Gladiator

 

Gladiator (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Arranged by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

For our last release of this year, we travel back to the ancient Roman Empire and bring you the epic score for the universally acclaimed 2000 film Gladiator, composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard. Directed by none other than Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, and Richard Harris, the film is a historical drama that depicts the story of Hispano-Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius, who sees himself reduced to slavery after being betrayed and losing his family at the hands of Emperor Marcus Aurelius’s vicious and conspiring son, Commodus. Maximus is later forced to become a gladiator and returns to Rome as a fighter in the Colosseum arena, seeking revenge on Commodus, who is now the new and powerful Emperor of Rome. The film was an immediate success and noted for its performances, Scott’s direction, brutal battle sequences and glorious visuals, effectively re-igniting the long-forgotten genre of the Roman epic.

For the score of Gladiator, Scott reunited with composer Hans Zimmer, with whom he had worked on Black Rain and Thelma & Louise, and it must be said that the director’s choice was top-notch, as the German composer’s musical style fits Gladiator like a glove. Even if Zimmer is not the first name that would come to mind when you think about a score for a 100 million dollar Roman epic, his usual blend of orchestral music and electronics manage to conjure up a score that meets the scale, grandeur and complexity that an epic like this requires. Zimmer effectively combines orchestra and chorus with ethnic instrumentations, electronics and the magnificent vocal solos of Lisa Gerrard in a score that can be broken down into four distinctive approaches: vocal ethereal atmospherics, rousing battle scenes, suspenseful conspiracy sequences, and ethnic textures.

Zimmer opens the score with the 13-minute tour-de-force "The Wheat and the Battle", introducing first and foremost his serpentine flute theme for Commodus, the main antagonist of the film. This unnerving and poisonous theme is repeated throughout the score to evoke the evil and constant presence of the Emperor, as he schemes and conspires, eventually developing into a full exploration with choir in “Am I Not Merciful?”, a track that Zimmer usually regards as his favorite of the score for its emotional impact. “The Wheat and the Battle” quickly shifts to a beautiful duduk solo by Djivan Gasparyan (a recurrent instrument in the score), before transitioning to Lisa Gerrard’s rendition of what is known as the Elysium theme. Gerrard’s tender voice accompanies the movie’s iconic opening scene: a poetic image of a wheat field with a hand drifting over it. The music here evokes Maximus’s home, a place he longs for and that will eventually become his own personal Elysium. Gerrard’s rendition of this theme in “Sorrow” is a powerful vocal performance so emotional that instantly makes you feel a knot in your throat, making this track easily one the highlights of the entire score. The opening track then dissolves into the one of the score’s main action pieces, as it underscores an impressive battle between the Romans and the Germanic tribes. Zimmer approached this sequence as a classical Viennese Waltz, turned into something completely savage. This Gladiator Waltz idea is further explored in the “Barbarian Horde” scene and became the blueprint for most of the action sequences in the film, as well as setting a trend in scores for blockbuster films of the forthcoming decade. 

Zimmer’s main theme is introduced in its fullest form in the second track, “Tell Me About Your Home”, a piece that the composer refers to as the Earth theme, in reference to Maximus’ recurrent gesture of picking up earth before every major battle, a nod to the character’s longing for his own land. In this track, the theme receives a lovely rendition in cello and solo trumpet, getting to the heart of the film. This theme reoccurs in many forms throughout the score, as in a gritty low-key variation during the beginning of "The Slave who Became a Gladiator", and as a victorious and grand full ensemble performance during the end of “Barbarian Horde”. At the end, the theme is combined with the Elysium theme to form the famous “Now We Are Free” song, performed by Gerrard.

Since most of the beginning of the movie’s second act takes place in Morocco, Zimmer introduces many Middle Eastern flavors, as the aforementioned Duduk performances as well as tribal rhythms which take the foreground in “To Zucchabar”. A standout of this whole sequence is the impressive track “The Slave Who Became a Gladiator”, which presents Zimmer’s Strength and Honor theme, a low key piece to frequently underscore Maximus rallying his gladiatorial troops as well as his heartfelt impulse to fight his way to eventually avenge his wife and son. The track later shifts into relentless action with a percussive crescendo and choral chants, and then dissolves into a Wagnerian orchestral and choral movement for Commodus' entrance to the mighty Rome as the new Emperor.

