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Powder: (Jerry Goldsmith) Stories about young
misfits trying to fit into a judgmental school environment are
surprisingly common in Hollywood, either because such films appeal well
to teenagers or because their makers felt that way themselves when that
age. The 1995 entry in the genre,
Powder, faced considerable
adversity of its own, with reporting of writer/director Victor Salva's
past history of child molestation raised and protested during the film's
release. On top of the public outcry against the studio for allowing
Salva to make the film,
Powder also suffered from a sappy,
sometimes unbearable plotline that drove the rest of the audiences away.
To say that the film was a failure is kind, and Jerry Goldsmith's
average though overachieving musical effort is dragged along for the
ride. Salva had always been an enormous fan of Goldsmith's career, and
was very impressed with the score for
Powder (calling it the work
of "genius"). Likewise, collectors of the composer's music were
generally pleased by the soft and sensitive score, maintaining a strong
following over a decade later. As such, the score has a tendency to be
vastly overrated by many of these listeners; while the work is lovely in
its harmonic appeal, it really breaks little new stylistic ground for
the composer. As a very common representative of his 1990's style,
Powder is a project for Goldsmith that simply furthered his
lengthy pursuit of assignments that involve highly personalized
character adversity. Goldsmith's main theme, explored extensively in the
arrangement of "Theme from Powder" for the album, is lovingly
passionate, simple, and unassuming, and it is adapted in many variations
throughout the score.
This title theme's construct is very slow, deliberate,
and finishes with a faint hint of Western flavor, with Goldsmith
utilizing a slight swing of rhythm used for stereotypical Western music
during a series of notes late in the theme (to address, perhaps, the
setting in Texas). Other parts of its performances, particularly on
strings, foreshadow the title theme for
The Edge, especially with
a shared progression at the outset of the theme (but obviously the tone
is much more subtle here). In the theme's extended treatment in "Theme
from Powder," "Steven and the Snow," and "Everywhere," Goldsmith makes
it clear that the identity for
Powder is one of his least
complicated of his career. It has a basic romantic element to it that
will pull at the heart strings for any listener, but its string and
woodwind construction doesn't consist of enough counterpoint or
instrumental variety to make it a noteworthy standout in his career. The
idea thus blends into the mass of Goldsmith's 90's character themes
without offering anything new to interest a Goldsmith collector, outside
of the simple fact that its performances in
Powder are
melodramatic to a fault. A secondary "discovery motif" at the outset of
"Theme from Powder" and better suited for "First Kiss" shares
considerable elements with Goldsmith's material for the Ba'ku in
Star
Trek: Insurrection. Another interesting aspect of
Powder is
Goldsmith's underemphasized use of his tingling, synthetic effects.
These electronics were often employed by the composer to insert a sense
of magic into his scores, whether it be on the human level or on a
technological one (as in his science-fiction efforts). Goldsmith does
insert his trademark, electronic sounds in
Powder, but they lack
the distinctive edge that was needed to make the magic of this story
fly.
For a movie involving supernatural powers and
electricity, there's a distinct lack of energy in this score. This is a
shame, because Goldsmith could very easily have put more of an emphasis
on his spine-tingling electronics to accent the start of measures or, as
he often does, ramble in the background to add another dimension to the
music. That personal touch of the supernatural fails in part because
Goldsmith's choice of synthesized elements: the same electronic effect
that Goldsmith conjured for the opening of the Klingon battle scene in
the original
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (as heard here at the
start of "Spoon Trick and the Trestle." As a listening experience, the
score splits itself between two parts. During troubled sequences, such
as the lengthy "Nightmare in the Forest" and "Freakshow," the music
loses the heart that it established in the major thematic presentations.
The other part consists of the slow, melodic string and woodwind cues
that carry most of the rest of the underscore. These drawn-out sequences
simply connect similar performances of the main theme, which come at
regular intervals and never develop into anything more than a weightier
statement at the end of "Everywhere." Overall, Goldsmith has written so
many memorable character themes that this one fades away. Undoubtedly,
Powder is easily listenable, but it doesn't have the magical
touch it needs to distinguish itself above and beyond its own
simplistic, pretty theme. The immense respect that many Goldsmith
collectors have for
Powder remains a curious fact, perhaps
proving that the key to the heart of any such fan is to take a generic
Goldsmith theme, tone back the complications, and pour on the syrup.
That may work for some listeners, but if you expect to hear anything
remotely electrical in a three-dimensional sense, you'll be
disappointed. Don't believe the hype.
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