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Composed and Produced by:
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Mark Isham
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Labels and Dates:
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Fly Away Records - Bootleg
(1997)
Consideration Promo
(1997)
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Availability:
Neither album is commercially available. The promo is more difficult to find than the bootleg, which continues to float around the secondary market every once in a while.
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Sorry, there are no commercial ordering options for this title. However, you can
search for this title at the soundtrack specialty outlets listed on the Filmtracks Links Page. |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you've seen the film and agree that Fly Away Home
has one of the most effective scores of the decade.
Avoid it... if the search for the rare score may not be worth the
reward.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Isham | |
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Fly Away Home: (Mark Isham) Every once in a while, you
get a combination of director, cinematographer, and composer that works so
splendidly that the resulting beauty on screen captivates audiences of all
ages. Fly Away Home is one such example, with the 1996 film offering
the rewarding tale of a girl who has lost her mother and regains her
vitality by adopting a flock of geese at her estranged father's large
property. With the geese refusing to migrate properly (because of course,
the little girl doesn't get up and fly south herself), the girl and her
father use an ultralight plane to teach the young birds how to fly and begin
their migration. It's a semi-true tale that culminates in the exhilarating
journey through a flight at the end of the film that is saturated with
wholesome sentimentality (in the days before American homeland security
would chase them out of the air). It's an ultimate feel-good story, and
composer Mark Isham plays his role in extending the fuzzy feelings through
his score. The orchestral score, rich with the styles of Americana, utilizes
instrumentation that plays straight to nature and the birds themselves.
Woodwinds creatively chirp out the sounds of young birds, specialty string
instruments and a harmonica bring back memories of the farm, and tapping
percussion present the adversity that the birds face along their course of
maturation. Heightening the score more than anything, of course, is the
melodic heart of Isham's effort. The opening and closing titles, along with
the momentous flying scene, are scored with a gorgeous solo string theme
backed by a full orchestral ensemble. The performance, which features the
regular strings of a usual orchestral ensemble, has the feel of a fiddle,
further generating (along with a solo flute) the picturesque beauty of the
landscape.
Isham spares no dramatic element in Fly Away Home,
with even a solo voice inserted for the mournful cue of remembrance. The
score would, at its outset, possibly seem like the kind of hokey Americana
spirit that, in its deeper moments, fails to inspire more modern score fans.
But although Isham is criticized for sometimes failing to produce a strong
theme when one is really needed, there is no such flaw in Fly Away
Home. The thematic grace that exists from start to end has a spirited
personality that distinguishes itself from Isham's other works. Many film
score critics have argued that Fly Away Home is the strongest score
of his first dozen years of major film scoring, and they would be correct.
Isham reaches out to embrace the same kind of rhythmic enthusiasm and
thematic constants that draw Rachel Portman fans. The tragedy of this
romantic score is, of course, that it completely fell through the cracks
when the time came to release the score on album. It is rare that a score of
this popularity receives no release at all, raising questions about the kind
of studio mishaps that lead to these situations. An awards promo was
released with nine cues amounting to a little over half an hour at the time
that Fly Away Home came up for Oscar consideration. After this
promotional album quickly disappeared, bootlegs began surfacing with
regularity, and one in particular (Fly Away Records, with a handful of cues
from other Isham works) took hold and worked its way into many collections.
When the ultimate edition of the film was released on DVD in 2003, fans
cheered when they saw an isolated score advertised. Unfortunately, it's one
of those "commentary" situations during which Isham analyzes his work over
some of the important cues, including the beautiful opening and closing
cues. Thus, the DVD still isn't the answer for fans of the score. While fans
of the film represent the most desperate seekers of the bootleg, all film
music fans should take a moment to find this lovable, uncomplicated score. *****
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Track Listings (1997 Consideration Promo):
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Total Time: 36:02
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• 1. First Flight (3:16)
• 2. Fly Away Home (4:01)
• 3. Igor's Big Adventure (5:49)
• 4. 16 Eggs (3:46)
• 5. If At First You Don't Succeed (3:39)
• 6. The Great Escape (6:38)
• 7. Halls of Glass (2:50)
• 8. Remembrance of Things Past (2:14)
• 9. Homecoming (3:45)
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Track Listings (1997 Fly Away Records Bootleg):
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Total Time: 77:44
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• 1. First Flight (3:16)
• 2. Amy's Remembrance (2:13)
• 3. Sixteen Eggs (3:45)
• 4. If At First You Don't Succeed (3:37)
• 5. Theme from Fly Away Home (4:00)
• 6. Igor's Big Adventure (5:47)
• 7. The Great Escape (6:39)
• 8. Halls of Glass/Tom's Crash (2:48)
• 9. Homecoming/End Credits (3:47)
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Bonus Tracks from other Isham Scores:
• 10. Nell (4:39)
• 11. The Moderns (3:37)
• 12. Made in America (2:57)
• 13. Cool World (13:15)
• 14. Timecop (1:49)
• 15. Miami Rhapsody (1:23)
• 16. Chicago Hope (1:38)
• 17. The Net (12:34)
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(Fly Away Home running time: 35:49)
Neither album includes any information about the score or film.
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