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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
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James Horner
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Co-Produced by:
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Simon Rhodes
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Performed by:
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The Hollywood Studio Symphony
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Release Date:
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December 9th, 2003
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Awards:
Nominated for an Academy Award, 2003.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if the flourishing romance of James Horner's usual, broad
strokes of orchestral beauty are too grand and often for your liking, and
you prefer a much more intimate and restrained approach to his dramatic
writing.
Avoid it... if you believe that the dramatic weight of a
dialogue-driven underscore is often compromised by its own sparse construct,
no matter the composer.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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House of Sand and Fog: (James Horner) Pushed by
Dreamworks to a release date as late in 2003 as possible, House of Sand
and Fog has always been a project with high Oscar hopes. The debut of
television commercial director Vadim Perelman, the film closely follows the
bestselling novel of the same name by Andre Dubus III (an Oprah Winfrey Book
Club entry). Its premise is one of highly internalized cultural drama, with
no clear cut good and bad characters; Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingley's
primary roles square off in a clash of dreams and culture over the
possession of a singularly loved house in the hills of California. With the
American owner (Connelly) wrongfully thrown out of the home due to a
taxation error, an exiled Iranian colonel from the Shah's elite inner circle
(Kingsley) moves into the home to start a new life (of the American dream)
with his family. The battle of wills between the two main characters
occupies the heart of the story, making it one of the more intensely
personal stories of the year. Several cast and crew members have carried
over to House of Sand and Fog from the Academy Award-winning A
Beautiful Mind, including composer James Horner. The year 2003 has been
one exclusively dominated by dramatic efforts of all sizes by Horner, for
whom House of Sand and Fog is the fourth and final score of the year.
The close nature of the story, as well as undoubtedly some budgetary
constraints for a $16 million film production, caused Horner to scale back
his usual recording standard to a more intimate level than heard by fans of
the composer in several years. Horner orchestrated his own moderate
composition and removed the brass section from the Hollywood Studio
Symphony, causing the score to immediately take on a different personality
than his other three scores of 2003. It has been many years since Horner has
held this level of restraint in his music, and another sign that House of
Sand and Fog is a subtle effort is realized with the lack of any notable
solo performances for voice or specialty instrument.
For a composer seemingly in love with the flourishing
romance of his own broad strokes of orchestral beauty, Horner impressively
resists of the possibly overbearing role that his score could have taken in
House of Sand and Fog. As many composers do, Horner bases the heart
of the score around the piano, which is, more than any other instrument for
another setting, the pure and wholesome representative of the warm, suburban
American home. Several cues, heard mainly in "Two People" and "Parallel
Lives, Parallel Loves," offer meandering piano solos without an overt rhythm
or direction. The feel of the piano's harmonious performances, even without
a dominant thematic development, suffice in maintaining the tender
underscore for scenes of dialogue. Horner can't resist at least one title
theme, of course, and the string theme heard first in "The Waves of the
Caspian Sea" and throughout the climax at the end serves a fair share of
good-natured loveliness in its simplistic construction. Only in the final
cue, "A Return to the Caspian...," does the theme have a truly redeeming
attitude, almost bordering on Horner's aim for sincerity that you heard in
his children's scores of the early 1990's. The most typical (and maybe a tad
tiresome) use of instrumentation in House of Sand and Fog is the
rumbling of the piano and woodwinds on bass notes accentuated by a tolling
chime or bell. This rolling technique that Horner has utilized throughout
his career is his signature method of providing importance to a scene in a
film, and this time around, it's used in abundance. As in A Beautiful
Mind, a slight touch of electronics are to be heard; the majority of
unusual sounds are employed in the opening cue, while a light choir provides
depth to only few short cues midway through the score. For Horner
collectors, the most interesting music in the score will be the tension
heard in the latter half, beginning with "Break-In" and concluding in "We
Have Traveled so Far...." The cue "The Shooting" presents the first sense of
urgency in the score, with a dramatic rhythm established by timpani and
string plucking and reaching a crescendo of heavier strings at 10 minutes
into the cue. Overall, House of Sand and Fog is an easy score to
appreciate, but a more difficult one to enjoy on album. Its dramatic weight
is sometimes compromised by its own sparse construct, but it likely serves
its purpose with class. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. An Older Life (1:54)
• 2. The Waves of the Caspian Sea (4:00)
• 3. Old Photos, New Memories (3:23)
• 4. "This Is No Longer Your House" (3:34)
• 5. Two People (3:49)
• 6. Kathy's Night (2:18)
• 7. Parallel Lives, Parallel Loves (5:22)
• 8. Behrani's Thoughts - Long Ago (4:49)
• 9. Break-In (2:34)
• 10. The Dreams of Kings (6:58)
• 11. The Shooting, A Payment for Our Sins (15:18)
• 12. "We Have Traveled So Far, It is Time to Return to Our Path." (9:05)
• 13. A Return to the Caspian, And to the Iran of Old (6:37)
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about the score or film.
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