Untamed Heart

With earlier efforts like this, it's quite easy to see how Cliff Eidelman became a little pigeonholed into writing music for small dramas as Untamed Heart is a generally superior effort in the genre. Of course, any composer who ends up writing for many similar films is going to loose some of the original inspiration and sadly for me, Eidelman has unfortunately succombed to this depressing trend, writing less and less interesting scores as his career has progressed. Fortunately, we are still left with his more impressive early efforts and this another one of those; a delightful and very gentle score for blossoming romance.

Perhaps Eidelman's greatest trump card of the score is the inclusion of a female chorus during the opening and final tracks. Using a choir in film music isn't surprising, but in such a quiet score the use is quite a surprise. The sustained, yet subtle soprano harmonies add greatly to the quiet strings, piano and woodwind. Unfortunately, Eidelman eschews the choir for the remainder of the score. It might have been overkill too often, but it would have been nice to hear it a little more often. This leaves behind a fairly small ensemble of piano, strings and woodwinds to meander their way pleasantly through the remainder. The only great changes in dramatic direction are Stabbed, which brings a brief sense of urgency and at the other end of the spectrum is Hockey Game which recalls the pop instrumental sections of Horner's Field of Dreams.

When compared to simiar efforts by Elmer Bernstein or Randy Newman, Eidelman's score really doesn't set itself apart as much as it ought to. However, Untamed Heart is not without its moments and with just about enough variation to keep the listener's attention during what is a fairly slow moving score it might well be worth seeking out by those who particularly enjoy low key scoring. However, the album is exceptionally short - I suspect that the tracks not in the film were especially written for the CD - and unfortunately it is not really a score that inspires many repeat listenings.