Barry uses a solo harmonica on a few tunes, just as he did in "Theme from Midnight Cowboy". And just as he did in "Theme from Midnight Cowboy", Barry indulges in luxuriant expansive melancholia & wistfulness. Barry also frequently uses a distant female singer to bookend the tunes. She sings brief wordless phrases in an ethereal manner. Her passages in "Give Me A Smile" are achingly beautiful. In "Gifts of Nature", Barry gave the female singer some brilliant modernistic harmonic notes.

My fave tune is "A Childhood Memory". It has a brass passage that's astoundingly effective because Barry knows how to create chordal tension. The liner notes contain the following epigraph from Paul Bowles: "How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."

I agree that as a concept album it is intriguing, but the music in it seemed too much a descendant of DANCES WITH WOLVES (one of my earliest soundtracks, and one that I do enjoy). Barry is quite capable of writing in a diverse array of styles (my favorites are ZULU, THE KNACK, BODY HEAT, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, DANCES WITH WOLVES, and ELIZABETH IN LONDON). BEYONDNESS is just too allied with only one of those styles--and, like someone said above, it's territory well covered elsewhere in one's collection.

That opening piece entitled "The Beyondness of Things" bespeaks reverence, humility and respect. --For what? Use your cinematic imagination. And if you see or hear Dances With Wolves what difference does it make? It's not the same music but it's beautiful music. That's what counts. "The Heartlands" is ominous; it says be careful, take precaution; O.K., looks like you're going to make it, steady as she goes--but remain vigilant. Great use of background chorus at the outset. Gonna take some doing, some coaxing but "Give Me a Smile" from more than the hidden heart. That sax in "Nocturnal New York" says yeah, it's tough in the city that never sleeps and you get kicked around every now and then but you'll survive--and not have it any other way. And if that sax reminds you of the Inside Moves theme, good. And if "Meadow of Delight & Sadness" reminds you of Mary Queen Of Scots, good too. "Gifts of Nature" remains for me the quintessential cue to underscore tragedy, large or small. No such thing as a small tragedy, I think. "The Fictionist" is a denouement, of sorts; you've been through a lot, gosh darnit you're on the cusp of something...you may not make it all the way but it's been worth it just getting this far. And if that mood piece called "Dawn Chorus" has that "Arthusa" touch from King Kong--good.

Yeah. It's movie music all right. And damn good movie music at that.

I do have THE LION IN WINTER, but only on cassette, and haven't listened to it in years. Will do so soon, because there just might be a Barry fanatic lurking within me. Just now, in fact, I ordered Raise the Titanic from Screen Archives.