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From a technical standpoint, there's good reason for Portman to be proud of Beloved. In terms of her career, the score was an extreme and challenging deviation from her usual sound. Using only a small handful of instrumental performers and an African choir (along with a few solo voices), it would be generous to call her score "sparse." The only orchestral elements that her listeners will recognize will be just a couple of woodwinds, instruments only recognizable from her palette because their stark solos often feature Portman's normal chord progressions. Other than those occasional progression references, absolutely nothing in Beloved will remind you of her previous works. Instrumentally, a single plucked guitar (or perhaps another string-based instrument) periodically provides a delicate backdrop to the vocals. The woodwinds and a couple of traditional string instruments (sounding mostly like a viola and clarinet, but that's just a guess) provide bleak dissonance during several disturbing passages, often with no interference. An authentic percussion section with a distinctly tribal sound (drums and sticks) is featured in slight solo performances at times. The vocals are the selling point of the score, often layered between adult female solos and an African children's choir. While few of these solos stand out from one another, Miriam Stockley's voice (as heard prominently in the "Beloved" cue near the outset) easily prevails. Thematically, Portman does develop a primary theme and a few subsequent variations. The statements of these themes are typically so slow in pacing that it's sometimes difficult to pinpoint them. The overarching sadness of the score is what ultimately defines Beloved. Portman handles the seriousness of the subject by exercising restraint, and while this approach may be fundamentally successful, Beloved never has the same emotional appeal as John Williams' entries into the genre. Portman is so consistently morbid in her score that, at 60 minutes of consistent dread, the album becomes depressingly irritating. Only in "Denver Goes Out Yonder" does Portman pick up the pace with a heightened sense of emotion that has basic similarities to Danny Elfman's Sommersby when the flute joins the cue at 1:00. Overall, Beloved is so understated and drab that it's an impossible listening experience, no matter how much you may respect it.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31 (in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.26 (in 28,139 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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