The Hours (CD Soundtrack)
Music: A+ PCM CD:
B
The year 2002 was a strong
year for soundtracks as well as film.
In fact there were so many great films that sadly not all of them could
win at all the award ceremonies ranging from Cannes to the Oscars. First there is Thomas Newman’s terrific
score that perfectly captures the essence of Road To Perdition,
certainly one of the finest pictures of the year, even though it was slightly
cut short by certain critics. Then
there is Elmer Bernstein echoing his own composition from the classic 1962 To
Kill a Mockingbird for which he supplied to the Todd Haynes film Far
From Heaven. The score sets the
tone of this melodrama intentionally designed to replicate the films of Douglas
Sirk and even Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
There were many other films that contained great soundtracks as well
ranging from One Hour Photo to Windtalkers, but the finest film
score (and perhaps best score written in the past 5 years) was Philip Glass’s
work on Stephen Daldry’s The Hours.
To make such a bold claim
requires a bolder explanation and support, which this review shall
attempt. First we must cover some of
the grounds of the actual film in order to better understand what Glass was
attempting with his arrangement. The
Hours is set during three time periods, the 20’s, the 50’s, and finally
during the present day (2000’s). The
typical way to score such a film might be to arrange three separate ‘genre’
pieces that accompany each era, allowing for a different feel for each of these
eras. In doing so, the film would be
jumpy, but the music would capture what we are seeing. For many films this would be appropriate,
but not the case with this particular film.
The reason for that is simple.
The Hours is not trying to isolate the three time periods from which it
takes place, but rather it is trying to blend these three periods. Most importantly it is combining the
storylines from three women living within these periods. The first woman is Virginia Woolf (played by
Nicole Kidman), who is writing her book Mrs. Dalloway in the
1920’s. The second woman is Laura
Brown, a noble housewife trying to be happy in her 1950’s typical family
life. The final woman is Clarissa
Vaughan (Meryl Streep), an unhappy and confused bisexual woman living in the
present.
Each woman lives a
different type of life, yet certain aspects of their life are frightfully
similar. Each woman has devoted her
life to someone else, or put up her happiness in order to maintain peace
between the ones that they are with.
Glass structures the score in a way that certain melodies and phrases
repeat throughout the film, which recall certain moods or feelings that happen
on screen. Perhaps the greatest
strength of this soundtrack though is its management of simplicity and
complexity. What occurs is very simple
phrases that have a repetitive tone, common in Glass’s work), but then it
becomes more involved and elaborate without flinching. It builds, as our characters
deteriorate. We see the contrast, and
hear the influx of indecision within our stories as they unravel before our
eyes.
If you listen to the
soundtrack without seeing the film, you can instantly understand some of the
common themes that it is creating and working around. There is pain, mystery, confusion, longing, sadness, and
melancholy all mixed together, but arranged in such a way that the listener is
hypnotized into a state of indecision, like our characters. We want to have feelings, yet the music
almost forces us to become comatose, so relaxed we cannot think, or that our
only thoughts are of nothingness.
Track Listing
The Poet Acts
Morning Passages
Something She Has to Do
For Your Own Benefit
Vanessa and the
Changelings
I’m Going to Make a
Cake
An Unwelcome Friend
Dead Things
The Kiss
Why Does Someone Have
to Die?
Tearing Herself Away
Escape!
Choosing Life
The Hours
The tracks operate in a
cyclical way, both as a whole, and individually, which give the score
strength. Each track seems to start
somewhere, and then end again at a place almost similar to where it began. Even
as the music becomes more elaborate and involved (or even evolved), there is a
pattern that is being created. It is a
pattern that is somewhat tangible, yet our minds cannot make the distinction.
The film cuts very well to
the music, as mentioned before that Glass’s signature trademark is a repetitive
tone that becomes mesmerizing and droning.
This is experienced in his scores for Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi
and Powaqqatsi films. Also a
similar marking in the brilliant Paul Schrader film Mishima. This type
of repetitiveness is hard to pull off, but effective when done correctly. Glass is capable of doing so, simply because
he is one of the few composers that is literate to the point that he
understands complexity through simplicity.
He understands that music can be simple and effective, but more than
that – having order and balance can strengthen it. His ability to write music for the right instrumentations is also
matched by very few. Here he uses the
Lyric Quartet, which creates the appropriate amount of dreariness, yet
restlessness associated with the film.
The Hours, both as a soundtrack and a film, is bold, daring,
fascinating, complex, uncompromising, elegant, and most of all beautiful. It is a film that will last, simply because
its story serves much relevance. It
deservedly won the attention of many critics, and will hopefully find its
audience for years to come. It asks
questions that few can answer, but just the simple thought towards these
questions is effective enough. The film
would be nothing without the music Glass has worked out for this film, creating
a perfect marriage between sound and celluloid. The images beg for the music here, they are united in ways that
very few manage to do. Even by itself,
the soundtrack makes you think and ask yourself, ‘Am I living for myself or for
something else?” Do we have enough
hours in the day to make the distinction?
Find out for yourself.
- Nate Goss
