Buy it... if you desire one of Thomas Newman's most readily accessible orchestral works, consistent in its pastoral definition of Americana and its use of metallic percussion to create a convincing wintertime environment.

Avoid it... if you appreciate Newman's career instead for his exotic choices of rhythm and instrumentation, both of which are largely absent from this score.

Newman

Little Women: (Thomas Newman) Of the several adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel to the screen, the 1994 version by Gillian Armstrong is likely the strongest, nominated for three Academy Awards and gaining respect for its well-rounded cast performance. The story is familiar to the period romances and dramas of the British from roughly the same era, but set here in New England during America's Civil War. A mother is left raising four daughters when her husband goes to war, and those daughters are each wildly varied in their personalities, making the film into a character study of not only the outsiders who seek to their affections, but also the family's own diversity. Other than a few twists of sadness, Little Women is generally a soft and child-safe picture, and despite its strong cinematography and other technical elements, it gained little traction with wider audiences (in other words: groaning men). The film represented half of composer Thomas Newman's strong tandem of Oscar-nominated scores from 1994, catapulting him into the mainstream after a series of lesser known projects. His music for both Little Women and The Shawshank Redemption merge Newman's talents of unique instrumentation and rhythms with his grand orchestral sensibilities, and it's the style of the latter sound that largely defined the composer's works of the mid-1990's. As Newman transformed his career into one of more minimal experimentation and genre crossover efforts, many of his collectors look back fondly at 1994 as perhaps the year of the composer's greatest achievements. Most such fans agree that The Shawshank Redemption is the superior score when directly comparing the two, though Little Women also has its share of attractive attributes. Among the highlights of this score are the melodic passages robustly performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, the occasionally jaunty rhythms that propel the exuberant atmosphere of the film, and the light tones of musicians with mallets, who produce a distinctly spine-tingling musical representation of the seasons of autumn and winter. The score maintains a pleasant tone from start to finish, exuding just enough classicism to suffice as credible without becoming dense. In fact, the score offers some of the most lyrical material to ever come from the composer.

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The score opens and closes with Newman's stately title theme, performed deliberately on strings with a sense of history and majesty. It's trademark pastoral Americana for Newman, who then launches into a spirited interlude for brass figures that plays a role in the maintaining enthusiasm in several later scenes. At roughly the 1:30 mark into "Orchard House (Main Title)," Newman transfers the primary theme to the full ensemble, a highlight of both the score and Newman's career. It is in these sequences that the performance by the London players is especially important, for the brass section is so crisp that it conveys an almost royal atmosphere. Solo woodwinds finish off the theme with a more down-to-earth performance. One of the score's more disappointing aspects is the lack of the weighty string performances of this theme during the actual running of the film. In the subsequent cues, however, Newman begins to unleash the xylophone and chime performances that define the innocence of the girls and their environment. These moments are truly Newman at his best, when the composer uses a slightly unusual sound to solicit a specific emotional response from the listener. After several cues of a non-offensive, quiet nature, Newman eventually returns to the full ensemble for "New York," which offers a sense of magnificence that is another highlight of the entire work. The following "Harvest Time" explores the interlude to the title theme on strings with attractive elegance. Several secondary motifs exist throughout Little Women, never so obvious as to represent each girl or personality with a devoted theme, but keeping the score fresh. The music's darkest moments, punctuated by "Valley of the Shadow" and its slight choral effect, are never too solemn, using their inherent beauty to extend the listenability to these sections. The "Lovelornity" cue allows Newman one last romantic burst of melody before "Under the Umbrella (End Title)" largely reprises the opening cue (but perhaps at a slightly slower pace). The score on album is not without its detriments, however. First, it's not unusual for Newman's scores to feature a plethora of cues of short length, and the listening experience of Little Women suffers a bit from this format. Also, the four period source pieces mixed throughout the album are distractions. A DVD release of the film offers an isolated score track in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for serious fans. Overall, Little Women remains one of Newman's most readily accessible works. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13 (in 53,317 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.