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| Horner |
Willow: (James Horner) As the writer and producer
for
Willow, George Lucas promised more than he delivered with
this fantasy adventure spectacle, though it's hard to blame rising
director Ron Howard for the 1988 film's perceived failure at the time.
Being as campy as it is, perhaps
Willow was destined to be a
guilty pleasure or cult classic at best, despite strong production
values, a decent concept, and Lucas' ability to inspire the most
menacing villain's masks in the history of cinema. An unseasoned Val
Kilmer is the stud and lovable Warwick Davis is the underdog, an
unlikely pair on the run from and eventually seeking to conquer an evil
queen in a land from long ago. A baby, Elora Danan, is foretold to mark
the overthrow of that queen, and the heroic group of misfits has to
battle their way to the lair of the queen and exercise magic to win the
day. The special effects from Industrial Light and Magic were heavily
advertised at the time, and because of their efforts,
Willow is
visually passable decades later. The movie gained in stature twenty
years after its release, eventually prompting a sequel in the form of a
television series featuring some of the same actors. In terms of its
auditory experience, few have ever questioned the effectiveness of James
Horner's score in the original film. Marking the second collaboration
between Horner and Ron Howard,
Willow exceeded all expectations
in its music. While Horner had already been recognized by mainstream
awards and produced the music for several blockbuster films, he had
never tackled a composition of this sheer magnitude. It is often
considered the sister score to
The Land Before Time, with both
works using mostly the same crew, performers, and general quality of
mix. These two superior works together in 1988, along with
Glory
the following year, yielded the kind of undeniable five-star results
that had eluded Horner for much of his early career. In relation to the
film score collecting community,
Willow has always maintained a
broad and loyal following from its debut, and it set the foundation for
many of Horner's more popular scores to come. In the years that
followed, the legacy of the score grew, and its extremely blatant
incorporation into the elaborate trailers for 1991's
Robin Hood:
Prince of Thieves produced a flurry of demand for
Willow's
music.
The lingering controversy over the composer's habit of
borrowing material from himself can usually be linked directly or
indirectly back to
Willow, a score which Horner admitted was a
creative breakthrough in his development of ideas inspired by others.
The cynical sorts who write off much of Horner's early career because of
his unashamed tendency of pulling inspiration from modern classical
music (or, in the case of the Willow theme here, the Bulgarian harvest
song, "Mir Stanke Le") can make their own reference points in
Willow, though Horner's re-packaging of these ideas is so well
executed that few mainstream listeners will care or even notice. There
are several reasons for the success of
Willow's score, and one of
them relates to the ingredients that Horner assembled. The performances
by the London Symphony Orchestra have always been strong in popular film
scores, but rarely have they excelled to even these levels of precision.
The King's College Choir of Wimbledon provides women's and boys'
ensemble voices, and while Horner used light choral accompaniment
throughout his career, rarely has it sounded as engrossing in the
fantasy mode as it does in
Willow and
The Land Before
Time. A collection of exotic, rarely applied instruments would be
discovered by Horner here and used in scores throughout his career,
including the controversial shakuhachi flute. Joining it in an oversized
woodwind section are the quena, penny whistle, pan pipes, didgeridoo,
conch shells, and medieval shawms. The groaning didgeridoo in particular
is an intriguing contributor to "Airk's Army" and "Bavmorda's Spell is
Cast." The sprawling percussion section includes Chinese opera gong,
South American drum, Irish bodhran drum, and even a plastic cup.
Keyboard performers ranged from two pianos to two synthesizers, celesta,
and harpsichord. The synthesizers standard to Horner for the era were
used to accentuate the percussion in providing some ambient sound
effects for scenes involving either dread or magic. A variety of folk
music is added for the source-like passages, performed by alpine horns,
bagpipes, cimbalom, Uilleann pipes, dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, mandolin, and
acoustic guitar. These recordings marked the early days of
collaborations between Horner and specialty soloists like Ian Underwood
and Tony Hennigan that came to define much of his later music.
The complexity of
Willow as a composition is
astounding, with countless passages in which the composer instructed
performers to improvise within harmonic schemes, most notably on piano
rumbles and the distinctive puffing and wails of the shakuhachi flute.
