Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate James Horner's ability to capture the sense of innocence and curiosity in natural settings with lovely rhythmic progressions for piano, synthetic choir, and other elements of minimal volume. Avoid it... if you are deterred by the fact that this score still makes use of only Horner's previously established techniques and instrumentation, no matter their rearrangement into an effectively fresh package. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: (James Horner) A British production from Walt Disney's United Kingdom division, BBC Films, and Miramax, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a strongly praised adaptation of the recent John Boyle novel that was publicly termed "unfilmable." Director Mark Herman makes little attempt to hide the mostly British origins of the cast, allowing their natural accents to speak towards issues of class and history that often inhabit many of the country's best arthouse productions. The tale of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is as harrowing as you expect it to be, telling a Holocaust story from the perspective of a young German boy whose father is transferred to a job as a warden at a concentration camp during World War II. He befriends a Jewish boy through the barb wire of the camp, and it is through their innocent eyes that the majority of the tale unfolds. The film naturally contains a horrific conclusion, though Herman's ability to maintain the environment of a child's perception through these events is the primary attraction to an otherwise bleak plot. Veteran composer James Horner, himself Jewish, reportedly lobbied the director for this assignment, ultimately receiving it and placing much personal effort into its recording (including serving as orchestrator and performer). The score represented a return by Horner to a genre and quality of film that could earn him Academy Award consideration, and although neither he nor the film received the awards recognition that was speculated upon release, the quality of his writing indicates that perhaps some greater promotion by Miramax could have earned him better odds. Horner's music for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is minimal in volume and scope for most of its running time, saving the score's only orchestral performances of full volume for the scenes of realization at the story's conclusion. The work is saturated with Horner's easily identifiable styles of writing and orchestration, utilizing techniques that will be familiar to many film score collectors. While potentially troublesome, this fact is compensated for by the composer's ability to once again adapt that sound into a slightly new form, using the same building blocks to create the foundation for a remarkably powerful score. There is a sense of gravity to the music of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas that rarely develops from such minimal volumes. Like James Newton Howard's Defiance, this score is able to capture the intricacies of war and its effects on individual perceptions without overstating the environment. There is fine craftsmanship to be heard in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Granted, there is technically nothing new in the ingredients. Horner's piano performances are the heart of the recording, rolling through an elaboration of his theme for Swing Kids with grace and precision. The sensitivity in these performances occasionally embodies the exuberance and hope of a child's view of the world, pushing the rhythmic density towards the territory of A Beautiful Mind. Through the addition of notes and the flourishes of different sections of the theme, Horner applies the idea in extremely effective emotional variants, though slight, from "Boys Playing Airplanes" through "Remembrance, Remembrance." Subtle emphasis in performance is key to appreciating these alterations of mood, though the highest praise for Horner needs to point to his ability to strike a weighty chord while also using simultaneous devices to raise the spirits of the music in ways that only a child's imagination could accomplish in such stark circumstances. A proper and trim attitude at times (including the reprise of the score's lofty thematic performance from "Boys Playing Airplanes" in "The Train to a New Home") may be difficult for some listeners to tolerate, though the piano material ironically becomes its most enchanting when combined with faithful stylistic accompaniment from countless other Horner scores. Beginning in "Exploring the Forest" and extending to "The Boys' Plans/From Night to Day," he again proves that nature is perhaps his best source of inspiration. From the light tapping of a triangle, the elegant and rambling piano, and a lonely solo oboe to synthetic choral effects, these pieces breathe life into Horner's usual ambient minimalism at its very best. Almost always harmonic, these cues in the middle section of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are delicate cousins to the forest material heard in The Spitfire Grill and The New World. The synthetic vocal effects, whether imitating a distant, breathy ensemble or a boy soprano (both are heard simultaneously in the disturbingly beautiful "An Odd Discovery Beyond the Trees"), add a touch of eerie atmosphere to the equation. The sense of curiosity in this style develops into an even higher register of optimism in "The Boys' Plans/From Night to Day," a devastating cue of false hope that rolls in waves of piano and synthetic vocal performances that attempt to defy fate with stubborn innocence. Together, the nature-related cues in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are heartbreakingly beautiful without resorting to cheap harmonic ploys that betray the necessary perspective of the work. The overarching maturation of Horner's music for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas counters expectations by the time it turns sinister and then truly somber in its closing moments. Despite the hints of darkness in "Black Smoke," the score is a relatively relaxing and undemanding listening experience, potentially leaving some hoping for a strong dramatic punch in the concluding cues. Horner saves that energy for "Strange New Clothes/An Impending Storm," a lengthy crescendo of dissonant string layers that is appropriately painful compared to what has come before. Along with the solitary depression that grips the quiet piano solos in most of "Remembrance, Remembrance," the end of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, while likely making the greatest impact in the film during these cues, is surprisingly not the highlight of the overall work. Even "The Funeral," with its bare bones expression of solace, uses resonating harmony from The New World that is easy on the ears in a lightly melodramatic fashion. In this cue, Horner also employs the dreaded four-note "motif of evil" that is arguably the most recognizable single idea of his career. Interestingly, however, Horner translates the idea onto solo trumpet and slightly slows its tempo, as if to signify that the evil has already struck and what we now hear is a faint echo of the motif's explosive personality from his other works. As such, the use of the motif is actually quite effective in this context. Another connection between this recording and Horner's prior albums is the use of sound effects in a natural setting. For The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the sound of trickling water is heard at the very outset of the album, slowly yielding to the piano's first phrase of the title theme. In sum, this score isn't the type of Horner work that will attract much attention to itself. The choice by Hollywood Records to release the album as a digital download-only product contributed to this lack of recognition. Those who appreciate the ambience of the morbidly haunting "Two Worlds; The Past and the Future" cue from Horner's The Life Before Her Eyes earlier in the year will appreciate the style and personality of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. As expectations for Horner's forthcoming collaboration with James Cameron for 2009's Avatar reach an accelerated pace, it's been easy to overlook the gracefully restrained classical touch of this unusual Holocaust score. In its triumph in capturing the event from both the innocence and curiosity of a child's perspective, Horner's work transcends to a level of engagement that competes with the year's best film music. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 52:22
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