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In the past few years we saw at the theaters two very distincts retellings
of Christ's life: Philip Saville's
The Gospel of John
and Mel
Gibson's
The Passion
of The Christ. In December 1, 2006, to celebrate the
Christmas, Catherine Hardwicke's drama The Nativity Story did
hit the screens worlwide to bring to the viewers another version of the classic
tale of the Messiah's birth. This New Line film starred by Keisha
Castle-Hugues and Oscar Isaac, focuses on Mary and Joseph's life as they
travel to Baethlen for the birth of Jesus.
Introductions made, what kind of music we could expect to hear at this
religious production? Sacred music, of course. And there's even another album plenty of it. But
specifically about this score CD, there's more to tell. For years the music
of Biblical movies followed the patterns established by
Elmer Bernstein (The Ten
Commandments) and Miklos Rozsa (Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur). For me this kind of
work still is the best musical representation of the genre, anyway Peter Gabriel's score to
The Last
Temptation of Christ, bringing to the mix world-music elements, moaning
vocalists and
electronics influenced several film scores
that had followed, including Debney's own The Passion of Christ.
Mychael Danna, director's Atom Egoyan's favourite composer, departs from that path on
The Nativity Story,
choosing a way more closer to his brother Jeff's in The Gospel of John but still remaining unique. It starts with Middle Eastern patterns, but
very soon it develops into medieval and classical
melodies. While persian and Turkish ney flutes are used to build melodic
figures and strident horns and drums
describe the Roman soldiers,
instruments such as viola da gamba, vielle, harp, and recorders give to the
score a Western flavour, enriched with the usual sounds of strings and winds.
"My approach is not about a story set in the Middle East," says Danna. "It's
about how the Nativity changed history when Europe really flowered under
Christianity". For this purpose Danna references ancient Christmas melodies
and Gregorian chants.
The second
half of the soundtrack covers Mary's isolation and her relationship with
Joseph, with the choral writing and performances leading the work
to a dramatic, reverent whole. More than The Gospel of John
and The Passion of The Christ, the voices and chorus of The
Nativity Story give to the score a haunting, strong sense of religiosity
that at some points reaches that Hollywoodian grandeur of the old master's
works. It is a very beautiful and touching score that will bring tears to
your eyes, and happiness to your heart and ears. |
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