The most magnificent and sublime soundtrack that offers something for almost everyone
Disadvantages:
The three source songs
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
INTRODUCTION
I have never really been a great fan of Thomas Newman's music. The few early orchestral scores I have heard such as Little Women, Oscar and Lucinda, and The Horse Whisperer always came across to me as pleasant but ultimately not all that involving to invite for many repeated listenings. In fact the only real exception that comes to mind was Shawshank Redemption that had a limited run time in my player. But my interest in the composer finally dissipated when he entered his experimental phase at the turn of the millenia with scores like American Beauty and Erin Brockovich. His shift in using a more minimalistic approach and preference to smaller instrumental ensembles, often employing a diverse array of quirky percussive instruments and off-beat rhythms rather than themes and melodies, caused his music to sound too mediocre and rather uninteresting to my tastes to warrant much attention from me. And although this did open a new fan base for the more contemporary-inclined music fans, my preference for the sound of a fullsome symphony orchestra caused me to rather avoid the composer's works altogether. Little did I expect then that Newman would eventually compose one of the most sublime modern scores I have heard in a long while.
Angels in America is based on Tony Kushner Pulitzer-prize winning stage play, first performed on Broadway in 1993. In 2003, HBO took the play and transformed it into a mini-series in two parts (Millenium Approaches and Perestroika) under the direction of Mike Nichols and starring such actor-heavyweights as Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. Set in the middle of the Reagan administration in the 1980's Angels in American deals with the fate of several gay men caught in the grips of the AIDS epidemic, sexual denial and frustration, religious revolution, and the battle between Liberals and Conservatives in the stormy political seas of the time. The social-political commentary is still as potent as it was then and underlining the whole work is the concept of "migration," of transformation, advancement, and change - and the unrest caused by the abandonment of loved ones in time of need. Despite it's evident slow advancement during the first three hours of its running time which could be termed by some as being "boring," there is a certain magical quality to the film that transcends all of this to create an alluring experience that keeps you interested throughout its length. With high production values, the play has been quite successfully transformed for TV without compromising the aspects of the play too much and as such it does feature a lot of witty and theatrical dialogue that is perfectly adapted to the more real world of New York. With strong performances from all involved, Angels in America is one powerfully effective work that deserves all the praise it has got.
THE SCORE
When I bought the soundtrack for Angels in America, I was pretty much taking a leap of faith. My only real touch with the music was from one sound clip I had heard over a commercial on TV and got it without even reading any reviews of it whatsoever. (And I really wasn't even sure if that soundclip actually came from the film.) But after listening to the album twice around I was very relieved. Many have often wondered what would come out if Newman mixed his older orchestral styles with his more funky experimental style. Well, the most affirmative answer would have to be Angels in America. Newman here takes a traditional full orchestra and adds to it some more exotic soloistic instruments like a kantele (a Finnish instrument by the way), esraj, skin drums, ice metals, bodhran, lute, manipulated violin, dayre, processed chimes, guitars of many different types (traditional, baritone electric, high-string) as well as some more traditional soloistic instruments like oboe, violin and piano, and to all this adds a number of vocal soloists and a choir. These all create a very diverse musical canvas that is at times sublime and harsh, but always touchingly harmonic.
Newman's approach when scoring Angels (and this goes for his other scores as well) was not to depict what was happening on the screen at each given time but to underline the emotions beneath, thereby deepening the audiences understanding of the scene. This lends the music a more transparent quality that never really jumps at you. After listening to the score and then viewing the film I was reinforced in my thoughts. The music is always in the background and almost never takes centrestage in the action. You can hear it, but you are never disturbed by it. For the most unmusical it might even slip by without any notice at all. But it is still there, weaving its sub-conscious messages to our understandings. And when taken out of the film the music stands well by itself without ever sounding like it "needs" pictures to accompany it. The music itself is used very sparingly when taken into account that Angels is six hours long in total. Therefore the music is never degraded into mere sound for the sake of sound. You will never hear any music where there is no real need for it.
