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Conducted by:
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James Shearman
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Co-Orchestrated by:
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James Shearman
Lawrence Ashmore
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Produced by:
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Maggie Rodford
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Availability:
Both versions of the albums are regular releases in their respective countries.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are an avid Patrick Doyle collector and want to
hear the composer work his magic on a smaller, comedic scale.
Avoid it... if you prefer your Doyle scores to be spectacular,
orchestrally deep, and lengthier in running time.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Calendar Girls: (Patrick Doyle) Imagine how the
calendar and the film would have been different had it not been for all of
those tastefully placed flower arrangements! The Nigel Cole film,
Calendar Girls, based on the real life story of Women's Institute
gang of gals over 40 posing nude for a calendar to raise money for a local
hospital, is a feel-good story produced by Touchstone/Buena Vista (yup, the
Disney folks), so you know it'll be innocuous. Perhaps its predictable level
of fluffiness has kept many visitors away from the theatre on this one,
although the film has done well in international mainstream venues. After
circulating around European cinemas for most of the latter half of 2003, the
film opened in limited areas initially in the United States just before the
cutoff for Academy Awards consideration. The cast of elegant British
actresses over the age of 40 holds the project together with snazzy
one-liners and an abundance of heart that we last saw, ironically, in The
Full Monty, although it should be noted that Calendar Girls is a
much more tame endeavor. The filmmakers, naturally, kept the score in the
sphere of British talent, hiring Patrick Doyle to write an upbeat score that
is, as Doyle remarks, "modern and not too flowery or pastoral." Like The
Full Monty, much of personality of the film is established through the
use of softer or comedic rock songs, often with a jazzy tilt and coming from
the era of the women when they were in their youth. Doyle's score would
balance between the need for source cues, jazzy rhythms, and a fair amount
of basic symphonic cues for the more serious aspects of the story. He would
do this at roughly the same time as he wrote and composed Secondhand
Lions, a score for a film about male bonding (as opposed to Calendar
Girls, which is purely the opposite in gender). The result of Doyle's
efforts for Calendar Girls are far less spectacular than
Secondhand Lions, but serves its purpose fairly well enough.
The score offers a considerable share of comedy for the
film, prancing with lightly orchestral rhythms that tip-toe to great
ensemble conclusions in such cues as "Fantastic Tits" and "Bra's Off." Doyle
hits the mark very well, balancing between the dancing nature of the
excitement and comedy in these cues while utilizing the piano, strings, and
metallic percussion in such a way as to convey a sense of pride and elegance
of stature that the women demand at their age. The piano, performed by Brian
Gascoigne, is at center stage in the score, propelling the rest of the
ensemble with its rumbling, low rhythms and contemporary style. The moments
of comedy in the score are its finest, with elements of Doyle's usual,
pleasant harmonic around every turn, even when moving at full speed. The
symphonic underscore cues, in which a few more strings and limited brass
join the party, are restrained throughout most of the score by a need to
remain tastefully underplayed. The full ensemble does shine in "One More
Hour," though, with horn solos leading to a trademark James Horner rumble of
the orchestra led by piano. The sincerity of the piano performances
throughout the score root the music in an elegance that a composer like
Randy Edelman often fails to do, and thus, Doyle succeeds in Calendar
Girls. On album, Hollywood Records released two different versions of
the music from the film (depending upon which side of the pond you reside).
Both offer roughly the same amount of Doyle underscore, but the American
version features an extra Doyle source cue and an additional song at the
end. Both albums feature 4-5 rock and jazz songs from yesteryear at the end,
and both also begin with the Doyle-written song "I Find Your Love" (with
Doyle's main theme performed by the crystal-clear Beth Nielsen Chapman),
which easily outshines the entire rest of the album and strangely was not
used in the film. For Doyle collectors, the 20 minutes of score may or may
not be worth the purchase, and you'd be best to wait until you see it in the
used-CD bin as to not disappoint yourself with its brevity. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Track Listings (European Album:):
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Total Time: 29:11
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• 1. I Find Your Love - performed by Beth Nielsen Chapman (2:28)
• 2. Throwing Cakes (0:46)
• 3. The Funeral (1:02)
• 4. Fantastic Tits (2:15)
• 5. March (1:18)
• 6. Bra's Off (1:36)
• 7. Sponsorship (1:28)
• 8. The Press (1:34)
• 9. Letters (1:18)
• 10. The Cliff (1:00)
• 11. One More Hour (2:32)
• 12. The Way You Do the Things You Do - performed by The Temptations (2:41)
• 13. You Upset My Baby - performed by B.B. King (3:02)
• 14. Comin' Home Baby - performed by Quincy Jones Orchestra/Roland Kirk (2:47)
• 15. Ride Your Pony - performed by The Meters (3:18)
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Track Listings (American Album:):
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Total Time: 34:12
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• 1. I Find Your Love - performed by Beth Nielsen Chapman (2:28)
• 2. Jerusalem - performed by Knapley Women's Club (2:09)
• 3. The Funeral (1:02)
• 4. Fantastic Tits (2:15)
• 5. March (1:18)
• 6. Bra's Off (1:36)
• 7. Sponsorship (1:28)
• 8. The Press (1:34)
• 9. Letters (1:16)
• 10. One More Hour (2:33)
• 11. Jerusalem (1:20)
• 12. The Way You Do The Things You Do - performed by The Temptations (2:41)
• 13. You Upset Me, Baby - performed by B.B. King (3:01)
• 14. Comin' Home Baby - performed by Quincy Jones Orchestra/Roland Kirk (2:48)
• 15. Ride Your Pony - performed by The Meters (3:18)
• 16. Find Another Way - performed by Mornin' Norman (3:17)
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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