Fantasy for Shakuhachi under the Weeping Willow (Willow - Soundtrack)

Name: berlioz II

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Product:	Willow - Soundtrack
Date:	23/01/08 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An elegant and sonically impressive fantasy effort from Horner

Disadvantages: Lengthy tracks combined with a lot of mood music may not appeal to all

By the approach of the 1990s, the Hollywood craze for sci-fi and fantasy movies was starting to show the effects of its inevitable demise. Even though such films would still be produced even after the 1980s, the genre never really reached such a height of popularity again, just as the biblical spectacle was a distinct phenomenon of the 1950s and the Italian spaghetti westerns were ostensibly most popular during the 1960s and 70s. One of the last films that still came at the tails of this fantasy craze was 1988's Willow, a film directed by Ron Howard, and written and produced by none other than George Lucas. Starring Val Kilmer and Warwick Davies (then most known as Return of the Jedi's main Ewok Wicket), Willow is a fairly average fantasy film whose plot derives itself a lot from quite obvious references to other fantasy masterworks like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Swift's Gulliver's Travels and even the Bible. The film's basic storyline revolves around how an evil sorceress named Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) has set out to kill Elora Danan, a baby who one day is prophesised to destroy Queen Bavmorda and her evil rule. A midwife manages to smuggle the baby away, but it is not long before Bavmorda's "devil dogs" come after her and, before her death, manages to send the baby down a river (think Moses), only to wash up on the shores of wannabe magician Willow Ufgood, a hobbit-like farmer who to his great displeasure soon finds himself charged by his village council to take the baby to whomever average-sized person he and his unhappy accompanying party may first come across. This just happens to turn out to be the world-weary swordfighter Madmartigan (Kilmer) who reluctantly ends up taken along the adventure of keeping Elora Danan alive and being forced to do battle with Bavmorda's forces, while Willow comes to realise his own strengths as a bonafied sorcerer.

Willow, to all intents and purposes, is not really a bad film as much as it is quite derivative and somehow I have always found the the whole thing simply not a very enjoyable one to watch. Bavmorda's evil sorceress is good as is the skull-masked General Kael (apparently named after critic Pauline Kael), the film just feels somewhat heavyhanded and average of the fantasy genre to matter much, though it has gained a good cult following after being released on DVD. One of the main aspects that has kept the movie alive since its 1988 premiere, though, has once again been the score, here contributed by Howard's future frequent collaborator James Horner. Horner's career by the advancement of the 1990s had already started to take a change of pace from his older fare. Having been mostly associated with sci-fi and fantasy films since 1982's Star Trek II, Horner had consciously tried to move away from the genre of which Willow is his last such score before 2008's Spiderwick Chronicles came about. Likewise his scoring technique had begun to get more complex, colourful and more concerned with texture than being straight-out thematically focused. In this regard Willow is one of his greatest mergings of both his earlier stylistics and his newer aesthetics. Willow can quite basically be compared to his earlier large-scale fantasy score in Krull that is similar in scope and design, but much more robust and youthfully enthusiastic. Willow on the other hand is more concerned about creating a certain sound for the world that doesn't necessarily rely so much on the actual themes and the youthful exuberance has now been replaced with a more mature grasp of technique. With this objective, Willow looks quite a lot forward to Horner's future dramatic scores where he would create lengthy, through-composed movements that develop within themselves and are less concerned in slavishly following the action on screen.

