Earthsea: (Jeff Rona) Attempting to continue
capitalizing on the massive popularity of television hits in the fantasy
genre such as
Children of Dune and
The Mists of Avalon
during the early 2000's, Hallmark Entertainment and the Sci-Fi Channel
brought Ursula K. Le Guin's world of
Earthsea to the small screen
in 2004. Known alternatively as "The Legend of Earthsea," the magical,
medieval fantasy universe created by Le Guin is roughly comparable in
its depiction of wizardry and sorcery to J.R.R. Tolkien's lengthier "The
Lord of the Rings" tales. The basic premise of its plot involves a
young, talented, but immature wizard who must summon the strength to do
everything from control his own burgeoning powers to reunite humanity
and bring world peace. That basic concept is familiar to veterans of
fantasy novels, as are the mythical creatures, mysterious locations, and
curious characters. With content taken from the first two books of Le
Guin's classic series, the four-hour Hallmark/Sci-Fi Channel production
is ambitious in the amount of material it attempts to squeeze into its
initial venture into the series, and the result still omits plotlines
that might disappoint fans of the books. Premiering on the Sci-Fi
Channel on December 13 and 14, 2004, the series came and went without
much of the cross-channel advertisements and other hype you usually
heard about these productions ahead of time. Since the premieres of
The Odyssey and
Merlin (both from Hallmark) in the
1997-1998 seasons, these films typically hit the small screen with
significant fanfare. Suffering from poor reviews and tepid warm word of
mouth, this vision of
Earthsea began fading away not long after
its debut. The musical scores for prior fantasy adaptations of this
sort, from Trevor Jones'
Merlin to Lee Holdridge's
The Mists
of Avalon and Brian Tyler's
Children of Dune, have sold very
well and remained popular long after their debuts. All have been
released on CD by the Varèse Sarabande label, as is
Earthsea, but Jeff Rona's journey in the fantasy realm this time
around is not as spectacular as those other products. Already long a
veteran of television scoring, Rona is equally experienced in the
recording and sampling of various ethnic sounds, and this talent in
particular is what interested director Rob Lieberman in hiring him for
this production. Unfortunately, instrumental and vocal texture seemed to
become the sole focus for Rona on this project, leaving melodic and
narrative continuity by the wayside.
As expected, the director requested that Rona write an
appropriately epic title theme for the opening of the series, but then
advised a more worldly and varied approach for the interior underscore.
The unusual result was meant to differentiate
Earthsea from the
many fantasy series that came before, whether the setting necessitated a
Celtic sound, Middle-Eastern flair, or traditional Medieval bombast.
Rona's title theme is elegant and impressive, utilizing a simple melody
with large-scale orchestral and vocal muscle. Rather than employing a
full choir, Rona chose a small group of notable solo voices to perform
in unison or layers. This vocal group yields the vaguely African sound
that you heard from the Adiemus albums at the time, and despite being an
intriguing and distinct tone in and of itself, that group of vocal
performers is largely absent from the rest of the score. Aside from some
sporadic references, the title theme is also missing in much of the
effort, leaving
Earthsea to become an instrumentally
schizophrenic collection of seemingly unrelated atmospheric cues. Rona's
work wanders about the landscape of world music, but not in a flamboyant
or memorable fashion. In fact, for a series and score supposedly of an
epic scope, the score is disappointingly restrained and introspective
during much of its length. The collection of world instruments
fashionable in the film music world is appealing but applied without
cohesive resolve. A lack of passion in the performance is also a major
detriment; a potentially momentous scene such as "A Lesson Learned"
lacks grip in its string theme, perhaps due to compositional
underachievement but more likely a lack of inspiration in the ensemble.
There is practically no action material present (the brass makes a
notable appearance in "Sailing"), and moments of horror or enchantment
("The Book of Spells") are tackled with frightfully loud, simplistic
dissonance. The new age vocal approach that many composers have used for
this genre (with even Howard Shore working with Enya for the big screen)
is also largely absent here; only in the powerful "Sparrowhawk" and
final "Light Over Earthsea" cue does it make a welcomed intrusion.
Overall, Rona's
Earthsea gets off to a great start but stews and
stumbles throughout its underscore without clear direction or purpose.
Given the vast array of fabulous resources at Rona's disposal, such an
uninspired end result is truly unfortunate, and the only reason the
score achieves a third star is because of its occasional textural
appeal. On the upside, the recording with the Slovakia Radio Symphony
allowed for an abnormally lengthy Varèse Sarabande album for that
era, presenting 67 minutes of material for enthusiasts of the concept to
appreciate.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes a note from the director about the score and film.
