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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Twilight (Carter Burwell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are a teenage girl seeking another souvenir
from the film or if you are already accustomed to Carter Burwell's
unconventional harmonies and structures from his prior, equally dense
works.
Avoid it... if any score with exploding, groaning, and shrieking electric guitars in monumental crescendos of dissonance is automatically eliminated from your consideration.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Twilight: (Carter Burwell) The vampire subculture
in America received an infusion of blood upon the arrival of Stephanie
Meyer's novel "Twilight," filling a literary void left by the conclusion
of the "Harry Potter" series of books. The immense popularity of Meyer's
concept translated into mega-earnings at the box office for its 2008
adaptation to the big screen. Films like Twilight do well no
matter what critics or arthouse crowds or awards voters think about it,
because such cult-status films serve a very specific crowd of teenage
girls that frankly don't care about what any of those demographics
think. One aspect of Twilight worth noting is that Meyer took
many generous liberties in her reinvention of the vampire myth in order
to squeeze it into a high school romance setting without sounding any
alarms in the logic department. The story, regardless of the fantasy
elements, is still essentially one of teenage angst, social outcasts,
and cultural commentary that are all common to the less creative variety
of high school-related flicks. At least the slasher concept has morphed
into something a tad more romantic. The director of Twilight,
Catherine Hardwicke, proudly exclaims that she considers the topic to be
one of great density and complexity and was thrilled to hear a score of
equal description to come from veteran composer Carter Burwell. While
skirting the mainstream in the 1990's, Burwell's output in the 2000's
has never accompanied anything close to blockbuster status and, as such,
Twilight represented a significant opportunity for him
(especially with the prospect of sequel films looming on the horizon).
His writing has never lent itself to straight forward harmony, making it
difficult to hum even his most memorable tunes (such as those for
Conspiracy Theory and The Hi-Lo Country), and that lack of
clearly defined thematic expression is apparently what Hardwicke praised
the most about Burwell's work for this film. His meter, progressions,
and slightly dissonant chords all figure into his primary theme for
Twilight, thus extending his rather distant style into yet
another genre. The same tendencies inhabit the music for the darker half
of Twilight, though this material usually disintegrates into
nonsensical textures for the instruments he employs to represent the
supposed coolness of the vampires.
All of these usual Burwell techniques form a score that is indeed dense and stylish in modern textures, but one that is so troubling in its expressions that it's not the kind of music that anybody other than devoted fans of either the composer or the "Twilight" concept will be able to tolerate for very long. Without question, Twilight is a score of two personalities, and it's not hard to imagine why. The romantic half is anchored by "Bella's Lullaby," a piece that Burwell wrote to convey his own loss of a girlfriend (though she eventually became his wife anyway) and applied by chance to this picture with effective results. This theme, primarily performed on piano and acoustic guitar, is sensitive enough to represent the Bella character, but as with Burwell's other more harmonious themes, he leaves enough discomfort in its structure to keep it once again from being truly memorable. He does work the idea into several cues in Twilight, sometimes in creative rock-related guises. But even its final performance in "Edward at Her Bed," the theme's awkward structure restrains its obvious heart. The second half of the score underlines the alternately cool and somewhat frightening culture of the vampires, and this is where Burwell will lose most film music collectors. His obnoxious rock-inspired motifs for the group on electric guitars and other grating elements are given textures that suit them adequately, though the lack of fluid movements in Burwell's rhythms keeps this material from being listenable. The score flips wildly between its two halves, with seemingly little common ground to save the album experience. The startling transition from "Bella's Lullaby" to the completely unlistenable "Nomads" is nightmare inducing. The shrieking and pounding dissonance of the darker half of Twilight leaves little reward for those attempting to access the already difficult lullaby. Whatever sense of delicate humanity on piano, harp, and guitar representing Bella Swan and her effect on Edward Cullen is completely overshadowed by the drum kit and electric guitars of the other vampires, leaving no room for really intelligent mingling of the textures. Overall, Twilight makes no strides towards acceptance in the mainstream, and Burwell's music reflects that same devotion to a single crowd. The album is far too disjointed in the battle of two musical styles to create any kind of coherent listening experience. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 46:53
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and notes about the score and film
from the director and composer.
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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 Twilight are Copyright © 2008, Atlantic/Warner and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/26/08 (and not updated significantly since). |