Last but not least, cues like “Patricide”, “Secrets” and “Conspiracy” make excellent use of a wide range of sounds to evoke suspense and send shivers down the listener's spine, from dramatic strings to electronic atmospherics to tingling percussion to woodwinds. While it is indeed impressive how Zimmer manages to shift from one style to the other in Gladiator, his employment of Gerrard's vocals to represent the afterlife is the selling point, with the final eight minutes of the score (encompassing "Elysium" and "Now We Are Free") ranking among some of the best music Zimmer has ever written.

The score has so far received three releases from Decca Records: the original soundtrack album, a 'More Music From' edition, and a 2-CD 'Anniversary' set which combines the previous two releases. Though highly enjoyable, the original album omitted some significant cues and the expanded edition had intrusive dialogue from the film added into the mix. Renovatio Records has now put together a new program that presents not only all of the standout moments of the score in chronological order but also introduces never before released cues. Jump once more into the arena and enjoy this new release of Gladiator, a score that stands well-grounded as an iconic cornerstone and one of the most influential in the modern age of soundtracks.

Track listing:

1. The Wheat and The Battle (13:32)

2. Tell Me About Your Home (3:03)

3. Patricide (3:59)

4. The Emperor Is Dead (1:55)

5. Homecoming (4:08)

6. Sorrow (1:20)

7. To Zucchabar (3:28)

8. The Slave Who Became A Gladiator (8:18)

9. Slaves To Rome (5:05)

10. Barbarian Horde (8:28)

11. My Name Is Gladiator (4:09)

12. Secrets (2:36)

13. Conspiracy (4:25)

14. Am I Not Merciful? (6:38)

15. Elysium (4:04)

16. Now We Are Free (4:17)

Total Running Time: 79:25

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Starship Troopers

 

Starship Troopers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Conducted by Basil Poledouris

We are very proud to announce our newest addition to our catalogue: the score for 1997 science fiction action film Starship Troopers by late composer Basil Poledouris. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Edward Neumeier (based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein), and starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey, Denise Richards, Patrick Muldoon, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris, Marshall Bell, and Michael Ironside, Starship Troopers may well be one of the most misunderstood movies of all time. Anyone who has read Heinlein’s book can clearly tell that Verhoeven and Neumeier never meant to be loyal to the original concept. Instead, they took the premise and the characters of Heinlein’s story and created a satirical parody of a futuristic neo-fascist body of government. Upon release, it received mostly negative reviews from critics, aiming at its cheesy acting, extreme violence and gratuitous nudity, with many viewers even claiming that the movie promoted fascism. However, in retrospect, reviews have become more positive, with much praise to Verhoeven’s intention of making a satirized inspirational war movie from the future, in the vein of Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda movies. When asked why he, having grown up in the German-occupied Netherlands during WWII, was doing a right-wing fascist movie, Verhoeven’s reply was hilarious: “If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn't work, no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships but it's only good for killing fucking Bugs.”

The story for Starship Troopers focuses on a group of schoolmates that, after graduation, join as military recruits to the Federation, a militaristic world government in the 22nd century. Van Dien plays Johnny Rico, a vigorous young man who enrolls into the Mobile Infantry, while his girlfriend Carmen Ibañez (Richards) pursues a career as a spaceship pilot. His friend Dizzy Flores (Meyer), who is in love with him, also joins the infantry, and both of them struggle through its brutal training. In the meantime, Carmen enjoys the comfortable service onboard the Federation warship Rodger Young, while developing a flirtatious relationship with her instructor Zander Barcalow (Muldoon). All of these characters are quickly thrown into battle and facing potential death when a race of insect-like creatures, the Arachnids, presumably attack Earth with asteroids, declaring war to the humanity. The movie then accompanies several battles and events that show swarms of giant insects viciously attacking and killing the infantry troops. However, by the time we reach the end of the movie, there is a hint at the idea that the humans may have started the war as a pretense to get to the arachnid’s resources, using propaganda to inspire people to join the fight. At the climax, with the humans clearly having the upper hand and instilling fear in their “enemies”, the question of who the film’s real villains were remains.

