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Artwork copyright (c) 2001 Affair Productions, LLC; review copyright (c) 2002 James Southall
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THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE Unusual period score a disappointment
For years David Newman has stuck rigidly to scoring big-budget movies, mostly comedies in recent years, and has shown great talent for writing boisterous music for full orchestra while many of his fans have been longing for him to once in a while score a smaller film that would allow him to gain a little more recognition for diversity and might even lead to some higher-quality big-budget material. The Affair of the Necklace is probably the closest he's come to trying it, but alas the film sank without trace (or much in the way of critical recognition) and the same could really be said of the score. Period films like this offer a good opportunity for the composer - Patrick Doyle and George Fenton in particular have always shone when presented with material such as this. Newman has approached it in a rather different way and here, I think he's not really done it so well. Rather than either writing a smaller score for a more intimate ensemble or writing a big score and recording in London or Prague to save money, Newman has tried to write a big score for a small orchestra, reluctant to move away from the Los Angeles musicians he knows so well even if it means saving money. And that's where the score's real problem is. It plods along for much of its forty minutes without real incident, pleasant enough but not especially involving: it's really difficult to get a hook on the score for most of its length. It shines when Newman occasionally introduces a choir to proceedings, but unfortunately the very short tracks don't allow him to develop his material very much, so just as the album threatens to get more interesting, the track ends and it's back to more low-key meandering. You can't score a film of this period without harpsichords and in that regard Newman does not surprise - where he does surprise in when the music needs to get slightly more up-tempo or exciting, and the composer opts to include synthesisers and electronic drums. Bringing Yamaha to the renaissance - Handel would not have approved of that. Unfortunately this score is a huge disappointment and while it remains highly-listenable throughout, it offers little of real interest. It probably works well enough in the film, but isn't sufficient for an album. Pity. |