MAIN THEMES
The score has three main themes that are highlighted in their initial presentations by the use of the oboe, an instrument used to depict the migratory aspects of the story as it is stated in the film itself: "If the duck was a song bird, it would sound like this: nasal, desolate, the call of migratory things." The main title is a perfect representation of this with its broad, minor-key dialogue with the string orchestra, with the odd sorts of guitar and other chimes constantly in the background. It is a fuller depiction of America as a whole as we glide over familiar American landmarks shrouded in misty clouds and when the trumpets and choir enter half-way through as we descend on New York, the more baroque spiritual sides are brought to the fore. This beautiful main theme doesn't make too many appearances on album, with the only note-worthy appearance taking place in the cue "The Mormons," where it is played with a fiddle with counterpoint from guitar. The main title already shows us Newman's usual method of scoring that is apparent throughout Angels in America in providing constantly harmonious music while taking a few other soloistic instruments to perform more off-beat accents in the background. This approach creates a strange magical quality to the writing that is absolutely phenomenal. These accents skew the music from sounding too conventional but never disrupt the flow of harmony.
The second large theme is for the more emotional migration of leaving one's loved one behind and moving on with one's life. It is first presented in "Ellis Island" and is more gently beguiling than the main theme. It is again presented with the oboe in the foreground and makes several appearances throughout in cues like "Bethesda Fountain" and "Tropopause." This gentle theme, however, does not essentially differ much from the initial melodic style of the main theme and is actually quite close to the brass and choir moment in the "Main Title." The third major theme is for the depiction of Prior Walter's angelic mission that is a mix of both the two other major themes with its mix of gentleness and gorgeous, minor-keyed spirituality and magnificence. The first appearance for it comes in "Ozone" where we again can hear the oboe, and making further appearances in "More Life" and "The Great Work Begins" where it receives its most extended and glorious appearance and makes for a great album highlight and one of the highlights of Thomas Newman's entire career. And when followed without break by the cue "Tropopause" with the Ellis Island theme intoned by two female vocalists in counterpoint, it makes for an utterly stunning conclusion. These two tracks in alone could already warrant the purchase of the album.
OTHER THEMATIC MATERIAL AND SCORE DETAILS
The score also has other minor themes as well. The most noticeable is probably the distant and eerie motif that usually signifies the distant heaven and is always intoned by a hauntingly otherworldly boy-soprano vocals in the cues "Threshold of Revelation," "Broom of Truth," "Plasma Orgasmata" and "Garden of the Soul." For the more concrete angelic appearances, the score offers these quite bountifully, especially toward the end. The use of the choir is a special detail in this score. Thomas Newman has not used a choir this extensively since 1997's Oscar & Lucinda which also had some pseudo-religious undertones in it. This grand choral style is first presented in its fullest in the cue "The Infinite Descent" which is the one cue that enticed me to buy this in the first place. It has much baroque undertones to it à la Händel and it mixes several liturgical texts into one from the Requiem Aeternam to shouts of Hallelujah in a kind of mock religiousness that also translates well to the Angel performed by Emma Thompson, who recites old scriptures with great bluster and passion but not being able to deviate from these texts to see the obsoleteness of them in the world of today. These big angelic bursts are also about the only moments when the music is allowed to become a little more overpowering. Other such moments can be heard in the cues "Submit!" that features a very powerful surge of choral might, "Delicate Particle Logic" whose concluding strains accompany the Angel flying back to heaven, and "Black Angel," a score highlight.
