Swept from the Sea

Well, not being one of John Barry's greatest fans, would still say that this is indeed a very beautiful piece of music. It is generally very moody and tinged with sadness throughout. The themes aren't as great as some of Barry's other themes. The tune introduced in Yanko asks Amy Out is more upbeat than a lot of the material, and cuts right through the initial sadness very well. The words 'Chamber Orchestra' always put the fear of God into me, I'm not a great fan of undersized chamber music, I always want some of the instruments a full symphony orchestra affords, but in this case, I need not have too much reason to worry. In fact, it is Barry's attempts to make a smaller orchestra sound epic that perhaps don't work as well, his broad sweeping style is best suited to fuller orchestra. His usual, perhaps somewhat cliched horn chords with lush strings are much in evidence. It is this, more than anything that makes me think that one Barry score sounds just like another. He does something to rectify some of this problem in the introduction of an ethereal chorus which makes the music very haunting indeed (it always does though). The effect is not exactly Elfmanesque in the sadness, but adds great atmosphere to soundscape. Yanko's Dance sounds like something Danny Elfman might actually have written, it even has the fairground organ in mix along with some ethnic sounding twanging. In the context of the film, this music probably sounds fine, but rather cuts the atmosphere of the score with a knife and so is very distracting, especially if you aren't expecting it. Overall, I still can't help thinking that a lot of this music is very similar in itself as well as being similar to many other Barry works of the last few years. The sadness and moodiness of the music does get to me after a while and it's like listening to Edward Scissorhands a couple of times through and could turn me into a manic depressive. I think I prefer my Barry a little more upbeat and with a small sprinkling of action to be honest, I'll stick to Dances with Wolves I think.