by Swashbuckler on 4/15/2002
favorite track: 1
 
Jonathan Demme's cinematic adaptation of Thomas Harris' bestseller had plenty of elements going for it. A brisk, earnest performance by Jodie Foster as the heroine Clarice Starling, an all-business Scott Glenn as her mentor Crawford, and the famously chilling intelligence of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lector.

Behind the scenes, the film benifited immensely from Tak Fujimoto's harsh photography and Howard Shore's hypnotic score.

The music is difficult to describe, as it is so fluid as to be indefinable. This is primarily a textural score, with the orchestration being more important than any thematic material (of which there isn't much). Instead, Shore creates a soundscape that seems to emerge from the intensity of the characters rather than from the specific situation (similarly, in Se7en, the score would emerge seemlessly from the sounds of the urban decay).

Few moments of sunlight penetrate into this dark and brooding tapestry, and those are brief when they come. Shore purposefully limits the palette to a few tonalities, although he does vary the tempi when neccesary. The overall impression is of very quiet music being played loud; when the score does get excited, it is often with deep percussive beats.

Shore's music works superbly in the film, but there its subtlety is not as obvious as it is when played on the album, where all of the mesmerizing sound can be studied in greater detail.

The sound has what seems to be a purposefully tubby aspect that does not detract from the music, and includes in the penultimate track a set of sound effects created by the talented Skip Lievsay (a sound designer who has worked often with the Coen brothers, and whose contribution to Barton Fink was also represented on that film's soundtrack album) which merges perfectly into the score.

The artwork on this album very cut-and-dry, which works quite well with the music itself. More recent issues of the album have added the legend "Music by Howard Shore" to the cover, although it has not, to this author's knowledge, been altered in any other way.

This score is too dark and brooding for many, but for those who appreciate the layered and dense music of Howard Shore will definitely be pleased with this record.