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Review of Elizabeth (David Hirschfelder)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate highly tumultuous, dissonant chanting
for full chorus and orchestra leading a score of significantly weighty
gloominess.
Avoid it... if you prefer your grand period scores to lure you with lush, harmonious performances of theme and a lack of stereotypical instrumentation for the genre.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Elizabeth: (David Hirschfelder) A truly
international effort in its making, Elizabeth was the
English-language debut of Indian director Shakhar Kapur. With a stellar
cast and lavish production values, the film condensed the reign of
England's Queen Elizabeth I into just a few hours, staying faithful to
most of the major facts about her time on the throne while distorting a
few historical elements in the interest of a timely movie. In the end,
Kapur's film was successful in riding the wave of dramas set in
England's late 16th Century at the time, and the film was critically
praised enough to merit some Oscar consideration. One of its nominations
was for its score by Australian David Hirschfelder, who had already been
nominated by the Academy for his score for Shine a few years
earlier. Hirschfelder would need to address the concepts of naivete,
terror, strength, and sex while maintaining a fine balance between
period score stereotypes and a unique sense of power that transcends
listeners' expectations. His Australian ensemble is rich in strings,
percussion, and voices, with surprisingly few individual roles for
instruments like the harpsichord and harp, which better define the era.
The full ensemble does include some of these specialty instruments, and
they march, frolic, rumble, and climax with significant sonic depth. But
while it contains all the necessary elements of a grand period score, it
essentially lacks a genuine power and essence to convey the proper
gravity of the throne.
Undoubtedly, Elizabeth is the type of score that features the artistically stylish atmosphere that woos Academy Award voters without providing any digestible material for the mainstream. With a monumental title theme and a delicate love theme, Elizabeth has all the right ingredients, but the latter theme is sadly underplayed and the score as a whole falls short on elegance in the dramatic sequences and fright in the darker ones. Adaptations from Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar and a piece from Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart reveal themselves at the end of the album to be a more palatable listening experience. The score opens with its title theme of immense choral and orchestral power. The march in "Overture" strives for the grandiose impact of John Barry's opening titles for The Lion in Winter, but never achieves the same clarity or ground-shaking impact because of Hirschfelder's intentional insertion of frightening dissonance into the cue. Its static progressions with snare taps and dull string chopping are enticing in their magnitude, but their meandering descents into disintegrating dissonance are ultimately annoying. This despite some harrowing Latin chanting that will raise memories of Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen (but lacking in the accompanying terror) and some harmoniously promising progressions. Reprises of this title theme feature the same battle with dissonance, pronouncing itself with distinction that is memorable if not enjoyable. The vocals become more diverse in the remainder of the score, including soprano performances that would stylistically foreshadow Wojciech Kilar's score for The Ninth Gate a few years later. Their most harmonically pleasing ventures are heard in "Night of the Long Knives," which may be the highlight of the score given its length. Also among the highlights are the two cues that feature Hirschfelder's love theme. The genuinely dark and evocative performance in the second track yields to the score's best rendition of the "B" variant of the title theme in "Arrest," as the future queen is confined by her half-sister early in the film. Two cues in the remainder of the score are devoted to the dance or celebration sequences of the film. In "Coronation Banquet," Hirschfelder's more typical period sound in 6/8 rhythm is performed by light guitars, a harp, and harpsichord. A rather flat mix of the snare in this and "Rondes" will make these cues tedious for many listeners, especially with the trite and staccato movements of the treble instruments. The remainder of the score is satisfyingly harmonious, though without forming much of personality outside of its gloominess, it eventually fades to the background. Overall, Elizabeth has all the basic elements of a period piece of superior caliber, but each mood within the score has been achieved better in other scores of the era: the grand choral overture in The Lion in Winter, the light period dance pieces in Rachel Portman's Emma, and the dramatic love theme in George Fenton's Dangerous Beauty. If the grand size of Elizabeth's dissonant, staccato style cannot win your affections, then this score will be a mixed bag at best. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 62:16
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Elizabeth are Copyright © 1998, London Classics and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/15/99 and last updated 7/6/07. |
