The Wings of the Dove

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Edward Shearmur is becoming more and more the favorite or one of the favorites of many fans. Difficult to understand it is not, an orchestral composer, a man of many voices and a young bright complex and technically crafted writer. The reason why many people were thrilled with Reign of Fire, Johnny English and are waiting to hear the much anticipated Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Back in his early years or better said early career years, Shearmur was already working on many films. Perhaps not all were noticed or in the end liked but Shearmur got to work on A-films instead of B-ones and so, he got the taste early of the Hollywood world. And that Hollywood world can be a bit diverse in vision and tone. The Wings of the Dove was one of the early movies he got to work on and for that, he wrote a beautiful painting of a score. The problem is, I couldn't care less for it of actually hearing it. For whatever reason, but this score doesn't attract a point of interest in me and is forgotten between the many long string and underscore lines. Perhaps one of the reasons is its rooted sense of the classical music, an era it of course tries to reprehend through its music. Another part is a lack of noticeable themes, or better said themes you can easily pick and point out. The Wings of the Dove is as a soundtrack a failed product because it doesn't stir interest and I'm sure will do the same with others too. On the other hand, it does unveil another musical style of the young Shearmur and that is good to know if it ever comes down to another part of this more romanticized era, so that he can produce a more direct musical theme soundtrack instead.

The point is again, once more I don't understand the reason for not liking it, but the music all sounds the same and is played in the same tempo while not differing much from the long string lines or underplayed themes. A theme I can't think of, but there are returning moments of music that depict there are indeed structural based ideas behind the music. 'Underground' presents almost a Trevor Jones string theme (though never that big) with a little bit of tension building if you can call it that, that string theme returns in 'Rendezvous' but on flute and solo violin. Already here the light repetitive side starts to be noticed, but a piano makes a welcome move to stop that for a while. However, also the piano returns the exact same sad way and therefore doesn't do much help either. A nice tuba in 'Social Contract' sets the orchestral romance to a start while the best moment appears in 'Venice', portraying the beauty of the city in a glorious but brief orchestral romantic blush. But then its back to lonesome solo work. 'Carnival Masque' is different because of its jolly playful serenade work on tambourine and flute but doesn't interest me much until a nice added piano and strings set a rhythm not quite heard of. In 'Tryst' it briefly reappears but the rest is the overlong string lines returning. 'Betrayal' uses cello and piano to portray a somber side to the music and this doesn't help much to make it all that approachable while 'The Wings of the Dove' sounds in the end like a good track, but only to be forgotten because you aren't paying attention anymore to the music. Tell me, The Wings of the Dove is in the end a fine score, but I will not listen to it anymore because I don't care for it basically. Shearmur did perhaps do the movie justice (writing a score for the genre on the tempo of the movie) but as a listening experience you have to be interested in hearing it and above all liking it in the first place. The one will more then the other and so for that, see the film first. A classical inspired long somber listen that has the ideas but not in the best presentation, and I fear many people will hardly listen to it once they can chose from so many (and also other Shearmur) works instead.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Underground (4.07)

2. Rendezvous (4.26)

3. Social Contract (4.17)

4. Venice (7.15)

5. Carnival Masque (4.50)

6. Tryst (6.22)

7. Courtship (5.39)

8. Betrayal (5.51)

9. The Wings Of The Dove (6.09)

Total Length: 49.01

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Edward Shearmur ===