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| Young |
The Piper: (Christopher Young) Countless schlocky
horror films have been made about the Pied Piper of Hamelin through the
years, and two were released by the name of
The Piper in
succession in 2023 alone. The lesser of this pair is ironically the more
musical, debuting in limited fashion that year before a wider 2024
distribution. It tells of a cursed concerto that causes children
listening to its performance in the audience to be sucked into an
alternate dimension where they serve the Pied Piper as his slaves. A
woman who wrote this concerto killed herself in the process of trying to
burn the score, because she realized its inherent evil connection to
summoning the Piper. Naturally, a young flute player in the same
orchestra is eventually encouraged by the egotistical conductor (Julian
Sands in his final role) to reconstruct and finish the work, which she
does at great cost to her soul and her relationship with her young
daughter, who is also learning to play the flute. By the time the
concerto is fully performed, children in the audience are once again
transported into the realm of the Piper, and the mother and daughter
have to save the day through alterations to the music. The movie was
very poorly rated across the board, but it is a rare circumstance in
which original, diegetic orchestral music plays a critical role in the
plot of the movie. For film score enthusiasts, the situation recalls the
music's role in the suspense thriller
Grand Piano ten years
earlier, for which Victor Reyes was tasked with writing a concert for
on-screen performance and some incidental underscore elsewhere. As with
that film, the process for
The Piper required a composer to write
the concerto first so that it could be performed with proper synchrony
during the filming, the remainder of the score filling in between later.
The filmmakers correctly viewed horror veteran Christopher Young as the
best choice for this music, and he set forth early in the production to
write three movements of a concerto with only minimal input from the
director.
While there are other source applications in the
soundtrack for
The Piper, including works by Johann Sebastian
Bach and Claude Debussy, Young's score and original concerto dominate.
The three movements of the concerto are performed on screen, and the
rest is purely underscore. Don't expect the two halves to connect as
closely as you might hope. All of it is purely within the confines of
Young's typical horror vocabulary, but the score portions are more
conventional and less interesting for much of their length. Despite his
ability to devise the most outstanding horror material on screen over
the course of decades, the composer also has a tendency to devolve into
generic muck at times as well, and most of the score contains muted
suspense atmospheres until its positive resolution. With its
manipulation and unpleasant, wobbling metallic sound effects, among
other annoying techniques, the straight horror material in the score is
largely unlistenable and unmelodic until that glorious conclusion. Even
there, the last shift to the minor at 20:21 into the score "Suite" after
the major-key resolution is mandatory for the genre, in this case
seeding the future of the Piper's call into the daughter character. The
bulk of interest in this music, though, will come in the "Concerto for
Children," as it is called in the story. The whole point of the concerto
is for it to be demonic in heart, and the purpose of the piece is to
balance the gorgeous allure of the tonally melodic passages with the
horrific dissonance at the climaxes of each of the three movements.
While the ambience is generally troubled even in the softer, palatable
passages, Young cannot resist supplying his typical dose of beauty along
the way, in this case representing the mother and daughter. The ensemble
for
The Piper is full, emphasizing growling, low brass as the
representation of the Piper's menace and throwing stinging percussion at
the pure suspense sequences in the score, especially in the first half
of the story. Naturally, a wide variety of flutes ranging from the
highest to lowest ranges is employed, with outrageous performance
inflection required during the concerto.
The concerto Young wrote for
The Piper would be
technically impossible to play, actually, because Young has admitted
that it is impossible for one player to perform all these flute parts as
suggested on screen. While the piccolo contributions are more
conventional, it's the alto flute and other lower-range explorations
that really push the fear factor. These flutes are sometimes
electronically altered for terror, as heard late in "Flute Concerto -
Movement 2." Despite the obvious historical connection between the
flutes and the Piper as told by legend, the actual soul of the score is
the children's choir, which performs lyrics in English throughout. The
choice to perform in this language rather than Latin is quite smart, as
it allows the listener to internalize the creepy phrasing the children
are stating about falling under the spell of the demon and following it
to the other universe. Although all these lyrics are all based upon
various elements of seduction by the Piper, the expressions are not
always discernable given the intentional distress with which they are
performed, even at lower volumes. Young resorts to chanting from the
voices to denote their inevitable doom, sometimes in total monotone to
suggest a lemming appeal. With these ingredients, Young balances the
tonalities and attitude of the concerto fairly well, with equal portions
of accessible and inaccessible music. There are some striking hits of
dissonance to be expected, as at 6:53 into "Flute Concerto - Movement
1." The explosion at the end of that track is meant to signify death
before a resolution, and a similar technique punctuates the end of
"Flute Concerto - Movement 2." The entirety of "Flute Concerto -
Movement 3" is where the score is intended to go tonally astray per the
director's instructions, and this piece blows up with dissonant
screaming and distortion at its end as well. As necessary for the call
of the villain and his battle of wills with the mother and daughter,
The Piper is a significantly melodic work, even when disturbed. A
main theme for the intoxicating appeal of the villain is loyally
developed throughout, joined by several secondary sequences that were
reportedly early versions of the main theme before Young developed the
final primary melody.
