" cue)
I'd say to truly get the most out of the album, one needs to see the film. For one, it fills in some of the holes on the album. And two - it most decidedly shows how effective the score was in the film, and heightens ones appreciation for the craftsmanship when listening away from the film.
Well, I actually haven't listened to the CD Herr Vogler burned for me yet, so my take on this is entirely from watching the movie, which I believe is actually more meaningful, given the way you three have been talking about it so far. I mean, not more meaningful but perhaps more validating.
And that is because the score stood out to me as fanfuckingtastic. Walking to the parking garage after the movie, I said I thought that it very well could be Horner's finest work.
Yes, the theme starts similar enough to Titanic, but it goes in a different direction quickly enough. Like At World's End compared to The Time Machine. Get the fuck over it. As a melodic composer, I'm telling you, after enough years you simply run out of fucking notes to work with before something sounds "too much" like something else.
And the main theme... Jesus Ballsac, by the third act of the movie, Horner's score made me want to save the fucking world. By the time credits rolled, I was ready to kick some ass.
I guess just listening to the score without having seen the movie, you'd think, "Well this is pretty sweet." But this film score is one of the finest examples I can think of in recent history of being solid, original, stand-alone, and serviceable. Good job by James Horner. I'll admit, I was surprised.
Reading everything that's out there, and reading what you guys are saying, and what Stromenger says... I'm am getting so pumped to see this film!
I don't know why (maybe it's my pop music, 3 minutes and done mentality) but I just wanted more from this. I admit that I'm one of the ones that hoped for more because of the extra year... but either way, I have no doubt that this score may be way more complimentary to this movie than most in recent years... and that is one reason I'm getting super stoked to see it.
Mikey: I also noticed the Zimmeresque sound in "Gathering the Clans for Battle" and I had to smile. I feel that I appreciate the score... and maybe I need a few more listens for it to sink in and become to me what you guys hear.
As for Horner's borrowings, after Handel, we really shouldn't be too fazed by this sort of thing. I just worry that he doesn't always borrow the best material...
Interesting side note - everyone always wants to credit Jimmy's danger motif to Alexander Nevski, when actually, as I just recently discovered (with thanks to a couple fellows over on the FSM discussion boards) it really owes more to the first movement of Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony, in D minor. Did not know that - no sir, I did not! Always fun to learn something new.
I think perhaps what's making this score so refreshing for us, as composers, is one - Horner really seems to have gone "balls out" on it, something he hasn't done in a while; and two - we've become so inundated by the Media Ventures/Remote Control, music-by-committee, rock n' roll orchestra sound that hearing an old "friend" get back to both a) what made him a famous composer and b) made us film music nuts in the first place is just...exhilarating!
After having seen Avatar, I can honestly say that I don't think the movie would be as good without this score. It really helped to get the grand scope of Pandora across.
What a great movie. Although now I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch another epic movie without 3D.
Can't wait to see it again!
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