It's been seven years since the first Zorro film, starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins, was released, featuring one of composer James Horner's most entertaining and swash-buckling scores. It's also been 14 years since Horner scored a sequel (An American Tail: Fievel Goes West back in 1991). Sequel scores are both good and bad. On the one hand, it allows the composer to further expand on themes and musical ideas established in the original score. On the other hand, it often means we'll end up with lots of the same stuff once again, with the composer retreading old, familiar, ground. Horner's score for The Legend of Zorro has a little of both.
Horner's effective use of stomping feet and clapping hands as percussive instruments in his original score really gave the music a fresh, and rather unusual, sound. Horner doesn't abandone this technique in The Legend of Zorro - why change a winning formula? The score is packed with this foot-tap inducing effect and creates, together with plenty of castanets, a fitting backdrop to the orchestral music. Horner also adds some flamenco guitars to the mix, which seems fitting for a film about Zorro, as does the generous use of trumpets and brass in general. Woodwinds are, more or less, saved for the more quiet underscore - the brass plays the role of the hero in this score, with plenty of trumpet and horn cascades and fanfares to go around. The scores' large action piece, the eleven minute long "The Train", is an impressive demonstration of Horner's ability to write exciting, playful action and adventure music. Horner rarely gets to write action music this fun, so it's nice to hear a score where Horner finally is allowed to pull all stops. Kazu Matsui's shakuhachi and Tony Hinnigan's rythmic ethnic flute playing is also an effective and familiar tool, which Horner incorporates into many action and suspense cues, throughout the score.
When it comes to themes, listeners familiar with Horner's score for The Mask of Zorro will feel right at home. The uplifting main theme is given plenty of room, cropping up all over the score, and the beautiful love theme also appears frequently. Its appearance in "To the Governor's... and then Elena" is especially lovely and memorable. The bold theme for Tornado, Zorro's horse, is also given a lot of room. Compared to the first score, Horner plays around with tempo and rythm a lot and the result are themes that sound familiar, but which sometimes manages to take the listener by surprise.
All in all, The Legend of Zorro is a fun score, with lots of action and romance. It's a little disappointing that Horner didn't choose to compose any new themes for the score, but the themes we get are quite excellent, so it's really not that big a problem. The recording, by Simon Rhodes, is crisp, the orchestra does a great job and with a total playing time of over 75 minutes this score manages to impress and entertain.