Troy - Various Artists

...historical epics. With King Arthur, Troy and Alexander appearing within months of each other there was no lack of enthusiams for fans of this genre, although others may question these big budget conglamorations as being nothing more than the producers wish to ride the post-Lord of the Rings wave. As it was, none of these modern epics managed to pull through the consciousness of the audiences the way The Lord of the Rings did and either were lambasted ...
...historical setting familiar to all, Troy failed to generate enough hooplah to make much of an impression and was soon forgotten by all, ending up in the annals of cinema as just another big actioner in period costumes. But if there is one thing that continues to be discussed is the music, probably the most controversial scoring assignment of 2004.


THE HISTORY OF TROY'S SOUNDTRACK

Gabriel Yared is a composer most ... more

INTRODUCTION

2004 was a curiously strong year for historical epics. With King Arthur, Troy and Alexander appearing within months of each other there was no lack of enthusiams for fans of this genre, although others may question these big budget conglamorations as being nothing more than the producers wish to ride the post-Lord of the Rings wave. As it was, none of these modern epics managed to pull through the consciousness of the audiences the way The Lord of the Rings did and either were lambasted by all or quietly faded away from memory. In that latter group is Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, the epic retelling of the fall of Troy, with the ever marketable Brad Pitt as Achilles and the equally charming Orlando Bloom of LOTR fame as Paris, with Diane Kruger as their love interest Helen and Eric Bana as Hector. With the usual CGI effects, big battle sequences, attractive cast and a historical setting familiar to all, Troy failed to generate enough hooplah to make much of an impression and was soon forgotten by all, ending up in the annals of cinema as just another big actioner in period costumes. But if there is one thing that continues to be discussed is the music, probably the most controversial scoring assignment of 2004.

THE HISTORY OF TROY'S SOUNDTRACK

Gabriel Yared is a composer most readily known for his gentle romantic scores with their attractive string and piano writing expanding his entire career. After winning the Oscar for The English Patient in 1996, he's profile was much raised in the eyes of others (though in truth The English Patient doesn't really warrant the kind of admiration that it has received). Still Yared has never really broken away from these pleasant romantic heart-tuggers, until Wolfgang Petersen approached the composer with his projected large-scale epic Troy. The trust Petersen placed on Yared must have been immense since he had never before written anything that could even come close to the scale that would be needed in this film. Therefore, in April of 2003, Yared went hard to work by researching the period, the ethnic musical influences, and writing themes for what would be his largest assignment yet. Later that year Yared began recording the music. He assembled a 100-piece orchestra in London, with the addition of a 25-member brass section, a Bulgarian choir for authentic Eastern-European flavor and, for soloistic purposes, the Macedonian singer Tanja Tzarovska to sing for some specific scenes.

There was great enthusiams from everyone involved, including from the director himself who showed his approval and liked to hang around the recording studio while the music was being recorded. By March 2004 Yared had assembled 30 minutes of nearly finished raw score for the test screenings that were to be held at that time. What followed has caused much anger among the filmmusic community at large. After a remark from one or few of the members in the audience that they though the music sounded "old-fashioned" or "too brassy and bold", that was reason enough to throw the entire score into the dumpster. With recording sessions still scheduled to make finishing touches to the score, Yared was understandably flabbergasted when he was told that he was fired. With not even a chance to re-record or remix any of his music, the score was summarily dismissed by Warner executives as too incompatible with their ideas as to what the score should sound like. It has also been suggested that Warner Brothers was already negotiating with other composers before Yared was even notified of his dismissal.

Outraged, Yared did a rather bold move by writing a long and bitter letter that he posted on his website for everyone to see. There he explained everything that happened to him from the moment of his hiring to the moment of his firing and he openly told what he thought about such procedures and the fact that a composer who has worked hard on a score for almost a year is not even given the opportunity to fix the music in any way. To top off that he posted a full 32 minutes of the recorded Troy material on 18 tracks for free download on his website. Goes without saying that many (including myself) downloaded all of this material to their hard-drives the moment they learned about it's existence. These clips as well as the open letter have since disappeared (probably due to Warner's actions as they still own the copyright to the music), but the web is still filled with requests from many about the Yared Troy material, providing a marketable commodity in the bootleg market for the collectors who have long since downloaded the material. I have also heard some people finding a 75 minute promo album through various ways, but that is not exactly advertised outside of the filmscore forums to any great extent. There has been hopes expressed that the music be someday released by Warner Bros. on an official album much the same way as Jerry Goldsmith's last finished score for Timeline in 2003 that was rejected but after Jerry's death was released by Varèse Sarabande. But until that time the only way to hear Yared's Troy is through the individuals who are williang to share the downloaded music.

JAMES HORNER STEPS IN

In the mean time, the director now faced a problem. With the premiere only a month away, Petersen was now lacking music alltogether. To replace Yared, Warner then turned to the familiar name of James Horner, one of the most controversial and well-paid composers working in Hollywood. Horner is noted for being a very able composer who can write a score that fits a film like a glove. But he is also noted for his extensive recycling of his own material from score to score, which is not highly appreciated by most. In fact, this apparent lack of originality has only increased in his post-Titanic period, so that many of his recent scores are beginning to sound so much alike that its getting harder and harder to tell them apart. For Troy Horner had the daunting task of writing over two hours of music in less than a month. Therefore it is understandable that Horner got a little paniced and switched on autopilot for this assignment. He quickly assembled his performers, also hiring the Bulgarian Women's Choir and Yared's lead vocalist Tanja Tzarovska, with the addition of Josh Groban for the end credits song. Composed and recorded in just thirteen days it was an incredible undertaking, but one that provided the film with enough of the feeling of locale and style to feel right in the film.

