CD1: Lawrence of Arabia (Overture), Dr. Zhivago*, A Passage
to India, Jesus of Nazareth*, Ghost, Villa Rides, The Fixer*, Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome, Red Sun, Topaz, The Mosquito Coast, The Year of Living Dangerously,
Witness (Building the Barn - electronic version), Is Paris
Burning?
CD2: Dr. Zhivago (Lara's Theme), Ryan's Daughter*, The
Professionals, Fatal Attraction, The Tin Drum*, No Way Out, Enemy Mine*,
Night of the Generals, El Condor, The Man Who Would Be King, Witness (Building
the Barn - orchestral version), Lawrence of Arabia*
* indicates a suite from the score
Maurice Jarre is a consummate screen composer, his music often working very
well with the film it is written to accompany, often at the expense of being
particularly enjoyable away from the images. Perhaps because of this, and
even given the massive popularity of his scores for Lawrence of Arabia
and Dr. Zhivago, Maurice Jarre has never been a composer to find great
favour among film music aficionados. I am afraid that this generously extensive
and spectacularly recorded anthology will do little to change that, as if
this is the most enjoyable of the composer's output, his back catalogue must
remain largely unappealing.
Jarre will, of course, forever be associated with the great English director
David Lean, and this double album reflects the fact with three separate sections
totalling around 40 minutes of music from the four films the pair made in
collaboration. Despite the album's title, the most music is from Lawrence
of Arabia, the first disc opening with the 'Overture', the second ending
with an almost 13-minute suite from the score. Few would seriously deny that
this is Jarre's finest work for the screen, music so much better than almost
everything else in his canon that one can only wonder 'what went wrong?'
Perhaps it was just that he never again had a film so good, and needed greatness
to inspire his own creativity. Whatever, the sound has both great physical
impact, and subtle ambient detail. The suite is most skilfully arranged,
and the playing is spot on.
The other Lean/Jarre films are covered by a brief theme from A Passage
to India - the director's belated and disappointing final film - a suite
and a version of 'Lara's Theme' from Dr. Zhivago, and rather better,
nine minutes from Ryan's Daughter. Regardless of what anyone else
tells you, this film is a masterpiece (Lean's second finest), and the music
rather superior to that from Dr. Zhivago.
The other director Jarre is particularly associated with is the Australian
Peter Weir. We are offered electronic music (arranged and performed with
great skill by Mark Ayres) from The Year of Living Dangerously, The
Mosquito Coast, and from the famous 'Building the Barn' sequence from
Weir's finest American film, Witness. This particular cue, a blend
of baroque fugue and rousing Coplandesque Americana is rightly celebrated
as the strongest single piece of film music Maurice Jarre has written in
decades. The booklet offer a reason as to why the film version, and indeed
the entire score, were originally recorded using electronic instruments -
apparently it was to avoid upsetting the sensibilities of the Amish, as featured
in the film. The Amish reject all instrumental music, believing it to be
associated with the devil. Given that they also reject all modern technology,
presumably they would regard electronic music as even more 'devilish'? (And
come to that, wouldn't they so regard the very idea of film itself?) The
explanation really doesn't make any sense: surely a choral score would have
been the route to take - or perhaps someone should just have pointed-out
to the Amish all those places in the Bible where instruments are happily
condoned and encouraged, for instance, the very fact that King David is recorded
as being both a skilled player of the lyre (1 Samuel 16: 16-18) and even
an inventor of musical instruments (Amos 6:5). (NIV). Anyway, Jarre's piece
works as a fine independent musical set-piece, and is presented here both
in electronic and orchestral versions. The latter is by far the superior.
Incidentally, this month's Earth: Final Conflict soundtrack also contains
electronic scoring for a drama involving the Amish.
Continuing the religious theme, there is an impressive suite from the 1977
Franco Zeffirelli mini-series, Jesus of Nazareth. This is one case
where rather more would be appreciated, as the score was obviously conceived
on a grand scale to match the 7 hours of the series. The 8-minutes here really
only whets the appetite for a longer-suite, or possibly a full album. A 9-minute
suite from Enemy Mine offers an effective shift from electronics to
orchestra, and the main title from No Way Out builds tension with
synthesisers in a very 80's Carpenteresque way. It will be enough to make
you watch the film again, which given that this remains one of the great
screen thrillers, is no bad thing.
The Tin Drum is the sort of score which is, once heard, never forgotten.
It has a uniquely percussive sound. The question is, for all its invention,
will you ever want to hear it again? As for the rest of the music, it too
often seems lacking the inspiration which would make it truly outstanding,
while at the same time never being less than thoroughly professional. Whatever
your feelings about the music of Maurice Jarre, this excellent value anthology
offers as good a presentation of the highlights of his career as you are
going to find.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
The City of Prague
Philharmonic & Crouch End Festival Chorus conducted by Paul Bateman (Nic
Raine - one track). The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner.
Electronic music realised by Mark
Ayres 
