:
(Christopher Willis) One of countless adaptations of Charles Dickens'
1850 somewhat autobiographical story, 2020's
presents another humorous take on the life of the
titular author, from his birth to his successful transition into writing
as an adult. It's mostly a tale of absurd characters appropriate for an
extended cast of accomplished actors, silly interactions not always
making sense but the heart and perseverance of David Copperfield
persisting as the affably weird protagonist. The film garnered
significant praise from critics, though its support from the British
indie crowd didn't translate to mainstream awards and box office success
as hoped; the film struggled to recoup its budget. As expected for a
film set in Victorian England,
offers its production elements as a visual and aural
feast, albeit a bit less lavish in this lighter fare. The music for the
film is the domain of young composer Christopher Willis, whose
unexpectedly noteworthy collaboration with director Armando Iannucci on
2017's
rolls over to this assignment. Aside
from that surprisingly robust and accomplished foray into dramatic
comedy writing on a grand scale, Willis has toiled mostly with animated
television cartoons in the late 2010's, paying his bills via countless
hours of literally Mickey Mousing music. His film scoring exposure,
however, included servient duties as a ghostwriter for Harry
Gregson-Williams earlier in the decade. His academic concentration on
classical music served him well for
, which
admirably pilfered techniques of prominent Russian composers, and he
takes the same approach to
, shifting his attention to early 20th Century British
classicism instead. (He and the director rejected the notion of
exploring musical inspiration as far back as Dickens' own era.) As a
result, the score is absolutely steeped in this austere sense of British
formality despite a rather playful demeanor, Willis opting to
concentrate on the dramatic element and let the comedic aspects of the
story play out without accentuated musical emphasis.
The score for
The Personal History of David
Copperfield is highly technically proficient and occasionally
extraordinarily engaging, though it is not the most easily accessible
music, the result of Willis' decision to intentionally tone back the
obviousness of his ideas in favor of a dominant emotional flavor
instead. There is an undeniably English tone to the entire work, the
classicism sometimes subdued but at other points, as in the duo of
secondary romance material in "Leaving Day" and "Meeting Dora," quite
overwhelming. The orchestral ensemble for the recording is guided
primarily by a handful of solo string performers, with the full ensemble
carrying most cues. Piano is also a frequent highlight; in fact, the
score's best moments are those that offer shining, rolling piano
enthusiasm akin to Abel Korzeniowski's
Romeo & Juliet. Brass is
only occasionally employed but done so with good impact, supplying much
of the score's dissonance during moments of action or suspense. The mix
of all these players is well handled, the score vibrant at all times.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Willis' music is its seeming
indecision about whether to succumb to the role of obvious romantic
flourish or serve obediently as a more minimal and pragmatic source of
background heft. In the end, his score attempts both, and some cues are
therefore rather tepidly lost in the background while others are
intrusively present on screen; there are scenes in which Willis provided
flowingly ambitious ensemble expressions and the mixers had to awkwardly
and suddenly dial back the music to account for a shift from scenery to
dialogue. When the score does swell with romanticism, it really excels
well, but, again, Willis seems to have battled some tactical indecision
about the obviousness of his themes, and his solution is sufficient
atmospherically but not always satisfying, especially on album. He
offers three major, recurring themes in
The Personal History of David
Copperfield, the main one highly elusive in its construct upon
casual listen. It's essentially a series of two note phrases, typically
descending, with the initial pair really the only truly consistent
anchor throughout a host of variations. Since these pairs are also
represented only by their underlying chord shifts at times, the theme
takes a long time to stick in your memory and, for some listeners, never
really will.
