While
Life of Pi as a film contains highly touted
visual elements that will likely arrest the attention of most viewers,
Danna's score expertly reflects the main character's journey while
rarely making a spectacle of itself. This astute musical commentary on
culture, religion, an transcendence is rich with instrumentation
informed by a plethora of world cultures, and Danna's application of
themes is extraordinarily well planned. You have to appreciate the score
for
Life of Pi on two levels, for the instrumental
representations and the thematic evolution harmoniously explore
concurrent journeys that may seem opaque upon a casual listen but are
fascinating when examined closely. On the surface,
Life of Pi may
seem life a pleasantly aloof, ethnically ambient work laced with
occasional religious depth, but Danna supplies much more to appreciate
than just the obvious accessibility of his culturally diverse
expressions. The cultural elements are all over the place in
Life of
Pi, an appropriate choice given that Pi's family consists of
internationally informed folks and the boy comes to grips with a wide
swathe of the world in the tale. Understandably, the most obvious ethnic
elements are Indian, with bansuri, sitar, and percussion native to the
country joined by a vocal performance by famed Indian performer Bombay
Jayashri for "Pi's Lullaby," a song co-written by Danna and the singer.
On top of that, you have Indonesian and French specialty instruments
offering a gamelan and accordion, respectively, to various aspects of
the story. As you would expect with Danna, a variety of other specialty
instruments for the East are offered as well, including the Persian ney
flute. An orchestra and varied choir, joined by a boy soloist, define
the religious aspect, and a solo piano brings the story back to reality
at the end. The emphasis of the instrumentation shifts as Pi achieves
his desire to explore God and reach the next phase of his life, the
buoyant Indian elements and their enticing rhythms yielding to more
generic international flavor on the island of fantasy and succumbing
almost completely to the Western performers at the end. The direct
instrumental representations are not particularly surprising but Danna
executes them with precision. The boy's innocence is represented by the
fluttering Indian bansuri flute while the tiger is granted the more
throaty Persian ney flute (which, unfortunately, doesn't make as much of
an impression throughout the score). A vaguely French atmosphere for the
parents, the choral reflection of divinity, and the piano's insistence
upon reality all complete the picture. The voice of Jayashri re-appears
in the score to hauntingly remind of India as appropriate. While the
orchestra is not impressively overbearing, it serves its supporting
purpose very well.
The intelligence with which Danna defines the score for
Life of Pi does not stop with the culture and instrumentation.
His themes are equally intriguing, and they mature alongside the
instrumental choices, eventually adjoining themselves to the question
posed at the end of the film. Among the few weaknesses of the score is
the fact that primary phrases of "Pi's Lullaby" do not translate into
the score. It's a pretty, whimsical song, but don't expect to hear the
main melody carry on into Danna's solo work. What does receive treatment
in the score, however, is the lyrical interlude sequence (commencing at
1:33 into the song and reminiscent of the "Willow Song" in Charlie
Mole's
Othello), which is reprised in far less exuberant forms
between "Tiger Training" and "The Second Story." Strictly confined to
the score are Danna's two primary themes, and he expertly ensures that
they do not mingle until the end. The primary identity for Pi is
somewhat elusive because Danna at times cuts off the theme's first two
notes, making a high, descending pair of major-key notes the most
memorable aspect of the motif. After an adapted French piece in the
first minute of "Piscine Molitor Patel," Danna introduces this theme on
bansuri and other Indian elements over almost taunting vocals and French
ambience. The playfulness of the theme allows for fantastic, meandering
bansuri contributions in this and other cues (highlighted by the bright
solos in "Skinny Vegetarian Boy"). The dancing statement in "Thank You
Vishnu for Introducing Me to Christ" and thoughtful rendition in "Appa's
Lesson" both infuse the theme with the seeds of the orchestral and/or
choral representations of religious exploration, the latter with more
lovely bansuri counterpoint. An ominously resounding brass performance
of the theme in "The Deepest Spot on Earth" is a noteworthy deviation.
As the boy's innocence departs, so does the theme, one final full
performance on the album in "Orphans" followed only by a retrospective
hint at the very end in "Which Story Do You Prefer?" Conversely, Danna's
other theme in
Life of Pi is not coherently expressed until late
in the story. This series of paired notes may be in the major key, but
they are about as somber and reflective as possible. Introduced in "Pi
and Richard Parker" (in which the bansuri does intertwine with the theme
a bit), the idea dominates the final cues, extensively expressed with
varying orchestral accompaniment in "Back to the World" and "Which Story
Do You Prefer?" The eight-minute "Back to the World" is the centerpiece
of this theme's development, a very sobering transition from the
playfully exuberant Indian elements of the score's early portions to the
pensive, strictly Western identity that awaits Pi in his future. Rarely
has a thematic transition within a score, accompanied by appropriate
changes in instrumentation, been so stark and effective.
The final aspect of Danna's approach to
Life of
Pi worthy of significant discussion is the outwardly religious
element. Film music collectors will recall that his work for the 2006
film
The Nativity Story remains arguably his best achievement of
the 2000's, and you can hear lesser cousins of that remarkable score's
pious personality in portions of
Life of Pi. Starting in "Christ
in the Mountains" and continuing to the very end, this choral element is
nothing less than lovely, expressing many soothing and redemptive
interludes to the score's expansive ethnic journey. In no cue is this
influence as organized or pronounced as in "Tsimtsum," the freighter
sequence of pivotal importance during which Danna unleashes a few
minutes of fully glorious, religious magnificence in
The Nativity
Story style. This element is combined with the interlude sequence of
the song in "Tiger Vision" and expressed more vaguely in "First Night,
First Day." The score's only action cue, "God Storm," puts a more
frantic tone into this material, though the disparity between the deep
male voices and the solo boy remains. On the whole,
Life of Pi is
a fascinating score to study, but one that will require patience. There
are multitudes of nuggets in the work that will please listeners
prepared for an intelligent treatment of a philosophical story with a
potentially mind-numbing twist at the end. The final cue is remarkable
by itself despite its relatively soft demeanor. Only here does Danna
allow the three sides of the score to truly interact with ease, the
somber piano theme opening the cue and reprised at 1:28 while the boy's
original theme echoing in the distance at 0:55 with the return of the
bansuri. Even the tiger's ney makes one last appearance at 1:31 under
the piano theme. The religious "coming to peace with God" aspect of
Life of Pi takes over in the final thirty seconds, allowing the
choir to close out the score in harmonious sincerity and with poignant
thought. Few final cues in film scores of this era are so adept at
providing subtle but immensely satisfying closure. Incidentally, it
should be mentioned that there is a touch of Danny Elfman's whimsical
style to be heard in parts of Danna's work for
Life of Pi, too.
The entirety of the upbeat "Flying Fish" expresses Elfman orchestral and
choral enthusiasm in eerily accurate form, and the last thirty seconds
of "Orphans" may as well be from the tender moments of
Real
Steel. While the music for
Life of Pi comes damn close to
earning five stars for its intellectual prowess, the score's handful of
weaknesses restrain it to a very strong four stars. The source-like
percussion of "Set Your House in Order," the underplayed false beauty of
"The Island," and a few of the intentionally funny opening cues
(including the ultra romantic slurs of "Meeting Krishna" and the French
elements) are a tad much to handle. Still,
Life of Pi is the
thinking score collector's delight, a truly impressive achievement.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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