Gettysburg

'They are patriotic, look how damn patriotic they are, duh, aaarrggghhh!!!!' is possibly the most ludicrous description of the main theme from Gettysburg you'll ever read, but it was the first thing that sprang to mind when I heard it. Compared to James Horner's theme for the similarly themed Glory, Randy Edelman is going to make sure that we realise how heroic and brave the good old boys fighting the war are if it kills him. Admittedly it's quite a memorable theme with the usual Edelman strings, brass and synth padding in the middle to pad out the orchestration where I would think a battalion of horns would do just fine. There is a lovely alternative orchestration which doesn't beat you over the head so much and that's with a solo guitar featured prominently, although I have a sneaking suspicion that it's synthesised, but it's hard to tell. There is no indication on the packaging either way. As well as the main theme are some vaguely civil war sounding pipe tunes. There are also a couple of tracks that are arranged by Randy Edelman, although no indication is given as to what they were originally, traditional or having a specific composer. However, they fit perfectly well into the general tapestry of the score.

The numerous battles are given various treatments from the kind of sweeping strings thing (such as Battle of Round Top) which probably accompanies slow motion shots of good old boys being mercilessly shot to pieces. Others are a bit more aggressive, although the buzzing synth noises make it sound far too easy on the ear. Edelman just doesn't seem all that capable of doing anything genuinely gritty or barbaric. You only need to compare this with something like the battle cues from Horner's Braveheart which use thundering percussion and while simple are marvellously effective. Edelman is attempting to cross breed his soft style with very modest excitement and as a result it comes out sounding rather lame.

Despite my numerous complaints, it does work very well as an entertaining enough album, it is at least very melodic, features some quite stirring moments (in a highly manipulated kind of way) and the guitar solos are very nice indeed. It is almost certainly the prototypical Edelman score with the orchestrations and melodies featuring all this trademarks. I have not seen the movie or TV movie or whatever it was released as where you live, but I can imagine it being somewhat over the top, unless the rest of the production was like that. When people complain about Williams' Saving Private Ryan being over the top, you really only have to listen to this to realise how subtle and restrained Williams' work was. However as I technically shouldn't be concerned with how it plays in the film and because I actually really enjoy this score, I am quite happy to recommend it, even if it's not exactly an essential purchase. If you enjoy a bit more subtlety then I would certainly recommend both Glory and Saving Private Ryan over this as they are in a different class of their own.