While working for Hollywood, Verhoeven regularly collaborated with two composers, namely Jerry Goldsmith and Basil Poledouris, both of them providing outstanding scores for his movies. Having worked with Poledouris on Flesh+Blood and RoboCop, Verhoeven considered that the composer’s visceral, tongue-in-cheek approach to music was perfect for Starship Troopers. For his sci-fi epic, the director would require everything from frenetic battle music to recognizable character leitmotifs, as well as underscoring miniature propaganda TV breaks that recreated the exaggerated ultra-patriotic and melodramatic feel of the WWII movies. Right from the start of the score, Poledouris punches us in the face with a military march of rolling snare and high brass to introduce the world of the movie. This opening cue (“Federal Network”) establishes the score’s tone and its primary theme for the Federation, representing its unquestionable authority and the patriotism of the war against the giant insects. The theme is very effective in making fun of the concept of perceiving a call to arms as innocent, as if it was propelling troops to quickly forget the hundreds of people getting awfully killed and go to the next planet to kill more bugs. Deriving from this theme, Poledouris created the outstanding main theme for the film, played by the full orchestra in the track “Klendathu Drop”. This theme represents the struggle, camaraderie and heroism of the mobile infantry with a sense of fate attached to it, as it accompanies the troops boarding drop ships to descent to a rocky planet and engaging in battle with the arachnids, eventually losing it with catastrophic consequences. Poledouris uses this theme in key moments of the film, as in the first half of “Outpost Retrieval”, while the troops are forced to retreat from an outpost being overtaken by bugs, and at the end of “Brainbug”, when one of the troopers sacrifices himself to save the others. Being a minor mode variation of the Federation theme, Poledouris’ main theme perfectly encompasses the aftermath and casualties of war, as troops are encouraged by propaganda to march happily to battle, only to be confronted by the awful reality of genuine combat.

Poledouris’ leitmotif approach becomes more and more evident throughout the score, with plenty of themes for characters, situations, and even for the different kinds of bugs. There’s a heroic theme for Rico that underscores his victories (most noticeable near the end of the film during the second half of “They Will Win”), as well as two different love themes for the love triangle between Rico, Carmen and Dizzy. Rico and Carmen’s music plays during the early cue “Departure” as both characters say goodbye to each other after enrolling into the Federation, and later during the end of “Death of Dizzy”, when they reunite in an evacuation ship. On the other hand, Rico and Dizzy’s love theme is heard while they start making love in “Johnny and Dizzy”, later when the wounded Dizzy dies in Johnny’s arms in “Death of Dizzy”, and finally as a solemn variation during “Dizzy’s Funeral”. Both themes are lovely and quite similar in orchestration with soft string passages under tender flute melodies, but it is Dizzy’s love theme the one that understandably reaches a grander rendition during the funeral sequence, as it is Dizzy’s demise the event that has a bigger impact on Rico’s coming-of-age arc. Carmen gets her own music as well: one being a small theme for her relationship with Zander (played by a bassoon solo at the end of “The Fleet Limps Home” when Carmen shifts her attention to her instructor after believing that Rico was killed in action), and a bigger theme in the form of a catchy orchestral waltz to express the character’s love of piloting. This theme makes a grand orchestral entrance during the excellent track “Carmen’s Shuttle Ride”, and later makes another appearance during the middle section of “Asteroid Grazing”. This track along with “Undocking” show Poledouris’s choice of using light orchestration for Carmen’s flying scenes, with strings, flutes, harp, clarinets and tinkling percussion taking the lead and providing a delightful feeling of weightlessness that contrasts heavily with the music accompanying scenes in which we see Rico’s struggles during his military training. An aggressive and tough orchestral march represents Michael Ironside’s character Lieutenant Jean Rasczak and the Roughnecks, the special unit Rico and Dizzy become part of later in the film. This theme makes its entrance during the beginning of “Tango Urilla” and later when Rico himself becomes the Lieutenant of the unit. For the different arachnid creatures, Poledouris intertwines several motifs during his action cues, which are impressive on their own already and arguably one of the score’s strengths. Tracks like “Live From Planet K”, “Tango Urilla”, “Bugs!!”, “Outpost Retrieval”, and “Destruction of the Rodger Young” are real tours de force, all of them exhibiting propulsive harmonies over complex percussion passages, all of this showcasing Poledouris’ impressive abilities to put together a thrilling and incredibly enjoyable orchestral wall of sound. All of this makes Starship Troopers a rich thematic action score with practically not a single dull moment.

