Bless the Child

Christopher Young is of course most famous for writing music for horror films and I suspect in many of those cases, the scores far outstripped the films in terms of merit and longevity. After a period of scoring fewer horror films and moving into other genres, Young has returned to his most accomplished area of music and written an excellent score for what is apparently a diabolical film. The tag line is 'Mankind's last hope just turned six' which pretty much sums up the lack of inspiration showing all round - except for the music of course.

With a large clang, we are launched into Young's Introitus which is a fairly brooding adagio. Full of multi layered textures of resonent bass pedal notes, a male choir, bells and a couple of more exotic instruments, the effect is hypnotic and unsettling. Despite being slow moving, it never outstays its welcome. Many horror scores use a large choir, but I've rarely head one that uses the bass end of the spectrum so effectively. Perhaps the closest analogy would be the Tibetan monks that appear on Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun, the vocals so low as to make your speakers rattle. The counterpoint of higher strings and an occasional burst from the rest of the choir introduces more immediate tension than the gut wrenching feeling eminating from the lower parts.

The first two movements are relatively low key, but the Dies Irae lives up to its name magnificently with some spikey, brassy action music that is quite terrific. Agnus Dei is the first movement to hint at a more subdued side to the music and contains glimmers of hope, although these still feel swallowed up the surrounding darkness. Finally, some relief is provided in the glorious Lux Aeterna. In the traditional mass, this is usually a beautiful, low key resolution as the praise reaches a contented resolution, but Young's music is far more vigorous. After a short orchestral introduction, the choir arrives in all its glory; the vocalists and London Metropolitan Orchestra playing with the kind of electricity you rarely find in film score recordings these days. This movement in particular leads me to believe that Young could write full scale and successful concert works and marks a quite outstanding way to close the score. I would place this track down as one of the finest single choral cues composed for a film and is utterly compelling.

Unless the director had made the film with the specific intent of it being accompanied by a Latin mass, I doubt that even the most accomplished composer would be able to keep the music strictly within the traditional confines of the various movements. To be fair, the Introitus and Kyrie would be hard to separate had they run together, but I suspect that large swings in mood just to accommodate the lyrics and design for the soundtrack would be hard to integrate into the film. In fairness, that is all semantics and track titles apart, Bless the Child is an often outstanding score that probably adds vast quantities of atmosphere and drama to the film as it conjurs up very vivid emotions and ideas on disc. Perhaps the only minor complaint would be that, while Young just about manages to keep things moving during the slower parts, a little light pruning in the first couple of tracks wouldn't have gone amiss. However, fter a slow build up, the final three cues are quite outstanding and worth the price of the disc alone. Within the tracks, the music flows very smoothly, even though I suspect they are made of many shorter cues. A horror score worthy of Young's best.