Customer Reviews

The Clan Of The Cave Bear: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The most amazing thing about this film adaptation of a beautiful and brilliant book is the music. It is epic, sweeping and full of hope and journeying. I had seen this film when it first came out and today (more than 20 years later), I remember the music and how it made me feel most of all. Simply brilliant.

Sometimes you have to listen to a soundtrack without the movie, to really appreciate the music. This is one of those soundtracks. Each track has been masterfully designed to re-tell certain events of the story. The music compilation is raw and gripping. It's amazing that the human brain came up with this. It'll sweep you into a different world!

I've always liked Jean Auel's Ayla books, but found the movie to be awful- so little to do with the book. I can't honestly say I remember the soundtrack, it seems to me that much of the music must've been played at a very subdued volume, but most of the selections do seem to go well with what I remember of the story. The selections (I've only listened to the 30 second samples)tend to have a very eerie sound to them some have tribal elements mixed in. The music is definitely better than the movie, with what people are asking for used(usually)copies of the CD there ought to be a reissue that is more affordable!

The score to CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR is all electronic - just synthesizer. Composed in 1986, it is the earliest of Silvestri's great electronic works with which I am familiar, the others being FERNGULLY in 1992 and BEOWULF of last year. Its texture is light and magical and very similar to what Vangelis had created in 1981 for BLADE RUNNER. It's simple, direct and melodically satisfying, but takes its time and will reward a patient listener.

Three melodies comprise the melodic basis of the score and they are introduced one by one in the first three tracks. The Main Title theme is essentially ascending and is exclusively major. It is slow to reveal itself, very broad, yearning and regal and sounds almost like Silvestri affecting the manner of John Barry or Jerry Goldsmith. At its cadence, it descends as the bass steadily ascends into a suspended chord for the finish. Utterly beautiful! The second melody, introduced in "The Bear Skull", seems almost to be some primitive pre-linguistic vocal communication - like a kind of human "bird call". The third, the "Ayla" theme introduced in "Ayla Finds the Cave", is descending and minor. Of the three melodies, the highlight is the Main Title theme, which is the kind of thing one can program to repeat for a half hour's time and never become weary of. Luckily for us, it recurs a half dozen times through the score and feels better each time. Silvestri also uses a lot of prominent electronic percussion, spots of which run solo for extended periods before being joined by one of the melodies - usually, and very effectively, the second.

This disc hasn't been so easy to come by. Any Silvestri (or Goldsmith) fan would do well to track it down and add it to his/her collection.

As a little girl,I watched Clan of the cave bear. I loved it.I feel in love with Iza,Creb,Uba,and Ayla and her son durc. And when i read the book,I realized the the composer captured a story of early human perfectly.