Buy it... only if you are an enthusiast of intimate Western scores performed by a handful of the usual instruments for the locale and period.

Avoid it... if you expect anything remotely dynamic about this music, because it's about as mundane as the genre can get.

Broughton

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple: (Bruce Broughton) February 2001's most anticipated Sunday night television film on CBS, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple came and went without as much praise and hoopla as most of the network's dramatic Western films of the 1990's. In an era when cable networks like those owned by Ted Turner were taking artistic control of television films of this sort, Jeremy Kagan's The Ballad of Lucy Whipple seemed a bit stale. It was a project produced (after much studio delay) by Glenn Close, who also stars in the film. The plotline of the film is nothing atypical to the genre. It is a story of a widow and her family who move West during the gold rush in order to find a new life, also covering the coming of age of her children (particularly the young title character, who seems frustrated by the lifestyle she discovers in the rough new land). In any case, the film is really no different than the watered down family genre of productions by Hallmark from the same period, and it is no surprise that this formula production faded away without much interest. There can only be a certain number of low budget character dramas set in the Wild West before audiences begin wondering if they recognize the sets and costumes from a previous rehash of the same idea. Also becoming a veteran of the genre of television Westerns, composer Bruce Broughton provided a modest score for The Ballad of Lucy Whipple. The diminished tone and stature of a production like this is a long cry from his days of Silverado, however Broughton did compose an impressive Emmy nominated score for the Western True Women four years prior that remains one of the better television scores in recent times. For this far more intimate setting, Broughton takes the genre back to its bare roots, mostly emphasizing only those instruments that would have been heard in the rough 1850 towns. The live ensemble consists of a fiddle, cello, tin whistle, acoustic guitar, percussion, and baritone horn, all of which performing the composition at the forefront of a close mix.

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For the darker, more menacing moments in the film, such as "Jake's No Buck" and "Diggins on Fire," Broughton employs several synthetic techniques to provide a better base for these soloists. The use of the electronics as a replacement for an orchestral ensemble is surprisingly effective in The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, barely exposing their synthetic nature. The two main themes for the film, representing each of the two children, are unimposing and not particularly memorable. They do create a consistently harmonic environment that passes smoothly on album. Rather than rely upon strong themes to maintain the score's identity, the functionality of the work comes from Broughton's precise instrumentation and the subsequent creation of a believable atmosphere for the period. The most effective cues are arguably those that are also the most unlistenable, with rambling guitars, fiddle, and percussion filling the air with the more robust sentiments of the locale. As stereotypical as this precise representation by Broughton may be on album, the score is still above and beyond what you might expect for just another CBS television film. The album, produced by Broughton-friendly Intrada Records, is relatively short (35 minutes of music for a two hour film), but is long enough to contain adequate music to create a well rounded presentation. The sound quality is merely average, with an intimate mix of the recording that remains somewhat muted in places where it could otherwise use a vibrant, crisp edge. In the early 2000's, Broughton slipped into a very comfortable position as a leading television score composer, though his projects of the time tended to squeeze him into specialty or period roles, as furthered by his ethnically dominated score for Jeremiah (also on an Intrada label album). None of this material ever comes close to touching the dynamic appeal of Silverado or the composer's other mainstream works, and by continuing to take assignments like The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, he got stuck in a rut of producing decent television scores for films that didn't ultimately deserve his talents. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Bruce Broughton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.3 (in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23 (in 3,620 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.