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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Personal History of David Copperfield (Christopher Willis)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have an established affinity for English
classicism of shamelessly expressive character, Christopher Willis
suppling no shortage of refined exuberance in his highly layered work.
Avoid it... if you have difficulty following musical narratives when a composer provides an overabundance of activity on top of fragmented thematic ideas, this score proving surprisingly inaccessible without several revisits.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Personal History of David Copperfield:
(Christopher Willis) One of countless adaptations of Charles Dickens'
1850 somewhat autobiographical story, 2020's The Personal History of
David Copperfield 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, The Personal History of David
Copperfield 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 The Death of Stalin 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 The Death of Stalin, which
admirably pilfered techniques of prominent Russian composers, and he
takes the same approach to The Personal History of David
Copperfield, 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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 53:57
NOTES & QUOTES:
The packaging contains no insert, only a slipcase with basic credits printed
within and no extra information about the score or film.
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