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What Dreams May Come
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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, Produced, and Performed by:
Additional Music by:
Mark Snow
Co-Orchestrated by:
Robert Elhai
Performed by:
The London Metropolitan Orchestra
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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Beyond/BMG
(October 13th, 1998)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release, but out of print as of 2005.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... if one of Michael Kamen's most robust orchestral scores
can lure you away from the popular rejected score by Ennio Morricone for
the film.
Avoid it... if you expect the straight forward romanticism that
defined some of Kamen's more impressive love themes and accompanying
songs.
BUY IT
 | | Kamen |
 | | Morricone |
What Dreams May Come: (Michael Kamen) The spiritual
side of the concepts of life and death have inspired some of the most
compelling films and soundtracks in history, and What Dreams May
Come is no exception. The film is perhaps the most thought-provoking
display of special effects wizardry in the digital age, using painted
illustrations and vivid colors to present fantastic and imaginative
visions of the afterlife. As the primary couple played by Robin Williams
and Annabella Sciorra navigate their way through Heaven and Hell, they
are surrounded by overwhelming visual and aural interaction, giving
Vincent Ward's film a unique selling point that, quite surprisingly,
failed to gain much box office traction. The film's soundtrack was a
source of wild speculation in 1998, with the legendary Italian maestro
Ennio Morricone writing a massive orchestral and choral score for the
occasion. His melodies and typical use of voices were nothing less than
spectacular in their religious fortitude, existing a level of emotional
power heard in only the composer's famous efforts. But given that the
film itself is already an extremely weighty ride of emotions, the
filmmakers determined that Morricone's approach was simply too
heavy-handed to make the film attractive to audiences already treated to
a sappy ending in the story. With only a matter of weeks before the
American opening of the film, veteran Michael Kamen was asked to provide
a replacement score that was a little more upbeat and accessible for
audiences. Kamen expressed his immense respect and admiration for
Morricone at the time, and while he claimed that never heard Morricone's
score before embarking on his own emergency work, he acknowledged in a
statement at the time that "there are many ways to skin a cat." The
score that would result from Kamen's effort treats What Dreams May
Come as a love story first and foremost, including a soft and
likeable song as the primary melody of the film. Given Kamen's
reputation for translating lovely, Oscar-nominated ballads into strong
scores, the similar approach here is not surprising. Fans of both Kamen
and Morricone will recognize that the maestro's score is an incredibly
impressive, superior piece of music. Whether it could have worked in the
film or not is another matter.
Ironically, while both scores exist near the top of
each composer's career, neither one seems to have hit exactly the right
note for What Dreams May Come. Morricone obviously went over the
top with the religious aspect of the story and lost touch with the
personal element. Kamen's music definitely has a personal touch, but is
lacking some of the element of magic and the supernatural that the film
desperately needed. Kamen does instill some sense of wonder through the
use creative solo performances throughout the orchestrally conservative
score. A pleasant bed of soft orchestrations is given life by fluttering
woodwinds, tapping percussion, or elegant solo string and voice
contributions. While sub-themes may not be transparent, the demeanor of
the score is at times playful and reflective, and you could easily
become lost in its atmosphere. His theme is based on a song melody that
he and composer Mark Snow had written years prior. Making up the song
"Beside You," this theme is very attractive as a folksy representation
of companionship. It debuts in "I Once Met This Beautiful Girl By a
Lake" and is only slightly referenced until "Together in Heaven" and the
final suite cue allow full ensemble development. The song itself is
likable, though Mick Hucknell's voice is perhaps too nasal for the
story. Without a mid-section that is well grounded in Kamen's theme, the
score meanders through the landscape of the film without taking many
chances. By far the most interesting portions are those that deal with
suspense and the location of Hell. The "Stormy Seas" and "Sea of Faces"
cues offer some of Kamen's most robust action material, with far more
depth in performance than the material in his earlier, more well known
works. The performances by The London Metropolitan Orchestra are well
recorded and yield several memorable moments in and of themselves.
Kamen's last minute effort is obviously very commendable, and there are
ten to fifteen minutes of orchestral bliss to be found in What Dreams
May Come. But between the nagging feeling that the score needed a
little more fantasy to go with its romance and the presence of
Morricone's rejected work on the secondary collecting market, the score
leaves you wanting a little more. Something intangible is missing in the
spirit of this music and it's difficult to pinpoint what it is. On
album, though, there is merit to be heard in both scores.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 34,672 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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My favorite!
Manda - March 16, 2009, at 9:12 a.m. |
1 comment (2041 views) |
Total Time: 60:41
• 1. I Once Met this Beautiful Girl by the Lake (2:01)
That Was the Last Time We Saw the Children Alive (3:23)
• 2. Children's Melody (0:34)
Tunnel Crash/Christy's Death/The Journey Begins (3:05)
I Still Exist (0:40)
Annie Loses Faith (1:11)
• 3. Summerland - The Painted World (2:56)
The Painted Bird Files (1:31)
Christy Flies (1:11)
• 4. Marie's World (Leona is Marie) (2:06)
• 5. Longing (Lost Children) (3:49)
• 6. Annie's Suicide (1:24)
Soul Mates (3:11)
• 7. In Hell (1:19)
Stormy Seas (2:55)
Recognition (Albert is Ian) (1:34)
• 8. Sea of Faces/Falling Through Hell (4:12)
Annie's Room (1:56)
• 9. Beside You (1:08)
Divorce (2:40)
• 10. Together in Hell (3:03)
Death and Transfiguration (2:52)
Together in Heaven (2:33)
• 11. Reunited/Reincarnation/When I was Young (3:55)
• 12. Beside You - performed by Mick Hucknell (4:42)
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(Cues are combined into suites for the album tracks)
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. In an
interview conducted late in 1998, Michael Kamen stated the following about the
circumstances of his hiring:
[How did you get involved with the project?] "By accident. I think
some of the best things in life happen by accident. It was at the expense
of a man that I admire tremendously, and I have to be as philosophical
and self-aggrandising at the same time as I can be. I'm happy that I got
that score. I probably would have been happier had they come to me first,
but the fact that they went to Ennio Morricone, whose work I really
admire, personally admire, and enjoy, the fact that they went to him for
the score was understandable. The fact that his score, for one reason or
another, didn't fit their bill, was also kind of understandable, because
he chose... you know... a film composer looks at the story and comes up
with musical solutions for that story. There are many, many solutions
that one could choose - there are many ways to skin a cat, you know.
What Ennio reacted to, I think, was the very serious, touching,
philosophical and metaphysical nature of the film. The film is a very
serious one, and concerns death and love, two fantastic themes to be
involved in musically. The first time I looked at the film, the first
event you see in the film of any significance, two minutes in, is the
children, who are the product of this whirlwind relationship you see
forming, a fifteen year marriage takes place and you meet the family and
their kids at breakfast and, two minutes later, he's waving goodbye to
them in the car, and the camera suddenly slows down and he says "that's
the last time we saw the children alive". And that's the beginning of the
film, that's the first thing you see and it knocks you for six, it just
takes all the stuffing out of you. As a father, to even contemplate that
reality is so beyond the bounds of reason. If you choose to dwell on the
tragedy of that moment, if you choose to dwell on the profound sadness
and sense of loss, you could easily write a very profound piece of music
that would make the rest of the film unwatchable. You can't go any
further."
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