Willow's thematic usage roughly consists of four basic themes that come and go periodically throughout the score in various guises, at times full-on in your face and at others more subtly to flit in and out of the textures. The two main thematic blocks are presented back-to-back in the concert arrangement called "Willow's Theme". The first of these is a resplendently heroic theme that still echoes heavily of the older brass-heavy music of Horner's past scores, though as many have noted, it does bare quite a lot of similarity to the opening movement of Schumann's Third Symphony, only being considerably bolder in sound. This theme can most readily be heard in the hugely exciting action cue "Escape from the Tavern" that features James Horner action scoring at its best. The second large theme is the one for Elora Danan and is considerably more lyrical in tone, this receiving some quite sizeable performances in the cues "Elora Danan", "Willow's Journey Begins" and "Bavmorda's Spell is Cast". This theme has a strong yearning towards the sounds of mythological sagas à la Sibelius and is really a fantasy theme of the highest order. The other two themes are of lesser stature in scale, but just as important in the overall scheme. The motif for Bavmorda is arguably the most famous Horner signature ever as he has used it in several films following Willow and which had already materialised in a slightly altered form as Khan's theme in Star Trek II. This four note motif would subsequently appear in most instances when Horner needs to signify danger and it has become almost notorious in its over-use (such as in Enemy at the Gates, Windtalkers and Troy to name but few), while it is hugely ironic that it is actually identical to the motto of Rachmaninov's First Symphony. For the more mystical qualities of Elora Danan, Horner on the other hand employs an ethereal three-note choral motif that can be heard at the very outset of "Elora Danan", this small motif then developing into a lengthier melody that sounds very much like a simplified version of the otherwordly choral motif in Krull. There is also a further pastoral theme to represent Willow's homeland that is quite gorgeous, but it only features in the cues "Elora Danan" and "Willow the Sorcerer" to make it much more than an isolated characteristic piece, as good as it is.

Apart from the themes, quite a lot of the score deals with texture and instrumental colour. The score is one of the first in which Horner employs a number of soloistic instruments to create a specific soundworld apart from the standard symphony orchestra. The most notable of these instruments is the Japanese shakuhachi flute as performed by Kazu Matsui. The shakuhachi would from here on end become a standard addition to Horner's orchestral usage, but it was only in Willow that he more than anywhere else used the instrument in a more melodical way than as a strictly colouristical device. Indeed, out of all the different wind instruments he used in this score from the pan pipes and kena to bagpipes, it is the shakuhachi that lends the score its utterly unique fantasy sound that mixes wonderfully with the world Horner was creating. Other than the actual themes, though, it should be noted that long stretches of the score are more dissonant and less melodic than what the roughly 40 minutes of thematic elegance lend the score every now and again. This makes long stretches of the score not as easy to listen to as you might expect (particularly if one is familiar with Horner's newer scores), but at the same time anybody into the more complicated processes of composition are likely to yield a lot more overall interest from the score (apart from perhaps the silly hoe-down party music near the end of "Willow the Sorcerer" that sticks out like a sore thumb). Likewise the album that came out as an early 1988 CD features only eight tracks, but still runs to a full 77 minutes, meaning some of the cues are very lengthy, particularly "Bavmorda's Spell is Cast" that runs almost 20 minutes non-stop. And while there are plenty of highlights within these monster cues, there is also inevitably a lot of material that of less interest. However, regardless of this, the score remains one of the seminal fantasy scores ever composed, and with a fine performance coming from the London Symphony Orchestra and the King's College Choir (along with its crisp Shawn Murphy recording), Willow is still one of Horner's absolute masterpieces and a great addition into his extensive, symphonically impressive ouveure.


1. Elora Danan (9:45)
2. Escape from the Tavern (5:04)
3. Willow's Journey Begins (5:26)
4. Canyon of Mazes (7:52)
5. Tir Asleen (10:47)
6. Willow's Theme (3:54)
7. Bavmorda's Spell is Cast (18:11)
8. Willow the Sorcerer (11:55)

Music Composed and Conducted by James Horner
Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra & The King's College Choir, Wimbledon
Fairlight: Ian Underwood
Shakuhachi: Kazu Matsui
Pan Pipes and Kena: Mike Taylor & Tony Hinnigan
Celtic Harp and Bagpipes: Robin Williamson
Orchestrated by Greig McRitchie
Music Scoring Mixer: Shawn Murphy
Recorded at EMI Abbey Road Studio 1
Music Editor: Jim Henrikson
Virgin, 1988 (0777-7-86066-2-8)

© berlioz, 2008

Summary: Fantastic Fantasy Horner