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The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
Co-Produced by:
Douglass Fake
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release, though difficult to find outside of soundtrack
specialty outlets.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... only if you are an enthusiast of intimate Western scores
performed by a handful of the usual instruments for the locale and
period.
Avoid it... if you expect anything remotely dynamic about this
music, because it's about as mundane as the genre can get.
BUY IT
 | | Broughton |
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple: (Bruce Broughton)
February 2001's most anticipated Sunday night television film on CBS,
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple came and went without as much praise
and hoopla as most of the network's dramatic Western films of the
1990's. In an era when cable networks like those owned by Ted Turner
were taking artistic control of television films of this sort, Jeremy
Kagan's The Ballad of Lucy Whipple seemed a bit stale. It was a
project produced (after much studio delay) by Glenn Close, who also
stars in the film. The plotline of the film is nothing atypical to the
genre. It is a story of a widow and her family who move West during the
gold rush in order to find a new life, also covering the coming of age
of her children (particularly the young title character, who seems
frustrated by the lifestyle she discovers in the rough new land). In any
case, the film is really no different than the watered down family genre
of productions by Hallmark from the same period, and it is no surprise
that this formula production faded away without much interest. There can
only be a certain number of low budget character dramas set in the Wild
West before audiences begin wondering if they recognize the sets and
costumes from a previous rehash of the same idea. Also becoming a
veteran of the genre of television Westerns, composer Bruce Broughton
provided a modest score for The Ballad of Lucy Whipple. The
diminished tone and stature of a production like this is a long cry from
his days of Silverado, however Broughton did compose an
impressive Emmy nominated score for the Western True Women four
years prior that remains one of the better television scores in recent
times. For this far more intimate setting, Broughton takes the genre
back to its bare roots, mostly emphasizing only those instruments that
would have been heard in the rough 1850 towns. The live ensemble
consists of a fiddle, cello, tin whistle, acoustic guitar, percussion,
and baritone horn, all of which performing the composition at the
forefront of a close mix.
For the darker, more menacing moments in the film, such
as "Jake's No Buck" and "Diggins on Fire," Broughton employs several
synthetic techniques to provide a better base for these soloists. The
use of the electronics as a replacement for an orchestral ensemble is
surprisingly effective in The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, barely
exposing their synthetic nature. The two main themes for the film,
representing each of the two children, are unimposing and not
particularly memorable. They do create a consistently harmonic
environment that passes smoothly on album. Rather than rely upon strong
themes to maintain the score's identity, the functionality of the work
comes from Broughton's precise instrumentation and the subsequent
creation of a believable atmosphere for the period. The most effective
cues are arguably those that are also the most unlistenable, with
rambling guitars, fiddle, and percussion filling the air with the more
robust sentiments of the locale. As stereotypical as this precise
representation by Broughton may be on album, the score is still above
and beyond what you might expect for just another CBS television film.
The album, produced by Broughton-friendly Intrada Records, is relatively
short (35 minutes of music for a two hour film), but is long enough to
contain adequate music to create a well rounded presentation. The sound
quality is merely average, with an intimate mix of the recording that
remains somewhat muted in places where it could otherwise use a vibrant,
crisp edge. In the early 2000's, Broughton slipped into a very
comfortable position as a leading television score composer, though his
projects of the time tended to squeeze him into specialty or period
roles, as furthered by his ethnically dominated score for
Jeremiah (also on an Intrada label album). None of this material
ever comes close to touching the dynamic appeal of Silverado or
the composer's other mainstream works, and by continuing to take
assignments like The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, he got stuck in a
rut of producing decent television scores for films that didn't
ultimately deserve his talents.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Bruce Broughton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.36
(in 11 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 4,316 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Lucy Whipple
michelle - January 12, 2006, at 8:59 p.m. |
1 comment (3015 views) |
Total Time: 36:45
• 1. Meet Lucy Whipple (1:20)
• 2. The Reverend Claymore (1:26)
• 3. In Annie's World (2:04)
• 4. Morning in Lucky Diggins (1:19)
• 5. Teaching Annie to Read (1:43)
• 6. Photo Shoot (1:59)
• 7. Jake's No Buck (5:31)
• 8. The Death of Butte (5:39)
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• 9. Lucy's Rescue (2:02)
• 10. Lucy Defends (2:07)
• 11. Diggins on Fire (2:28)
• 12. Poppa? (1:57)
• 13. The Preacher Partners (1:02)
• 14. Follow Your Heart (4:49)
• 15. End Credits (0:52)
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The insert contains information about the production and the following
note from Broughton:
"The Ballad of Lucy Whipple is a story of a recently widowed mother who,
with her three children, decided to go to California and stake out a new life
for her and her family. It is a Gold Rush story, and for this reason, some music
from the time has been incorporated into the score, notably Sweet Betsy From
Pike and Seeing the Elephant. The featured instruments in the score are all
instruments that could have been found and played in a gold mining camp: fiddle,
cello, tin whistle, guitar, percussion and baritone horn.
There are two main original themes: the theme for Lucy, the teenager who rebels
against the idea of living in a town with no social comforts or immediate means
of self-improvement, and the theme for her brother Butte, a boy who tried to
learn 50 different names for liquor. The score is at times stark, sentimental,
thoughtful, light-hearted, tragic, aggressive and simple, reflecting many of the
qualities of life among the Forty Niners."
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