The ironic thing about Troy is that it doesn't really sound all that different from a normal Horner score composed in a usual amount of time. It is a Horner score that walks smack in the middle of his style with no big deviations from his usual melodies or orchestrations. It is as standard as standard Horner can be with a few exceptions. The ethnic vocals of Tzarovska lend a stereotypical but new touch to Horner's music that I don't remember hearing before. When compared to the similar vocals of Yared one instantly notices that Horner's approach is much more mainstream in the lines of Gladiator. Yared's "Hector's Funeral" and Horner's "Hector's Death" are perfect comparisons of the use of Tzarovska's voice. Yared takes a harshly mournful and vailing approach that is a little hard to listen to while Horner's is distinctly more mellow. And that can also go for the rest of Horner's score. Horner's music goes pretty much in a wash along with his usual orchestrations and long cues that can best be described as colourful atmosphere. Yared's music on the other hand has much more character that emphasizes the more epic grandeur of the setting, although doubts have been expressed how his music would fit the actual film. Still Yared's music has less of an inclination to fade into being background music like Horner's longer and ultimately more aimless ramblings often tend to.

There are definite highlights despite the rather unspectacular overall approach. "Troy" is a particularly enjoyable cue with "golden" brass flourishes and bells, representing the glory of Troy. The steadily accelerating marching rhythm in "The Greek Army and Its Defeat" has great sustainability that reaches a quite enjoyable and inevitable feeling of terror and warfare. "The Trojans Attack" features some quite impressive brass fanfares that are a welcome addition to any such collection of similar tracks. The final "Through the Fires, Achilles…and Immortality" is another of those very long finale tracks that Horner likes so much and it showcases all of the main themes of the movie. And speaking of themes there are a few of them. What will turn off the enjoyability of this score for many from the outset will have to be Horner's trademark four-note "evil" motif that he has used ever since Star Trek II in 1982 and most notably as Bavmodra's theme in Willow back in 1988. The resurgence of this motif ever since in many other places (sometimes extremely prominently) has caused many people to tear Horner's scores apart every time they hear it. (And adding the fact that it is actually a piece of Rachmaninov doesn't help either.) Apart from the danger motif there is the theme for Achilles that is noble though not exactly that impressive, but it is appropriate enough for the film. The curious aspect of this theme is its quotation of seven notes from the finale of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. It is first heard about four minutes into "Achilles Leads the Myrmidons" and often resurfaces on other occasions. The other big theme is the love theme of Helen and Paris. First heard in "Briseis and Achilles" it is not one of Horner's strongest love themes, but is quite pleasant if you can ignore the remarkable similarity of this theme to David Arnold's Stargate theme (or alternatively to Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Thomas Tallis Fantasia). This curious similarity to the works of other composers is not exactly new to Horner, but having Rachmaninov, Vaughan-Williams and Shostakovich all appear so distinctly and identifiably in one score makes a massive detriment to the overall enjoyability of the music.

THE ALBUM

The album runs for a generous 75 minutes which can be considered as a bit overblown. The usual problem with these long Horner albums is the quantity of good material that is buried inside massive, ten-minute tracks. This is a particular detriment if the musical material is not particularly distinctive or varying for most of the time. Although Troy is not a worst case-in-point, it still could have used some pruning in some places. The song at the end, "Remember," is a particularly obnoxious pop song that is a familiar Horner trait ever since "My Heart Will Go On" became such a huge hit. Here it is performed by Josh Groban and Tanja Tzarovska (a rather bad combination) over the love theme. It has absolutely no chances of ever becoming a classic and is just another one of those filler songs put there to supposedly help record sales. Incidentally the song Yared himself wrote is another instance where he excelled over Horner. Also based on the love theme (his own that is), it is sung by Tzarovska in Macedonian with a gentle orchestral backing (note: no pop rhythms) and receives a lyrical, beautiful and touching performance. It is one of those instances when a film song actually elevates into that magical sense of finality and beauty so sorely lacking in many other such songs. Not a bad Horner work, but simply not distictive enough to warrant much interest. It is extremely professional, but is as standard as standard can be. Here's hoping that Yared's score will be released one day so that we can receive some solace after this fiasco of corporate stupidity.

TRACK LISTING

1. 3200 Years Ago (3:37)
2. Troy (5:02)
3. Achilles Leads the Myrmidons (8:30)
4. The Temple of Poseidon (3:28)
5. The Night Before (3:29)
6. The Greek Army and Its Defeat (9:39)
7. Briseis and Achilles (5:19)
8. The Trojans Attack (5:02)
9. Hector's Death (3:27)
10. The Wooden Horse and The Sacking of Troy (10:03)
11. Through the Fires, Achilles… and Immortality (13:27)
12. Remember (performed by Josh Groban and Tanja Tzarovska) (4:19)

Music Composed and Conducted by James Horner
Recorded and Mixed by Simon Rhodes
Recorded at Todd-AO Scoring Stage, Studio City, CA
Supervising Music Editor: Jim Henrikson
Music Editors: Dick Bernstein and Ramiro Belgardt
Assistant Music Editor: Barbara McDermott
Synthesizer Programming: Ian Underwood and Randy Kerber
Ethnic Instruments: Tony Hinnigan and Eric Rigler
Orchestrations by James Horner, Eddie Karam, Conrad Pope, Randy Kerber and Jon Kull
Ethnic Vocal Solos: Tanja Tzarovska
Choir: Bulgarian Women's Choir

"Remember"
Lyrics by Cynthia Weil
Performed by Josh Groban with Tanja Tzarovska
Arranged by David Foster, Jochem Van Der Saac, Randy Kerber and James Horner

Warner Sunset/Reprise (48798-2)

© berlioz
 

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