James Newton Howard - ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

[PrayodiBA 517]

I've skimmed through the All The Light.... ost, and to be honest, subtle minimal score is not my cup of tea.

 

I am somewhat a JNH fan, 

and I notice (at least for me) one big issue that plague modern JNH scores:

 

So-so midpart, and becomes inconsistent towards the end

 

The example for the inconsistency is when JNH creates somehow a new motif (usually in track(s) at the last third of the ost) that is not related at all with the main structure and not even foreshadowed at the beginning.

 

In the case of All The Light ost.....for example, is the final "Liberation" track.

This is the standard JNH's emotional-rising grand finale track.

I fully expected the main theme to explode wonderfully. But it turned out to be a new motif that I think it's not even built or foreshadowed before.

(But I could be wrong, maybe because I skimmed through, I might have missed that aforementioned motif)

 

And I recalled a masterclass video by JNH, when he talked about how the opening track of the first Fantastic Beast was the hardest to tackle and finalize. Long story short, as we can hear now, he used a new last-minute "fanfare" instead, not his beautiful main theme.

And he explained that scoring a movie is not just ideally placing the main theme etc., but how a score/track was composed mainly to support the scene ( or in this case, director David Yates's requests).

I guess this explain "that inconsistency"

 

Anyway, this same issue plagues Jungle Cruise, Fantastic Beasts scores, etc.

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

[Will 2,215]

"Main Title" is gorgeous, as is "Model City."

[Edmilson 7,470]

Yeah, and also I found the themes to be really memorable. I listened to the album twice today and I couldn't take the main theme (which also appears in Model City) and what I think is the Nazi theme (heard in track 2) out of my head.

[Stark 316]

This score is wonderful! And I hadn’t even heard of it until yesterday…

[Knight of Ren 789]

Yeah, on a first listen I really liked it! It's true that the album is perhaps a bit too long, and a shorter presentation leaving out the darker / ambient cues would be better, but it's nice that we have such a long album. And there are a couple of recurring thematic ideas that are already stuck in my head!

 

Will definitely listen to it a lot more, and I might even give the show a watch to see how it works in context.

[leeallen01 2,136]

Making my way through it now. A few pieces in. Quite subdued so far. Nicely calming.

[Knight of Ren 789]

I've listened to the album a couple of times now, and watched the first two episodes. The music works quite well in context, especially the Nazi material, which is really effective in some scenes, like in the opening cue or No Trains Left. The main theme is sparsely used, mainly used to represent the relationship between the main character, Marie, and her father, but it's also used a couple more times unrelated to them. Also, I think this dark, choral motif is associated with Louis Hoffman's Werner, as it has played already a couple of times in some of his more emotional scenes.

 

 

I love the motif, and it reminds me of Howard's darker fantasy writing as heard at some points across the Fantastic Beasts saga, especially at the beginning of Secrets of Dumbledore

 

 

Here's the chronological tracklist for the first two episodes. The album is pretty much chronological, with the exception of the Main Title, and Clair de Lune being used several times as a source piece of music during a radio broadcast. It also seems that almost all of the important music is in there, at least for the first two episodes.

 

Spoiler

Ep. 1

-August 1944
-Falling Leaflets
-Werner Listens
-Secrets
-Depart Immediately
-Main Title
-Model City (used again during the credits)
-To the Museum
-A Day at the Museum
-Wire
-Messages in Code
-A Small Miracle
-A Great Professor
-Top of My Class
-Reason to Hope
-Spilled Milk
-Ten Seconds

 

Ep. 2

-Retrieving the Jewels (used again during the credits)
-Father's Fault
-Burning Carousel
-Main Title
-Illegal Broadcast
-Broken Radio
-Fix It or Die
-No Trains Left
-Burden
-A Promise
-Traditional Welcome
-Finding 13.10
-Time to Meet

 

[Edmilson 7,470]

I'm slowly warming up to the score, even with the many dark ambient cues comprising a huge chunk of the album.

 

But there's a few hidden gems among the darkers parts. I love the theme that appears at 0:46 here, just the right mix between action and drama from JNH that I like:

 

 

On the other hand, the following cue shows that the ghost of Hans Zimmer still haunts Howard:

 

 

This is the typical "calming piano that comes after huge apocalyptic chaotic orchestra" cue that has become common in film music (a trope that I happen to enjoy). But honestly Simon Franglen did it better here.

 

 

[Knight of Ren 789]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I love the theme that appears at 0:46 here, just the right mix between action and drama from JNH that I like:

 

 

I also noticed that this theme appears a couple of times across the album, mostly in subdued piano variations:

 

 

or in this gorgeous violin solo rendition:

 

but I don't know what is meant to represent. Perhaps a theme for the main character?

