by PK on 5/22/2000
 
To Intrada Records, a job well done! For those of you looking for a piece of cinematic history, this soundtrack release offers more than just a sampling of one of Hollywood's most successful "sleeper hits." The music truly is a landmark score in both Hollywood and in the career of Jerry Goldsmith. The restoration of this great score from studio tapes to compact disc is ear candy such heaven when compared to the old beat up LPs that worsen with every play!

Goldsmith's first film score came in 1957 with Black Patch, less than ten years before A Patch of Blue. During those few years, Goldsmith worked within the conventions of scoring. However, he occasionally reconfigured the standard orchestras to provide various "color" to individual motion pictures, done by removing or strengthening the prominence of specific parts of the orchestra. This method soon gave Goldsmith unique notoriety in Hollywood that would last throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.

For A Patch of Blue, Goldsmith brought together many different instruments to form an unusually diverse orchestra: alto sax, celesta, electronic guitar, guitar, glockenspiel, harmonica, harp, marimba, piano, strings, vibraphone, woodwinds and a percussion section featuring castenets, tympani, guiro and woodblocks.

His music for A Patch of Blue describes Selina's lonely world right from the beginning - as we listen to the main title, we first see Selina and discover her blindness. The delicate main theme, performed on piano (made warm through the use of supportive strings and light woodwinds) instantly recalls the images of Selina's trials, tribulations and achieved accomplishments as a blind member of society.

Now, music that invites the film's images back into our minds? That's what I call great movie music....