Violins were at one point instructed to alter pitch in succession, each
performer in the section moving upward a moment after the previous
player. One of the reasons for the success of
Willow is the
abundance of tonally accessible statements despite a fair amount of
disharmony built into its many chase and suspense sequences. Horner
wrote more than a dozen themes for the film and utilizes them often
during the score; even at its most chaotic moments, the score typically
references at least one of these ideas. The mutilation of these themes
is impressive, but more remarkable is the composer's ability to maintain
both their tone and recognizable structure even when twisted into
alternate purposes. Some of the melodic lines are very long, requiring
substantial air time to fully convey them, and they are countered by
other ideas that can be expressed in only a measure or two. The mammoth
expanse of the score assists in allowing full development of each idea.
At the time of its release,
Willow was by far the longest score
of Horner's career (by half an hour) and, like
The Land Before
Time, this endeavor featured wall-to-wall music requiring that many
cues be at least five minutes in length. Some cues could range to nearly
20 minutes in length, which presented a problem during the recording
sessions if one of the unusual composer instructions caused a performer
to misfire. The constant thematic reminders cause many of the long cues
to become miniature symphonies in and of themselves, much in the same
style as "The Great Migration" from
The Land Before Time. Horner
made comments at the time about the numerous synchronization points
demanded per cue, causing the need to hit bold statements of several of
the score's themes in the same pass. As such,
Willow is a work
that irritates some listeners in its lack of concise rearrangement for
album, though anyone with decent editing software could achieve this
themselves. In that endeavor, all eight tracks on the original album
release offered highlights and most would require some cutting; the same
advice applies to the longer cues unreleased until an expanded
presentation of the score debuted in 2022.
There exist five major themes in
Willow, with three
of them dominating the proceedings. First is Willow's heroic adventure
theme itself, teased lightly in "Airk's Army" and "The Enchanted Forest"
but introduced fully in "Escape from the Tavern" and anchoring the
concert suite and end title arrangements. Its spirited brass fanfare is
the catchiest of Horner's ideas for the film, and it produces a
significant amount of raucous fun in the score. Detractors, however,
mock Horner's claim that this theme was meant to be Eastern European in
style, citing similarities between it and Robert Schumann's "Symphony
No. 3." Regardless of its origins, Horner's intent was to satisfy the
request of Lucas and Howard that he provide a swashbuckling theme for
the film's set action pieces, and he succeeds brilliantly. The specialty
instruments contributing to these performances were Horner's
self-proclaimed attempt to avoid mirroring Erich Wolfgang Korngold's
established swashbuckling sounds too closely. The only fallacy of this
theme in its application to the film is that it doesn't really represent
Davis' Willow character as well as it does the action and playfulness of
Kilmer's Madmartigan, though by the time it's heard in the film, the two
are a typically together. The second theme in
Willow is its easy
highlight, representing the inner strength and plain kindness of Willow
himself and featured by Horner over the opening title and a gorgeous
traveling scene in "Willow's Journey Begins." It's the domain of the
shakuhachi flute in lyrical duties, existing in perhaps the most
eloquent and beautiful form until Horner's strangely functional use of
the instrument in
The Mask of Zorro and its even better sequel.
Whereas Horner would often use the shakuhachi, as well as the pan pipes,
in a supporting role as rhythm setters of accent pieces (akin to the
percussion instruments, really), they are given the primary role of
conveying the magical spirit of the softer themes in
Willow as
well. A third related theme consists of falling, four-note phrases and
dominates the latter half of "Elora Danan." It is a better match for
Elora Danan, the baby, and Willow's concept of family, as well as the
provincial simplicity of their village. The downright gorgeous
statements of this theme in this cue lead to peppering later on whenever
the fate of the baby is in focus. The idea enjoys smart shifting to the
minor key at the end of "Tir Asleen" but returns to its lovely self at
the outset of the resolution in "Willow the Sorcerer." In the opening
and closing cues, the theme's rotation between woodwind instruments (in
between string and choral interludes) is an undeniable highlight.
The remaining two primary themes in
Willow
represent the film's two dominant villains. A menacing series of
ascending brass and choral progressions for Queen Bavmorda offer fright
in "Elora Danan" and achieve a gloating posture in "Bavmorda's Castle."
