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| Djawadi |
Elephant: (Ramin Djawadi) The independent
Disneynature film studio exists to crank out family-friendly
documentaries for Disney to distribute, each entry following a different
type of animal conducting itself through the everyday trials of life.
The difference between these Disney ventures and the plethora of
alternatives is that the studio takes the footage of the animals and
arranges it into a forced narrative that gives the anthropomorphized
creatures names, motives, intentions, dreams, and probably a common
disdain for humans like Donald J. Trump. Some famous person then
narrates all of this to kiddos who can stream it over and over while
their parents hope to forget whatever names were supplied to the
animals. In the case of 2020's
Elephant, the documentary is
narrated by Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, in her first major
media stardom aside from marrying a hairy prince and reportedly causing
royal consternation because of her genetics. The setting is the Kalahari
Desert in Southern Africa, and a herd of elephants must venture out on
their usual migration while avoiding lions, rival herds, and other
inconveniences. The crew concentrated their footage on a family of
elephants consisting of a matriarch, Gaia, her supposedly younger
sister, Shani, and a young male elephant of some equally dubious name
that just wants to have fun but inevitably learns a lot about the world
over the course of the story. Despite offering some rather scary
imagery, including death,
Elephant was met with warm praise, its
89 minutes of goodness coinciding with the early pandemic lockdowns of
the year. For film music enthusiasts not ready to succumb to Disney's
obnoxious documentary storytelling,
Elephant provides a fairly
significant upgrade in soundtrack quality compared to prior studio
efforts. The genre has often featured fantastic music, but it has been
generated for films from the BBC and others. For
Elephant,
though, Remote Control Productions veteran and now prolific solo
composer Ramin Djawadi pulled out all the stops for perhaps the year's
greatest film score surprise.
Djawadi's ascent under the RCP umbrella yielded less than
stellar music early in his career, but between his major feature
assignments of the late 2010's and his Emmy-recognized work for the
entirety of "Game of Thrones," he has matured into an artist that can
succeed when taking conventional, if not ubiquitous scoring techniques
and rendering them in superior fashion.
Elephant is much the
same, starting with the known formula for Hans Zimmer-inspired blends of
African and Western music and exercising it extraordinarily well. Modern
conceptions of this Zimmer blend, displacing John Barry's popular sound
for the continent, apply ethnic vocals in ways explored in 1992's
The
Power of One and taken mainstream in
The Lion King shortly
thereafter. James Newton Howard supplied a dose of the same African and
Western mashup with tremendous success in
Blood Diamond as well,
though the origins of
Elephant for Djawadi specifically were more
likely rooted in the fine closing cue for his and Klaus Badelt's score
for the South African-set
Beat the Drum in 2003, which briefly
explored the same vocals and percussion heard to a much greater extent
in the Disney nature film. The ethnic vocal contributions dominate the
score's flashier portions, their authenticity verified by the
inflections defined in
The Power of One but not as wildly defiant
in tone. The lyrics of these performances, which alternate between male
and female soloists over group chants, maintain their typical structure
of emphasizing pairs of notes as common phrasing. For
Elephant,
Djawadi joins them with a full orchestra and synthesizers, the tone
remaining organic for most of the score's length. More traditional
choral applications for orchestral accompaniment may have utilized the
same African singers. The orchestrations in this score merit special
recognition, because the emphasis on certain players over Djawadi's
stereotypically muscular RCP base sound is exemplary. Solo instrumental
colors include African percussion and winds, marimbas, duduk, and
dulcimer, though traditional woodwinds and brass generally perform lines
of action also well highlighted over the rest of the group. In short,
this score sounds fantastic, even with occasionally bloated gain levels
in the mix.
The atmosphere of Djawadi's
Elephant will alone
float the score for most listeners. Like most nature documentaries,
there are a bevy of individual situational cues that branch off into new
motifs or instrumental usage. In this case, associate composers Brandon
Campbell and William Marriott assisted in fleshing out these heightened
moments of play and suspense in five cues. But the score's broader
elements of journey, including its several recurring themes, are
reportedly the work of Djawadi. The sum works well even with the
diversionary cues because many of them access either the main themes
directly or suggest similar orchestrations and solos, allowing the
narrative to flow extremely well regardless of the emotional needs per
scene. Only in "Lion Hunt" do Djawadi's synthetic enhancements interrupt
with a rough edge. The composer conveniently previews all of the main
themes for
Elephant in the powerhouse opening cue, "Elephant
Prologue." The score is anchored by a primary identity for the animals'
journey as a whole, though the bulk of the heavy lifting is done by the
family-oriented themes for the two lead adult elephants, Gaia and Shani.
Two of these themes also have notable interludes or intro sequences that
figure separately at times as well. Together, the three dominant themes
and their supporting motifs can still be overwhelmed by the general tone
of the score for some listeners, but the themes' applications are
intelligent and deep. The main theme of the film is a bit deceptively
enunciated in some cues by Djawadi because he sometimes omits the first
two notes of the identity in major performances. Its core consists of
the three descending notes at the start of a measure that comes after
those first fickle two notes, heard first in full form at 1:49 into
"Elephant Prologue" and without the opening notes and with greater size
at 5:18. Fragments of the idea are altered for suspense at 2:33 into
"Mud Rescue" but the performances thereafter in the score are all
obvious and often massive. The theme informs all of "A Thousand Mile
Journey," highlighted at 1:16, and continues with immense scope at 2:57
into "Victoria Falls" and drama at 0:11 and 2:49 into "Angola Rains."
