NED KELLY

Original music composed by Klaus Badelt. Songs performed by Bernard Fanning.

Samples of tracks 1, 6, 9 and 13 can be found at the film’s website. See:
http://www.nedkellythemovie.com/index.php?action=downloads.soundtrack.

Tracklisting

1. Shelter For My Soul – performed by Bernard Fanning 4:50
2. Saving a Life 3:17
3. Ned Kelly 5:37
4. Destiny 4:24
5. The Light 1:58
6. Julia 1:21
7. Stringybark Creek 3:21
8. Back Home 6:21
9. Moreton Bay – performed by Bernard Fanning 2:51
10. Doomed 5:11
11. Outlaws 5:31
12. The Jerilderie Letter 2:08
13. Father 1:29
14. The Glenrowan Inn 7:02
15. Remembering Ned Kelly 1:24
Total 56:09

The Long and the Short of It

The long and the short of it is that this is a strong contribution by Badelt, full of strong string writing. Many passages recall Zimmer’s Thin Red Line, which are not bad footsteps to be following in. Undeniably beautiful as it is, it does tend to fall a bit on the repetitive side as a score. Badelt explores his four or five themes in every possible permutation by the end of the score’s fifty minute running time. I tend to program out tracks 6, 7 and 11 to lessen the repetitiveness of the score. They are good tracks in themselves, but in the context of the whole tend to weary one.

In the context of Badelt’s career, I think this is his best to date. He and Brian Tyler are the young bright lights of film scoring at the moment. Both seem to improve with each score and promise much. I haven’t heard The Pledge, Invincible, Equilibrium or The Recruit, but I doubt there’s anything in those scores (except maybe The Pledge) to rival his dramatic writing here. Not as refined his suite for orchestra and chorus on K-19, Kelly has the benefit of greater variation in material, and is consequently a more interesting listen outside of the film. It’s also better than The Time Machine, which was an extremely entertaining score, but never quite moved me. (Given the film, what man can fault that?) Ned Kelly isn’t a great score, but it is a fine one, and I suspect we won’t need to wait long before Badelt’s first great score is a reality.

NOTE: To overseas readers who have considered importing this CD from Australia. There’s a lot to like here, but the score will doubtless reach your shelves later this year so I wouldn’t go out of my way financially if I were you. There’s plenty of better scores from the classic days of film music that you haven’t bought yet. Get them first and wait for this one unless the music samples on the Ned Kelly website really command your attention.

Track-by-track analysis

1. Shelter For My Soul – performed by Bernard Fanning 4:50

One of those songs that beautifully works with the rest of the score. And it should – Badelt orchestrated the string accompaniment and probably wrote the opening piano passage as well. The opening piano stretch suggests one of the film’s motifs, changing key at about the minute mark. The vocal is hauntingly weary. Fanning (from Powderfinger) sounds remarkably similar to Bono in ‘The Hands that Built America’. The lyrics suit what I know about the film’s depiction of Kelly. If there’s a weakness it’s this: I would have liked a repeat of the song after track 14 of Badelt’s score, where it would have followed nicely. That’s not bad as far as weaknesses go.

2. Saving a Life 3:17

The score’s opening cue, and probably also the opening cue of the film, is strong on atmosphere. Fans of Zimmer’s Thin Red Line (which Badelt worked on) will love this one. It recalls particularly the two opening cues of TRL, “The Lagoon” and “Coral Atoll”. Three female vocalists intone over chimes while strings hover delicately. At the one minute mark one vocalist takes the lead, humming, while strings move into one of those wonderfully ambiguous passages that made the TRL the best score of many years past. Slowly the music builds until a resolution is reached at the three minute mark. The motif that dominates this track I’ll call the TRL motif for the sake of recognition. The track imperceptibly flows through to the next…

3. Ned Kelly 5:37

…Which is the first of the cues that develop the score’s principal thematic material. Solo trumpet rises out of the bed of strings as the vocals recede. More emotional strings drive a new motif to a climax one and a half minutes into the track. We’ll call this motif the Morricone motif, because it’s inconceivable that Badelt wouldn’t have recognised its similarity to the guitar ostinato that film score fans will recall from “Man with the Harmonica” in Once Upon a Time in the West. Instead of the harsh cycling characteristic of the Morricone score, Badelt’s rendition is soft and closer to the gentle minimalism of Zimmer’s TRL (particularly the later tracks ‘Village’ and ‘Silence’) or passages of Pearl Harbor (particularly the later sections of the attack music).

