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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you have seen the film and appreciated the underscore. Avoid it... if you are only a casual Leonard Rosenman collector and are not overly impressed by his rather tepid suspense writing. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The title theme was constructed in part by Rosenman for the purpose of representing the stylish lights of the big city, and to some degree, he succeeds. The theme has the same robust optimism as the title theme for Star Trek IV, but sounds equally out of place in its strictly upbeat nature. Some of the more turbulent variations of this theme (heard in the latter portions of the opening cue) are perhaps more accurate for the genre, and the tapping cymbals and snare hint at a sense of "coolness" that the rest of the score could have greatly used. The symphony wouldn't be utilized to a great extent until the "Freeway Killing" cue, after which Rosenman begins to turn on some heat, but until that point, much of his score meanders in basic melodic performances by solo woodwinds. Several of these cues will be completely lost in their barely audible solos, leaving the more psychotic secondary theme to occupy your mind. Because of the villain's religious nature, Rosenman uses dissonant Latin chanting by a few female voices to help rattle the brains, and it succeeds so well that it's nearly unlistenable on album. Often accompanied by a high pitch organ, these vocals are truly disturbing despite their lack of depth. That lack of adequate layers dooms Keeper of the City in the end; the score doesn't make use of enough of the soundscape to make any viable statements. A distant and muted sound quality compounds the problem, leaving the entire score --even in its moments of horror-- as a disengaged listening experience. A short running time is a blessing on the non-descript album. Why Intrada chose to press this score is a curious question; perhaps Doug Fake's friendship with Rosenman was the sole factor. At any rate, Intrada ultimately sold this product (among a few of its other duds) for a deletion rate of $1. Even at this price, the product lingered for a while before then disappearing completely from the market. There is no compelling reason to seek this one out now. *
The insert includes the following note from Rosenman:
The second theme, using four female voices singing in latin is the musical idea that surrounds the character Vince. I have found that the easiest thing to do in films is to write "crazy" music. Generally this usually dissonant practice is a form of naturalism that doesn't add anything to what one already sees and hears on the screen. In this case I wanted to echo musically the functioning of Vince's mind, as well as to musically establish and develop the religious motivation of his insanity. Such a practice ends up in establishing a larger dimension of understanding for the character on the screen. Moreover, it is the constant development and variation of the musical material that constitutes any successful overview of a filmic musical score." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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