The Cider House Rules
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| # | Track | Duration | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Main Titles | 2:10 | ||
| 2. | Homer's Lessons | 3:43 | ||
| 3. | Young girl's Burial | 0:42 | ||
| 4. | Homer Asks Wally for a Ride | 1:27 | ||
| 5. | Homer leaves Orphanage | 4:37 | ||
| 6. | The Ocean | 0:59 | ||
| 7. | The Cider House | 4:13 | ||
| 8. | Wally Goes off to War | 1:48 | ||
| 9. | Lobster Dinner | 0:51 | ||
| 10. | Burying Fuzzy | 1:35 | ||
| 11. | Homer and Candy on the Dock | 2:21 | ||
| 12. | Rose Rose is Pregnant | 1:16 | ||
| 13. | Abortion | 1:50 | ||
| 14. | Pickers Leave | 1:16 | ||
| 15. | Dr. Larch Dies | 1:37 | ||
| 16. | Homer Returns to the Orphanage | 3:42 | ||
| 17. | Good-Knight, you Kings of New England | 1:06 | ||
| 18. | End Credits | 4:36 | ||
| 39:49 |
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Based on the novel by John Irving and directed by Lasse Hallström, the wonderful The Cider House Rules tells the story of Homer Wells, an orphan who, having lived in an orphanage almost his entire life, yearns for a life in the "real world". When Wally and and his girlfriend Candy visit the orphanage, Homer leaves with them to work on the family apple farm. Then, as Wally goes off to war, Homer and Candy are being left alone together...
I must say that Rachel Portman is one of my favorite female film composers, or plainly, one of my favorite film composers, and she did not let me down this time either. With a rather romantic sound and dominated by a lovely, bitter sweet theme, appearing in many different shapes and forms in almost every cue, this score is a beautiful and relaxing listening experience, at times intimate, with solo performances by piano and woodwinds - such as in the wonderful, but sad, "Burying Fuzzy" - and other times lush, with solid, thick strings, but still with a fair amount of woodwinds and piano, like in the vibrant "Main Titles". Even if the orchestra incorporates brass instruments, these have been given a very toned down role, often placed in the background used only for harmonic reasons and effects.
Although the majority of the score is serious, or at least laid back, the music for The Cider House Rules has a more upbeat and playfull side, as well, similiar to Portman's score for Emma. The short "Lobster Dinner" serves as a good example, with its light strings, harps and woodwinds.
Even if the main theme dominates the entire score, other themes gets the chance to stand in the lime light, as well, although the main theme is what you probably will remember when the score ends. Especially since the "End Credits" cue offers one of the scores' best and most memorable renditions of the theme, building to a splendid ending to one of the best romantic/drama scores of 1999.
Credits must also go to Sony Classical - in my opinion the best record label in 1999. Besides The Cider House Rules, they have released the soundtracks for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Legend of 1900, Bicentennial Man and others, all with good packaging, producing and, most importantly, much music.
I must say that Rachel Portman is one of my favorite female film composers, or plainly, one of my favorite film composers, and she did not let me down this time either. With a rather romantic sound and dominated by a lovely, bitter sweet theme, appearing in many different shapes and forms in almost every cue, this score is a beautiful and relaxing listening experience, at times intimate, with solo performances by piano and woodwinds - such as in the wonderful, but sad, "Burying Fuzzy" - and other times lush, with solid, thick strings, but still with a fair amount of woodwinds and piano, like in the vibrant "Main Titles". Even if the orchestra incorporates brass instruments, these have been given a very toned down role, often placed in the background used only for harmonic reasons and effects.
Although the majority of the score is serious, or at least laid back, the music for The Cider House Rules has a more upbeat and playfull side, as well, similiar to Portman's score for Emma. The short "Lobster Dinner" serves as a good example, with its light strings, harps and woodwinds.
Even if the main theme dominates the entire score, other themes gets the chance to stand in the lime light, as well, although the main theme is what you probably will remember when the score ends. Especially since the "End Credits" cue offers one of the scores' best and most memorable renditions of the theme, building to a splendid ending to one of the best romantic/drama scores of 1999.
Credits must also go to Sony Classical - in my opinion the best record label in 1999. Besides The Cider House Rules, they have released the soundtracks for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Legend of 1900, Bicentennial Man and others, all with good packaging, producing and, most importantly, much music.
Rachel Portman has penned another delightful and intimate score for The Cider House Rules which makes for a low key but enjoyable affort. The main theme introduced in the Main Titles focuses on strings, woodwind and piano, passing the melody around the orchestra. It perfectly captures the gentile New England setting and provides for a strong start to a very good album and recurs on occasion throughout in different orchestral guises..
Given the type of heart warming drama the film appears to be, the music is naturally quite sentimental, but never cloyingly so. There are enough more serious episodes such as the Young Girl's Burial, which has hints of Thomas Newman harmony creeping in from time to time, to give a greater dramatic weight to the music. There are also several more sprightly passages which serve to break up the generally relaxed atmosphere and give a nice change of pace from time to time. Portman's pleasing mixture of piano, strings and clarinet gives the music a typical lightness of touch in cues such as Homer's Lessons and Homer Asks Wally for a Ride, that is often missing from scores these days.
It is always difficult to know what to say about scores like this. It is not outstandingly different or taxing, but is just thoroughly well wrought music that makes for an uncomplicated and pleasant forty minutes. There is enough variety in pace although it all has the same kind of feel and works perfectly well as music apart from the film (which I've not seen). It commendably avoids becoming redundant through overuse of the main theme, but there are few tracks which stand out above the others as they are all of equally high quality.
To my mind, it doesn't feature many of Portman's typical stylistic touches; for example the main theme is not so prominently clarinet led as usual and some of the incidental music could be low key Williams, Delerue or even someone like Thomas Newman. Of course none of this detracts from the album as a listening experience and as such I can only recommend it as delightful in every respect. Not one of Portman's most idiosyncratic scores, but certainly one that is sincere and enjoyable.
Given the type of heart warming drama the film appears to be, the music is naturally quite sentimental, but never cloyingly so. There are enough more serious episodes such as the Young Girl's Burial, which has hints of Thomas Newman harmony creeping in from time to time, to give a greater dramatic weight to the music. There are also several more sprightly passages which serve to break up the generally relaxed atmosphere and give a nice change of pace from time to time. Portman's pleasing mixture of piano, strings and clarinet gives the music a typical lightness of touch in cues such as Homer's Lessons and Homer Asks Wally for a Ride, that is often missing from scores these days.
It is always difficult to know what to say about scores like this. It is not outstandingly different or taxing, but is just thoroughly well wrought music that makes for an uncomplicated and pleasant forty minutes. There is enough variety in pace although it all has the same kind of feel and works perfectly well as music apart from the film (which I've not seen). It commendably avoids becoming redundant through overuse of the main theme, but there are few tracks which stand out above the others as they are all of equally high quality.
To my mind, it doesn't feature many of Portman's typical stylistic touches; for example the main theme is not so prominently clarinet led as usual and some of the incidental music could be low key Williams, Delerue or even someone like Thomas Newman. Of course none of this detracts from the album as a listening experience and as such I can only recommend it as delightful in every respect. Not one of Portman's most idiosyncratic scores, but certainly one that is sincere and enjoyable.
Oscars: Best Original Score (Nominee)
Other releases of The Cider House Rules (1999):
