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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Unlike The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, however, the music for Autumn in New York has an identifyable and consistent thematic heart. The score, while maneuvering to accommodate the film's tragic nature, succeeds in illuminating the spark of life created by the romance between the characters Charlotte and Will. With a jumpy step of jazz reminiscent of Elmer Bernstein scores of the past, Yared portrays a glimpse of spring in its opposite season. The title theme is upbeat and contemporary, with the urban setting accentuated by the performances of a sax and piano throughout. So seldom is a sax used in scores these days that it's refreshing to catch a few performances by one here. The opening titles and the character theme which starts the score section of the album use the jazz to assist New York City in becoming a three dimensional character all in its own. While the score can still be overwhelmingly depressing in its sum, Yared employs two key elements that keep the music interesting and listenable on album. First, while an orchestra with decent strings provides needed depth, solo performances by the wood wind instruments add a touch of flavor. In their wandering paths, a true sense of the autumn season is conveyed. On top of the sax, a clarinet and oboe shine in this role. Secondly, Yared enlists the voice of a quickly growing star to perform the elegy theme for the Charlotte character. You will likely recognize the voice of Mariam Stockley from either scores such as Great Expectations or The 10th Kingdom, or the new age Adiemus album that was featured prominently during Delta Air ads a few years back. Her voice, as usual, is haunting in its clarity, and surpasses Yared's use of Sinead O'Connor for "Lullaby for Cain" in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Stockley performs two lyrical passages of about six minutes in total, with a few wordless vocals thrown in near the end of the album. Once again, an album with a Stockley performance can do little wrong. The album itself is well constructed. An hour in length, it features two songs from the film and two additional songs. The song "Turn This World Around" by Amy Grant, as heard in the credits of the film, is absent from the album. Yared's score, however, is extremely listenable in and of itself. Even though it is comprised of over twenty short cues of score, the album's flow is surprisingly easy and quiet. Without a single moment of elevated volume, Yared's music passes quickly --and this is a sign of a very good score to enjoy in the background. Autumn in New York might not be for everyone; Message in a Bottle, while equally sad in the end, used its orchestral and choral power to overcome that downing nature on the album. In contrast, Autumn in New York is heavier on the emotion and lighter on the mass, allowing it to simply fade off into nothingness at the end. At any rate, Gabriel Yared, although a veteran of 25 years in the scoring industry, is continuing to impress audiences with his recent scores for top-rate American films. Like Message in a Bottle, this score should by all means be given consideration for an Academy Award nomination, but is probably too early in the year for voters to remember. ****
* Not featured in the motion picture ** Vocals by Miriam Stockley
A quick note on Gabriel Yared (many people may not be familiar with him): Composer Gabriel Yared was born in Lebanon in 1949. A self-taught musician, he abandoned law studies in 1971 and moved to Brazil, where he worked with the late singer Elis Regina and the singer/composer Ivan Lins. The following year, Yared settled in Paris where he is still based and audited composition courses given by Henri Dutilleux at the Ecole Normale de Musique. In 1973, he began a career as composer/orchestrator for many prominent singers, among them Johnny Hallyday, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Bécaud, Mireille Mathieu, Sylvie Vartan, Tania Maria, and Françoise Hardy. Since completing his first film score in 1980 (Jean-Luc Godard's Sauve Qui Peut La Vie), he has produced a steady stream of soundtracks, several of which have earned film industry awards. At the same time, Yared has composed ballet scores (for Carolyn Carlson and Roland Petit, among others) as well as numerous advertising jingles and radio/TV themes (including France Inter, TF1, and Euronews). Presently, he is at work on creating a research and broadcast center (called Pleiade) for folk music, a project that has long been close to his heart. Of his work on The English Patient, Yared has observed: "Anthony Minghella, whose musical knowledge is refined and wide-ranging, gave me a task that would be enormously difficult for any composer: to attempt to equal or at least replace the great Bach of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations. But Anthony's requirements and his confidence in me got the better of my modesty. For the other themes, likewise, he knew when I needed complete autonomy." Yared won the 1996 Academy Award for "Best Original Score" for The English Patient "What I would wish for the future of cinema is that all directors--present-day and to come--might be as enlightened, demanding, and sensitive as Anthony." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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