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Composed by
JERRY GOLDSMITH

Rating
* * * *

Album running time
30:12

Performed by
UNNAMED ORCHESTRA
conducted by
JERRY GOLDSMITH

Orchestrations
ARTHUR MORTON

Engineered by
BRUCE BOTNICK
Produced by
JERRY GOLDSMITH

Released by
VARESE SARABANDE
Serial number
VSD-5699

Artwork copyright (c) 1996 Castle Rock Entertainment; review copyright (c) 2004 James Southall

 

CITY HALL

Dark and moody music as Goldsmith goes on the waterfront

A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

An under-rated political thriller, Harold Becker's City Hall charts corruption at the highest levels in New York City's government, featuring strong performances from Al Pacino and John Cusack.  It was the director's second collaboration with Jerry Goldsmith, after Malice, and elicited a very strong score from the composer, who clearly took his inspiration from Leonard Bernstein's seminal On the Waterfront (as he would do the year later for the similarish LA Confidential).

The timpani pound the city's heartbeat and the trombones and horns suggest the corruption and rage sweeping through the mayoral office.  The opening cue, "The Bridge", is a brilliantly moody portrait of a city.  "The Meet", an absolute explosion of energy, is nothing short of sensational, one of the finest pieces of music Goldsmith has ever penned - a dark, bleak, terrifying and exciting piece, again with the growling timpani playing a key role, this time joined by very effective synthesised percussion to add an essence of driving horror.  It's clearly a precursor to the more celebrated "Bloody Christmas" in LA Confidential, and is every bit as good.

If the rest of the score doesn't live up to those two opening tracks, its more an indication of their immense quality than any particular lack of quality in the rest.  Goldsmith creates a wonderfully moody atmosphere, a smoky, bluesy backdrop to the film.  It is mostly underscoring dialogue and so cannot be as powerful as those opening pieces, but the composer gets real mileage from his somewhat modest ensemble of musicians, writing interesting and compelling music for those scenes.  Listen to the violins in "The King Maker", extremely powerful though never overbearing.  Things do get more hurried in some tracks, like the great "Old Friends", a sophisticated and impressive piece of action music.

This is a very grown-up and mature score, one of the most intelligent and effective of Goldsmith's later career, for one of the few films he's scored over the last couple of decades which has much real quality.  It's not for everyone, but for fans of the composer's more sophisticated, less streamlined scores of old, it's a sure-fire winner.

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Tracks

  1. The Bridge (2:05)
  2. The Meet (2:57)
  3. The Hospital (2:17)
  4. When I Was a Kid (2:21)
  5. The Cabin (1:06)
  6. The King Maker (2:22)
  7. Old Friends (2:49)
  8. Swartz is Dead (2:45)
  9. Think About It (1:22)
  10. The Report (1:37)
  11. Take a Vacation (3:31)
  12. Count on It (4:50)