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Glory
(1989)
Album Cover Art
1989 Virgin
1998 Bootleg (Sample)
Album 2 Cover Art
2021 La-La Land
Album 3 Cover Art
Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:

Orchestrated by:
Greig McRitchie

Co-Produced by:
Shawn Murphy

Performed by:
The Boys Choir of Harlem
Labels Icon
LABELS & RELEASE DATES
Virgin Records America
(January 23rd, 1990)

Bootlegs
(1998)

La-La Land Records
(September 14th, 2021)
Availability Icon
ALBUM AVAILABILITY
The 1989 Virgin album was a regular U.S. release. The bootlegs based on the DVD's isolated score track began appearing in 1998 and were often available on the secondary market in various forms. Their cover art and tracks vary greatly from version to version. The 2021 La-La Land set is limited to 5,000 copies and available initially through soundtrack specialty outlets for $30.
Awards
AWARDS
Winner of a Grammy Award and nominated for a Golden Globe.
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ALSO SEE





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Availability | Awards | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Audio & Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... if you're emotionally prepared for one of the most effectively engaging and heartbreaking dramatic film scores of its era.

Avoid it... if you cannot appreciate arguably James Horner's most gut-wrenching career achievement because of the composer's tendency to expose the sources of inspiration for his music.
Review Icon
EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #51
WRITTEN 8/29/97, REVISED 1/10/22
Horner
Horner
Glory: (James Horner) Perhaps the best film ever produced about the American Civil War, Ed Zwick's 1989 classic Glory is the beautiful historical tragedy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's 54th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry unit, the first black regiment in the Union Army. Its unlikely formation and ultimate sacrifice gained both the soldiers and their loyal commanding officers surprising respect from Union ranks unsure about the viability of black regiments. The Oscar-recognized film's vivid brutality during the opening scenes of the battle at Antietam allowed the story of the 54th Massachusetts unit to be told without actually showing the gruesome violence that would meet them along their journey. Despite winning three Oscars and receiving nominations for other categories, the film was shunned in major categories in which it had received due attention from the Golden Globes. Since, however, Glory has continued to earn respect for its powerful and progressive examination of historical events, and its risky balance of acting talent has proven its perfection ever since. Few movies convey redemptive sadness like Glory, and much of that emotional punch is carried by composer James Horner's music. In his long career, many of his scores could be identified as his ultimate best. From the adventures of Willow and Zorro to his remarkable year of 1995 and not forgetting the polarizing Titanic, there can be no doubt that of all his scores, Glory is the most emotionally bound to its film and had the most profound effect in context. To imagine Zwick's visuals without Horner's reverent military and choral themes is unfathomable, and to hear the score apart from film evokes the same tear-jerking response. If there were ever a score best built to make you weep when appreciating its album, Glory competes with John Williams' Schindler's List for that distinction. Like other scores that occasionally sweep up a new generation of youths and introduce them to their first film score, Glory did just that for countless people in 1989, helping earn the work Grammy recognition.

Despite the puzzling choice by AMPAS to nominate the composer's Field of Dreams rather than Glory that year, the album was Horner's best-selling product until Braveheart and Titanic and has remained popular through the years. The more intellectual portion of the film music community has struggled to a degree with the success of Glory, as it represents a combination the composer's best and worst habits. His ability to deliver gut-wrenching melody while adapting various hymns and other elements of Civil War music presents Horner at his best. On the other hand, the score is highly derivative of prior works in parts, from his continued melodic reliance upon Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev to the hints of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" in "Charging Fort Wagner" and, most prominently for soundtrack enthusiasts, Ennio Morricone's secondary theme from The Mission in his motif for the 54th Regiment and especially prominent in "Preparations for Battle." The composer's repackaging of these inspirations remains his prevailing touch, however, and Glory succeeds brilliantly despite these references for several reasons. First and foremost is the composer's significant loyalty to his trio of themes for the entire length of the score. His main theme conveys military honor generally and offers the score's most overwhelmingly melancholic passages. This identity anchors the first two minutes of the "Closing Credits" after accumulating a wealth of good will throughout the score. The theme dominates "A Call to Arms" in the opening battle scene in the frayed and dissonant form it will eventually return to at the end, but the idea's greatest impact comes in the muted optimism it generates during the contemplative early portions of the 54th Regiment's forming. The element of hope in this theme manifests itself in the rising structure at its outset while its secondary phrases sway elegantly across a wide range, allowing Horner to maximize the dramatic variations on the chord scheme across the countless performances. The composer often meanders in the bassline during this theme with his bass strings, sometimes shifting a single note below key but always resolving back to the most impactful harmony possible at pivotal moments in the statement.

