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The Beyondness of Things: (John Barry) The twilight
of one's own career is a time for reflection and celebration. John
Barry's farewell to film scoring came in the late 1990's, and after four
decades of extreme popularity, his career was drained away in
unceremonious fashion with several rejected scores and fewer offers for
work. Barry handled this decline by examining his career with far more
reflection than celebration. His scores became more introverted and
predictable in their melancholy consistency, and it was partly because
he was no longer able to infuse his work with true creativity that the
offers for work declined and scores were rejected. At some point in a
successful man's life, does he really need to adapt to the world? Or
should he be allowed to live out his years in the glory of an identity
he feels comfortable leaving the party with? Barry embodied all of that
stubborn attitude in the waning days of his career, attempting to force
his scoring assignments into that comfortable mold. The clearest
evidence of this defiance against change came in 1998, when Barry
recorded a concert piece of almost an hour for release early in 1999.
With
The Beyondness of Things, Barry accomplished several goals.
First, he reaffirmed to the world that he was so comfortable with the
deliberate style of harmonic writing that had dominated his later years
in scoring that he was willing to put it forth on a solo album. Second,
he used the opportunity to provide some heavy reflection into his own
life, writing about his childhood and favorite places in a tribute
format. Third, the album allowed Barry to share with the public several
of his ideas for the score for
The Horse Whisperer, a much
anticipated Barry work that Robert Redford chose to throw out. This last
element is more of a side note to
The Beyondness of Things,
though detractors of Barry's later works will easily recognize that
while the music in
The Beyondness of Things is nothing less than
pleasant, it has none of the authentic heartland style that Thomas
Newman captured for the film. So while Barry fans will likely remain
somewhat peeved at Redford for firing Barry on such a high profile film,
the fact remains that Newman's replacement score for
The Horse
Whisperer is more than adequate, and likely more appropriate.
For Barry collectors,
The Beyondness of Things
will take you on a journey through several of the composer's late scores
with very predictable but nevertheless enticing tributes. Each miniature
concert piece will resemble a score you've heard before in the
composer's career. Pieces of the larger string writing in
My
Life,
Chaplin, and
Cry, The Beloved Country abound,
with only a handful of the more exuberant performances for brass and
snare that will remind of
The Last Valley and
Dances With
Wolves. Most notable are the accent instruments that Barry uses
above his constant layers of strings. Traditional solo woodwinds are
common, though the alto sax and harmonica offer the true beauty of the
work. With the harmonica in "Kissably Close" and "The Heartlands" comes
the material likely from
The Horse Whisperer, and with "Nocturnal
New York" you hear faint reminders of
Body Heat in a subtle
fashion more in tune with his IMAX score for
Across the Sea of
Time. The eerie high choral effect that Barry has preferred
throughout his career raises memories of
The Lion in Winter, but
only in a faint, ethereal sense. In "The Fictionist," Barry revisits
The Specialist in the employment of band elements led by piano in
a light jazz format. Occasionally gloomy and almost dissonant phrases
appear in a few cues, including "The Day the Earth Fell Silent." Barry
sends us off with a lively return to his early days as a jazz band
member and conductor; in "Dance With Reality," he seemingly accepts his
future with an enthusiastic sax and jazz band performance more vibrant
than any work he had completed in a long time (especially on the
rambling piano and later electric guitar). The downside of
The
Beyondness of Things is, of course, the absolute predictability of
it. Barry's habit of repeating every phrase of his work twice is a
killing element for some listeners. His tempo is so slow on virtually
everything that the sound of his music is borderline geriatric. Beauty
manifests itself in many ways, and Barry seems to dwell in the extremely
slow, contemplative aspects of his harmonies. This is nothing new, and
potential buyers of this concert piece should be well aware of the
ground rules of Barry's game before approaching. The performance by the
English Chamber Orchestra and the recording by London Records is are
both exemplary, making this album an extremely strong buy for collectors
of the composer's modern works.
****
| Bias Check: | For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.87 (in 23 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.71
(in 20,820 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains an overwhelming number of pictures of Barry on the shoreline,
as well as half a dozen notes and poems (one from Barry himself).