Willis also has a habit of adding layers of
counterpoint and superfluous action to his cues in
The Personal
History of David Copperfield that obscures the actual melodies,
whether its two soloists or one soloist and the ensemble. Sometimes, the
far more obvious line of action is the counterpoint, reducing the actual
theme to merely the chords underneath. These techniques immediately
muddy the main theme in "My Own Story," the actual theme heard at 0:29
on violins but mainly in only the chords thereafter. The idea is fuller
and deliberate but soft and nearly elusive in "Baby Davy." (Willis'
argument is that the theme should very well be slight in these early
cues, as how can a baby know enough about life to have yet developed a
theme? It's an interesting debate, but one he might not win, as the
theme is for the benefit of the audience's perspective rather than that
of the baby.) The idea finally matures for the full ensemble at 0:48 and
1:21 into "Yarmouth," reprised similarly but battered in "Return to
Yarmouth." It respectfully opens "Last Days of Innocence" and occupies
the whole cue. It has difficulty getting started at the outset of "A
Corker of a Corker" but emerges at 0:38. It takes a large and dramatic
turn at 0:39 into "Without a Home" before stuttering expressions in "23
Miles to Dover." Its rhythm kickstarts the enthusiastic "Adventures of a
London Gentleman" and the full theme takes hold at 0:34. The idea is
grimly resolute at 1:39 into "Mounting Troubles." The undeniable
highlight of the score is "David's Writings," the main theme taking over
from the adversity theme at 0:49 and massive at the cue's crescendo,
dissolving to elegant piano at the end. It's sparse on a string quartet
to open "Concluding Words" and informs the chords in first minute of "A
Life Well Written" ahead of a fuller finale statement at 2:12 into that
cue. The theme is exuberant but slight in "These Pages Must Show (End
Credits)," the counterpoint lines simply too heavy for the melody to
thrive at the end. Interestingly, Willis seems far more interested in
using his soloists to provide counterpoint to the main theme rather than
the melody itself. Many of the score's action and suspense cues access
the two-note shifts of this theme but intentionally get hung up on them,
supplying them in dissonant brass blasts that never resolve. These
passages start with "The Bottling Factory" but really blast away in "The
Shipwreck," and these abrasive cues represent some of the score's least
accessible music.
The two secondary themes supplied by Willis for
The
Personal History of David Copperfield are better enunciated,
thankfully. The adversity theme isn't massively impactful but does serve
an important purpose of underlining despair. It opens "The Murdstones"
in discomfort, defining the whole cue and leading to a big brass
rendition at 0:49. The idea stews late in "Without a Home," opens both
"Notes and Impressions" and Tall Tales" sparsely on solo cello, the
latter cue developing it into a major, urgent action statement by its
end. Fragments persist throughout "Mounting Troubles," a solo violin
takes the theme at 0:36 into "The Search for Emily," and it opens
"David's Writings," notably and smartly disappearing in the score
thereafter. Conversely, the accomplishment theme is the opposite in the
work, supplying much of the care-free exuberance to its tone. Hinted
nicely in somber shades at 1:21 into "Without a Home," the theme debuts
fully at the start of "A Blissful Summer" on solo violin over bubbling
rhythms. This same happiness extends to "Mr. Dick and the Kite" on
strings over twinkling piano, this time offering a grandiose finale.
It's adapted into a makeshift love theme on piano in "Agnes," opens "Of
Kites and Concertinas" in reprise form, and is humorously comedic at
0:11 into "Mock Turtle," the score's most obvious source-like cue. The
theme shows its range by turning somber on strings late in "Ruined" but
returns to full glory as an interlude to the main theme at 1:57 into
"David's Writings." This victorious exclamation continues on solo violin
and piano at 1:06 into "A Life Well Written." Overall, cues like
"David's Writings" and "A Life Well Written" are splendid, airy
expressions of pure joy, enhanced by Willis' lightly fluttering lines of
orchestral action. Combine these cues with the kite-related and other
accomplishment theme performances and you have ten or more minutes of
truly lovely classically aspiring ambience. Unfortunately, the
excessively overlapping lines of action are a detriment to the main
theme and slew of related cues, the otherwise carefully planned
narrative less enjoyable as a result. A "For Your Consideration" version
of the score was available digitally from the studio, though despite
lacking some additional material, the commercial album arrangement
combining cues into longer tracks is far superior. Willis has received
immense praise from the film music community for
The Personal History
of David Copperfield, and while his achievement here does merit
applause, the score is not without its logistical faults beyond the
possibility that this kind of brazenly English classicism may repel some
listeners.
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