Poledouris’ score for Starship Troopers was originally released in 1997 by Varèse Sarabande in the form of a half-an-hour album that missed several of the composer’s best cues for the movie (like the “Carmen’s Shuttle Ride” and “Outpost Retrieval” cues). Furthermore, while enjoyable, the short album remained an incoherent one, with little space for Poledouris’ themes and motifs to be fully appreciated. Low quality double-CD bootlegs with the isolated score from the film DVD would quickly surface later, offering extensive additional material. Varèse Sarabande eventually re-released the complete score in 2016 as a limited deluxe presentation and, while many enjoyed the possibility of finally having the score in full and with outstanding audio quality, some argued that the listening experience turned out to be quite cumbersome for its amount of non-stop bombastic music. Therefore, Renovatio Records has put together a new program of the score that exhibits its best moments, arranged in such a way that allows the music to breathe and flow. This new edition will hopefully let film music enthusiasts appreciate the amount of musical story-telling craftsmanship that Poledouris brought into Starship Troopers. Relax and enjoy what may well be one of the late composer’s best scores of his career. Forget the insecticide and the nukes; bring on your best speakers!

Track listing:

1. Federal Network (0:41)

2. Live from Planet K (2:40)

3. Departure (1:20)

4. Carmen's Shuttle Ride (1:39)

5. Undocking the Rodger Young (2:02)

6. Punishment / Asteroid Grazing (4:53)

7. Call to War (2:12)

8. Klendathu Drop (4:43)

9. The Fleet Limps Home (3:27)

10. Tango Urilla (3:59)

11. Johnny & Dizzy (1:31)

12. Hopper Canyon (2:44)

13. Bugs!! (2:18)

14. Outpost Retrieval / Death of Dizzy (7:03)

15. Dizzy's Funeral (1:18)

16. Destruction of the Rodger Young (5:58)

17. Bug City (2:25)

18. Brainbug (3:58)

19. They Will Win (4:01)

Total Running Time: 58:40

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Jurassic Park

 

Jurassic Park (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams

It’s Jurassic June!! To celebrate the 29th anniversary of Jurassic Park, here at Renovatio Records, we are very proud to present our next release: the score for the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park composed by non-other than maestro John Williams. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton and directed by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park is considered by many as one of the greatest science fictions films ever made, as well as a landmark in the development of computer-generated imagery and animatronic special effects. Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wayne Knight, the film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, near the coast of Costa Rica, where wealthy industrialist John Hammond has created a wildlife theme park of cloned living dinosaurs, accomplished by extracting DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. When the park’s investors demand a safety certification after an island worker is killed by one of the dinosaurs, Hammond recruits paleontologists Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler, along with mathematician Ian Malcolm, to inspect the park and give formal endorsements. However, while on the tour, all hell breaks loose when the park’s disgruntled lead computer programmer shuts down the security system to steal dinosaur embryos after being bribed by a competing bioengineering company. With the dinosaurs roaming free, the group and even Hammond’s own grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island.

Jurassic Park premiered on June, 1993, and went on to gross over $912 million worldwide in its original theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the time. Audiences loved it and reviews were highly positive, praising its astounding technical achievements. And even to this day, it cannot be denied that Jurassic Park represents a breaking point in the Hollywood movie business. Furthermore, in recent years, even more praise has been put on the themes the movie deals with, such as human hubris, the morality of scientific discoveries, and most importantly, the responsibility entailed by the act of creating life. Spielberg and his usual group of collaborators were in top form, expertly balancing these themes and commentaries while at the same time providing what is by many the perfect blend between wonder and horror, something that is also reflected by John Williams’ score, one of the most memorable of his entire career.

