GATTACA
Rating: 
Original Review: I can understand why the Golden Globe voters recently honoured Gattaca with a nomination, for it is an undoubtedly beautiful composition, but I just can't seem to get my head round Michael Nyman's style of writing. Whether its because he is much more grounded in 'classical' music than his contemporaries I don't know, but the thing that grates with me most is that there always seems to be very little emotional content to his scores - just three or four pretty melodies which keep repeating themselves over and over again without really going anywhere, and then stopping very abruptly at the end of each cue - there is no 'fade out' period during which to savour and think about the cue you have just heard. Simply WHOOMP! - Stop. Having said that, I do feel that Gattaca is Nyman's greatest achievement to date - much less abstract than The Piano and much easier to listen to than anything like The Draughtsman's Contract or A Zed And Two Noughts, neither of which I liked at all. The core themes are presented fully in the first four cues, and are all played on lush multi-layered strings, soft brasses and at a slow tempo. And basically, that's your lot - this quartet of themes is repeated over and over throughout the score, sometimes intertwining within themselves, sometimes being presented in their entirety as single cue. There are a couple of others worth a mention: "Becoming Jerome" is a slightly more uptempo, sprightly violin cue; "Further and Further" is quite interesting, beginning with a pulsating bassoon over a sustained synth chord, before turning into a rather dissonant string piece; "Not The Only One" is nice, with an attractive muted brass solo, "Up Stairs" becomes rather disturbing, with its climbing string-based scale, and the currently popular Schubert gets another rendition, with his Impromptu in G Major Op.90 No.3 forming the cornerstone of "Impromptu for 12 Fingers". Only during the last two cues does the music begin to adopt any feeling of emotion, and it is this because of this lack of listener involvement that Gattaca ultimately fails to deliver. Okay, its' beautifully composed and sounds lovely, but in the end I think you need a little more than attractive orchestrations to make a score work.
Track Listing:
- The Morrow (3:13)
- God's Hands (1:42)
- The One Moment (1:40)
- Traces (1:00)
- The Arrival (3:53)
- Becoming Jerome (1:06)
- Call Me Eugene (1:24)
- A Borrowed Ladder (1:47)
- Further and Further (2:43)
- Not The Only One (2:14)
- Second Morrow (2:24)
- Impromptu for 12 Fingers (from Impromptu in G Major, Op.90, No.3, by Franz Schubert, performed by Ryan Dorin and Michael Lang) (2:55)
- The Crossing (1:24)
- It Must Be The Light (1:23)
- Only A Matter Of Time (1:07)
- I Thought You Wanted To Dance (1:13)
- Irene's Theme (1:09)
- Yourself For The Day (2:20)
- Upstairs (2:02)
- Now That You're Here (2:44)
- The Truth (2:13)
- The Other Side (3:44)
- The Departure (3:51)
- Irene and The Morrow (5:44)
Running Time: 55 minutes 13 seconds
Virgin Records CDVE-936 (1997)
Music composed and conducted by Michael Nyman. Recorded and mixed by John Richards. Album produced by Michael Nyman.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.