Young's third attempt at conjuring a main theme for
The Piper, the final incarnation of the main identity is
definitely a catchy tune for the flutes and otherwise, with slight waltz
movement to its propulsion that gives the idea a slight carnival
feeling. As a representation of the allure of the Pied Piper, it's
obviously deceptive in its initial innocence and eventually bloats its
way to sinister heights in the minor key in each of the three movements
of the concerto. While totally predictable as an approach, this choice
is executed surprisingly well. Heard immediately on flute over harp and
ominous low brass in "Flute Concerto - Movement 1," this idea emerges
slowly at 8:26 on flute against the monotonous chanting, the choir
finally taking over the melody at 9:05 alongside fluttering flute
creepiness. Young increases its pacing and wild piano and brass lines to
accent the cue's disturbing climax. It toils in fragments on brass
against the vocal chanting a few minutes into "Flute Concerto - Movement
2," where the idea is otherwise diminished. The main theme is then
massive with brass and choir at 7:07 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 3,"
signaling the character's height of power. Fascinatingly, the idea
returns to its softer, alluring tones from the choir and flute at 8:25
for the concept of total control achieved, though more abrasive low
flute tones and accelerating pacing drive the theme back to madness
thereafter, reaching a feeling of panic with wild xylophone at 9:46
despite moments of harmonic beauty. Outside the concerto, the main theme
haunts at 1:17 into the score "Suite" on distant flute for the suicide
scene, and fragments of the identity persist for several minutes over
disturbed whispers and chants. It focuses again on solo flute alone at
9:24, gaining a duet that is reharmonized but dissolves. For the
victorious scene of the Piper's defeat via ravenous rats, the theme
achieves peace at 17:16 into the score "Suite" with more tenable
harmonies and group swells. Its shift to the major key is still laced
with uncertainty in this pretty closure, but the choral moment at the
score's conclusion represents Young at his most melodramatic. While much
of the underscore material is easily dismissed, the final four minutes
is a powerhouse of a tonal release that reaffirms the power of the
mother/daughter relationship and resets the whole narrative.
Secondary to the main theme is Young's collection of
chants performed almost exclusively by the children's choir. Debuting at
0:55 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 1" in a dissonant variant with
whispered discontent, this material continuing at 2:09 in more lyrical
form until a dissonant crescendo. The hypnotic version of the chanting
begins at 7:34 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 1," dwelling on key as
the children are mesmerized, with the main theme's chords joining
underneath. The chanting opens "Flute Concerto - Movement 2" in
consolidated form and explores several renditions alongside the flute
accents, though Young returns to its monotone propulsion at 5:17 into
that piece. Raw percussive banging and low brass lines for the outright
victory of the Piper overtake the voices in "Flute Concerto - Movement
3," and a new version of this pure terror develops at 6:18 with
descending lines of finality. Outside of the concerto, the structure of
the chanting takes an instrumental approach of horror on brass at the
7-minute mark of the score "Suite" and repeats a simple alternation of
notes at 16:06 in a passage distinct from anything heard in the
concerto. Among the other themes are the aforementioned prior versions
of the main themes, which are applied as interludes to the final
identity. Young's initial favorite main theme draft remains on low flute
at 4:00 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 1" and is developed over a few
minutes to show off its increasing fright. This melody returns at 9:26
into "Flute Concerto - Movement 3" in the middle of the final main
theme. Young also explores his loveliest theme in the form of a soothing
interlude on choir and flute at 9:26 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 1"
that strongly recalls
Species. Similar material recurs in another
equally beautiful form at 4:06 into "Flute Concerto - Movement 2" and
graces the closing resolution at 17:50 into the score "Suite." Overall,
these themes provide more than enough highly attractive, tonally
accessible music to assemble up to twenty minutes of phenomenal
listening on album. The remainder is still a horror score of partial or
absolute dissonance that will raise your hair, however, so be prepared
for that experience. Such has been the case with all of Young's great
horror scores going back to the 1980's, so you know what to expect.
Released originally as only a promotional item, the score was provided
an official, limited CD pressing in 2024. It makes for a gripping horror
genre work, Young once again greatly outperforming the quality of the
movie for which he is writing.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.45
(in 29 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.15
(in 11,934 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes detailed information about the score and film.
