If you're investigating
Coma because you seek a
pleasant score, you're deranged. Few efforts from Goldsmith are more
daunting that this one. He eliminates a brass section, reduces the
percussion, and utilizes four pianos on top of strings, woodwinds,
keyboards, and cimbalom to create an alienating environment that, with
the help of the composer's famous echoplex machine (best known from
Patton and
Alien), imitates the sounds of surgical
implements. The confinement of the ensemble to these high-pitched tones
of clattering and banging metal is very unnerving. Extreme discord of
the many striking suspense cues in
Coma is aided by a title theme
that is itself disjointed and challenging, suggested frequently through
a faintly disconnected two-note progression that is often processed
through the echoplex. Consistent rhythms are almost nonexistent in
Coma, the meter edgy and unpredictable in its shifts. Goldsmith
rarely allows for any relief in the mass of suspenseful underscore,
allowing one notable transition to a harmonious reward at the end of "A
Free Ride" (to accompany a temporarily successful escape on screen).
Also easier on the ears, of course, is the obligatory love theme for the
young doctor and her life-saving boyfriend, only heard twice
significantly in the film. In the resolution cue "A Nice Case" and an
early scene of character-building romance ("Cape Cod Weekend"),
Goldsmith explores a light, contemporary theme for strings, piano, and
acoustic guitar that has remarkable similarities to John Williams' style
of writing for such pop material during the 1970's. This theme was,
perhaps not surprisingly, translated into a disco variant by Goldsmith
for use early in the film as source material. He also, interestingly,
re-recorded his theme from his 1963 score for
The Prize for
hospital source music as well. When it debuted on LP record,
Coma
relied heavily on its variations of the love theme, the remainder of the
score's contrasting material heavily edited for an abbreviated but
adequate presentation. Those contents were eventually released on CD by
Bay Cities in 1992 and Chapter III in 2000 (just before the latter
label's closure). The complete score was eventually pressed on a limited
album by Film Score Monthly with two other (totally unrelated) scores
for Crichton's earlier projects. The FSM album is a bit convoluted in
its inclusion of the three disparate works, though it does remix the
score from a different source than the previously remastered
arrangements on the Chapter III CD. Regardless of the album,
Coma
is an effective and interestingly disturbing suspense score that simply
will not amount to a functional listening experience on album for all
but Goldsmith's most ardent collectors.
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