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Composed, Conducted, Orchestrated, and Produced by:
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James Horner
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Violin Solos by:
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Joshua Bell
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Release Date:
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January 8th, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Horner | |
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Iris: (James Horner) After stirring up his fans with the size and
energy of Enemy at the Gates and A Beautiful Mind earlier in
2001, James Horner finishes his year's activities with by far the most
reflective and underwhelming score of the year. The film Iris is a
period character tale in England and tells the life story of writer Iris
Murdoch during two stages of her life. The past and present alternations
of the dramatic story set to the mood of English dramatism and folk music
led to Horner's chance to write a score in a field that has been dominated
by the likes of Richard Robbins and Patrick Doyle. Small character dramas
which rely on heavy acting and writing aren't a completely foreign genre
for Horner. One of his most acclaimed underscores was for the tiny budget film
The Spitfire Grill five years before, as well as To Gillian on her
37th Birthday a short time later. Both of those scores offered Horner's fans
a glimpse of what he could write when not trying to impress his audience with an
overwhelming orchestra. Some maintain strongly the such scores continue to show
little ingenuity on the part of Horner, and while The Spitfire Grill was
highlighted by some truly unique material in Horner's career, To Gillian on
her 37th Birthday was a much more unoriginal piece. So, too, is Iris,
a score with all the functionality and makings of a dramatic winner, but always
one step away from the kind of heart that made The Spitfire Grill so
enjoyable.
The score for Iris exceeds the other two in its consistency of melody and
major key optimism. Its simplicity is superbly performed by the solo violin.
Joshua Bell is the most recent in a growing string of solo performers to grace
Horner's recording stages, and while his contribution to Iris won't cause
an explosion of interest, it softly and delicately achieves its goal. The sense
of wrestling in the inner soul is captured in the score, not to any excess or
even great toil, but the sense of personal journey is conveyed with adequate
emotion and subdued volume. Soothing in parts and unremarkable in others, the
score offers little excitement to break the contemplative ponderings of its
title character. The first full statement of theme, with the power of the
string-heavy orchestra in unison, can be heard over halfway through the album
(in the late minutes of the fifth track), and is only present for a few minutes
thereafter. No dramatic evolution of Iris's theme will ever burst through
in the film, and aside from a quick splash of diversity, mood and
instrumentation in the sixth album track, there is remarkably nothing to hinder
Bell's violin and the single woodwind or keyboard that performs the duet that
weaves throughout the score. The brass section is often muted, unless the French
horn is meandering along its lengthy path of descending measures of music. The
relatively short album --by Horner standards-- will fly past in a heartbeat,
leaving the listener pleasantly satisfied, but without inspiration or even,
perhaps, much interest in many repeat listens.
The ironic thing about Iris is that it mirrors much of the score in his
career that was hailed as being his most original. The knowledgable Horner fan
will hear a considerable portion of The Spitfire Grill in Iris,
though without any of the spunk or guitar work that made The Spitfire
Grill into a truly unique effort. Instead, the foresty reflective moments of
the former score are repeated in Iris, and the violin solos by Bell in
2001 are only different from those in The Spitfire Grill because of his
more famous name. The meandering horn solos will be your ticket to Horner's
memory lane. The sometimes dull nature of the music, in its seemingly endless
pursuit of nothingness, can easily lose the interest of many listeners, and
especially those who didn't like the earlier Horner character drama scores in
the first place. The other curious aspect of Iris is that it, on a few
occasions, borders on the edge of acknowledging the English folk music that
eventually prevails in the setting of the film. Horner will almost allow the
performance to pick up a slight rhythm that would lend itself well to that
genre, even going so far as to insert a folk-like female vocal performance in,
through, and around his final orchestral cue. For a score that is so heavy on
the dramatic contemplation, Iris is only somewhat effective at building a
personality, and it is that lack of aspiration or distinctive rhythm or
instrumentation that causes it stand as a solid, though unrewarding listening
experience. An additionally flat sound quality --perhaps due to the singular and
constant whole notes strung along by the cellos and basses-- further holds the
score at an arm's distance. Despite the strong pairing of Bell and Horner,
Iris is only average... an enjoyable background listen for a time or two,
but with a strangely unremarkable construct. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Part 1 (3:44)
• 2. Part 2 (3:23)
• 3. Part 3 (4:46)
• 4. Part 4 (4:35)
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• 5. Part 5 (10:59)
• 6. Part 6 (6:42)
• 7. Part 7 (10:57)
• 8. Part 8 (4:47)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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