The House With a Clock in its Walls: (Nathan Barr)
It's remarkable that the 1973 John Bellairs novel on which 2018's movie,
The House With a Clock in its Walls, is based had not been fully
plundered by studios prior to Eli Roth's version. The children's fantasy
story places a ten-year-old boy in the care of an uncle who practices
magic in a haunted old mansion. As the boy learns the craft, he, his
uncle, and a family friend must thwart the legacy of the house and the
doomsday clock hidden within. It's a tale about loss, primarily, sharing
some similarities in tone with 1995's
Casper and enticing
audiences with its light-hearted demeanor and spectacular visual style.
The movie was only a moderate critical and fiscal success, satisfying
audiences but not living up to its potential. Arguably sharing the same
fate is the film's soundtrack, which itself has a long backstory. The
score is handled by Roth's longtime collaborator, Nathan Barr, who had
not been challenged with a full-fledged opportunity like this during his
successful career in the smaller modes of television scoring. Completely
aside from any consideration of
The House With a Clock in its
Walls, Barr, who collects rare and unusual instruments, had managed
to purchase and restore the classic Wurlitzer organ that had originally
graced the scoring stage at 20th Century Fox and had been utilized by
countless film scores from the era of Bernard Herrmann to John Williams
and Elliot Goldenthal more recently. After six years of restoration
work, Barr built a custom scoring studio with the Wurlitzer as its
centerpiece and didn't need to wait long before a perfect film score
assignment for the instrument rolled his away. The composer had always
aspired to write a large-scale fantasy score akin to the music of John
Williams and Danny Elfman, and
The House With a Clock in its
Walls allowed him to not only explore that genre in full but employ
the Wurlitzer at the same time. The instrument itself functions more
like a synthesizer than an organ, its immense capability conveyed in
over 1,500 pipes and the various methods of air movement through them.
The traditional pipe organ sound, of course, was expected for this film
because of the on-screen presence of an equivalent. The breathiness of
this instrument's authenticity is a major selling point of the score, as
truly synthetic alternatives cannot emulate the breathing sounds of the
pipes. It is, simply put, a pleasure to hear the fruits of Barr's
efforts on behalf of the instrument and the film.
One must separate the feel-good narrative of the
Wurlitzer from the rest of the score's aspects, as
The House With a
Clock in its Walls's music is generally a mixed bag on the whole.
Stylistically, Barr is clearly resurrecting a fair dose of Elfman's
Beetlejuice, including the sometimes sparsely-rendered but
colorful soundscape, eerie solo vocals for the afterlife, and off-kilter
rhythmic flair for moments of good humor early in the story. The
fluffiness and airiness of this score in general is the most surprising
characteristic; the orchestrations are heavy on woodwinds and any
soloist that can tap, puff, or flutter his way to the front of the mix.
The first half of the score is as affable and charming as one can get,
and even during the moments of mystery and intrigue, Barr maintains
chimes or other light element in the mix to keep the atmosphere
innocuous. As the villains of the tale begin to emerge in "Isaac's
Album" and thereafter, the tone shifts slightly, but the action
sequences never really have fright as their primary motivation. The
mystical portions betray their Elfman origins a bit plainly, "Backyard
Magic" owing strongly to
Edward Scissorhands in its icy choral
shades. Barr's set of themes for
The House With a Clock in its
Walls is actively conveyed but not always clear. Listeners might be
best served by surveying "The Mighty Wultizer" cue at the end of the
album to hear most of these ideas in succession before working back
through the score, as the narrative of the music doesn't really reveal
itself readily through its themes. The cute, main idea for the concept
is introduced in "New Zebedee" (0:43) and continues in "Quite Different
Around Here" and "A Boy Witch." Barr doesn't supply amplification or
depth to this theme later in the score as one might expect (aside from a
strong, major-key rendition at 4:33 into "Isaac Starts the Clock"),
shifting between soft character themes related to the lead boy's
familial relationships and quasi-menacing, descending, stomping phrases
for the villains. The duo of "Back to Normal" and "Insect Book" allude
to melodies in "Backyard Magic" and others, but it's difficult to
ascertain exactly where Barr is trying to tie his melodic knots. The
magnificent "Lewis Finds the Clock" offers engrossing choral and organ
tonality but likewise without an obvious connection to one of the
score's theme. The descending villain's motif, alternately for the
clock, is more easily remembered if only for its easily accessible
phrasing, especially in late action cues like "My Beautiful Wife" and
"Isaac Starts the Clock," by which point low brass help clarify the
identity with sheer force.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the recording for
The House With a Clock in its Walls is its disappointingly
shallow depth. For a fantasy score, this music has very little resonance
outside of passages in which the Wurlitzer is explicitly exercising its
pipe organ mannerisms. Even there, the soundscape doesn't groan with
power as one would expect. The entire affair is very lightly rooted in a
smaller environment, which is great for appreciating Barr's creativity
in individual cues. The sound effects provided organically late in
"Bedroom Escape" are a good example of the score's humorous manners. But
where the score excels in detailed personality, it badly lacks in the
power of its fantasy, suspense, and action portions. Much of this
transparency owes to the rather small ensemble of 40 musicians employed
for the recording; if any score needed some overdubbing of background
strings, this one was it. For instance, hefty cello and bass string
support during the family theme early in "Mother Visits" would have
assisted in generating some feeling of importance. The entire bass
region seems muted, even at the score's most momentous passages, and
that absence of fantasy force is quite unfortunate. Listeners may also
be surprised by how little the Wulitzer figures as a stereotypical organ
in a liturgical sense; only in a few cues does it really get fired up in
earnest at the forefront of the mix. Ultimately,
The House With a
Clock in its Walls still achieves its basic aims and is recommended
for listening enjoyment, but it underachieves in an otherwise grand
opportunity for a roaringly dynamic and resounding fantasy score. Film
music collectors only familiar with the composer's television works or
film scores like
Hostel or
Cabin Fever will be interested
in hearing this diversion for Barr, but between his lack of experience
in children's fantasy and what seems like a restrictive budget for an
ensemble (it's possible he simply recorded the score in the rather small
studio containing the organ and a standard orchestra couldn't fit
there), there's a nagging feeling in this score that the necessary
gravitas is missing. Other listeners might be turned off by the
intentionally carnivalesque atmosphere of the score's first half, but
these comedic passages do not define the work. Originally released only
digitally, the score received a limited CD from La-La Land Records in
2019 that adds eight minutes of filler material over ten extra tracks.
This review is based on the lossless version, and if its soundscape
seems restricted on the lower end in that format, it could be even more
sparse when compressed. There's much to like in the personality of this
score, but Barr's themes are a bit incohesive, the mix is dainty, and
the Wurlitzer deserves more fantastic enunciation for this story.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
No official packaging exists for the 2018 Back Lot album. The 2019 La-La Land
album's insert contains notes about both the score and the film.
