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THE BLACK HOLE
Classic grand sci-fi music
 A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Music composed by
JOHN BARRY

Rating
* * * *



Performed by
UNNAMED ORCHESTRA
conducted by
JOHN BARRY

Orchestration
AL WOODBURY

Engineer
DAN WALLIN
Music Editor
EVELYN KENNEDY
Produced by
JOHN BARRY

Album running time
31:42

Released by
-
Catalog number
-

Album cover copyright (c) 1979 Disney; review copyright (c) 2008 James Southall

When thinking of John Barry, it's fair to say that science fiction is not the first genre that springs to mind.  During his varied early period and his romantic later period it is not a genre he worked in often, but he did score the high-profile 1979 Disney live-action attempt to cash-in on Star Wars, The Black Hole, which saw a spacraft discovered on the edge of a black hole, with only Maximillian Schell and a gang of robots on board.  It's not a good film.

Musically, though - it's beyond reproach.  Barry scored it straight after working on the most sci-fi-filled Bond film, Moonraker, and there are certainly similarities in approach (I think of that score's wonderful "Flight into Space" cue in particular).  The Black Hole was one of the last films to feature an orchestral overture before the film, and it's a grand, stirring march - as deliberately-paced as most of Barry's music, and most effective at conjuring images of a majestic adventure to follow (a pity that one of those never actually did follow).  It's such a fine piece, completely identifiable as Barry (as every piece of his music is) and yet not really directly sounding like anything else he wrote, save perhaps for the grandest moment of Raise the Titanic.

The main title piece which follows, on the other hand, is a swirling, hypnotic piece - distinctly Herrmannesque, in fact, apart from the rare - but thankfully rather subtle - use of synths - and it's quite grand itself, in its own way.  A third theme is quickly introduced, in "The Door Opens", this time a more suspenseful piece which once again has vague echoes of Herrmann in its occasional grandstanding.  There is a wonderful clarity about the music - Barry is not one to waste time noodling around, his music gets to the point directly.

Much of the rest of the score is built from the material introduced in those first three tracks, but there is still time for plenty more highlights.  The little shimmering string passage in the middle of "Zero Gravity"; the distinctly James Bond-like action cue "Durant is Dead", a real joy; and "Into the Hole" is a classic piece of suspense music, building up to one of the most thrilling climaxes of Barry's career.  I don't suppose the composer himself would place this music very high amongst his achievements, and in the grand scheme of the wonderful scores he has written that's fair enough, but there is an elegant grandeur to it, a true epic scope, that makes it a tremendously impressive listen.

So, it's a high-quality score for a high-profile film by one of the few film composers who can sell lots of albums on his name alone.  The fact that it has never been available on CD seems almost perverse.  It was rectified to a very slight extent by being made available to North American listeners via iTunes in 2007, but those of us in the rest of the world will have to make do with our LPs for some time longer.  Given that this was widely-reported to be the first-ever digital recording of a film score, it's especially disappointing that the official reason given by Disney for making it a download only and not releasing a CD is that the master tapes are in too poor condition to give CD-quality sound.  Still, one lives in hope that one day this terrific music will get the CD release it deserves.

Tracks

  1. Overture (2:26)
  2. Main Title (1:48)
  3. The Door Opens (3:38)
  4. Zero Gravity (5:47)
  5. Six Robots (1:59)
  6. Durant is Dead (2:31)
  7. Start the Countdown (3:48)
  8. Laser (2:19)
  9. Into the Hole (4:54)
  10. End Title (2:32)
    11.