Buy it... if you want to hear a Highland score more saturated in stereotypically Gaelic instrumentation and rhythms than perhaps any other Digital Age score.

Avoid it... if your patience for thematically redundant performances by Gaelic pipes, whistles, and fiddles (which tend to be more Irish than Scottish anyway) is within normal boundaries.

Burwell

Rob Roy: (Carter Burwell) Within the span of a year in the middle of the 1990's, audiences were treated to several Highland epics, with Rob Roy followed by Braveheart and then Dragonheart. While Dragonheart would obviously occupy a different genre, Rob Roy matched Braveheart in its brutal historical depictions and the grim expression of graphically realistic force. Despite competent performances by Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, and Tim Roth, Rob Roy would suffer from the most constricted audience reaction of the three, and a vast majority of viewers eagerly sought the other two Highland films with an almost cultish fever. The same exact disparity in reaction was experienced by the score for Rob Roy, too. The James Horner and Randy Edelman scores (though light years away from each other in tone) would share monumental success while Carter Burwell's Rob Roy fell by wayside early in the race. Burwell wasn't immediately known at the time (or even in the decade following) for his lush and romantic scoring for grand vistas. At times, he could provide large scale themes for scenery (such as the grand, Western flavor of 1999's The Hi-Lo Country), but Burwell's career inclination points towards the more off-color projects of darker shades. Landing Rob Roy allowed Burwell to collaborate with several specialty musicians, including those of his own hiring and those belonging to the Gaelic group Capercaillie. Burwell also interpreted traditional Gaelic tunes with the help of that group and integrated their structures into his own heavily ethnic score. It is easy to determine from the outset that Burwell wanted to go over the top with his Gaelic influence on the otherwise orchestral score for Rob Roy. The work is saturated, from beginning to end, with the music of the general region, leaving precious few moments for the orchestral ensemble to express its own tribute to the beautiful cinematography on the screen. There are problems inherent in the distinction of the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland, and some will be bothered by the fact that in a technical sense, much of this score's tone is Irish. Most casual ears won't care or even know the difference, which is a shame that exists as a debate for another occasion.

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In the film, Burwell's effort is a stirring and convincing piece, sufficiently epic in size and theme to accompany the fantastic visuals of the locations. On album, with the scenery stripped from the equation, Burwell's score begins to show a few faults, and the listening experience for many viewers of the film may falter. The title theme introduced at the start does become extremely redundant after five tracks on album, and Burwell does little to alter his many very similar interpretations of the thematic construct. It should be noted that while this theme is utilized far too often in the score (reaching John Barry levels, really), at least the composer does present a relatively fluid progression absent of his usual staggered and disjointed melodic tendencies. The redundancy factor also applies to the performances by the specialty instruments; by the end of Rob Roy, the pipes, whistles, and fiddles, all staples of the stereotypes for the genre portrayed, begin to wear considerably on the nerves, especially when considering the monotonous rhythms that often carry them through their lengthy performances. There are a few explosive moments of beauty, but without enough of an orchestral emphasis to help the listener identify with the score, they too get lost in the overall package. The most engaging moments of the score are, surprisingly, the cues representing the unpleasant scenes in the film, including the emotionally traumatizing "Troops in the Mist" and "Honor Inflamed." Burwell also writes interesting material for the percussion section during the "Rannoch Moor Retreat" cue within the "Rannoch Moor Suite." None of the specialty instruments in the score stand out with a superb solo performance, and Miriam Stockley's magnificent voice is largely lost in the mix (her fans will find her most prominent wailing accenting the end of "Overture" with her usual rough tone of beauty). The performances by the group Capercaillie, whether of their own writing, a traditional piece, or Burwell's material, create simply too much Gaelic saturation to enjoy the score (not to mention their Irish connections). This trouble works its way back to the lack of a dominant orchestral sound of significant depth, which is, along with a few specialty instruments, what made the concurrent Braveheart a classic for many listeners. Despite a poorly designed album package for Rob Roy (with no track listings on the rear), the score has a few thematic highlights at the beginning and end, and if you confine yourself to these sequences, you'd be doing a great service to your patience. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Carter Burwell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.76 (in 9,936 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.