Even the composer's devoted collectors were caught off guard by the momentous quality of his score for The Mists of Avalon. It was, without a doubt, the grandest and most beautiful score of 2001's first half, foreshadowing many of the elements that Howard Shore was concurrently working on mixing for his superior The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Holdridge has always maintained the ability to write compelling themes for his scores, and his sense for melodrama is superb. In The Mists of Avalon, Holdridge finally had the opportunity to project those talents onto a huge canvas, with a mammoth orchestra, choir, and solo female vocalist, as well as a story that required a broad range of thematic material. His score is monumental in scope, theme, and resonance, and to remember that this is music for a television film makes the work all the more astounding. To compliment the lush, green visuals of the film, Holdridge paints a picture with poignant strings, robust brass, and an array of percussive soloists. Frequent accents of a Celtic nature, both in rhythm and instrumentation, are integrated into both the score and source-like dance material. Fans of James Horner's Braveheart will note some of the same percussive soloists lending their talents to this score, and the composition takes advantage of their contributions to an even more ambitious level. The full ensemble portions were recorded in Bavaria with members of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and their performances are remarkably true to the pagan and vibrant aspects of the composition, as well as the film's setting. An oversized drum section, highlighted by a spectacular role for timpani, provides action sequences of a quality unparalleled in recent years. Only Shore's forthcoming The Lord of the Rings could also shift so effortlessly between alluring solo vocals and rhythmically propulsive and occasionally brutal percussive passages. The thematic representations in The Mists of Avalon are about as diverse, though Holdridge's statements of his ideas are true to the straight forward style that has defined his career. There is very little (if any) dissonance of significant length to be heard in this material.

Due credit needs to be given to the licensing of the already well-known Loreena McKennitt song "The Mystic's Dream," which first appeared on her 1994 platinum-selling album "The Mask and Mirror." For avid film score collectors and movie fans, you might recall that the most famous use of that song was alongside James Horner's highly controversial score for the sex thriller Jade in 1995. While McKennitt's soft Celtic tones may have sounded frightfully out of place in that wretched film, it is a perfect match for The Mists of Avalon, repeating several times throughout the film and setting a seductive, yet slightly ominous atmosphere for the story. There is irony in the fact that both productions include pagan sex rituals that involve masks, potentially tarnishing "The Mystic's Dream" with an unnecessary stigma for some listeners. At any rate, the McKennitt song, placed at the beginning of the album, was the primary and obvious selling point of the product, despite the fact that Holdridge's music is a very strong match, both in quality and style. To coordinate his style with that of McKennitt, Holdridge employed countless female vocals by the artist Aeone, whispering and exclaiming harmonic beauty in breathy tones that match McKennitt's voice in many ways. For an adaptation of the Camelot legend from the female perspective, these vocals are a smart and elegant move by Holdridge, and he uses Aeone's voice sparingly so that she doesn't overwhelm the orchestral base of the music. To close the album and film, Holdridge and Aeone collaborated on the song "I Will Remember You Still," (arranged, produced, recorded, and performed by the singer) and while based in thematic construct on one of Holdridge's themes from the score, its new age, Celtic wash of wet mixing and layered vocals will likely please any Enya enthusiast. Aeone's contributions to the score are more impressive in terms of dynamic range; her sudden wailing in the latter half of "Vivienne's Death," as well as her more whimsical contribution to "Morgaine Grows Up," utilize her abilities with far greater appeal. Throughout the score, Holdridge also employs a full adult chorus to accentuate both the barbarism of the action sequences and the mysticism of the magical elements.

Together, the vocals, chorus, and song are masterfully woven together with the orchestral performances, and in sum they can easily take your breath away with their harmony and scope. Always present is Holdridge's usual emphasis on melodramatic themes, and the main identity for The Mists of Avalon will even raise memories of the bittersweet title theme for Old Gringo. With the mainstream catching on to The Mists of Avalon at breakneck speed in July of 2001, Holdridge caught the attention of the entire industry with this effort, and while many of his collectors hoped that this would finally yield his big break into mainstream film scoring, that never happened. Still, viewers of the show, most of them understandably of the female variety, made this album a commercial success, which stands (even with the existence of the songs) as proof of the score's powerful role in the two-part show. The Varèse Sarabande label took advantage of this sudden burst of popularity in the same way it would address the wild fanaticism over Brian Tyler's Children of Dune two years later. Together, The Mists of Avalon and Children of Dune proved to be two of the most spectacular television scores of all time, both demanding a place in any film music collection. The sound quality of the Holdridge recording is stunning; the layering of instruments and vocals is well handled and a fair amount of ambient wetness was inserted into the final mix to give the music an appropriately reverberating element of fantasy. The inclusion of the McKennitt song, in addition to 65 minutes of Holdridge's music, makes this a knockout album. Holdridge wrote two and a half hours of music for the show, and even with the lengthy album, which was a treat for fans of the composer and show, it's easy to imagine what additional material of high quality still exists unreleased. Holdridge's music is a richly textured and thematically powerful accompaniment for the film, bridging the gap between the new age, Celtic, and classical genres of music with striking effectiveness. Regardless of whatever nonsensical religious protests regarding The Mists of Avalon you may stumble upon, Holdridge's work is above that level of controversy. It is simply spectacular music and endures as the single highest point of his entire career.  *****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download