The Genius of Film Scoring Is Knowing What Fits, What Enhances, April 5, 2006

I stumbled upon this soundtrack at a record store recently & decided to give it a shot, as the roster of artists impressed me. I'm glad I made my purchase. This soundtrack is easily one of the year's best.There are a number of distinguished country artists performing new tracks, some written specifically for the film. Willie Nelson is first up with a gorgeous cover of Bob Dylan's "He Was A Friend Of Mine." Emmylou Harris also turns in a poignant performance on "A Love That Will Never Grow Old," a beautiful song written specifically for the film by Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla (who provides the film's score-- more on that later) & lyricist Bernie Taupin. I hope this gets some Oscar consideration!Mary McBride, Teddy Thompson & Jackie Greene give nice performances in ballads also written for the film by Santaolalla/Taupin. The strength of these songs are impressive, especially considering the fact that they come from an Argentinian guitarist & a...

A fine collection of C&W songs performed by some great artists, with some evocative instrumental interludes from the film. The highlights are the moving A Love That Will Never Grow Old (next year's Oscar-winning song?) and I Don't Want to Say Goodbye, songs written by Gustavo Santaolalla and Bernie Taupin and performed by, respectively, the reknowned Emmylou Harris and Teddy Thompson, a talented young artist (check out his excellent self-entitled debut on Virgin Records). These songs do a great job of conveying the love of the two main characters in the film, but can be enjoyed by anyone. They are wonderful country ballads. Santaolalla's other songs are excellent too. No One's Going to Love You Like Me is a nice twangy Patsy Cline-y piece, while I Will Never Let You Go is a strong, more fast-tempo song. These songs are performed by more talented up-and-comers, Mary McBride and Jackie Greene. Rufus Wainwright's own The Maker Makes is tremendously desolate and moving. Wainwright...

So often film scores that utilize songs from a period of time during which the cinema story happened are dismissed as 'non-original' or 'uncreative' or, worse yet, 'plagiarized''! But the charge of a composer assigned to provide music for a film is to support the mood, enhance the plot, identify certain motifs, and in general make the film more powerful without drawing attention to itself. Some film scores are so immediately accessible and beautiful that the audience stops thinking about the story to appreciate the beauty of the music. Yes, that is fine, to a degree, but more credit should go to the score master whose work is so subtle that you simply don't notice it.The score for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is an example of writing music that is noticed in the right moments and unnoticed in others. Gustavo Santaolalla has written some very subtle, almost minimalist music such as 'Opening', 'Snow', 'Brokeback Mountain 1, 2 and 3', 'Riding Horses' and 'The Wings', scored for...