Taking "Black Angel" separately it gives us two predominate styles of the score, that of powerful angelic climaxes and dissonant Goldenthal-like horror. The wild electric guitar and dissonant bursts of brass offer some truly powerful sounds that wouldn't be out of place in a horror movie. Cues such as "Her Fabulous Insipience," "Submit!", and "Black Angel" in particular give the score its greatest explosions of sound while they are largely unlistenable for any long durations. Prior Walter's battle with the Angel in "Black Angel" makes these two worlds of triumph and horror collide in a ferocious clash that is one of the greatest showpieces of the score and is a highlight scene in the film as well. At the other end of the spectrum in these angel scenes are the two orgasmic moments where the Angel gives Prior Walter an orgasm in "Plasma Orgasmata" and does the same for one of Meryl Streep's characters in "Garden of the Soul." Here the music sounds incredibly similar to the "Scene d'Amour" in Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo but without sounding too much like a rip-off. In fact the build-up to those big climaxes is always heartfelt and when the climax comes, it is a great release that is very similar to the kind of release one hears in the final "Liebestod" in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
Of course there are also the odd sorts and other cues that are more scene specific. One of my absolute favourites is the scene when Prior enters heaven in the aptly titled cue "Heaven." With the black and white surroundings of the crumbling Heaven and the red clothing of Prior (with the red Golden Gate bridge in the background), the music accompanies these surreal surroundings with great touch. The eerie choral surges over atonal strings and the constant electronic backing with a flute fluttering completely oblivious to everything else is one of the most spine-chilling and haunting musical moments I have ever heard. To this we can also add cues like "Umdankbar Kind" and "Bayeux Tapestry" that offer the kind of Newman-like wanderings of harmonious music trying to find a resolution but never being able to get there. In fact there is hardly anything to fault in this score and the only criticism I have of the album are the three source songs that have been included ("Solitude," "Closer Walk With Thee" and "I'm His Child") that unfortunately are placed in between the score and disrupt the magical feel of Newman's work. In reality the only song I could have permitted to be included, but wasn't, was Henry Mancini's "Moon River" that is one of my favourite songs of all time.
CONCLUDING WORDS
Thomas Newman's work on Angels in America is one of the most sublime creations of film music I have recently come to grips with. It was a gamble purchasing this and I haven't been sorry one bit. If Newman can continue with scores like this then there might well be a bright future ahead of him. By combining his two large styles, Angels in America can well be thought as being Newman's greatest score yet and will definitely be viewed as a highpoint in his career. For my money, I'd recommend just about everybody to pick one up, because no matter what your musical inclination is, Angels in America is a rare representation of beauty that can lift one up to the spheres with the angels.
TRACK LISTING
1. Threshold of Revelation (0:56) 2. Angels in America (Main Title) (2:19) 3. Lesionnaire (0:40) 4. Ellis Island (2:06) 5. Acolyte of the Flux (1:15) 6. Umdankbar Kind (1:25) 7. The Ramble (1:08) 8. Ozone (0:58) 9. Pill Poppers (1:18) 10. Quartet (6:45) 11. Solitude (performed by Duke Ellington) (3:12) 12. Bayeux Tapestry (1:49) 13. Spotty Monster (0:48) 14. Mauve Antarctica (4:48) 15. Her Fabulous Incipience (1:06) 16. The Infinite Descent (0:56) 17. A Closer Walk With Thee (performed by George Lewis) (2:57) 18. Broom of Truth (2:51) 19. Submit! (1:16) 20. Plasma Orgasmata (2:58) 21. Delicate Particle Logic (1:38) 22. The Mormons (1:52) 23. Prophet Birds (2:43) 24. More Life (2:10) 25. Black Angel (4:11) 26. Garden of the Soul (4:06) 27. Heaven (2:02) 28. Bethesda Fountain (1:19) 29. The Great Work Begins (End Title) (3:57) 30. Tropopause (2:58) 31. I'm His Child (performed by Zella Jackson Price) (3:36)
Music Composed and Conducted by Thomas Newman Recorded and Mixed by Tommy Vicari at Signet Sound Studios Orchestra Recorded by Armin Steiner at The Fox Newman Scoring Stage and Todd Scoring Stage Assistant Engineers: Tom Hardisty, John Rodd & David Marquette Orchestrations by Thomas Pasatieri Vocal Arrangements: Thomas Pasatieri & Thomas Newman Music Editor: Bill Bernstein Assistant Music Editor: Michael Zainer
Instrumental Soloists: George Doering, Michael Fisher, Steve Tavaglione, George Budd, Rick Cox, Steve Kujala, Leslie Reed, Sid Page, Oliver Schroer, John Beasley, Bill Bernstein & Thomas Newman
Vocal Soloists: Elin Carlson, Dwayne Condon, Chris Ibenhard, Susan Stevens Logan, Susan Montgomery, Bobbi Page & Sally Stevens
