The basic premise of taking the famous themes and passages from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and altering them to match the hallucinations felt by the lead character is clearly the right choice. What's disappointing about Mansell's approach to this task, however, is how poorly he adapts Tchaikovsky to fit his needs. Rather than take the main theme for Swan Lake and "Danse des Petits Cygnes" and work fragments of their progressions and instrumental applications directly into the foundation of his score, he instead opts to take the easier (though still ultimately effective) route: pitting the source material at war against his own stylistic mannerisms. Most of the recognizable Tchaikovsky representations in Black Swan are well performed in straight forward ways, then interrupted by or overlayed with Mansell's collection of groaning, disturbing electronic effects and dissonant layers of sampled noise. This move begins immediately in "Nina's Dream" and culminates in "Night of Terror," the Tchaikovsky passages playing regularly while slashing and grinding sounds punctuate beats or outright overtake the orchestra. The techniques used by Mansell to instill the darkness into the mix are quite pedestrian, from seemingly backwards vocal exhales to atonal shrieks from woodwinds, pulsation of ensemble hits back and forth from speaker to speaker, or more simplified sounds such as electric guitar grinding or wind-like moaning. The most distracting merging of the two disparate styles comes understandably in "A Swan Song (For Nina)," by which point the poignant piano performances of Tchaikovsky are disrupted by sound effects that seemingly merge crackling thunder with falling stage elements. When Mansell does not quote Tchaikovsky, the score is also a mixed bag. In some cues, as in "A Room of Her Own," the composer uses the piano to emulate some of the basic mannerisms that one can recognize as being related to Tchaikovsky's style, and these sequences are original highlights. At other times, though, Mansell allows his own techniques overtake the cues, from the somber textures of "Lose Yourself" to the related expression of troubled, orgasmic zeal in "Opposites Attract." By the end of "A Swan Song (For Nina)," Mansell dissolves the soundscape into an insufferable droning environment of electronic muck (complete with progressions of an oddly Arabic tilt) befitting the futuristic scenes of a Terminator film. Overall, Mansell basically succeeded in shattering Tchaikovsky's music as necessary for Black Swan, but the result is nearly impossible to enjoy apart from the film. On its own, you can't help but get the feeling that the source material could have been better deconstructed (in ways Elliot Goldenthal might be inclined to explore) rather than simply chopped up and overlayed with tired synthetic techniques.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download