The collaboration between Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams needs little introduction, Jurassic Park being the twelfth time they worked together. From the get-go, Williams intended to, as he puts it, have pieces that would “create a sense of the awe you’d feel seeing those magnificent creatures.” To accomplish this, he envisioned two primary themes for the movie, each with different purposes. First, a bold brass adventurous motif to represent the happiness and thrill that would be produced by a place such as a theme park with dinosaurs, and secondly, a lovely string and choir wonder theme mostly associated with the magnificence and gentleness of the herbivores. Both themes are presented quite early in the score, making their debut in the lengthy track “Journey to the Island”, and are some of the best music Williams has written in his extensive and successful career, immediately recognized by people throughout the world. As if that was not enough, Williams scores each major sequence of the film in a distinctive way, giving each scene a different identity. For the carnivores, Williams provides a menacing and growling four-note motif, used mostly in the second half of the film to suggest in Jaws-fashion that the predators are viciously stalking on their human preys. This motif is eerily presented with a sakauhachi flute in the opening track, “Opening Titles”, and later used by low brass instruments in cues like “The Raptor Attack”, with terrifying effect. An effective “panic” theme, consisting of a four-note progression, is introduced in the middle section of “The Falling Car and the T-Rex Chase” and further explored during “High Wire Stunts” to represent the peril the main characters are constantly being faced with. But not all is suspense music, as there are many passages in the score that evoke calmness and a much needed sense of comfort. “A Tree for My Bed”, for example, features a lovely lullaby-style arrangement of the score wonder theme, while the first half of “My Friend, the Brachiosaurus” effectively uses the sad waltz of a carousel to underscore a scene in which Hammond laments on all going wrong with his park. Similarly, “Ailing Triceratops” and the latter half of “My Friend, the Brachiosaurus” treat the non-threatening herbivore dinosaurs almost from a childlike perspective, featuring instances playful pizzicato strings, as well as tender and warm French horns. Williams also shows off his skills to come up with textural suspense, and to accompany Dennis Nedry, the computer programmer, as he sabotages the island and steals the dinosaur embryos, the composer plays around with a stealthy string melody over electronic bass, rambling piano, tinkling percussion and flute wails. The action music in Jurassic Park is also phenomenal, with the relentless “Incident at Isla Nublar” and “The Falling Car and the T-Rex Chase”, as well as the sensational “T-Rex Rescue and Finale” demonstrating the mastery with which Williams uses the full orchestra to expertly build sequences of tension and thrill. The score reaches its conclusion with the “End Credits”, which employs Williams' trademark piano to introduce the wonder theme before moving to a superb full-ensemble performance of both primary themes, in all their glory.

The score for Jurassic Park was released in 1993 by MCA Records and later received and expanded treatment in 2016 by the label La-La Land Records. Both editions are extremely enjoyable and highly recommended. While the original release presented several cues mashed together and not following the film’s chronological order, the expanded edition comprises two discs of music, which may be cumbersome for some listeners. This new edition by Renovatio Records presents the standouts of the score in chronological order to enjoy it at its best – a fairly easy task with such music at hand! For the music for Jurassic Park is not only one of the finest in John Williams’ canon of work, but also a brilliant model of filmmaking with impeccable craftsmanship. As many film music enthusiasts claim, no collection of the composer's works would be complete without it.

Track Listing:

1. Opening Titles (0:33)

2. Incident at Isla Nublar (2:23)

3. The Encased Mosquito (1:14)

4. Journey to the Island (8:52)

5. Hatching Baby Raptor (2:02)

6. Jurassic Park Gate (1:47)

7. Ailing Triceratops (2:32)

8. Dennis Steals the Embryo (5:00)

9. The Falling Car and T-Rex Chase (5:57)

10. A Tree for My Bed (2:10)

11. My Friend, the Brachiosaurus (4:24)

12. To the Maintenance Shed (4:11)

13. High Wire Stunts (4:08)

14. The Raptor Attack (2:58)

15. T-Rex Rescue and Finale (7:40)

16. End Credits (7:58)

Total Running Time: 63:54

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