WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (REJECTED SCORE)

ENNIO MORRICONE

Rating:

Original Review: The producers of the film What Dreams May Come rejected Ennio Morricone's original score just weeks before its American opening, and Michael Kamen was drafted in to write a replacement at extremely short notice. Kamen, who claimed never to have heard Ennio's work, quickly penned an attractive and serviceable score for the Robin Williams religious fantasy, directed by New Zealander Vincent Ward. Until recently, the nature of Morricone's score was the subject of fierce speculation. Kamen himself had heard that it was "very Roman Catholic, very liturgical, profound and weighty", and that the reasons for its rejection were to do with the fact that the already visually stunning film was being overwhelmed by Morricone's efforts. Now, thanks to an enterprising member of the Hollywood studio system, a copy of the original score has made its way out into the markets so that the two can be compared. And while Kamen's work is by no means poor, Morricone knocks his efforts clear out of the water. It is, in a word, stunning.

Much of the score conforms to familiar Morricone trademarks, especially in the way in which he makes glorious use of Edda Dell'Orso's voice in combination with a full, string-heavy symphony orchestra, but where What Dreams May Come is superior to other works is in the thematic development. Many times during his career, Morricone has shown an enviable talent for creating beautiful melodies but, much like Thomas Newman, he has a tendency to leave them a little unresolved, and leaving the listener crying out for a fuller statement to appear. If anything, What Dreams May Come actually takes this a touch overboard, almost overwhelming you with orchestral beauty. This may have been one of the reasons for its rejection - it wasn't subtle enough - but it certainly makes for a wonderful listening experience.

Many of the eleven unnamed cues feature vocal work, lending the score as a whole a sense of religious piousness and an appropriate tone of veneration. There is the faintest hint of Once Upon A Time In America to the first track, which builds from a low bass drone through tentative string lines, into a majestic, fully fledged statement of the main theme, which is given fuller renditions (with Orso's vocals) towards the end of Track 2 and especially during Tracks 8 and 10, when the orchestra rises to truly spine-tingling proportions.

A secondary theme appears in Tracks 2 and 11, where Morricone introduces a buoyant, spellbinding recorder melody that playfully vies for attention with the orchestra's string section and a solo harp. Other tracks of note include the fourth, a beautiful piece obviously influenced by traditional Gregorian chants and which makes superb use of a mixed voice choir, the seventh, a solemn elegy for Alfred Newman strings, and the ninth, a sublime piano solo based around a variation on the secondary theme.

The only difficulty in reviewing rejected scores is that, unlike regular releases, you have no visual stimulus to judge the music against. Having seen the film, it is possible to make educated guesses as to which scenes the cues were intended to accompany, but beyond that it is mere speculation. Therefore, it is best to try to judge a rejected score's worth by listenability alone - and, under these criteria, Morricone's What Dreams May Come is an undisputed success. But one question still remains: had Morricone's original score remained intact, would the film have gone on to receive less critical derision than it did? My opinion is most definitely yes. The emotional intensity inherent in Morricone's work would surely have glossed over the cracks in Vincent Ward's narrative, and given the saccharine finale the extra touch of class that Kamen was ultimately unable to provide. This is a classic score from one of the geniuses of film music, and one which should be sought out by anyone with an ear for soundtrack magic.

Track Listing: Running Time: 27 minutes 58 seconds

Private Release (1998)

Music composed, conducted and orchestrated by Ennio Morricone. Special vocal performances by Edda Dell'Orso. Recorded and mixed by Fabio Venturi. Score produced by Ennio Morricone.

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