| Band of Brothers |
| Composed by Michael Kamen |
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Conducted by Michael Kamen Orchestrated by Michael Kamen, Robert Elhai, Geoff Alexander, and Blake Neely Performed by The London Metropolitan Orchestra Produced by Michael Kamen. James Brett, and Michael Price Release Date: 2001 |
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| Band of Brothers is the latest World War II film project inspired by Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, except this time the production is blessed by the guiding hands of both Spielberg and Tom Hanks. I have looked forward to this 10-hour mini-series with great anticipation, however since I don't have HBO it looks like I'll have to wait longer than others before I will actually get a chance to watch it. Michael Kamen joins the ranks of the likes of John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, and the rest who have scored these recent wartime films. Out of all of these entries, Kamen's work is, not surprisingly, closest to Williams' Saving Private Ryan. Both scores are heavily minimalist in nature, although Kamen does set his score apart from Williams with the inclusion of a more rousing main theme and bolder scoring. From my experience with the album, it appears that, like Williams, Kamen is restrained from scoring any of the battle scenes. At the same time there seem to be plenty of epic scenes or visuals which Kamen is allowed to unleash the orchestra on. The greatest of these is in the first third of Band of Brothers Suite One in a cue that heralds the majestic entry of the one of the main themes that is continually referenced until the end of the track. I was greatly pleased with this work since there are parts in here that I'm surprised to hear Kamen composing. The style is reminiscent of his The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms, and this is quite a good thing since after hearing that piece I had hoped Kamen would infuse more of his scores with that style. His heavy usage on strings manages to give the same emotional feel evoked from Schindler's List in certain cues, and the choral moments manage to bring about a fitting end to the score in the excellent Band of Brothers Requiem. Even though the score rarely strays beyond the minimalism that Williams standardized with Saving Private Ryan, the music is still pleasant to listen to and the limited thematic work never ceases to please. It is pointless to attempt to compare the different World War II scores floating about since they are all from different films with different visions. Needless to say, Kamen's work on Band of Brothers is quite excellent and it fits quite well as a companion score along with Saving Private Ryan. For fans of Michael Kamen's career, and of the miniseries itself, this is a no-brainer. ****1/2 |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 69:45 | |
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