Powder: (Jerry Goldsmith) As a very common
representative of his 1990's work, Powder is a project for composer
Jerry Goldsmith that would further his pursuit of assignments that involve
highly personalized character adversity. The film itself would face
considerable adversity of its own, with word of writer/director Victor
Salva's past history of child molestation raised during Powder'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 would be kind, and Jerry Goldsmith's average musical
effort would be dragged along for the ride. Salva had always been a
Goldsmith fan, and was very impressed with the score for Powder
(calling it the work of "genius"). Likewise, Goldsmith fans were generally
pleased by the soft and sensitive score. Goldsmith's main theme is lovingly
passionate, simple, and unassuming, and it is used in many variations
throughout the score. This theme is very slow, deliberate, and finishes with
a faint hint of Western flavor, for some odd reason, with Goldsmith
utilizing a slight swing of rhythm used for stereotypical Western music
during a series of notes late in the theme. Other parts of it would
foreshadow the title theme for The Edge, but obviously in much more
subtle tones here. The theme is presented heavily in the opening cue of the
album, which Goldsmith has arranged as a concert suite of material from the
film. The suite makes it immediately clear that Goldsmith's Powder
theme is one of his least complicated or interesting themes of his career.
It has that basic romantic element to it, 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 theme thus blends into the mass of Goldsmith's 1990's
character themes without offering anything new to interest a Goldsmith
collector. Another interesting aspect of Powder is Goldsmith's use
(or underemphasized use) of his tingling, synthetic effects. These
electronics have often been used by the composer to insert a sense of magic
into his scores, whether it be on the human level or on a technological
level, as in his science-fiction efforts. Goldsmith does employ 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, there's a distinct lack of magic in this
score. It could easily have passed as a regular romance score, and 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 instrumental dimension
to the music. That personal touch of supernaturalism fails in part because
Goldsmith's choice of synthesized elements include those that produce the
same electronically bizarre noise that Goldsmith conjured for the opening of
the Klingon battle scene in the original Star Trek. It's not the kind
of upbeat magic that you would expect to hear in Powder. As a
listening experience, the score splits itself between two parts. During
troubled sequences, such as the lengthy nightmare cue, the music loses the
heart that it established in the thematic presentation of the opening suite.
The other part consists of the slow, melodic string cues that carry most of
the rest of the underscore. These drawn-out strings simply connect the
performances of the main theme, which come at regular intervals. Overall,
Goldsmith has written so many memorable character themes that this one fades
away. Powder is easily listenable, but doesn't have the magical touch
it needs to distinguish itself above and beyond its own simplistic, pretty
theme. ***
• 1. Theme from Powder (4:32)
• 2. Spoon Trick and the Trestle (2:17)
• 3. Nightmare in the Forest (5:10)
• 4. First Kiss (2:25)
• 5. Steven and the Snow (8:26)
• 6. Freakshow (4:42)
• 7. Wanna See a Trick? (4:01)
• 8. Everywhere (3:54)
Notes and Quotes:
"Incredibly haunting and powerful, while it is full of the musical colors
that Jerry does like no one else, it is also unique in tone even among
his considerable body of work. All this comes from much more than just
his own intrinsic understanding of the film -- which I found impeccable.
It comes from more than even his great artistry. It comes, I believe,
from his deep, deep love for movies."