Halfway through the cue Badelt moves out of one theme and into another, the Ned Kelly theme we’ll call it. In contrast to the wariness conveyed by the Morricone motif (of a man hunted by the law), this theme is a warm one, filled with the same sadness that pervades Zimmer’s Earth theme from Gladiator. (And there may be a musical similarity between the two themes that I have not detected yet.) Together, this track and the last form a near nine minute suite that I feel demonstrates some of Badelt’s best writing to date. It isn’t great music per se, but it’s fine work indeed. The string writing is particularly accomplished: Barberesque to be sure, but not so close that you think of Adagio for Strings (which is fine piece of music but frankly has enjoyed screen time in too many films).

4. Destiny 4:24

This track is devoted to a development of the Morricone motif. The opening is extremely suggestive of ‘Man with the Harmonica’, with a stringed instrument intoning the familiar chords in comfortable slow time. (It sounds like a processed harp or harpsichord, which is confusing, because soloists for either of these instruments aren’t listed on the credits.)

I must stress that I don’t call this theme the Morricone motif out of any desire to appear facetious. I think what Badelt has done is one of the finer examples of thematic interpolation I’ve heard in a recent score. Normally composers call down all manner of affected fury (I hope it’s affected anyway, it’s a hell of thing to be taking seriously) from film score fans for delving into the back catalogue of thematic material. But I find it often adds layers of meaning to the narrative at hand. Think of Barry’s use of his Zulu theme in Cry, the Beloved Country. In the opening passages of Nixon, Williams complemented the visual parallels with Citizen Kane with references to Hermann’s classic score. In AI, William’s quoted Khtachaturian’s marvellous Gayanne Ballet in homage to Kubrick’s earlier film about AI. And there is of course Williams’ appropriation of Bernard Hermann material in more recent scores like Attack of the Clones and Minority Report.

In Badelt’s case, he’s taken a motif associated with Frank, the Henry Fonda character in Once Upon a Time in the West (OUTW). In that film, this theme first appeared in the scene where Frank and his henchmen kill the farmer and his family as they await the arrival of Claudia Cardinale. There was the subtext of villains who use the law to personal gain when that theme played in OUTW. Ned Kelly of course features similar figures who abuse the recently-emigrated Kelly family – embodied in the form of the Victorian police force. Even the abuse of immigrants is common to both films. In OUTW the farmer slain was a Dutch farmer. In Ned Kelly, the family is Irish. Consequently, I feel this was a well-calculated choice of Badelt’s part rather than a case of accidental similarity.

5. The Light 1:58

The title is well chosen. This brief cue introduces the ‘Light theme’, and I call it that because it is far more optimistic than anything else in the otherwise fairly moody score. Pizzicato strings introduce the cue, sounding not dissimilar to Mychael Danna’s Ride with the Devil or something Patrick Doyle might have written. About 45 seconds in the obligatory Celtic influence is evident with pipes and flute. A full orchestral version of the theme is played in the second minute of the track. It’s a lovely piece, and a nice break from the preceding tracks.

6. Julia 1:21

This cue is named after Naomi Watts character in the film, though from the sound of things her circumstances in the film are not as welcoming as her features on its poster. Cello opens with a suggestion of the Morricone motif, followed by some heavy strings and a flute performance of the Morricone motif. Suspenseful strings end the cue, as it flows into…

7. Stringybark Creek 3:21

… A return of the Barberesque strings. The opening passage seems to suggest Zimmer’s famous “Journey to the Line” and Jon Brion’s “I’ve Got a Surprise for you Today” (Magnolia), but it moves into a heavy statement of the Ned Kelly theme. The material from the opening score cue returns towards the end as quickening strings build layers of anticipation before quietly resolving.

8. Back Home 6:21

One of the best set-piece tracks on the album. The Light theme is reprised in a gentle pastoral rendition at the opening of this track. Flute and oboe make a lovely pair, until they are joined by a beautiful viola rendition of the theme, and then it really starts to sound nice. Pipes play the Ned Kelly theme with a wash of strings backing. This is a lovely statement of this theme. Unfortunately the optimism can’t hold, and around the two and a half minute mark solo trumpet introduces the Morricone motif. Dark percussion is introduced, and one can only guess that the police have arrived at Kelly’s home. The change in tone suggests a similar moment in Williams’ Patriot score. (An excellent score, by the way.) An intense orchestral rendering of the Morricone motif follows. As the Kelly house burns to the ground (I’m guessing, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening) elegiac strings play, before the pipes return for a last statement of the Morricone motif.

9. Moreton Bay 2:51

A folk ballad about the fortunes of immigrants in Australia, sung by Bernard Fanning. It’s a nice break from Badelt’s material, and has a lovely tune for fiddle, mandolin and guitar, that I’ve heard with many different lyrics in my life. I’ve never heard these lyrics before, but they recall ‘Paddy’s Lamentation’, the folk song that Scorsese used to great effect in the famous dockside tracking shot in Gangs of New York. As in Scorsese’s film, the song fits in with the representation of Kelly as an abused Irish immigrant fighting back. Badelt introduces his strings towards the end, flowing into…

10. Doomed 5:11

… A track that sounds like its title. This is heavy stuff indeed. A melancholy passage for pipes leads into a heavy statement of the Morricone motif. A doom-laden statement of the Ned Kelly theme follows, leading into a passage for pizzicato strings that recalls the action sequences from Danna’s Ride with the Devil score. Over the strings, a trumpet performance of the Morricone theme is performed. When one can’t imagine where the heavy track will go next to suggest tension… it suddenly lifts in an orchestral flourish before a wary ending.

