Title: Mission
to Mars
Year: 2000
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Maestro
Morricone really isn’t well-known for writing music for space operas. So when
it was announced that he would score Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars there was almost no previous clue how he would handle the
dangers and awe of space travel. Nevertheless he did it in his unmistakable
style mixing something new to his bag of old tricks, combining unusual
instrumental choices to electronic applications and traditional melodic writing
to moments of stark chromatic structures reminiscent of modern classical music.
At the same time he experimented with what was the appropriate kind of music
for sci-fi films by his controversial choices. Around the film’s release there
was talk that Morricone’s score was one of the worst parts of the film. Trust
me, the film had issues far greater than this score which by itself is a
masterpiece and one of the most unique experiences in Maestro’s catalogue.
The
backwards assembled album begins with the end title piece A heart beats in space which starts with exactly that: the sound
effect of a beating heart in the emptiness. After the sweet prelude provided by
the cor anglais, the music moves to a developmental section for strings, a
distant choir and soft electric guitar which create a true feeling of
weightlessness. Around the 3-minute mark we’re introduced to the nostalgic main
theme of the film which is a stellar (sorry for the pun) melody that can only
come from the pen of a true Maestro. The cue ends with a reprise of the opening
atmosphere in a reversed order along with a bright Baroque style trumpet solo
before cooling off back to the heartbeat. A surprisingly reflective opening to
a space adventure film and a great one for sure.
In a way
the album’s opening dictates how the rest of the album will be like. The tempo
is usually slow, the melodies are given time to develop and flourish, and
everything is oozing with the peace stemming from the depths of ageless
space. A martian continues in similar
vein and after the electric oboe has reprised the main theme, the writing
becomes certainly more romantic and it’s easy to forget that you’re not
actually listening to an impressionistic tone poem. During the cue’s latter
half, the whole orchestra and choir are painting wondrous landscapes slowly rising
towards A world which searches which
provides fragments of the main theme once again. Between the most controversial
tracks of the album the listener is treated with the peaceful A wife lost which is based on the cor
anglais theme and has a bit dated synthetic sound that lessens its enjoyability
slightly, and Ecstacy of Mars whose
chromatic patterns, misty choir sound and another reprise of the cor anglais
theme are emphasizing the astronauts’ unbelievable sights.
And now we
get to the issue that is the electronic organ. You see, Towards the unknown is an 8-minute monster of a piece dominated by
a chromatic rising and falling organ melody over a steadily beating bassline.
The reviewers’ arguments were that an organ isn’t suitable for a space film (I
wonder if they still feel like that after Hans Zimmer’s treatment of the
instrument in Interstellar). But if I
may ask, why wouldn’t it be suitable? I think that science fiction films are
just a perfect opportunity to try something out of the box. Besides the organ
sound has been modified to sound very sterile and alien (sorry again). For some
listeners these might be the longest 8 minutes of their lives but for me they’re
absolutely ingenious. Just that way of adding more and more instruments to the
mix slowly creating tension and depth to the piece before resolving probably to
the most gorgeous statement of the main theme on the whole album. The cue ends
also with one of the most memorable single chords ever (at 7:36) that blurs the
line between tonality and atonality beautifully. The other suspenseful tracks
on the album, An unexpected surprise and
And afterwards?, don’t unfortunately
reach the same heights but the latter includes interesting Ligeti-inspired
choral work but also annoying, restless electronic tingling which sounded
already dated in the year 2000.
The two
greatest epiphanies on the album are the 13-minute Sacrifice of a hero and the film’s finale Where? which cover the entire range of emotions of the human
existence. The first one continues from where Towards the unknown left off. The bassline is soon taken over by ominous
brass and woodwinds, a martial drum and Maestro’s 70s giallo trademark, the
whispering and whistling choir. This development is followed by an almost
2-minute sustained note which accompanies the heroic brass. Finally it resolves
to the most devastating moment on the album for woeful strings and flute solo
that turns back to harsh atonality once more before the final patriotic
sendoff. Where? on the other hand
begins gloomily but soon we get the first fanfare that signals the closeness of
salvation. After that the atmosphere slowly swells to the final climax that
explodes in pure joy and hope. The whole orchestra and choir provide the last
majestic rendition of the main theme in one of the Maestro’s most spectacular
finale cues ever. The album ends with All
the friends, a short and sweet postlude to the fallen astronauts.
Mission to Mars is a score that divides the film music
community: you either hate or love it. As you can probably tell, I’m part of
that latter group. It’s rare to hear a space adventure film score this daring.
Maestro Morricone treats it almost like a classical symphonic work, like a
literal ‘space opera’ without the vocal parts. It’s easily in my top 10
Morricone scores of all time and probably his greatest achievement in the new
millennium.
Rating: *****
Tracklist:
1. A heart
beats in space (07:58) *****
2. A martian
(06:06) *****
3. A world
which searches (02:58) *****
4. And afterwards?
(06:33) ****
5. A wife lost
(03:27) *****
6. Towards
the unknown (08:15) *****
7. Ecstasy
of Mars (02:57) *****
8. Sacrifice
of a hero (13:20) *****
9. Where?
(05:32) *****
10. An unexpected
surprise (02:33) ***
11. All the
friends (02:39) *****
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