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| Aaltio |
Tale of a Lake (Järven Tarina): (Panu Aaltio)
Breaking box office records for documentary films originating from
Finland, 2016's
Tale of a Lake (Järven Tarina) followed the
strong performance of its predecessor,
Tale of a Forest (Metsän
Tarina), three years prior. Director Kim Saarniluoto returns from
the previous effort, this time joined by Marko Röhr and shifting
focus from the mammals of Finland's forests to the birds and aquatic
creatures of its many lakes and rivers. Several years of photography and
careful narration in English and Finnish convey a story of the seasons
punctuated by the featuring of an extremely rare Saimaa ringed seal.
After out-grossing a plethora of American blockbusters in the country in
2016,
Tale of a Lake encouraged the filmmakers to immediately
start production on
Tale of the Sleeping Giants for release a few
years later. Much of the same crew supplies talent to this franchise of
highly touted nature documentaries, and this notable work includes the
music of Los Angeles trained but Finland-based composer Panu Aaltio. The
score for
Tale of a Forest was a breakthrough to the film music
community for Aaltio, in his early 30's at the time, and
Tale of a
Lake represented an even more impressive extension of the composer's
developing skills with orchestral and vocal colors. The composer's
approach to the second film is an interesting evolution of thematic
fluency and orchestration prowess when compared to the first. While a
solid nature documentary score,
Tale of a Forest remains perhaps
somewhat overrated, its ensemble often too sparse to lend the necessary
weight to the scenery and the primary theme not as seductively robust or
memorable, waiting until the final few impressive cues to really congeal
into a satisfactory whole. That said, you could hear the seeds of
Aaltio's talents in his handling of individual lines of orchestration
for the personalities of the animals, and that capability blossomed into
a remarkably improved effort all-around for
Tale of a Lake, which
not only stands well above
Tale of a Forest but ultimately proved
itself among the best of film music from all reaches of the industry in
2016.
Listeners expecting to hear direct carry-overs of thematic
ideas from the prior score will be disappointed; Aaltio seems more
content referencing some common instrumental vocabulary while treating
the watery environments as an all-new playground for thematic ideas. One
of the relatively obscure film music pleasures of 2015 and 2016 was the
refinement of Aaltio's writing and recording for larger productions.
Along with
Tale of a Lake, you can hear him explore increasingly
complex symphonic ideas, although sometimes betrayed by budgetary
restrictions, in films like 2015's
The Island of Secrets and
2016's
Rölli and the Secret of All Time, both of which
offering a healthy dose of
Indiana Jones-related adventurism.
None of these works, however, prepares you for just how finely tuned the
lines of orchestration are in
Tale of a Lake. This detail is
perhaps the most intellectually intriguing improvement since
Tale of
a Forest, but also of importance is Aaltio's much better thematic
handling and, crucially, his ability to take a small ensemble and
utilize layering techniques (one gets the impression that liberal
overdubbing might have been employed) and absolutely perfect reverb
levels to achieve a sound much larger than you'd expect from a limited
group of performers. In most cases outside of the strings, each
instrument has only one performer, but Aaltio still achieves larger
ambience when necessary with the help of tastefully applied percussion
and bass enhancement (perhaps electronic, but not distractingly so).
Whereas brass and choir in
Tale of a Forest were sampled, this
recording adds five brass players to a larger string section and the
same four woodwinds. (
Tale of the Sleeping Giants eventually
employed a full orchestra.) Also an obvious difference in
Tale of a
Lake is the infusion of Johanna Kurkela's ethereal wordless vocals
to supply a personality to the Ahitar, the Water Spirit, in numerous
cues. There are a few moments when a discerning ear can tell that the
soundscape of the larger portions is rather shallow, but typically the
recording is so well handled that you forget the underlying budgetary
limitations. The use of each instrument is so carefully judicious that
you have to admire how Aaltio passes ideas between players effortlessly
and at the forefront of the soundscape.
Like any nature documentary,
Tale of a Lake
stylistically meanders between various genres of music as it addresses
the emotional needs of disparate character groups. There are several
truly singular thematic and tonal successes in this work, highlighted by
the immense "Crab Guardians" and propulsive "Frog Wrestling," but don't
be surprised of Aaltio finds creative ways to reference his main theme
in many of these genre-bending episodic cues. It is this grounding with
the main themes that
Tale of a Lake excels beyond even the
strongest George Fenton equivalents. Don't be fooled by anyone trying to
convince you that
Tale of a Lake lacks strong thematic identity,
because the consistency with which Aaltio develops his two main ideas in
this work surpasses both
Tale of a Forest and
Tale of the
Sleeping Giants by leaps and bounds. The main theme opening the film
is heard in "Tale of a Lake" with assistance from Kurkela's voice,
though its debut on album comes playfully in the previous cue, "Spring
Brook." The range of expression in this theme is impressive, resorting
to rather somber but elegant cello solos in "A Family Divided," "Coming
of the Fall," "Under the Frozen Surface," and "Seal Pup." The mystical
element of Kurkela's vocals return in "Reunion," "Under the Frozen
Surface," and "The Water Cycle," the idea toying in the background with
the vocals in the latter half of "First Morning." The exuberant
performances of the idea take shape in cute waltz form during "Bug
Ballet" (a remarkably crisp cue) and with amusing jazz appeal in "Brisk
and Idle." The two most interesting performances of the main theme are
ones that take its primary seven-note phrasing and adapt it for
muscular, dramatic purposes. The resulting highlights of these variants
come at the ends of "The Birds' Farewell" and "The Water Cycle," the
film's scenes of closure that transcend into the realm of percussively
powerful coolness that begs licensing for use in movie trailers.
