In America (film)

ANGELS IN AMERICA (2003) - Thomas Newman - Soundtrack Score Suite

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• published: 24 Mar 2011
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A popular production on the live stage, Angels in America is an examination of religion and humanity that HBO pumped over $60 million into before debuting the six-hour show over two nights in December of 2003. Set in 1985, the story follows the trials of several gay men in Manhattan who are dealing with their experiences (in and out of the closet) during the first onslaught of AIDS. Their personal stories occupy one half of the overarching theme, with the element of Christian religion weaving strongly through the other half. The extremely weighty and contemplative political and religious landscape suggests an era during the Reagan presidency in which God has abandoned Heaven and humanity, and several right-wing, Mormon, or otherwise heavily religious influences in the film are offered in stark contrast to the seedy world of gays and AIDS in the mid-80's. Directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, and a considerable secondary cast, the film's success with audiences was split much along the same lines as original responses to the play. One part of the production crew not questioned to any extent was Thomas Newman, whose career had recently achieved an even higher standard of excellence than usual. Despite assertions by devoted Newman collectors that the composer had always been at the top of his game, many listeners familiar with his early orchestral strengths nearly abandoned the composer during his stage of introverted experimentation between 1999 and 2002. While gaining an all new audience with his plucky and funky scores to American Beauty and Erin Brockovich, among others, Newman fans from the early days wondered when the composer would turn back to his use of large orchestral ensembles in attractively bittersweet tones for his assignments. That satisfaction came with Road to Perdition and Finding Nemo, both of which far above average works and a return to what those original Newman collectors wanted to hear from the composer. The better question, however, arose when some began asking what Newman's perfect score would be, a score with all the grandeur and thematic resonance of his great orchestral works while also utilizing the vast arrays of unorthodox instruments and rhythms of his American Beauty phase at the same time. The answer was Angels in America, a score that has often been referred to as Newman's best career achievement. In the lengthy music for this series, you hear every era of Newman's career rolled into one frightfully effective and enticing package. After a truly stunning cue for the opening titles, Newman occupies the first half of the score with the likes of his skin drums, ice metals, bodhran, processed chimes, dayre, kantele, esraj, high-string guitar, baritone electric, lute, EWI, prepared guitar, and manipulated violin, producing music fresh from his very personal scores of 2000 to 2002, but at a larger, sustained level of harmonic tone and active volume. The latter half of the score explodes with high caliber orchestral beauty and mayhem, although never maintaining the title theme so elegantly established in the second cue of the album. Nearly every moment of the score is saturated with Newman's style of creating harmony with 90% of the orchestra while throwing one or two instruments of each chord off-kilter to some degree. The pastoral sounds of his career are heard consistently at the end of the album, with eight to ten minutes of truly harmonious beauty on a redemptive, pastoral level of religious satisfaction. The opening titles offer woodwind solos that are a trademark of Newman's thematic writing, with light guitars, fluttering flutes, noble trumpets as counterpoint, and a collection of raindrop-style tapping of metallic percussion. The expected melodic notions of religious harmony are very well accompanied by the wondrous aspects of the less typical instruments. Thus, there is a magic throughout Angels in America that Newman fans had heard in many sporadic places during his previous scores. The consistency of the listening experience on album is strong even though the tone and instrumentation switches in nearly every cue. The only detriments to the album are the source songs sprinkled in three places. The year 2003, interestingly, proved to be a strong one for religious-related scores, and Newman added his own highly spiritual and uplifting entry to the equation. Whether you are a fan of the composer's orchestral themes or his quirky rhythms created with unusual instruments, Angels in America will satisfy your curiosity and successfully demand several repeat listens. Even if you don't entirely enjoy the score, it is one to appreciate and study for its extremely wide range of strong musical constructs and execution. (http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/angels_america.html)