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Review of Out of Africa (John Barry)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if broad John Barry romanticism of consistently dramatic
tonality melts your heart, in which case Out of Africa is among
three or four scores of absolute certainty for your collection.
Avoid it... if you expect this score to sound anywhere near as decent in its original recording quality as some of Barry's equivalent works or if you desire a plentitude of thunderously melodramatic performances in the ranks of Dances With Wolves.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Out of Africa: (John Barry) The dominant dramatic
powerhouse of 1985, Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa was a force to
be reckoned with from both the arthouse and technical perspectives.
Featuring the story of real-life Danish baroness Karen Blixen, the film
conveys a sweeping but ultimately sorrowful personal tale while
glorifying the setting of Kenya at the time of the first World War. Its
epic visuals were well mated to the intimate character interactions and
compelling commentary on lifestyles of the era, especially involving the
disillusionment that many Europeans felt about the "civilized" culture
of the continent when searching out new lives in Africa. When the
baroness and her husband (through convenient arrangement) purchase and
operate a farm in Kenya, she finds herself perpetually alone. When a
dashing adventurer, a pilot and hunter, enters her life, so begins the
charm between Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. While the ultimate fate
of the characters is understandably heavy with sadness, the broad
journey of their lives is, along with the atmosphere of Africa, the
overwhelming attraction of Out of Africa. Between this film and
Back to the Future, Universal Pictures enjoyed a stunning year.
Out of Africa was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning
seven of them across the spectrum of categories from sound to overall
picture. Among the most memorable aspects of the film that led to a
predictable Oscar and Golden Globe was the score by John Barry, who was
experiencing the height of the romantic renaissance in his career at the
time. The soundtrack is a mix of three elements, with Barry's broad
score joined by several classical pieces, Gilbert & Sullivan songs, and
traditional African music, all these modes arranged and overseen by the
composer for diagetic and background applications in the film. These
portions provide a significant presence throughout the narrative, but
it's Barry's orchestral score for the romance of the tale that prevails
in memory.
The grandiose melodies on strings that were pervasive in the composer's career at the time carried him as a mainstream favorite from Somewhere in Time to Dances With Wolves, the latter gaining him his final Academy Award. Although Dances With Wolves remains the best known of the three by the general public, Out of Africa is just as reflective of Barry's stereotypical romantic flavor, albeit in a shorter and less burdensome dosage. The underlying structures and instrumental techniques in these works are all pretty much the same, from the almost obnoxious repetition of phrases to the use strings to carry a primary melody while conservative brass tones offer buffer and occasional counterpoint. The use of descending cello and bass string figures will connect this score to Somewhere in Time more often for Barry collectors. Ultimately, the closest practice run for Out of Africa was High Road to China, which features many of the same plot elements that obviously inspired Barry in consistent ways. Occasion percussion for the African makes a marginal contribution. There are two primary and two secondary themes in Out of Africa, not including the consistent use of a Mozart piece as another, though most casual listeners will only recall the grand title theme accompanying the massive vistas of Kenya. It is this extremely tonal idea that slowly unfolds in flowing string tones and concludes its statements with bold French horn counterpoint. It is as lovely as it is sleep-inducing, providing the landscape with the kind of romantic appeal that the story's protagonist obviously recalls upon writing about her years in Africa. It also glamorizes the scenery in ways that true Hollywood epics love to do. This theme opens and closes the film and album presentations for Out of Africa with convincing authority, and in the narrative, it soars in "Flight Over Africa" and "Beach at Night" and resolves in softer tones during "You are Karen M' Sabu," the "Flight Over Africa" cue utilizing a light choral introduction reminiscent of the composer's main melody for Moonraker. 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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1986 and 1995 Albums:
Total Time: 33:27
* Mozart excerpt performed by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields ** African traditional *** composed by Ernest R.Ball and J. Keirn Brennan 1997 Varèse Sarabande Re-Recording: Total Time: 38:42
2024 Intrada Album: Total Time: 143:29
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the MCA Records albums from 1986 and 1995 include no extra
information about the score or film. The 1997 Varèse Sarabande album contains
notes about both, as well as information about McNeely and the RSNO. The notation in
the 2024 Intrada album is extensive, including a note about Intrada producer Doug
Fake's involvement with the product at the end of his life.
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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 Out of Africa are Copyright © 1986, 1995, 1997, 2024, MCA Records, MCA Masterdisc (Gold), Varèse Sarabande, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/7/10 and last updated 2/14/25. |