This idea increases in frequency as the film approaches her battle with
Willow at its climax. The majority of synthetic effects in
Willow
accompany Bavmorda's spells, and they contribute significant dissonance
to the last twenty minutes of the score's action pieces. Horner uses
this long-lined melody more often than you might think, its presence in
bass strings frequently existing below other melodies. Sometimes, this
usage ends up usurping the higher melody, as it prevails over the baby's
theme at roughly two minutes into "Canyon of Mazes." It shifts to
compelling violins at the outset of "Arrival at Snow Camp." The most
memorable theme from
Willow is ironically its most simplistic,
and that is the dreaded four-note motif of evil that Horner would use
frequently and to almost the point of comedy throughout the rest of his
career. Performed most prominently by harsh tones on pairs of trumpets
and horns, this danger motif is pervasive in the score, ranging from
subtle applications in the bass to the full collection of brass in
unison. It's a convenient motif because Horner can use it to easily
establish a new key, heightening its effect by serving as a transitional
tool. While the theme occasionally represents glimpses of the frightful
General Kael in the film (what sensible child wouldn't get nightmares
from looking at that mask?), the most victorious moment for Kael in the
film, as he rides by horse with the captured Elora Danan back to the
Queen, is absent the motif. (Instead, Horner lets rip at the end of "Tir
Asleen" with some of the most resounding orchestral crashes ever to
announce a defeat on screen.) Perhaps the most intriguing use of the
danger motif comes against Bavmorda's material in the latter half of
"Bavmorda's Castle" on bass strings. Outside of these themes, Horner
offers secondary ideas for a few concepts and places. His swelling love
theme for Madmartigan and the queen's daughter, Sorcha (and between
Willow and Elora), debuts in the chaos of "Escape From the Tavern" at
0:47 and teases again at 1:46 into "The Sled Ride" before consolidating
beautifully in the third and fourth minutes of "Canyon of Mazes." Other
themes are more singular, such as the one for the enchanted forest
location on whimsical high choir in the latter half of "The Enchanted
Forest" that also closes out the score in "Willow the Sorcerer."
Horner's soft, three-note choral motif bookending the work is an
extension of this material.
On album, none of these themes for
Willow holds the
court for very long, and their alternation keeps the score fresh.
Because the action of the film moves so quickly, abrupt changes in tone
and theme occur frequently. As such, the score rarely becomes dull
outside of the ethereal music accompanying the middle third. The rowdy
action sequences make sure of this, sometimes maintaining their energy
for as long as ten minutes within a cue. The opening two minutes of
"Escape from the Tavern" and the middle portions of "Tir Asleen" present
Horner's action sensibilities at their finest, using the powerful
percussion section and specialty instruments to their fullest. Moments
of silence in
Willow are rare and positioned strategically, and
as a listener you always have to be ready for the next jolt of action to
arrive quite suddenly. Horner takes
Willow past most other
adventure scores by balancing these action explosions with elegant
fantasy elements. The exotic instruments, including not only the
shakuhachi and pan pipes but bagpipes, harps, and woodwinds of all
kinds, are a key element in building
Willow's supernatural
presence. By employing these instruments in the rhythms of the action
pieces in addition to their carrying of the themes at times, he
effectively creates the illusion that this story is taking place in a
far away, mystical land. The choir opens and closes the film with the
aforementioned, simple, three-note motif that would become a Horner
trademark in his children's film scores of the early 1990's, also adding
sensitivity to the softer moments of this one. This motif is an
intriguing major-key variant of the four-note motif of evil with the
first note expunged. During the use of this motif to bookend the film,
Horner also employs the sound effect of blowing wind; it's difficult to
determine whether this was accomplished using metallic percussion or a
synthesizer. Horner wrote two source-like cues for the Nelwyn culture
from which Willow comes, summarized in the two "The Nelwyns" recordings
heard immediately after the opening cue, and these do really break up
the listening experience. This festive, non-vocalized material, largely
improvised, comes to the forefront at the end of the film, a Lucas
carryover of the obnoxious Ewok celebration music in
Star Wars:
Return of the Jedi. Horner handles the basic rhythm with bagpipes
and the exotic woodwinds, creating a grating sound that could remind
collectors of Horner's obscure score for
Where the River Runs
Black. He does, though, mirror John Williams in that he slowly
re-introduces the orchestra back into cue before the score returns to
the full concert arrangement for the end titles. It's a subtle but neat
touch.
For listeners seeking a summary of protagonist themes
from
Willow, the arrangement of the primary two themes for the
end credits is identical to that which appears in "Willow's Theme" on
album, except for the diverging reprise of the forest theme that
represents a lengthy decrease in volume to close the score in the same
manner as in
The Land Before Time. These slow conclusions, in
both these scores and
Glory, are rather annoying in that they
waste time that could otherwise be used for major thematic statements or
at least the kind of rousing conclusion that sends off
The
Rocketeer and a half dozen other Horner action works with bravado.
