This score was a very pleasant surprise;
especially considering it was from a TV mini-series no less. I do plan on
watching this one when it comes out during Easter. The prospect of Gary
Oldman playing Pontius Pilate seems to good to pass up, although, at the
risk of sounding like I’m trying to typecast him, I think he would make an
excellent Satan.
This is the first work I’ve heard from Patrick
Williams, with his previous effort on Biblical settings being the Solomon
mini-series. One must feel sympathy for a composer who is treading over a
subject that has been visited by such greats as Beethoven, Handel, and Rozsa.
With such great composers as those, how could you even consider working on a
project like this? Apparently forgetting that those worthy predecessors even
existed, Williams delivers an admirable score for this film.
The basic centerpiece for the music revolves
around, appropriately enough, the theme for Jesus Himself. It is a rather
simple piece in its construction, and it is basically utilized on a lone
flute, although the orchestra occasionally chimes in when it is in need of
more emotional power. While it gets some good variations on it, it never
really swells to the point where it causes tingles to play on your spine
like a really good epic theme should. It may be that Williams wanted
something that was more humble, but it would have really worked well to
incorporate a more powerful theme, especially near the end. Sarah Brightman
is on hand to provide some moments of solo "ahhhing," adding a
nice flavor to the music. She has a more prominent role in the fourteenth
track where she performs the Pie Jesu piece from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Requiem.
One area where I was disappointed with this
score was the synthesized effects that appear throughout. These mostly take
the form of slight flourishes except for track eleven ("Satan") in
which they develop into full blown samples of what I believe is sounds of
screaming. This is a really clichéd representation of evil, as the same
effect has been used before in horror scores and I really think that Satan
should have had some kind of twisted variation on Jesus’ theme or some
other dark epic piece. Another problem I have with this score is that it
really just doesn’t get as emotionally powerful as it could have been,
especially compared to something like Handel’s Messiah. Now I
realize that this was a film score and that you really can’t let the music
completely take over the visuals in most cases, but I would have still liked
something that packed a little more punch. Sarah Brightman is a step in the
right direction, but a full-blown chorus would have really been nice
(although one does appear in Pie Jesu).
Despite its rough spots, this is still a great
score and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in
this one. ****
