The other theme of high importance in
Out of Africa
is one of personal plight for the baroness. A tender woodwind theme for
Karen is integrated more thoroughly into the score, occupying four or
five cues in full, culminating in the somber "If I Know a Song of
Africa" near the conclusion. Its flute performances with soft string
backing are reminiscent of Barry's instrumental adaptations of the song
melody in the nearly concurrent
A View to a Kill. The primary
theme for Redford's adventurer is that which actually opens the film;
Mozart's 1791 adagio, "Clarinet Concerto in A Major," accompanies the
character throughout the film in Karen's recollections. As in
Somewhere in Time, the reliance upon a classical piece instead of
Barry's score for a major story concept is odd, especially when
considering the fact that the composer's material is so similar in tone
and could likely have sufficed for the occasion. Barry does actually
provide Redford's character with a beautiful theme, though it is
unfortunately limited to just one cue. Heard on piano in "Have You Got a
Story For Me?," this melancholy, minor-key theme uses extremely elegant
progressions that would sound familiar to enthusiasts of James Horner's
Casper ten years later. For listeners tired of hearing the
primary themes from
Out of Africa throughout the decades, this
one cue and its unique theme could very well serve as the highlight of
the album. A second musical identity associated with the two main
characters is their own distinct adventure theme, hinted during their
initial on-screen meeting in "The Farm" and bursting with symphonic
force in "Safari." In this cue, the horns are allowed to carry the theme
with bold resolve, producing another lesser-appreciated highlight of the
overall work. Film score collectors will find interesting parallels in
structure between this melody and the seldom referenced love theme in
David Arnold's
The World is Not Enough, especially in that
score's "Snow Business" cue. Altogether, these themes usually run back
to back in Barry's
Out of Africa, ensuring its position as an
easy, tonally pleasing listening experience from start to end.
The common style of rendering for each theme in
Out
of Africa helps to soften their mingling, though the secondary
themes in the score are disappointingly short-changed in terms of
development. The only significant break in the listening experience is
the dissonant and percussive "Karen's Journey" material, which was
closer to the traditional music of the region that Pollack had to be
talked out of using for the entire score by Barry. The composer's
large-scale recording mixes were typically beyond their era when he was
at his composing prime, but
Out of Africa is sadly a major
exception. Compared to his similar romance scores of the 1980's, this
one sounds badly muted on its album releases, restraining the expansive
scope of the music compared to its potential on paper. MCA Records
released Barry's identical album presentation in several issues over the
years, most with very similar cover art (even in international
pressings), and, despite an overpriced Gold Edition follow-up in the
1990's, all of them are unsatisfactory in sound. Some Barry enthusiasts
may also object to the insertion of the Mozart piece and some other
source and traditional music in the middle of the score's presentation,
which is cobbled together to combine the score's typically very short
cues into longer mini-suites, some with awkward transitions. Both of
these problems were solved when Varèse Sarabande commissioned
Joel McNeely to conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for an
expanded selection of Barry's music for album release in 1997. While the
full Mozart piece was also recorded, the other incidental music was
removed in favor of additional material written by Barry for the film
but not always edited into the final cut due to Pollack's late
rearrangements. The sound quality on this product is outstanding, the
order of individually separated cues satisfactory, and the
interpretation of Barry's style quite competent. Barry's romantic music,
because of its inherent simplicity in constructs, is typically a safe
bet when it comes to such re-recordings, and more than perhaps any other
composer, his Bronze age works are often improved upon in subsequent,
digitally recorded performances.
Because of the vast improvement in dynamic soundscape
for such an epic score, this re-recording of
Out of Africa is
more necessary for your collection than Varèse Sarabande and the
same ensemble's later and less available recording of
Somewhere in
Time. It took until 2024 before the entirety of the original
recordings were provided on album, Intrada Records supplying a
comprehensive presentation of the full score, a bevy of alternate takes,
and the source music in what proved to be among the last products of
that label's longtime owner, Douglass Fake, who passed away prior to the
pressing of the set. His passion for the score is evident in the careful
arrangement of the film's final cues, many of which frightfully short
but nicely self-contained in Barry's typical style. There is about eight
minutes of truly unique additional material contained in this portion,
but enthusiasts of the score may better appreciate the wide selection of
alternate takes that sometimes explore more interesting variants of the
composer's themes. Barry was known for asking the ensemble to perform
the same short cue a dozen times to yield the best possible result, and
the 2024 album provides 23 minutes of this material. The full spread of
recordings made for the classical and stage source material, as well as
the African traditional music, is featured in a hefty 45 minutes of
additional tracks. The original album arrangements are also appended to
the second CD in the set, and the entirety was remastered. Even with the
renewed attention to the sound quality, don't expect the recording to
sound as vibrant as on similar Barry scores of the era, which is a
disappointment. That issue won't necessarily bother purists who have
long appreciated that original recording, though the listening
experience on the 2024 album can drag because of the long opening and
closing sequences that Barry afforded to each of his short cues. More
casual listeners should not hesitate to seek out the 1997 re-recording
as an alternative that is fairly complete. Convention would dictate that
Out of Africa should receive a five-star rating, but due to its
brevity, questionable production aspects, and failure to really adapt
some of the score's best subthemes into fuller roles, it stands a full
step behind
Dances With Wolves and thus earns a very solid four
stars.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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