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

11 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

 

 

  Hide contents

Ep. 1

-August 1944
-Falling Leaflets
-Werner Listens
-Secrets
-Depart Immediately
-Main Title
-Model City (used again during the credits)
-To the Museum
-A Day at the Museum
-Wire
-Messages in Code
-A Small Miracle
-A Great Professor
-Top of My Class
-Reason to Hope
-Spilled Milk
-Ten Seconds

 

Ep. 2

-Retrieving the Jewels (used again during the credits)
-Father's Fault
-Burning Carousel
-Main Title
-Illegal Broadcast
-Broken Radio
-Fix It or Die
-No Trains Left
-Burden
-A Promise
-Traditional Welcome
-Finding 13.10
-Time to Meet

 

 

Episode 3: tracks 30-38

Episode 4: tracks 39-52 (Claire De Lune goes before Liberation in full. Rest is correct)

[badbu 123]

amazing score <3 

August 1944 is outstanding! 

[Cristian Lee 35]

I like this score it has beautiful and emotional moments. As Thor said, it's not as good as A Hidden Life or Defiance, but I wasn't expected this anyway, this is a Netflix series not a Terrence Malick film. So I made a playlist without the thriller style suspense cues. I only selected the beautiful and emotional piano/violin/strings cues, the emotional stuff that JNH is so good at. 

 

This is my playlist (maybe it will inspire others):

 

01. Main Title — 1:23
02. August 1944 — 1:16
03. Falling Leaflets — 0:57
04. Werner Listens — 1:22
05. Secrets — 2:19
06. Depart Immediately — 1:22
07. Model City — 3:23
08. To the Museum — 0:52
09. A Day at the Museum — 3:29
10. Reason to Hope — 0:51
11. Burden — 1:26
12. A Promise — 2:46
13. Genius is a Gift — 1:45
14. Model Building — 2:24
15. Catching Breath — 1:13
16. You are the Professor — 2:13
17. Speak To Me — 2:25
18. No Time for Games — 2:27
19. Ask Me Again — 2:43
20. Not Today — 1:39
21. The Most Important Light — 2:19
22. Liberation — 4:03
23. Sea of Flames — 2:16
24. Saint-Malo — 2:31
25. Model City Duet — 2:13

 

Total duration 51:52 

[GerateWohl 4,371]

I really don't get the excitement for A Hidden Life. Especially if people, like @Thor say at the same time, a score like The Book Thief is nothing special. The best pieces of the A Hidden Life OST are not by JNH and the rest is so so.

[Cristian Lee 35]

A Hidden Life is a masterpiece and the best JNH score since The Village. 

[GerateWohl 4,371]

Ah. Now I understand it.

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

Am I the only one who finds The Village boring?

[Richard Penna 3,694]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

I really don't get the excitement for A Hidden Life. Especially if people, like @Thor say at the same time, a score like The Book Thief is nothing special. The best pieces of the A Hidden Life OST are not by JNH and the rest is so so.

 

I'd sort of agree with Thor on that. I wouldn't say Hidden Life was anything astonishing, but taste wise it does a lot for me than Book Thief does.

38 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Am I the only one who finds The Village boring?

 

Is that based on the album or the complete score? The former is rearranged to an unnecessary extent, focusing a bit too much on the more tense, moody music, and less on some character stuff.

 

Either way, I find the damp, Autumnal, mysterious sound rather appealing. Pretty much evokes the UK right about now.

[Edmilson 7,470]

How JNH left some truly wonderful cues outside of The Village's OST is baffling, but even more headscratching is that it hasn't been expanded yet.

 

I think that Defiance, A Hidden Life and now ATLWCS form a nice trilogy of scores. Defiance uses the violin to highlight the tragedy of the Holocaust (not unlike Williams' Schindler's List), A Hidden Life uses it to portray the idyllic life on the countryside that is destroyed by the lunacy of war and All the Light is a like a combo of both of these approaches.

[Cristian Lee 35]

52 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

How JNH left some truly wonderful cues outside of The Village's OST is baffling, but even more headscratching is that it hasn't been expanded yet.

This score screams for an expanded release! So many great cues left out. 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

If there hadn't been the usual 'unreleased cues' promo this would be one of my holy grails. It's the lone wolf amongst his M/ Night scores - none of the others 'need' expanding. This one does.

[Cristian Lee 35]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

I think that Defiance, A Hidden Life and now ATLWCS form a nice trilogy of scores. Defiance uses the violin to highlight the tragedy of the Holocaust (not unlike Williams' Schindler's List), A Hidden Life uses it to portray the idyllic life on the countryside that is destroyed by the lunacy of war and All the Light is a like a combo of both of these approaches.

Yes, also the violin writing in All the Light represent hope.

 

After I made my playlist I listened to the score on repeat and it grew on me. It's so much better, it's my favorite JNH score since A Hidden Life. 

[leeallen01 2,136]

9 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Am I the only one who finds The Village boring?

 

 

No, millions of people had covid too, the last few years, and they also lost their taste.

 

Kabooooooom! Deeestroyed

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

In don't think you're allowed to talk about that.

[Edmilson 7,470]

According to Excel, here's how many minutes of music for each episode we have (including the Main Titles but not Clair de Lune):

 

Episode 1: 30 minutes 35 seconds;

Episode 2: 26 minutes 43 seconds;

Episode 3: 20 minutes 53 seconds;

Episode 4: 26 minutes 48 seconds;

 

All the episodes have between 51 and 62 minutes each. 