All of these performances drop the first two notes. The full version of
the theme shines again at 1:18 into "Floodwaters Return" and 2:02 into
"An Unforgettable Journey," the latter cue offering a finale performance
at 3:19 with a slower tempo for emphasis and closure.
The interplay between the Gaia and Shani themes is
important in
Elephant, the two initially accompanying the
elephants individually but the designation of "main family theme"
switching as necessary from the former to latter in later cues. The
Gaia/initial family theme debuts with noble reverence at 3:40 into
"Elephant Prologue" and prevails at 1:49 into "Mud Rescue" as the
elephant rescues a suffocating youngling. The theme's secondary phrases
emerge late in "Stepping Stones." The idea repeats at 0:40 into "Bones"
for soft female vocals and exotic woodwinds, transitioning to piano at
1:36. Soft choral humming performs the theme at 1:31 into "Under the
Stars," but it starts to lose will power in its performances as Gaia's
age slows her, the idea nervous and tired at 1:15 into "Victoria Falls,"
determined but fragmented at 1:19 into "Crocodile Crossing," and reduced
to solo woodwind at 2:12 into "Angola Rains." Fragments of the theme's
secondary phrases recur in the first half of "Lion Hunt" before the
theme poignantly occupies the entirety of "Death of a Matriarch,"
starting at 0:17. (The electronic bass effects are a little too much in
this cue, added for gut-sinking emotional weight.) Memories of the theme
haunt "The Final Push" at 0:32 and 1:52 into that cue, the latter
returning to earlier choral respect. Also disappearing by this point in
the score is an extension of this Gaia/initial family theme that seems
to serve as an inspirational representation of wisdom. Often ethereal or
conveyed by soft choir, this idea offers beauty at 4:37 into "Elephant
Prologue," 0:55 into "Under the Stars," and 2:29 into "Victoria Falls."
An alternate version of this melody with an extra note (three ascending
trios) opens the score. With Shani taking over the elephant herd as
matriarch, her theme evolves to greater familial applications late in
the work. Heard first at 2:24 into "Elephant Prologue" and 1:12 into
"Family Reunion," this theme serves as an interlude to the action at
2:54 and 3:09 into "Lion Hunt." A solo female vocal performs the idea at
0:11 into "Mourning," and it matures wonderfully on triumphant and
muscular brass at 1:20 into "Rival Herd." Djawadi concludes the theme at
0:45 into "An Unforgettable Journey," with a few hints continuing at
2:25. The final notable recurring motif is the interlude to the main
theme that also serves as its introduction at times, possibly
representing water. This series of descending trios, often vocalized, is
heard at 1:18, 1:35, and 2:07 into "Elephant Prologue," 0:10 into
"Floodwaters Return," and 2:59 into "An Unforgettable Journey."
If there is a general negative criticism to level at
the themes of
Elephant, it is Djawadi's technique of stating only
one of them at a time and often expressing their long lines more often
than pieces of the ideas alone or as counterpoint to each other. This
habit is, perhaps, a holdover from the normal Zimmer/RCP methodology,
and while it deprives the brain of intellectual satisfaction, the fuller
performances of each idea in succession does make for an enjoyable album
presentation. As mentioned before, being that
Elephant is a
documentary, there are individual cues that explore situational or
location motifs that don't recur elsewhere, and some of them are truly
incredible in this score. The "Pool Party" is absolute fun, a variety of
percussion and woodwind accents joining acoustic guitar and plucked
strings for some innocuously buoyant jubilation. The "Leaving the Delta"
journeying cue is a direct homage to
Blood Diamond, using the
first three notes of main theme but branching off in a new direction.
The subdued piano solo in "Family Reunion" is a pretty moment of rest.
An exuberant, offshoot of "Pool Party" awaits with brass and woodwinds
in the dancing "A Magnificent Bull." Watery percussion and dulcimer in
"Caterpillars" yield to an upbeat discovery theme the emerges at the
cue's climax. The very best of the individual highlights in
Elephant is "Palm Island," a short but very bright celebration
with an utterly awesome passing of its melody between sections of the
orchestra; especially note the interplay between horns, flutes, and
trumpets in this cue. The score's darkest moments in "Crocodile
Crossing" and "Lion Hunt" tend to maintain hints of the score's
optimistic tone, as do the more ethereal, ambient passages in "Stepping
Stones," "Bones," and "Under the Stars." The entirety of the
Elephant score provides engaging music that is sprinkled with
some of the best African and Western merging ever recorded for a film.
The thematic consistency of the work is immensely satisfying, the main
journeying theme and its vocalizations a highlight of Djawadi's career.
Some will argue that this score is the pinnacle of the composer's output
for cinema to this point, and it certainly is a pleasure to hear such
fine execution of an ethnic mode that could just as easily have sounded
like tired rehash. The album presentation is dialogue-free and offers a
generous hour of music from the short film. While it is a digital-only
product, a lossless option exists and is highly recommended given the
recording's resounding soundscape. Few film scores surprise so
thoroughly as
Elephant, a clear triumph for Djawadi and among the
best of 2020.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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