BACK TO TITANIC

JAMES HORNER

Rating:

Original Review: It would be tempting to dismiss Back To Titanic as nothing more than an attempt to cash-in on a cinema phenomenon. The film has garnered every movie accolade going, the soundtrack has topped the charts for weeks on end, composer James Horner has himself been awarded with two Oscars and two Golden Globes. He allegedly stands to make over $20 million dollars personally, especially you include the royalties from the Celine Dion hit "My Heart Will Go On" and all the other spin-offs and rip-offs. But, no matter what the reasons for this release be, whether commercial or artistic, Titanic is nevertheless a damn good score, and deserves to be heard.

Back To Titanic is structured similarly to the earlier "More Music from Braveheart" CD in that there are three types of music: original score that was not included on the first CD, source music heard in the film but, again, not included on the first CD, and suites of music arranged by Horner specifically for this purpose. The new original score cues are 'The Portrait', 'Jack Dawson's Luck', 'A Building Panic' and 'Lament', and all are enjoyable cues in their own right. 'The Portrait' is a beautiful piano solo of Rose's Theme, performed by Horner himself, which underscores the now-legendary scene of Leonardo Di Caprio making a charcoal sketch of Kate Winslet wearing The Heart of the Ocean (ONLY The Heart of the Ocean). 'Jack Dawson's Luck' is an original Irish jig composed by Horner to accompany the dockside antics of Jack and his pal Fabrizio. 'A Building Panic' is one of the pulse-pounding action cues heard during the sinking of the great ship, and 'Lament' is a lonely orchestral piece crying for the newly-departed.

The suites of music recorded especially for this CD, 'Titanic Suite', 'A Shore Never Reached' and 'Epilogue: The Deep and Timeless Sea', bring together and provides an overview all the main themes of the score. It was recorded, amongst a virtual media circus, at Air Edel studios in London, and featured the London Symphony Orchestra, The Choristers of King's College, Cambridge, and Norwegian vocalist Sissel Kyrkjeboe, who performed on the original soundtrack.. The sound quality and performances are uniformly excellent, and the music itself is attractive, exciting, uplifting and haunting, but, to be truthful, the new suites add virtually nothing new, and would be a little redundant for those who own the original CD.

The source music varies wildly, from renditions of the classic hymn 'Nearer My God To Thee', allegedly the last piece performed by the Titanic's onboard orchestra before the great ship went down, to knee-and-thigh slapping jigs courtesy of Gaelic Storm in 'An Irish Party in Third Class' (whoo-hoo-hoo!), and an unnerving performance of 'Come Josephine In My Flying Machine', which is made all the more spooky by having Kate Winslet mumble/sing it in the middle of the freezing Atlantic. Also included is the radio edit version of the now near-legendary 'My Heart Will Go On', featuring dialogue from the film in the quiet moments, and a slightly poppier beat.

So why exactly would anybody want to buy Back to Titanic? Well, if you're a fan of the movie, it makes another great souvenir, and will appeal to the thousands of teenage girls all over the world because it has a cool fold-out insert poster of Leo 'n Kate. Secondly, if you're a fan of Mr. Horner (like me), you probably have an insane need to hear and/or own everything the great man ever wrote, and will seek out the album until it kills you. Fortunately, such has been Titanic's market saturation, this last prospect is highly unlikely. But, cornball sentiment and satire aside, Titanic is a quality score which, in my opinion, richly deserved all the accolades it received over the last year. What better reason is there to get it than that?

Track Listing:

Running Time: 79 minutes 09 seconds

Sony Classical SK-60691 (1998)

Music composed and conducted by James Horner. Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and The Choristers of King's College Cambridge*. Orchestrations by James Horner and Don Davis. Special vocal performances by Sissel Kyrkjeboe. Featured musical soloists Tommy Hayes, Tony Hinnigan, James Horner, Eileen Ivers, Zan McLeod, Eric Rigler and Ian Underwood. Recorded and mixed by Simon Rhodes. Edited by Jim Henrikson. Album produced by James Horner.


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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.