The 13th Warrior: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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Free Music Notes for The 13th Warrior: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Free Music Review: Travel back to the time of vikings and thieves!
Hit: 5 Stars
This score is truly Jerry Goldsmith at his best - it`s powerfull,heroic,fun and relaxing. Although it lacks a really romantic theme,it`s still very good.I think it has many similarities to his score for "The Mummy", as it features a lot of arabesque music to represent Antonio Banderas` character, but in some way, it is much better. For example, it isn`t as repeatable as "The Mummy".
Goldsmith also did a great job when creating some music for the vikings. As there exists no known record of viking music, Goldsmith left it own imagination to figure out what their folk music may have been a like. And his results seem pretty realistic.
I really love the opening track, "Old Bagdad",which introduces the main theme, as it is typical, beautifull arabesque/middle eastern music combined with a western symphony orchestra. It`s large choir and french horns really makes this perfect "journey to the fate" music. It really makes me see a man going into his destiny in the front of me.
For some great viking music, listen to "The Great Hall", which is a mysterious and worrying track.
"The Fire Dragon is one of the most loud,heroic and fast-paced action cues I've ever heard from Goldsmith. Another great action track is "The Horns of Hell" which is both heroic and militaristic, and a great prelude to battle, using some deep chorus and drums.
"Mother Wendol`s Cave" is a really scary track, using synthesizers and brass which almost adds a screaming effect to it. It is a really pleasant experience (and probably served as a great inspiration source for James Newton Howard when he wrote the score for "Dinosaur",as the music is rather similar).
Over all, I must say that I really love this score, and multiple times, it has inspired me to draw fantasy images.
And at a playtime of 55 minutes, it is of a very suitable length - not too short, and not too long and repeatable either.
The "culture clash" in the music also gives it a nice variation, and the heroic main theme as well as the action cues really makes your fantasies flow out!
Free Music Review: An epic score by the king of film music
Hit: 5 Stars
Jerry Goldsmith was not the first composer chosen to score The 13th Warrior. Graeme Revell wrote a full score and then it was rejected and Goldsmith was brought in to score it. In my mind, Goldsmith seemed like the only person who could have scored this film, as Michael Crichton states in the package notes. He also added that Jerry would have to write Arabic music, which there is a rich tradition of and Viking music, which Jerry would have to make up, since there is no Viking music that we know of. He also stated that during the scoring session, it was very common for the orchestra to play through a cue, and then spontaneously burst into applause for the quality of the composition. Many of the musicians have also thanked Jerry for writing such interesting and challenging music for their instruments. Later, the musicians crowded into the control booth to watch the monitors, to see how the music goes with the film. The music contains 2 basic themes. The first is a romantic oboe theme heard in "Old Bagdad" and "A Useful Servant", among others. The second is a powerful horn and percussion theme, which represents the Viking music that Goldsmith made up, which can be heard in "Exiled", "The Great Hall", "The Sword Maker", and "Valhalla/Viking Escape". As always, Goldsmith utilizes outstanding action music, as in "The Horns of Hell", "The Fire Dragon", and "Valhalla/Viking Escape", among others. These cues are dominated by a killer brass section and clanging metal percussion. I call this score The Mummy's sister score because it sounds very similar in lots of parts. The inside cover features the note by Michael Crichton, pictures from the film, and Goldsmith conducting. The best way to sum up this score would be to quote Michael Crichton one more time: It's absolutely terrific: by turns rousing and heroic, ominous and lyrical, defeated and triumphant. In other words, it's a Jerry Goldsmith score.Free Music Review: If ever music fit the mood....
Hit: 5 Stars
Jerry Goldsmith seems to have the uncanny ability to transform what he sees visually, into what that visual stimulious might sound like in orchestra form. When I wasn't musically inclined as a kid, I saw Poltergiest, which he scored, and as an adult...I know relise half of the magic I loved from the movie, was Jerry's score. He just ... in those visuals and spits out a musical mood. And he seems to score his pieces in the style of a modern master. Very lyrical, but at the same, spontanious as film score calls for. 13th Warrior's score is just great. The music alone is as imaginative and thought provoking as the movie itself. Filmed in Canada, trying to look like a Scandanavian town...they acheive this greatly.The spooky cold mountians and the mist lingering around, with wood forts and great halls in the distance. Those visuals give you a sense of old world simplicity and nature. Jerry double matched this with music of mystery. Dark chords with low male chorus chants. Viking like horn calls and my favorite...a reacuring 'ocarina' sounding instrument that plays a couple long notes when you see the mist on screen. Very effective. And every now and then you hear a glimmer of mid-east modes on the guitar. All-in-All, this score has graced my player many times, and most likely will for years to come. It's a timeless soundtrack that creates a dark mood, and stirs up memories of the deep rooted courage of brotherhood the the vikings and warriors of the like had upon each other. Just as portraied in the movie. I've heard of an expanded soundtrack to this movie, which I suppose has some added cues, but the CD here has pretty much the best of the films cues. Deff. buy this if your a Film Score nerd...or you just like the dark sounds that and orchestra and chorus can create.
Free Music Review: A Triumph For Jerry Goldsmith
Hit: 5 Stars
Very often a motion picure soundtrack can be judged by its use for PBS promos and as background to network sports broadcasts. Based on this alone, Jerry Goldsmith's score for "The 13th Warrior" has already arrived. Comparisons with Goldsmith's other notable, recent score, "The Mummy," and earlier action-dramas such as "The Wind and the Lion," are inevitable, and "The 13th Warrior" deserves high praise along with them. This is a musical triumph, bravo, indeed! And what is most amazing is the fact that the composer was brought in at the eleventh hour to do the score. Several themes are used including an exotic "Arab theme" and a powerful "Viking theme" along with several, very menacing motifs for the "mist monsters," the "eaters of the dead." The extended track for "Viking Victory/Valhalla" is spectacular, and a bit different than the music used in the film. Here it should be noted that the soundtrack is superior to the film, in that some of the best music did not make it to the screen. In fact, there are several tracks that seem to have been left out of the film, but the good news is they are on the soudtrack. One minor complaint. Although the end titles were actually made up from parts of a variety of tracks, it would have been nice to have had them on the recording.Free Music Review: Manly Battle Hymms
Hit: 5 Stars
Goldsmith returns to form with perhaps his best score in years and one of his all-time best compositions. I saw the movie twice and immediately rushed to buy the soundtrack. I have been playing it in my car for 4 days now and I am totally inspired by the brassy manly battle horns and choral hymms of Norse warriors and the melodic Turkish overtures that run throughout the entire album. Reminiscent of Basil Poledouris' score for Conan the Barbarian only better, with a dash of Lawrence of Arabia meets Rambo. It is an orchestral onslaught of one percussive beat and hymm and gloriously triumphant fanfare after another. I definitely would rank this as one of Goldsmith's Top 5 scores ever! McTiernan should be honored to have such a magnificent score to compliment his epic Viking tale. And to think that Goldsmith was brought in at the eleventh hour only to produce one of his finest works to date. The legendary composer has proven himself once more!