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Review of The Nativity Story (Mychael Danna)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek a respectful and intelligent balance between
traditional religious pieces, their ancient instruments, and a grand
orchestral and choral sound that adapts it for modern ears.
Avoid it... if the blatantly religious overtones and/or Mychael Danna's tendency to exhibit non-traditional instrumentation are a deterrent.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Nativity Story: (Mychael Danna) Since the
reemergence of wide release films about the history of Christianity a
few years ago, each successive entry in the genre seems to cause the
obligatory public stir. While some people of the faith stand in lines
well outside the theatre on opening night, others protest the movies for
their interpretations, production elements, or commercialism. The mass
of both this positive and negative attention came with Mel Gibson's
The Passion of the Christ a few years ago, though several smaller
productions about ancient Christianity often slide by with less fame or
star power. One such entry is The Nativity Story, the traditional
depiction of the time from Mary and Joseph in Nazareth to the few years
after Jesus' birth. Despite the mixed reviews for the film, which are
inevitable given the wide range of spiritual beliefs spread among those
reviewers, there has been almost unanimous praise for Mychael Danna's
score for the film. Danna, a Canadian, and his brother Jeff are two of
the composers with foremost and vast expertise in ancient Middle Eastern
and European instrumentation and traditional songs. While Mychael
Danna's career may be more accomplished due to his collaboration with
director Atom Egoyan, Jeff Danna may have written what is the most
outstanding score about the life of Jesus in the modern age. Jeff's work
for The Gospel of John in 2003 succeeded in its authenticity
where the shortly subsequent John Debney score for The Passion of the
Christ stumbled over its own weighty feet. And while Jeff is not
listed as having any association with his brother Mychael's effort for
The Nativity Story, there are significant similarities in the
substance of the authenticity that made Jeff's work so fascinating. As
you would expect, Mychael Danna did the same extensive research for this
film as his brother had done before, collecting some of the same
instruments for this project. While there exist harmonic and overarching
atmospheric similarities between them, Mychael was attempting to
approach the story from the perspective of the events' consequences on
European life, thus allowing for the use of several European carols and
other songs as well as a broader palette of Western sounds, most notably
the larger choral presence.
As his brother had accomplished, Mychael Danna's sound for The Nativity Story avoids the pitfalls of becoming enveloped by its own importance. Nor does the score have the hugely epic scope of old religiously-flavored favorites like Ben-Hur and The Robe. The score manages to infuse the film with significant power without bludgeoning the listener, a temptation for any composer given the passion with which some write music for the subject. Thematically, The Nativity Story relies on its vocal renderings and interpolations of accepted Christmas melodies to provide its identity, with Danna's underscore serving to connect the interpolations with a few various motifs. The integration of the carols ranges from outward concert-like performances, such as the Austrian "Silent Night" for the entirety of "Silens Nox" (an elegant layering of strings makes this a superior performance), to intriguing fragmented adaptation (sometimes as counterpoint), such as the brief use of the Ukrainian "Carol of the Bells" at the outset of "Is There a Place for Us?" For casual listeners, most of the quotations will pass without notice, except for the occasional feeling that perhaps you've heard the tune before. More importantly, Danna has woven these pieces together into a fabric that is readily harmonic and easy to appreciate. The only exceptions are the cues dominated by ancient horns and woodwinds over Roman drums, some of which are specifically built with dissonance to represent the efforts of King Herod to combat his perceived danger. Some of the location and journey shots, accompanied by cues like "Veni, Veni Emanuel," "Is There a Place for Us?," and "The Journey" allow the percussion to roll in strong rhythms under a high chorale, but never with a sense of overbearing hardship. The score has too much hope built into its rising, major key structures for its few darker moments to thrive. Contributing to most of the lofty, optimistic characteristics of The Nativity Story are its layers of vocals. While the score includes every kind of vocal representation from Gregorian chants to solo male and female voices of all tones, the presence of a boy soprano as the representation of a higher spirit is the highlight of the score. The prominence of the boy soprano over a full choir in four or five of the score's most elegant cues, as well as the strong texturing of the string section and solo performances of ney flutes that often accompany the voices, causes parts of The Nativity Story to radiate the same overwhelmingly beautiful harmony as Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In fact, there seem to be several connections between this score and some of Shore's work, though this is likely to be completely coincidental. The boy soprano in particular is the enduring voice of The Nativity Story, from its ethereal introduction in "The Annunciation" to "Give Me a Sign" and the stunning finale sequence ranging from "A Star Shall Come Forth" to "In Rosa Vernat Lilium." Those latter tracks feature the traditional pieces in a lyricism especially attractive to fans of The Lord of the Rings, for both the boy soprano and the Enya-like female solos are presented over grandiose harmonic layers of the full ensemble and choir equal to Shore's popular work in its magnificence. The score does have a significant number of conversational cues, often featuring harp and specialty string instruments, and it offers many of these cues at its outset. Combined with the two or so brief blasts of brass and percussive dissonance for the Romans, the score does have a few less interesting moments on album. But in all cases, the music is saturated with the appropriate atmosphere for the subject, largely due to Danna's expertise. Some listeners may find the fuller sequences, especially those set to a percussive rhythm, to be too melodramatic, as the The Passion of the Christ became in its latter cues. But the difference here is that Danna instills a sense of awe into the music without becoming forceful with his ensemble. The mixing of the solo elements is outstanding, with individual vocals and woodwinds easily enunciated through even the ensemble performances. Nicholas Dodd's orchestrations continue to impress. Due to a lack of the main theme's prominence until the very end, Mychael's The Nativity Story may lack slightly behind Jeff's The Gospel of John, though Mychael compensates for the gorgeously operatic solos in his brother's work with the boy soprano here. Both are remarkably intelligent efforts, and the broader scope of The Nativity Story will likely appeal to a wider audience. It also flourishes in a relatively weak year for scores in 2006, standing easily as one the year's best. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 67:08
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a lengthy note from writer Doug Adams about the score, as well as lyrics.
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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 The Nativity Story are Copyright © 2006, New Line Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/9/06 (and not updated significantly since). |