Overall,
Willow is a score that precedes those in Horner's career
that aggravated film music collectors tired of his repetitious sound.
This score was the inspiration for it all, and it's not surprisingly his
best. The elements that combined to make this score so well balanced in
theme, instrumental use, and sound quality proved elusive for Horner in
the following decades. Taunting fans over that period of time had been
the original 1988 album for
Willow, which suffered from a limited
American pressing by Virgin Records America to coincide with the film's
release. Despite the score's availability on European store shelves for
regular prices during the 1990's, the
Willow album sold in
America for prices as high as $100. In the mid-1990's, however, Virgin
began re-pressing the CD everywhere and the prices dropped with the new
availability. Die-hard collectors were long unsatisfied with the 73
minutes of music available on that CD, however, and there had been much
speculation that Horner's fans would support a 2-CD release containing
the remaining 30+ minutes of material existing from the score. Such talk
continued unabated in light of the interesting fact that no substantial
bootleg of this material was ever leaked to the public. With fans
opening their wallets and paying $40 for a 2-CD set of a score like
Horner's
Krull, there was always a solid market for an expanded
treatment of
Willow. That product finally arrived from Intrada
Records in 2022, and the demand for the 2-CD set was so robust that the
label had to release a statement responding to the extraordinarily
number of orders placed for the product. After buyers reportedly
hammered the label's staff with queries about these orders, Intrada
finally resorted to simply stating, "Please have mercy!" Certainly, few
film scores of the digital age can merit such overwhelming excitement,
and, just as the label had accomplished with
The Land Before Time
not long before, the expanded product for
Willow provides a clean
presentation of the film score with no alternate takes or other bonus
cues.
The 2022 Intrada set for
Willow provides the
cues of the original 1988 album intact but sprinkles in the unreleased
selections in chronological order, causing all of the newly revealed
material to exist on the first CD since that's where the prior product
chose to neglect. The two source tracks, "The Nelwyns" and "The Nelwyns"
and "The Nelwyns No. 2," are mostly redundant with the previously
released finale music and will be skipped by most. In "Death Dogs,"
Horner unleashes his pounding,
Brainstorm-style piano and
percussion rhythms of force with the danger motif and Bavmorda theme in
tow, largely an angrier extension of the same material in "Elora Danan."
The crashing opening to "Bavmorda's Castle" yields to a softly
threatening performance of Bavmorda's theme with the danger motif for
Kael joining for strings and bassoons. Showcasing the specialty
instruments is "Airk's Army," with a hint of snare for the marching men,
though a penny whistle breaks through with Willow's theme. That soloist
continues with the Elora Danan theme and a preview of the main adventure
theme in an otherwise somewhat dour cue. The first two minutes of "The
Enchanted Forest" are arguably the highlight of the expansion, with soft
expressions of Willow's theme, secondary material for his village, a
giddy rendition of the adventure theme, and more Elora Danan beauty on
flute. Comedy material disrupts the cue, but it eventually smooths out
to the forest's theme on choir for the remainder. (The fade out in this
cue is a disappointment.) The largely atmospheric "The Island" is this
score's nod to
Vibes, with Elora Danan's theme peeking through
otherwise bleak treble tones. The solid action returns in "Willow
Captured," Elora Danan's theme pitted against Bavmorda's and the danger
motif against the adventure theme. Melodrama for Bavmorda's theme, this
time in counterpoint to the adventure theme, occupies "Arrival at Snow
Camp," the danger and baby motifs not far behind. The final new cue is
"The Sled Ride," which starts slowly during the sneaking around but
eventually fleshes out the love theme against the adventure theme
nicely, culminating in chase material akin to "Escape From the Tavern."
The expanded set is a mammoth treat for enthusiasts of Horner and this
score, a clear necessity for any Horner collection. It may not be
necessary for casual listeners or as revelatory as the expanded
Legends of the Fall equivalent, but it's nearly as satisfying.
The sound quality is not significantly improved. Decades later,
Willow remains a modern classic, its majestic and exotic power
emulated by Horner and others but never truly replicated. It is an
indisputable triumph among the best fantasy and adventure scores of the
digital era.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 107 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 197,460 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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