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•	2018 Album

•	2002 Album

Not surprisingly, the main attractions in Barry's music for Masquerade are his flowing melodies for the romantic side of the story. He coined two such themes in this, one for the main character, Tim, and the sailing of the yacht. The other is the more common love theme for the lead couple. The main theme is your typical, yearning string identity from Barry with pulsating woodwinds and broad brass backing. It debuts at 1:00 into "Main Title" and repeats several times in elegant but understated peace, downshifting to solo harp in "Masquerade." This idea becomes dark against the score's suspense motif in the middle of "Virgin Sacrifice" with slight choir, and that the choral mode for women's voices persists in the light panic of "Call the Police." After reclaiming its optimistic opening mode in "'Obsession' is Ready," the main theme moves to very high, solitary flute in "Pregnant," stutters on low woodwinds in "Your Move, Romeo," and merges completely with the suspense motif in "Explosion." In the closing suite, Barry follows the love theme with this one at 1:32 into "End Titles," reprising its initial performance format. Meanwhile, the love theme is slower and more fluid, in line with Barry's character romance melodies. Developed tenderly for one full rendition in "Graduation," it continues in "Compulsive Promptness" with low flute alternating with violins for the melody, and secondary lines are finally explored in full, mainly a short but elegant ascending passage. The love theme offers whimsy on violin and oboe lines in "Daddy Would Have Liked You," bass flute taking the rolling interlude sequence. Deconstructed in the darker "Face Slap," the theme struggles in variations late in "Violence, Not Affection" but returns to its loftier shades of romance in full form during "Married" with redundancy. After enjoying a brief moment on piano in "I Sleep Like a Baby With You," this identity informs a suspense crescendo late in "Pregnant" and becomes more tentative in troubled atmospheres during "Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While" (better alternate track title: "Tim & Brooke Stop Fucking") and "Birthday Gift." The love theme is tortured in the brief "No Crash," given a sadly muted performance at the outset of "Sabotage," timpani suspense building, and only its baseline survives in the morbid "She's Alive." It opens "End Titles" on strings with an extended introduction on piano and its flowing interlude.

On the darker side of the score is the suspense and conspiracy motif, which exists in two variations. The general one consists of a series of two-note phrases with urgent wavering counterpoint at the motif's fullest, the accompanying deep piano thumps a trademark Barry tool of threat. The varying adaptation eventually kicks the motif up to three notes to represent the cooked cop, which is a nice structural choice given that the number of conspirators in the story increases at that time from two to three. (Barry's scores, while often sounding simple, are not always simple-minded.) The main conspiracy motif most clearly occupies the first minute of "Main Title" and returns at the cue's end. It worries on string layers at the outset of "Virgin Sacrifice" and becomes softer but creepier in "Tony Dies" against dissonant whole notes. The idea shifts to the longer, more meandering line for the corrupt cop in "Two Glasses," and this adaptation haunts the start of "Ann is Dead" on flute and low strings and later interrupts the love theme in "I Sleep Like A Baby With You." The motif previews the alarm at the outset of "Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While," becomes elongated in agony alongside the love theme during "No Crash," and occupies anxious piano in "Your Move, Romeo." It emerges victorious over the other identities at the height of "Sabotage," and the adaptation for the evil cop thrives on reserved brass in the second half of "Explosion" as the character is appropriately dispatched. These themes are perfectly adequate to their task, but the score will disappoint in its tepid response to the killings and action, leaving the tone of the orchestra restrained even at its loudest. For those familiar with Barry's scores in the Bond franchise, the most depth you get from this ensemble are the passages of stalking and light melodrama you hear prior to actual commencement of chasing. His source material for Masquerade retains the snail-like pacing but does offer some blues and rock spirit alongside more comfortable jazz. The score was released on a 2002 product from Prometheus that combines 44 minutes of the actual main presentation with 12 minutes of Barry's unrelated source material. The sound quality is rather muffled for the score's age, and the experience runs a bit long. An even longer 2018 Quartet Records presentation elongates the experience by a few minutes. A 15 to 20-minute suite would be ideal for this moderately attractive and functional score. There's nothing here that you had not heard from Barry before, for better or for worse.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.83 (in 29 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.51 (in 28,825 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.