11. Outlaws 5:31

More heavy strings, this track manages to sound more dour than Badelt’s K-19 score, which is no mean feat. There is a good action motif around the minute mark here, but if fades pretty quickly. (My guess is the violent stretches of the film must either be unscored or very stylised considering the nature of the score.) The middle of the track seems to owe a debt to Williams’ Born on the Fourth of July, especially the harsh aural landscapes of Williams’ battlefields. I must say I tend to program this one out when playing the score, not because it’s bad, simply because I feel the score has already developed this material as far as it’s going to.

12. The Jerilderie Letter 2:08

The last appearance of the Light theme is this track. The music suggests a dangerous dance, now light, now deadly, probably a montage of bank robberies in the film. (In fact it’s not unlike the music for a similar kind of scene in Road to Perdition.) Great ending from Badelt.

13. Father 1:29

A warm statement of the Ned Kelly theme for what must be one of the film’s most emotional scenes. My second favourite track on the score, despite its brevity. You can hear a slight resemblance between this theme and Badelt’s theme for Emma in The Time Machine. Viola gives a lovely rendition of the counter-theme towards the end, anticipating the beautiful final track. The track flows into…

14. The Glenrowan Inn 7:02

… Heavy percussion opens the track, joined by building strings for the scene of Kelly’s capture at the Glenrowan Inn. The turmoil soon calms down, and the doom-laden strings return for a final intense passage involving most of the score’s thematic material. The Ned Kelly theme receives a remarkably strong statement for full orchestra, climaxing at the three minute mark. At the three and a half minute mark, the trumpet led Morricone motif returns for one last stab, doubtless depicting Kelly’s isolation at the Melbourne gaol. At around five minutes, a more optimistic motif that recurs throughout the score appears, possibly a secondary motif for Kelly, or for his (fictional) love Julia. The final minute and a half of the cue is a piano statement of the TRL-like motif that first appeared in the score’s second track. The first appearance of piano in the score is quite refreshing to hear, and one wishes there were more of it.

15. Remembering Ned Kelly 1:24

The album’s shortest track is also the most affecting. The Ned Kelly theme is given a solo rendition for viola, and the sad beauty of the theme is evident in a way that the previous full orchestra renderings couldn’t convey. Reminiscent to a small extent of Horner’s celtic ‘Hymn to the Sea’ for Titanic and with an opening that brings Wagner to mind, this is the best track on Ned Kelly by Badelt, and I only wish the device of the solo viola was used more frequently in some of the album’s longer tracks.

Score Credits

Music written and produced by Klaus Badelt.

Additional music and arrangements: Ramin Djawadi, Geoff Zanelli.

Synth Orchestrations: Tim Jones, Henning Lohner.

Recorded and mixed by Nick Wollage.

Recorded at Air Lyndhurst Studios, London.

Mixed at Sony Whitfield Studios, London.

Additional recording and mixing: Geoff Foster.

Synth programming: Rob Williams.

Vocals: Katy Stephen, Susie Webb, Alexandra Hill.

Solo viola: Peter Lale.

Solo trumpet: Ian Balmain.

Flutes and pipes: Eric Rigler.

Conductors: Rick Wentworth, Gavyn Wright.

Orchestrations: Blake Neely, Bob Elhai, Brad Warnaar, Bruce Fowler, Ladd McIntosh, Klaus Badelt.

Music editor: Christopher Brooks.

Music editors, London: Gerard McCann, Ramin Djawadi.

Assistant engineers: Gregg Silk, Jake Jackson, Tom Hannen.

Production Coordinator: Allison Wright Clark.

Technical score consultant: Ian Honeyman.

Orhcestra contractor: Isobel Griffiths.

Music preparation: Vic Fraser, Jill Streater.

Composer management: Media Ventures.

Media Ventures executives: Jay Rifkin, Mark Berger.

Mastered by Bob Whitney at Sony Whitfield Studios, London.

Publisher: Universal Pictures Music.

If you were going to import it - I don't know about online but in terms of physical shops, I understand the US has Sanity, and if so they might be a source for import as they were carrying it locally. The UK has HMV, and they have an Australian chain that would have plenty of copies.

As for a local (wherever that is) release, look for when the film comes out locally, and that's your best bet.

Hey ROCHELLE!!! you still about here?