Angels in America Soundtrack Review
Composed by Thomas Newman
Mike Nichols' epic HBO rendering of Tony Kusher's stage play Angels in America boasts a $60 million budget and a top-line cast including Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. The film's intricate mixture of social commentary and religioso imagery provides the perfect insipiration for Newman's dazzling score.
TV Miniseries Soundtrack
No stranger to movies that require an ambitious, complex approach, Newman weaves in at least half a dozen themes along with several excellent stand-alone moments, ranging from heavenly beauty, to quirky expressionism and earth-shattering dissonance. Often criticized for lack of structure in his music, no such claims can be made here.
The album's first half is more protoypical Newman, featuring the bulk of his experimental writing, although there are several moments of extreme beauty. Main Title is in fact more of a scene setter, with oboe and choir offering a rapturous start. Ellis Island introduces one of the more central themes with the superb woodwind writing again evoking a wistful, melancholy feel - the composer at his best.
Elsewhere Quartet and Mauve Antarctica offer up hypnotic, ambient sound design that might come off as tedious in other scores. In Newman's rich tapestry however, they offer moments of appropriately sombre reflection when placed alongside the more melodic segments. Pill Poppers and Spotty Monster are both jaunty, lively scherzos, the latter mixing in some Middle-Eastern sounding orchestrations.
Quirky and rapturous Film Music
All of a sudden, mid-way through, The Infinite Descent explodes with a breathtaking choral Handel pastiche that sets the scene for the album's more traditionally beautiful second half. Broom of Truth is a standout, with a solo choirboy intoning a deeply moving piece. There are also darker moments: Submit and Black Angel are astonishing thunderous tracks, mixing in heavy brass and frenzied electric guitar. They sound like a mix of Elliot Goldenthal and Christopher Young.
However, as is common with Newman, the finale is where he wrings the greatest emotion out of the music. Plasma Orgasmata and Heaven introduce entirely new themes for choir, both stunning; The Mormons develops the Main Title theme on solo fiddle; and the closing double-act of The Great Work Begins and Tropopause is possibly the high point of Newman's career to date.
Begins takes a previously fragmentary theme introduced in spots over the soundtrack and turns it into a breathtaking, cathartic finale for massed choir and orchestra. It's a marvellous achievement but the composer one-ups himself with Tropopause, where a soprano vocal gently sings the Ellis Island theme. It's hard to envisage film music more beautiful, more affecting. The same in fact could be said of the whole score, Thomas Newman on top of his game.
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