Animal Farm

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Every year there has to be a surprising overlooked score that steals your heart, without you ever realizing it. Besides Anna and the King, The Cider House Rules, Durango, Galaxy Quest, Medal of Honor and Outcast I have enjoyed also the likes of Richard Harvey, his score Animal Farm isn't just television music. No, the orchestral and choral combination works to bring music that lives and breaths, creating an incredible emotional level of music. Sometimes composers can bring music that excels beyond the usual entry, making the movie a complete different experience and compose music that sounds and feels like pure magic. I feel that way when I hear the heroic and glorious main theme, both in their orchestral and choral approach, making the score a winner on its own, supported through the dark but excellent character compositions. There are of course similarities to make with Babe of Nigel Westlake, you can not ignore the facts. But both scores have a different feel and yet they create some similarities with or without the mere fact of pure coincidence. Babe used the enchanting melody of 'If I had Words' and it became an orchestral climax through Westlake's adjustment. Richard Harvey's main theme is somewhat darker but it gets that color when the Budapest Radio Choir joins in. The end result is simply brilliant. Best to describe it is listening to the first and last track, in '"Storm of Judgment" / Main Title' you receive an extremely dark approach but at the end of 'End Titles' it is heard in pure emotional color along with another sensational uplifting piece of music.

But actually there is a lot more in Animal Farm then just the main theme. Richard Harvey also combines various styles of music. First of all he combines brief song interpretations into an orchestral growing version of that theme, 'Old Major's Last Words / Beasts of the World' opens with a solo voice before growing into a choral version with orchestra and then the effect is far from usual. 'We Can Help Ourselves' has first darker piano and a string effect that both mimics Pacific Heights and Presumed Innocent before it again grows into a song theme version of the previous track. The song version technique growing also promises great things in 'Glorious Leader Napoleon! / Squealer's Song' and here it does it not only with the choral growing but also with an additional main theme statement, fantastic. But there is still more then just that. We have two big action tracks, 'The Battle of the Barn' is just 2 minutes long but it contains a great action version of the song theme of track 4 and it moves again into the song theme with the solo voices. But 'The Big Battle' is much better then the previous one, here 2 minutes are spend on building the excitement before the action begins, with great choral statements of the song theme again of track 4. This song theme works as an additional theme all in itself and its a crowd pleaser. But there is also the more darker sections of the character development, and they usually portray the villains of the animals if you can call it that. It isn't terribly exciting but at occasions its better then planned, 'Boxer's Fate' proves to have a great exploding dramatiscism of the main theme with stunning additional piano on it, and again it fulfils the needs of this soundtrack lover very well.

Mostly, the dark sections lean a bit on the sound that John Williams used in the first Star Wars score, when he portrayed the little sand people and that he used tuba's and lower trumpets, well here the same and occasionally it comes close too sounding like Williams, 'Dumb Animals ...' and 'The Pigs Take Control' for instance. But its of course the stunning optimism and the sound of freedom that takes the biggest color in this entire score, and true its a dream to hear. Tracks 7 to 9 grow with color when occasionally the choir performs the main theme even more with pride, like in 'In the House / Commandments' its truly sensational. At the end the piece with a solo voice namely 'The Song of the Graceful Duck' is a furious piece all on itself, big bombastic too if you ask me. First an opera voice starts to sing before the furiousness of the orchestra truly explodes and that with additional voices starts to create true mayhem, but in a good sense since the effect is mesmerizing. 'We Were Never Free' by then states the threatening dark main theme like heard in the first track and then heaven lights up when you hear the glorious ending of Animal Farm. Presented also on Varèse's second compilation, 'End Titles' presents both the upbeat version of the outdoors with a choral based version of the main theme. Basically, this track blows you away with the first listen, because it did it to me. But time after time you start to explore new hidden treasures of the score, with the song versions first, then the wonderful action tracks and even the character developments and darker material starts to grow. Basically Animal Farm is one of the best scores out there, it captures so much magnificence and so much color (both dark and light) and it makes the 66 minute release of Varèse truly shine. No doubt about it, explore Animal Farm of Richard Harvey, its worth it.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. "Storm Of Judgment" / Main Title (1.44) Excellent Track

2. "Dumb Animals ..." (2.28)

3. Meeting In The Barn (2.04)

4. Old Major's Last Words * / "Beasts Of The World" (2.51)

5. "We Can Help Ourselves" (3.33)

6. The Battle Of The Barn (2.08)

7. "At Last We Were Free" (2.43) Excellent Track

8. In The House / Commandments (3.20) Excellent Track

9. The Harvest And The Flag (2.58) Excellent Track

10. The Pigs Take Control (2.33)

11. The Big Battle (5.44) Excellent Track

12. Snowball Banished (1.22)

13. "Long Live Animal Farm" / The Windmill (4.15)

14. "Let Me Explain" (1.07)

15. Jones Destroys The Windmill (2.02)

16. "Glorious Leader Napoleon!" * / Squealer's Song (2.30) Excellent Track

17. "All Hens Are Criminals!" / The Pigs Get Drunk" (2.14)

18. "Guilty!" (1.53)

19. Boxer's Fate (4.51)

20. "More Equal Than Others" (4.17)

21. The Song Of The Graceful Duck * (2.25)

22. "We Were Never Free" (2.41) Excellent Track

23. End Titles (3.41) Excellent Track

* Contains fragment of Solo Voice or Song

Total Length: 66.23

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