It's interesting that I should receive both this
score as well as The Red Violin so close
to the Academy Awards. Both of these score were the only serious contenders.
As much as I loved The Phantom Menace, I really
doubted that it would win. Of course, the whole world knows by now that
The
Red Violin came out on top and won the coveted gold statuette, so
where does that leave Williams' score? While
The
Red Violin was a great score and it was a good decision on the part
of the Academy to award it the Oscar, Angela's Ashes is no slouch, and while
it may not be able to have a prestigious award attached to its name, it
is a great score nonetheless.
The best way to describe it would be to say that
it sounds like the quieter moments of
The Phantom
Menace coupled with the style of Schindler's List.
The music is totally devoid of any lone violin cues, which I found a little
refreshing after experiencing a heavy dose of it in
The
Red Violin (while I enjoyed that score a lot, violins are not
my first choice for lone performances). Even though the film is set in
Ireland, the music isn't in the Irish style the in the was that Paddy
Moloney's score to Agnes Browne was.
The Irish influence of the score is far more subtle and works much better.
The music is generally dark in nature, but gets
lighter at the end, especially when the main character apparently fulfills
his lifelong dream of going to America. Since I haven't seen the film, I
gathered that bit of information from the narration that is scattered across
the music. This has proven to be a detraction among some people from the Sony
Classical release of this score. The U.K. release by Decca
Records is devoid of any quotes, but unless you're willing to go the
extra mile to obtain a copy of that release, you'll have to put up with the
narration. That said, I must admit that I actually enjoyed it, and I didn't
find it annoying since it mostly occurs at the beginning of tracks and
sometimes even before the music starts. Two source tracks are also
included that are not really all that interesting, but do provide an insight
into the music of that time period.
The is another great work by John Williams, and
even though the Academy chose
The Red Violin
over this one you shouldn't do the same. Both are great scores and both
deserve to be added to any soundtrack collection. *****
