Customer Reviews

The Musketeer: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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I have to admit that I am a huge fan of action/adventure scores. David Arnold's score to The Musketeer is awesome music in the Cutthroat Island fashion. (Arnold was first signed on to score Cutthroat Island, but was replaced by John Debney). Anyway, for this score, Arnold returns to his bombastic fanfarish John Williams-like sound that he used in Stargate and Independence Day. What is unique about Arnold's music is that it has its own original voice. "Main Title" introduces the main theme, which is exactly what you would expect coming from a film like this: a loud, explosive brass fanfare with graceful strings. This theme finds itself in several of the tracks in the score, giving the music an incredible boost. Arnold utilizes a secondary theme, first heard in "I Will Find Him", which is a softer and more subtle variation of the main theme played on strings. As you would probably expect, most of the music is action filled and adventurous. "Fight Inn", "Jailhouse Ruck", "The Riot Begins", "Coach Chase", "Ladder Fight", among others contain high adrenaline, pulse pounding action music. "Fight Inn" contains incredible brass fanfares, immense string passages, and driving percussion. "Jailhouse Ruck" contains nicely played triplet patterns for the brass section. On the other side of the nonstop action is romantic music, found in "I Will Find Him", "D'Artagnan and Francesca", and "Down By The River". These 3 tracks are a nice refreshment from the bombastic music heard in the other tracks and fit in nicely. One complaint about this score, however, is the sound recording, which sounds a little bit muffled, like it wasn't recorded in the same room or something. Had the recording of been like Independence Day, this would have really blown you out of your seat. Nevertheless, a great score by Arnold and one that cannot be passed up.

This is a nice departure from the overly dramatic music David Arnold is known for composing. I am a big fan of his Independence Day score, and was really looking foward to this release. There are some really nice soft music, which help break up the heroic music. Also, there are a lot more tracks than some of Arnold's other albums, which is also a plus. If you liked his other work, this CD is definitely a must.

A lot of the cinema's standby composers are now getting along in their years: John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein. When I heard David Arnold's Independence Day score, I knew this was the composer for the future. David Arnold knows how to make a big, orchestral score, and that is something that a lot of new composers often neglect by reverting to synthesizers and small band scores.

Perhaps Arnold's strongest suit is his action music. What, in most other composer's repotoire often seems unlistenable and garish, David Arnold takes, polishes and makes into a very enjoyable CD. In Musketeer, Arnold does this to almost a fault, by making all alternative music boring, uninteresting, and neglectable. Musketeer is action music; don't expect anything else, cause you won't get it.

While I have complete faith in Arnold's ability to write soft, more romantic love themes, he seems to cop out with the film. The main theme is a wild, swashbukling romp that is nothing more than fun, though with a B-film simplicity. While the theme--in my opinion--doesn't return often enough in the subsequent cues, it does appear from time to time and is always a delightful addition to this exciting score.

That is not to say that this CD doesn't have its downsides though. While I applaud his action music and criticize everything else about this CD, Arnold can--and has in the past--provided the listener with an impecable, well-rounded listening experience unmatched often by the greats of cinema scoring. For this reason, I can't help but say that Arnold could have done better and provided the listener a far better score.

For any fan of David Arnold (if you've discovered ID4, Stargate, Last of the Dogmen, Tomorrow Never Dies) you won't need Musketeer to satisfy yourself. Those others have taken Arnold's magnificent style to far greater extremes than Musketeer does.

david arnold is a god he is the greatest film composer in the universe a true genius the best of the best all the soundtracks he composed are awesome there classics the best of the best and the musketeer is no exception the musketeer soundtrack is the greatest film soundtrack in the universe a true classic the best of the best david arnold is the greatest film composer in the universe buy this soundtrack if your a huge david arnold fan,soundtrack fan and classical music fan you wont be sorry

Yeah, we all know Peter Hymas is seriously working for that "Worst Director in 30 Years Award" (Closely followed by Schumacher) but David Arnold's "Musketeer" score is a tip back to old 1950 serials and swashbucking pirates. It's a bit louder and more musically complex than, say, Korngold but there is a definite sound of them in it. His title theme is yet ANOTHER rip off of William's "Superman" theme (arguably, Bill Conti did the same, but improved it, for "Masters of the Universe") but as a whole, the score is just loud, loud and louder action cues.

David Arnold is an up and coming film score composer with untold talent as shown in three James Bond epics, "Last of the Dogmen" and "Stargate." His efforts in "The Musketeer" may not be viewed (or heard) as his best work and will not be listed with other great swashbuckler scores such as Korngold's "The Seahawk," or Max Steiner's early version of "The Musketeers," but it should not be dismissed either. One cannot help but think of the young John Barry and some of his early efforts outside of the 007 file. Aside from a main theme that just misses the mark (hey, it is his first attempt at a period piece), the score certainly works on the screen, and to be honest, the main theme is not all that bad. Arnold's action cues are especially effective and prove to be very good listening on the soundtrack recording (cuts three and eight particularly). It is in the action music that Arnold's versatility comes through. Here several secondary themes and motifs emerge that are quite good. The soundtrack is handsomely packaged and is a good addition to the Arnold film score collection.