Buy it... if you want to spend an hour looking over your shoulder, because few scores are as consistently unnerving as Howard Shore's morbidly dramatic The Silence of the Lambs.

Avoid it... if you expect this score to accomplish much more than establish a suspenseful mood, for its structures really aren't that complicated when studied apart from the oppressive attitude of their performance.

Shore

The Silence of the Lambs: (Howard Shore) A number of seemingly unrelated concepts were irrevocably tied to sickness in Jonathan Demme's monumentally successful 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, not the least entertaining of which were fava beans, census takers, livers, and nice Chiantis. The world suddenly became fascinated with the brilliant cannibal Hannibal Lecter, enough so to encourage Anthony Hopkins to reprise his incredible performance of the character in multiple sequels. He is the unfortunate key to success for a young FBI agent (played by Jodie Foster) who solicits help from the psychologically menacing criminal in her frantic investigation into the mind of a psychotic kidnapper from whom she needs to rescue a politician's daughter. As tense a conversational thriller to ever come from Hollywood, The Silence of the Lambs swept through the awards season like an uncontrollable wildfire, the interactions between Hopkins and Foster achieving legendary status. The substandard sequels did a great injustice to the quality of the original film, which managed to maintain an uncomfortable level of tension throughout its entire length, even extending its heavy atmosphere to the sudden plot shifts and demented humor contained in its story. Among the few aspects of the production of The Silence of the Lambs that really didn't gain much attention at the time was Howard Shore's troubling score. Had the composer enjoyed better name recognition at the time, he might have been carried on to his own awards due to the overwhelming critical and popular triumphs of the film. Despite producing quality suspense material dating back to The Fly in the 1980's, Shore's reputation as a solid composer for this genre didn't really become widespread until a number of higher profile projects later in the 1990's. Stylistically, his music for The Silence of the Lambs has many fundamental similarities to subsequent efforts for Seven, The Game, and Panic Room, though none of these scores was known for translating into standalone success in album form. Shore's approach to these assignments is effective nearly every time, perfecting his recipe for orchestral brooding and smothering the listener with uncomfortable tones in each section of the ensemble in its lowest ranges. Unfortunately, while these scores have a following from Shore's devoted pre-Lord of the Rings collecting base, their appeal on album is limited.

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Although The Silence of the Lambs contains more thematic development and melodramatic chord structures than many of its siblings, the score's album presentation is nevertheless unnerving to the point of questionable merit. This does not reflect the quality of the composition and its chilling performance for the intended context. Shore not only affords Foster's Clarice Starling a very appropriate seven-note ascending and descending figure reflective of her ambitious rise to prominence in the FBI and subsequent disgrace, but he provides an almost intoxicating, neo-classical series of dramatic chord shifts that may be somewhat stereotypical, but are strikingly powerful for Lecter as he walks off into a crowd to have an old friend for dinner. The adaptation of these two ideas during the course of the two characters' conversations is smart, with Starling's rising and falling theme becoming more clearly enunciated as she nears her answers (it starts as a five-note fragment in the opening scenes) before turning slightly frantic as counterpoint to Lecter's far more methodical shifts of the minor-key in "Finale." These manipulations of theme are intriguing, but they by no means define the score. The intangible sense of dread that accompanies Shore's constantly morbid progressions is the heart of The Silence of the Lambs, and although many of those movements are harmonic in nature, they have enough edgy character to take full advantage of the low woodwinds and brass in every cue. Slight percussive motifs offer some glimpses of hope at the opening and closing of the score (similar to vintage John Williams in parts of "Main Title"), countered at its darkest moment ("The Cellar") with alternatively challenging electronic textures. The whole listening experience is so bleak that it's difficult to recommend for standalone enjoyment. There really is no respite from the creepy environment of this score, which for some will be interpreted as an arguably boring hour on album. Because the Munich Symphony Orchestra is employed to dwell in the lower regions with such immense weight at every moment, there isn't much to intrigue in terms of instrumental or motific creativity. Some occasional ostinatos performed by mid-range woodwinds and violins are about the extent of such activity. It is an atmospheric work of the highest level of consistency, its volume only interrupted by Lecter's two "out and about" cues that stray into the tones heard at the end of Seven. An hour is, in all reality, too much of this score to handle in one sitting, unless you're really keen on unnerving yourself or your roommates late at night. Otherwise, you'll likely respect this score and appreciate it in the film, but undoubtedly you'll rarely revisit it on its unpleasant, oppressive album. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Howard Shore reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.43 (in 23 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 93,154 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.