 

Either way, I've seen the first two so far and it didn't seem to have major stuff missing from the album, just small, inconsequential cues. I'm gonna watch episode 3 tonight, since it's the one with the least amount of music on the OST, I'll keep an eye for potential unreleased stuff.

[Edmilson 7,470]

Okay, having seen the whole minisseries, episode 3 is by far the one with the largest amount of unreleased music. It's more of the same material that is on the OST, but there is some stuff that would be interesting to have. Episode 4 also have some unreleased stuff, a few of them that would be nice to have on album, but the major highlights are on the album.

 

Overall, there are maybe 10-15 minutes tops of unreleased stuff, none of which is that essential.

[badbu 123]

there is also a nice alternate version of „August 1944“ when Werner arrived to the school.

[Knight of Ren 789]

Just finished watching the mini-series, and I quite liked it. Nothing groundbreaking, but there are some solid performances in here, especially coming from the two young leads. Entertaining and heartwarming watch!

 

And JNH's score works really well in context, when they let his music shine. The more action-oriented stuff is perhaps a bit drowned under the sfx, but cues like Model City or Model Building really let his music shine within the scenes. It's sad but also fitting that the nazi theme that starts so ominous and majestic in the first episode is almost completely missing in the last episode. Fitting for the narrative but disappointing since it's such a great theme. I've also grown quite fond of what I think it's Werner's theme, that appears in the middle of Liberation, at 1:52. And great use of the main theme in the final scene, in Sea of Flames!

 

Fortunately, not a lot of important music is missing, so trimming the official release a bit should leave quite a pleasant and emotional score, which I will re-listen a lot in the following weeks.

[Edmilson 7,470]

I wonder if he'll be Emmy nominated for this score next year (or whenever the next Emmy happens). On one hand, his music works so great with the picture, especially for the most emotional parts where it's not drowned by audio effects. On the other, the show got some rather tepid reviews, which may be a problem for JNH's chances next year.

[Cristian Lee 35]

On 04/11/2023 at 1:21 AM, Knight of Ren said:

I also noticed that this theme appears a couple of times across the album, mostly in subdued piano variations:

 

 

or in this gorgeous violin solo rendition:

 

but I don't know what is meant to represent. Perhaps a theme for the main character?

 

This theme is so gorgeous and it get so emotional in the cue Burden. I love it!

[Knight of Ren 789]

For those interested, I did a small suite of the main theme of the show, using the tracks Model City Duet, A Promise and then the climatic Sea of Flames. It's a really beautiful theme that appears only a couple of times through the show, plus the appearances in the Main Titles, but which makes a big emotional impact thanks to Howard's beautiful rendering of the theme, mainly for piano and violin. Enjoy!

 

[Cristian Lee 35]

Thank you! Great suite.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

On 04/11/2023 at 9:58 AM, Richard Penna said:

If there hadn't been the usual 'unreleased cues' promo this would be one of my holy grails. It's the lone wolf amongst his M/ Night scores - none of the others 'need' expanding. This one does.

 

I agree it's the most in need, but I think Unbreakable really would benefit from an expansion in chronological order, as well as a remastering because the album's sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Yavar

[GerateWohl 4,371]

Yes! Usually I don't buy non-Williams expansions. But for Unbreakable I would make an exception. Tho OST doesn't do justice to this score. The track order is not good and so is the sound. 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Found the main theme and the melody at the end of Sea of Flames going through my head on Sunday during a walk. It's definitely memorable, or perhaps it just works extremely well for an early Autumn, darkening walk through English countryside.

 

Not finding the rest of the score particularly engaging though. I think the album's far too long if you're a very casual listener like me (who's not watching the show).

[thestat 348]

Yes, this was disappointing, but like some have pointed out above, some gems here. The Burden track is a beauty with its interplay of violin and orchestra. Very similar to Williams and Schindler's List with not allowing one to overwhelm the other. But yeah, it is a score to a Shawn Levy WWII Netflix series. It will sound and look right but it is a Shawn Levy WWII Netflix series.

[Edmilson 7,470]

The minisseries isn't as bad as critics pointed out. It's watchable and at moments very gripping. Of course, the best thing about it is JNH's score, even the cues that aren't exactly great on album work in context.

 

Yeah, it's not as good as A Hidden Life... But then again Shawn Levy is not Terrence Malick .

[Bayesian 1,363]

Just finished the series. I'd love to know what version all the many critics who gave one- or two-star reviews were watching, because the version I saw was incredibly well done. (Sure, the German characters (save Werner) were almost uniformly played as sociopaths, but never in a way that was not credible.) Production values were film-level quality and JNH's score was excellent. (Model Building is a memorable cue that works really well in its scene in Ep. 4.)

[Edmilson 7,470]

Anyone else feeling some James Horner vibes on this score? 

 

There's the use of synth choir that is particularly Hornerian, like this:

 

 

There's also this motif (0:17 to 0:28):

 

 

Which is a little similar to this (until 10:07):

 

 

Anyway, JNH putting his own spin on typical Horner stuff is one of my film score-related dreams... And I wouldn't be surprised if All the Light had lots of Titanic and The New World on the temp.

[JNHFan2000 2,967]