"Western'" ears may find it difficult to understand
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was director Ang Lee's first venture into the fantasy world, with striking visual effects and Marshal-arts sequences that hover in the bounds of reality, dream and fantasy. The story revolves around two Marshal-arts warriors and friends, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) in 18th-Century China. When Mu Bai's sword "The Green Destiny" is stolen, probably by the infamous student of the hated Jade Fox, who murdered Mu Bai's master, he must now join forces with Shu Lien to locate and battle Jade Fox and her student.
The person Ang Lee chose as composer for Crouching Tiger was Tan Dun, a respectable classical and opera composer, who had already composed music for a handful of other films. The approach Dun took, was one of subtlety, with very little of what most of us would call "typical" action music. Instead he uses a variety of percussion instruments and subtle, light-textured instruments that are used widely throughout, most notable of them being the cello solos of Yo-Yo Ma and a handful of different woodwind instruments, with only a handful of more weighty brass to be found. Now Tan dun is most notably a concert-composer, so this work reflects that background well. As a sure indication the score on album stands very well alone, without the action on-screen, while not really giving us a vivid description of the actual images. Yet, the music probably fits the action on-screen very well, which is something not everybody is capable of producing (being either perfect on film, but not on album or vice-versa).
For Western ears the Chinese elements take some time to get used to. The music is so subtle, that it requires multiple listens to be fully appreciated. It is just the kind of music that is artistically high in quality, but is not understood so readily by the masses. This is the major drawback to the score. Many would rather shy away from this kind of music, not quite knowing how to handle it, but it certainly is worth the effort. To make it more marketable, Sony Classical has included the usual pop song a la Titanic (sung in English and Mandarin). The problem with this song or songs is that it completely breaks the mood of the score. The score is so subtle, that the song really feels out of place in this context. But then again, you don't have to listen to them, so there's a solution for you.
The film itself fared quite well with the Academy. It was declared the Best Foreign-Language Film of 2000, and also won awards for Cinematography and Art Direction. Tan Dun's score won in the category of Original Score, beating John Williams' The Patriot, Hans Zimmer's much applauded Gladiator and Rachel Portman's Chocolat, thus being a somewhat of a surprise winner of the award, since it is not that "Western" or bombastic like, say, Gladiator and The Patriot, and as such was not likely to be a great success. Well, it certainly was worthy of it, to be sure.
To buy it, or not? That is entirely up to your likes. This is a very subtle score. If you like your music not to be "in your face" action, and prefer a more quiet approach, this might just please you. But it is not easy to get inside of. For artistic quality it's fantastic; for adrenalin-pumping action it's none-existent.
Music Composed by Tan Dun Cellos Solos by Yo-Yo Ma Performed by The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai National Orchestra and Shanghai Percussion Ensemble Conducted by Tan Dun and Chen Xie Yang Soloists: Erhu: Ma Xiao Hui Bawu, Dizi: Tang Jun Qiao Rawap: Alimjan Hand drum: Kasim Percussion solo: David Cossin
Recording Engineers: Richard King, Lu Xiao Xing and Xu Gou Qin Mix Engineer: Richard King Recorded at Shanghai Radio, Film and TV Bureau Technical Center Mixed at Sony Music Studios & Clinton Recording Studios, New York Album Produced by Steven Epstein and Tan Dun
"A Love Before Time" Music by Jorge Calandrelli and Tan Dun Lyrics by James Schamus Mandarin Version by Kevin Yi Performed by CoCo Lee Cellos Solos by Yo-Yo Ma Arranged, Produced and Conducted by Jorge Calandrelli Background Vocals (English): Wendy Pedersen and Tommy Anthony Background Vocals (Mandarin): Paula Ma and Wen-De Hsieh
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