 |
|
 |
|
 | |||||||||
| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
| . |
1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
 | ||||||||
|
|
|
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
At the end of the decade, Jack the Bear was one of the only five or six unreleased Horner scores of the 1990's, but Intrada Records now presents it as the third installment of its special collection series. Utilizing a small orchestral ensemble and an array of synthesizers, Horner produced a minimalistic score that relied heavily on the solo performances of the violin, piano, and flute. The famed composer was no stranger to the underdramatic score at that time in his career. His smaller scale efforts often fell into two categories: first, those that contained a theme, motif, or instrumentation that endeared itself to the hearts of fans and therefore thrived (Sneakers, Thunderheart, Searching for Bobby Fischer, etc.) and second, those scores which fell through the cracks because of their lack of memorable attributes in the minds of the majority of Horner fans (Once Around, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Class Action). Perhaps the most shunned score of the 1990's for Horner is Unlawful Entry, which meanders with a synthetic underscore that is unlistenable for even the most hearty Horner fans. In its darker moments, such as the synthetic cue "Dylan's Gone," the score for Jack the Bear suffers from some of the same uninteresting droning as Unlawful Entry. There are substantial cues of underscore in Jack the Bear that help classify it among the latter, less memorable efforts for Horner. Hidden in between, however, are several short performances a theme that would eventually be fleshed out in Deep Impact. It's mastered first by the piano and then by the flute, with sporatic performances by a solo violin interspersed. Most of this theme's air time exists in the second half of the album, first introducing itself in full during the fourth track. The secondary theme, exhibited at the start, is less interesting, as are the synthetic and slightly orchestral cues of underscore in between. The scarier parts of the film, however, cannot ever drag Horner out of the major key for any of his themes or motifs, which was perhaps his effort to keep the child's spin on the story. Nevertheless, the darker plot lines cause several cues to lose their delicate and thematic edge. As a result, Jack the Bear is a score with perhaps fifteen minutes of thematic material that Horner fans of today could enjoy, and even so, it isn't anything we haven't (or wouldn't in the future) hear from the composer with a significantly larger ensemble. Overall, you'd be best served to hear the lower quality suite from this score on the various bootlegs of Horner works that are floating around. Intrada has done a exemplary job mastering the album for better enjoyment, thought the material is so subdued to begin with that it falls short of Horner's other minimalistic projects. Unless you are a die-hard Horner fanatic (with Unlawful Entry on your shelves), you'd be better served by investigating one of Horner's more creative small works of the early 1990's. **
The insert contains notes about the plot and production of the film, as well as an analysis of the score by Doug Fake. A few of his comments: "James Horner begins the music for Jack the Bear with amazing simplicity. A brief melodic figure for piano, without harmony, without accompaniment. He ends the score with similar restraint. Solo violin, without harmony, without accompaniment. In fact, restraint characterizes all of the music for Jack the Bear. Once established, Horner allows a musical journey through tonalities both simple and complex, through material both fragmented and developed. The film's story is both sensitive and bittersweet. Interestingly, Horner keeps his material grounded in major keys rather than minor. There are two important melodies, both play in major. The first begins the score on piano, ends it on violin. It's a simple, unassuming tune, easy to spot. Just the opposite of the second theme. How this other theme emerges becomes the heart of Jack the Bear. The second melody begins as a disguised variation of the first, a "germ", an idea just hinted at. Again and again it appears, now on piano, later on flute. Then part way through "Flashback", in subtle fashion, one begins to realize the germ is working, evolving, finally becoming a rich theme for piano with soft string accompaniment. This new idea becomes the primary theme of Jack the Bear. Another strong feature of the score is harmony. Horner frequently rolls gently between two major chords, one full step apart. This allows a striking "raised fourth" interval in melodic lines, keeps tonalities in constant shift, yet remains within Horner's major key guidelines. Contrasting his simple architecture, Horner writes complex material for the "evil" elements of the story. He creates rare, dramatic shifts into minor using the unusual sound of bass harmonica. For tense, violent sequences, he takes the music into deeper territory, challenging the rhythms, exploding with atonal outbursts from his small ensemble. When the "Resolution and End Title" comes into play, so do most of Horner's building blocks. The simple opening melody, the haunting shifts between two major chords, the fully-grown main theme. Finally, when all is said and done, Horner brings his gentlest score to a simple, yet deeply affecting close."
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