Horner's method of creating a sense of anticipation in his bass presence throughout Glory also applies to his secondary theme for the 54th Regiment itself. This identity is arguably even more gut-wrenching in its applications than the main theme, and much of that power owes to Horner's withholding of the bass portions of each chord until a moment after each shift in the treble. Debuting on oboe late in "Jefferson & Liberty," immediately signaling connections to The Mission, this theme continues on that instrument in "The Decision" until a monumental rendition with delayed thumping below on piano announces the officers' relief that the regiment has decided to stay together. Horner passes this idea between all sections of the ensemble with quiet skill in "Lonely Christmas," extending the idea to the officers' personal struggles as well. After providing an outsized presence in the closing battle sequence (the moment at 3:49 into "Preparations for Battle" with timpani below remains as powerful in the film as ever), the idea occupies the third minute of "Closing Credits." It takes until "Brave Words and Deeds" for this theme to reveal itself as the inspiration for a supporting phrase in the bassline for the main identity, Horner sometimes spreading that primary theme's phrasing to allow for a variation on the 54th Regiment's theme to occupy the lower region. A third motif serving as a "call to arms" for solo trumpet is the distant cry of the Civil War itself, opening the film and "Forming the Regiment." The overlapping of this motif and the 54th's theme in "Our Time" is a rare and poignant moment of counterpoint. The bookending motif closes out the film in "An Epitaph to War" and the credits suite in "Closing Credits" with appropriate stoicism from choir and snare. Horner applies a handful of traditional tunes to his score as well, and the "Jefferson & Liberty" and "Old 1812" tunes both play prominent roles. These piccolo and snare-led marching themes hail the regiment as it marches to respectability, and Horner twice allows his own themes to overtake those source-like placements while retaining the underlying snare rhythms; these are magnificent moments in the score, with "Jefferson & Liberty" remaining a bit restrained in its enthusiasm but the more robust "The Year of Jubilee" particularly outstanding with the addition of choir against the gorgeous visuals in context.


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VIEWER RATINGS
11,593 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 4.27 Stars
***** 7,002 5 Stars
**** 2,422 4 Stars
*** 1,032 3 Stars
** 582 2 Stars
* 555 1 Stars
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COMMENTS
64 TOTAL COMMENTS
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Overrated and Stolen   Expand >>
Aaltio Fan 1 - May 30, 2022, at 2:38 p.m.
2 comments  (702 views)
Newest: July 6, 2023, at 9:20 p.m. by
AhN
Fauré
pangi - September 29, 2021, at 2:02 a.m.
1 comment  (358 views)
Theme from "Ivan the Terrible"
David - February 13, 2009, at 2:01 p.m.
1 comment  (5230 views)
james horner--GLORY   Expand >>
meredith MacGreogr - November 15, 2007, at 11:37 a.m.
2 comments  (6004 views)
Newest: December 16, 2009, at 11:59 a.m. by
Edmund Meinerts
soundtrack on mp3?
Ben - September 30, 2007, at 11:58 a.m.
1 comment  (3536 views)
Glory theme from Prokofiev   Expand >>
Frank - March 28, 2007, at 6:40 p.m.
2 comments  (8418 views)
Newest: March 29, 2007, at 12:57 a.m. by
jb17kx
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Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS AND AUDIO
Audio Samples   ▼
1989 Virgin Album Tracks   ▼Total Time: 43:21
• 1. A Call to Arms (3:07)
• 2. After Antietam (2:39)
• 3. Lonely Christmas (1:54)
• 4. Forming the Regiment (5:26)
• 5. The Whipping (2:09)
• 6. Burning the Town of Darien (2:30)
• 7. Brave Words, Braver Deeds (3:09)
• 8. The Year of Jubilee (2:25)
• 9. Preparations for Battle (7:32)
• 10. Charging Fort Wagner (2:51)
• 11. An Epitaph to War (2:32)
• 12. Closing Credits (6:51)
1998 Bootleg Albums Tracks   ▼Total Time: 78:06
2021 La-La Land Album Tracks   ▼Total Time: 112:37

Notes Icon
NOTES AND QUOTES
The insert of the 1989 Virgin album contains no extra information about the score or film. The 1998 bootlegs offered no consistent packaging. The insert of the 2021 La-La Land album contains extensive notation about the score and film.
Copyright © 1997-2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
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 Glory are Copyright © 1989, 1998, 2016, Virgin Records America, Bootlegs, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/29/97 and last updated 1/10/22.
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