: (Larry Groupé)
While some orchestrators are content making a career out of
collaborating with a composer or two behind the scenes, others branch
out into their own composing careers. One member of the latter group is
Larry Groupé, the well-known associate of popular 1990's and
2000's composer John Ottman. The conductor and an orchestrator of many
of Ottman's most vibrant works, including the stunningly dynamic score
for
, Larry Groupé had already been composing his
own scores for films and events throughout the late 1990's. Given that
he was often credited for providing many of Ottman's more attractively
sharp scores of that era, hopes for a successful solo career for
Groupé were high (ten years later, however, that career has never
really taken shape). In 1999 and 2000, respectively,
represented two of the largest film scoring
assignments that Groupé had landed, with
being the first fully orchestral, mainstream film for which he could
spread his wings. To celebrate Groupé's achievements of those two
years, Citadel Records released the scores on one lengthy album. Both
films are directed by Rod Lurie and revolve around the risks and
uncertainty of modern, national American politics. Other than this
generalization, however, the two films spin off into different patriotic
directions.
is a strongly character-driven drama
with underlying themes of lobby and personal destruction, conveyed by a
top-notch cast. The president is forced to choose a new vice president
after the previous man's death, and a battle in confirmation hearings
for the first female to possibly hold the job gets nasty.
Deterrence, on the other hand, is a smaller
budget action/drama that portrays the president attempting to avert
nuclear war while stranded at a remote Colorado diner. The musical
approach to each is completely different, with a surprising result.
Scored with a delicate and soft touch,
The Contender is a distant
cousin of Marc Shaiman's
The American President, with light and
consistently upbeat performances of a simple, but elegant and patriotic
theme. The continuous repetition of this theme, along with the noble
respect with which Groupé allows the musicians to stretch every
moment, is predictable but functional. For a film charged with dark
politics, only the subtle, but highly effective piano solos that open
and close the film represent an alienating or downright serious
attitude. The title theme, restrained in nearly every appearance, only
takes flight in "The Speech," when it begins to adopt the stature and
progressions of Richard Marvin's
U-571. As patriotic scores go,
The Contender was well conceived yet underdeveloped in its final
performance, identical to the less interesting parts of
The American
President. With a considerably smaller scope,
Deterrence is a
completely different breed of score. While it does not attempt to mask
the fact that it is a one man, synthesized effort,
Deterrence
features a much more broad range of stylistic motifs throughout its
contents. Despite the lack of an orchestral presence, it is a more
dynamic and interesting listening experience than
The
Contender.
The electronics in
Deterrence can be categorized
as somewhere in between the styles of Don Davis and Mark Snow, making
use of militaristic percussion (like Davis) and extra synthesized
elements such as ominous vocals (like Snow) for its most inspiring
moments. Perhaps the performances that best tie the two scores together
are their brief, but effective piano solos, but the highlight of their
combined ranks is the faux-choral, harmonic requiem in "Deterrence." The
heavy reliance on synthetic percussion in
Deterrence is tiring in
its latter half, but unlike
The Contender, the music at least
attempts to really reach out and engage the listener. Just because
The Contender is the better known film of the two and features
the orchestra doesn't automatically make it the more memorable score of
the two. The album situation for
The Contender and
Deterrence is a bit muddy because Groupé had offered
several of his synthesized scores in the form of promotional CDs that
could be purchased directly from him online in 2000.
Deterrence
had already been released in this form by itself, before Citadel
rearranged its cues and attached them to the end of its limited
commercial release for
The Contender. It should be noted that the
Citadel product cleaned up much of the sound distortion that existed on
former promotional versions, though there is still some static
interference in the brass during elevated gain levels in "I Stand For"
and "End Title: The Chapel of Democracy" (that was likely a mistake
during mastering). Like any Citadel album, this one was always difficult
to find in stores, and functioned much like any limited album you'd
normally seek at soundtrack specialty outlets online. Still, the product
offered a substantial amount of music for a first listen of
Groupé's work by film music fandom and deserves a spin.
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