Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

The producers chose well to pick Elliot Goldenthal as the composer. He is a most
interesting composer indeed, and quite excellent. There is “something different” and
quite intelligent and refined and crossing-the-limits quality about his music, an impact I
also encountered in, say, Charles Koechlin’s rarefied music. I am very impressed with
both composers’ music. I wrote a paper about Goldenthal (“The Nature of Elliot
Goldenthal’s Music”) online on my Film Score Rundowns site. The nice feature in the
dvd is that in the Special Features is an isolated score with a commentary by the
composer—although he often goes silent many minutes before commenting! In other
words, he doesn’t comment on each and every cue (I wish he did!). Very rarely does a
composer offer a commentary on his own music in a dvd. Jerry Goldsmith did it for
Hollow Man for sure, but I am not sure if he did for another movie. I believe Basil
Poledouris did one on Starship Troopers (I’ll check later), and I think Danny Elfman did
one or two commentaries. Goldenthal’s commentary on Final Fantasy is a gem special
feature. If Newton, Horner, Williams, Stromberg/Morgan (they always seem to be doing
scores together instead of separately!) and others did detailed commentaries as
Goldenthal did here (wish he was even more technical and specific!) it would be the best
of all possible worlds when purchasing dvds.
Goldenthal starts off talking about clusters used in a misterioso fashion, sustained
tonalities, the use of the glass harmonica to denote fragility and floating as Aki propel
floats up to the view window looking down upon the beautiful blue planet Earth. Here
(dvd 00:03:02) he states that he used a “giant Eb chord” for majesty for this view
followed by percussion to underscore the para-military operation of this ship (battling the
alien phantoms). This music is no Phantom of the Opera but, in a sense, Phantom of the
Planet. At dvd 00:12:15 we come to Barrier City # 42 near New York City. Nice music
here (but heard again later in the score since we come back to the Barrier City quite a
lot). I believe there is a long stretch when Goldenthal say nothing (perhaps smoking a
phantom menthol or something!) and returns at 00:14:12 talking about rhythmic shifts,
pizzicati and other devices employed to convey a sense of urgency and tension in this
scene, that time is of the essence. Then it resolves into a type of beginning romance
music between Aki and Captain Gray Edwards (voice by Alec Baldwin). At 00:19:49 is
the second dream sequence that Goldenthal states is contrasted with the first dream
because now the scene demands a savagely percussive treatment, low brass in
syncoptated rhythms, bass drum and other drums in heavy accent, lots of “thumping” and
rhythmic shifts. He soon talks about his strong use in the score of the asian flute, the
Shakuhachi. At dvd 00:28:07 he talks about the return of the glass harmonica texture to
convey the delicate quality followed by an introduction to the piano in a minor key waltz
piece, childlike nostalgia, a yearning for home, and other subtleties. I liked the music at
00:31:19 with the repeated four-note quarter note repeat patterns with occasional
sustained high tones. The next dream sequence is at 00:31:55. He says the motivic
materials are basically the same but more complex and dense. He uses twelve-tone
clusters, horns modulating, trombones Q & A technique. For that battle scene he uses low
trombones and very high strings, and after the tycho drums there is a mixture of orchestra
and electronic sounds, fading in & out effects, and so forth. The music sequence at dvd
00:35:16 is very nice. The music is not horrific here (yet anyway!) in this wasteland
scene, instead floating and rather beautiful. At 00:35:54 is particularly nice with the
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