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| Elfman |
Before I Wake: (The Newton Brothers/Danny Elfman)
Its production languishing for years, the 2016 fantasy horror film
Before I Wake eventually shifted from a theatrical release to one
distributed by Netflix, yielding minimal box office returns. The Mike
Flanagan story and film shares a surprising number of elements with the
similarly creepy but more refined
Dragonfly the previous decade.
An orphaned young boy moves from foster home to foster home, leaving a
wake of missing parents. His special "gift" is that his dreams manifest
themselves in real life while he sleeps, causing sadness, elation, and
eventually tragedy when the boy's nightmares about his dead mother start
to dominate. Despite the ridiculousness of the premise,
Before I
Wake was pretty well received even if it was shunned by audiences.
The movie is ultimately one of rather generic suspense and horror
scares, and its music was to be provided in the manner of Flanagan's
Oculus; the director's collaboration with composers John Andrew
Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart, otherwise known as "The Newton
Brothers," persisted through the 2010's. In the case of
Before I
Wake, one of the executive producers of the film was Danny Elfman's
daughter, and this project represented one of the famous composer's side
ventures to provide music for a family member's project. (Usually, it's
for his brother, Richard.) Elfman thus recorded around fourteen minutes
of music for
Before I Wake and set the tone of the score's
fantasy elements. The Newton Brothers, meanwhile, were comfortable
handling the horror elements, as this kind of material has come to
completely dominate their careers. Their respect for Elfman, however,
was felt deeply in the score, and they utilized the services of his
crew, notably lead orchestrator Steve Bartek, in helping their
recordings sound more congruent with Elfman's fantasy portions. The
resulting combination score functions better than one might expect,
especially as thematic elements created by Elfman do carry over into
several cues by The Newton Brothers.
Generally speaking, the score for
Before I Wake
tries to be John Debney's music for
Dragonfly in all its dramatic
and fantasy aspects. There were indications from The Newton Brothers
that Debney himself was also involved somehow in this score, though no
reports can confirm those comments. As with Debney's work, Elfman's
fantasy tones are soothing, eerie, palatable, and occasionally
beautiful, his approach fully orchestral and supplying much of the
score's organic warmth. Soft choral tones vintage to his career are a
highlight. The majority provided by The Newton Brothers ranges from
lightweight Elfman emulation to borderline Philip Glass drama and,
sadly, a mass of ambient jump-scare passages complete with their
standard stinger techniques. For a score with a cue named "Something's
in the Bathroom," that's to be expected. (No, it isn't a Predator in
there. Put down the broom.) The overall musical narrative offers some
glimpses of warmth and instrumental depth at fleeting points at its
start, but the best material by all composers for
Before I Wake
exists in the middle third. The final third devolves into muddy horror
tactics that do nothing to impress prior to Elfman's long finale cue for
the resolution. With this inconsistency of quality in mind, the score is
one that requires rearrangement into a twenty-five-minute presentation,
but that collection of cues is easily four-star material. Both Elfman
and the Newton Brothers are credited with themes, and it's fairly clear
that the former provides the fantasy theme for memory, love, and a
deceased boy, Sean, while The Newton Brothers coined the main identity
for the dream-projecting main character, Cody. The composers all set
these themes to piano primary, the typical instrument of happy and safe
suburban lifestyles. Elfman adds the orchestral presence to a greater
degree in his parts, though strings do carry over to The Newton
Brothers' thematic portions. The latter duo presents the score's
synthetic elements as per expected in suspense and horror modes.
Dissonant sustains and clanging stingers do their part without much
instrumental ingenuity. While Elfman doesn't apply Cody's theme to his
material, The Newton Brothers do adapt the fantasy melody into theirs in
several places, sometimes impressively so.
The theme of memory, love, and Sean by Elfman in
Before I Wake consists of repeated notes in a meandering
ascending movement on high piano, with elusive progressions overall. The
piano octaves are so high that they sometimes sound like a celeste. This
theme is heard faintly in the first minute of "Somnia" and teased at the
outset of "Monarchs," slightly informing the start of "Cody and Annie."
Elfman's own presentation unfolds with the full ensemble and choir at
1:12 into "Sean" in a gorgeous performance prior to a dissonant end. The
Newton Brothers continue its use, fleeting on strings in "I'm Sorry,"
where it struggles to get the whole melody out, and informing "Memories
of Sean" a bit too lightly to be effective. The theme opens Elfman's
"Christmas" cue on piano and cello, shifting to choir and strings in
middle and the tonalities of the progressions surviving the melody later
in the cue. After a moment of whimsy two minutes into "What Happens When
He Dreams?," Elfman closes the score with his theme at 0:46 into
"Defeated," adding more strings at 2:10 and exploring secondary
descending lines. The idea develops into slower, more fluid pairs of
ascending notes until a pretty moment at 8:30 and thereafter to resolve
the cue and score. A secondary motif by Elfman contains delicately
repeating phrasing on high piano and opens the composer's "Sean" and The
Newton Brothers' "Lighterflies." Not appearing in Elfman's cues is the
theme for Cody himself, its touch of Philip Glass personality
constructed from sometimes solely ascending three-note piano figures in
a rhythm. The accompanying theme opens "A New Home" over these rambling
piano figures and occupies all of "Cody." It explodes in the middle of
"The Life Cycle of Butterflies" with really nice depth to the piano
performances. Later on, this idea is minimized, very slight at the start
of "Memories of Sean" and briefly returning to rambling form in the
middle of "Cody's Past." While none of these themes is spectacular, they
are highly attractive in the tonally accessible portions of
Before I
Wake. They really do remind of Debney's
Dragonfly in spirit
and performance, absent the overwrought weight. The 69-minute album
presentation of 2017 was a 1,000-copy pressing by Varèse
Sarabande that sold out but was followed by a digital offering of the
same contents. An eight to ten-cue suite is highly recommended, Elfman
in top dramatic form and The Newton Brothers showing glimpses of hope
amongst their nightmare of stock horror techniques.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written by The Newton Brothers for the Film: ***
- Music as Written by Danny Elfman for the Film: ****
- Overall: ***
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