Ultimately, the most satisfying application of the main theme comes in
the lengthy, emotionally draining scene for the Saimaa ringed seal; in
"Seal Pup," Aaltio runs the full range of sensitivity with the theme,
making particular use of lightly metallic percussion for the icy locale
and tender creature before offering up perhaps the score's most
optimistic expression of the theme over rolling piano accompaniment at
the end.
The other prominent theme of
Tale of a Lake is
the aforementioned one for the water itself, summarized in "Ahitar (The
Water Spirit)" to open the album and making the best use of Kurkela's
soothing, breathy tones. Note the use of the instrumentation to denote
constantly fluid motion; it's much more accomplished than just the usual
harp figures. This theme returns in "First Morning," at the ends of
"Reunion" and "Crab Guardians," and in the first minute of "Seal Pup." A
few recurring secondary themes abound as well, including a prancing one
for child's play in "Hide and Seek" and "Bug Ballet." A happiness motif
opens "Reunion" and concludes "Children." Expect for deconstructed
variations on all of these ideas to permeate the score, making it a
delight to study as Aaltio smartly connects all of these animals
together with common emotional devices. For whatever reason, the
composer didn't follow the same thematic template for
Tale of the
Sleeping Giants, replacing a tight melodic narrative with an
emphasis on sheer power using the larger ensemble. Overall,
Tale of a
Lake is a delightfully inventive score with a strong narrative and
multitude of singular highlights. The listening experience on album can
be disjointed at times, especially as the central portions shift into
more oppressive moments such as "Ancient Spirits" and restrained
underscore such as the latter half of "Life in the Depths." The range
from the comparatively heavy tone of "The Spawn" to the sparsely
percussive daintiness of "Macro World" may not agree with some, but such
traversing of territory is unavoidable in these contexts. While casual
listeners may simply gravitate to the punchy highlights in "The Birds'
Farewell" and "The Water Cycle," this score maintains its superiority
throughout, with few moments of sustained, distracting dissonance to
diminish the easy listening experience. The original album was released
on CD by MovieScore Media, and producer Mikael Carlsson deserves credit
for being a champion of Aaltio's music in his label's offerings to the
collecting community. It's a score that really demands a lossless
presentation, because the layering of each instrument is so carefully
executed and supplied with tasteful reverb that a cue like "Bug Ballet"
would be a travesty in lesser quality for the end consumer. The CD
pressing went out of print by the end of 2016 due to high demand, not a
surprising turn of events for this outstanding music.
By 2019, the popularity of these documentaries and
their scores yielded a live performance of the music to screen in Espoo,
Finland, with the Vantaa Pops Orchestra joined by
Tale of a Lake
vocalist Johanna Kurkela. After witnessing the success of this event,
director Marko Röhr created an auxiliary theatrical release in the
franchise,
Nature Symphony (Luontosinfonia), that sought to
specifically showcase the music alone. The movie contained footage from
the first two films and some additional material debuting in 2019 for
the first time. The movie was an hour and 15 minutes in length and
re-used music from Aaltio's scores, this time using the performances by
the Vantaa Pops Orchestra along with Kurkela's lead vocals and a
40-member choir. Aaltio rearranged some of his cues from the first two
scores for this new utilization, and in both
Tale of a Forest and
Tale of a Lake, the results are familiar but intriguingly fresh.
Kurkela's voice is fantastic, and hearing her perform "The Woodland
Spirit" from the first score immeasurably improves the cue. The
combination of two cues for the new "A Forest Adventure" arrangement
from that work provides the main theme with significantly increased
power (but also live applause). The selections rearranged and rerecorded
from
Tale of a Lake are even more spectacular, however. While
"Ahitar (The Water Spirit)" is largely loyal to the original recording,
with the exception of a much more prominent harp, "First Morning" is
expanded to include a new sequence in its first two minutes that is
simply phenomenal, Kurkela's voice highlighting a mammoth James
Horner-like passage for brass and choir. The remainder of "First
Morning" returns to familiar territory, but the increase in ensemble
size is noticeable. The cello solos of "A Family Divided" are joined
elegantly by Kurkela for a softer touch. The thematic highlights of "The
Birds' Farewell" and "The Water Cycle" both experience lengthening of
their full-ensemble passages, the former somewhat less satisfying but
the latter magnificent. About 23 minutes of these performances were made
available by Quartet Records on a 2023 3-CD set featuring
Tale of a
Forest,
Tale of a Lake, and
Tale of the Sleeping
Giants. The outstanding product appends the relevant
Nature
Symphony cues to the first two scores' previously-released
presentations. This highly limited set is a no-brainer for enthusiasts
of this franchise, the added rearrangements for
Tale of a Lake
confirming the score as among the most accomplished documentary film
scores in the history of the genre. It's a sonic delight and continuing
proof of the efficacy of diligent orchestral tapestries.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert of the 2016 MovieScore Media album includes a list of performers and notes about the film, composer, and score. That of the 2023 Quartet/MovieScore set offers different notation and a partial list of performers.
