The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score [Soundtrack]

Mychael Danna (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Mychael Danna
• Audio CD (December 5, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Watertower Music
• ASIN: B000JMKJDW
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the beginning, soundtracks to Biblical movies adhered to a Hollywood template with more fidelity than most people attend to the Ten Commandments. The first commandment of Biblical film scores was: "Thou shalt render orchestral grandeur unto the epic as did Elmer Bernstein on The Ten Commandments and Miklos Rozsa on Ben-Hur." Peter Gabriel's score to The Last Temptation of Christ, released as Passion, changed all that like the Second Coming. His mix of world-music elements, wailing singers, and otherworldly electronics prevailed, influencing countless film scores and emulated to almost plagiaristic perfection by John Debney's soundtrack for The Passion of the Christ. Mychael Danna departs from that path on The Nativity Story, the 2006 film interpretation of Mary's journey. His sound is more medieval and classical than Middle Eastern. Rather than blowing Turkish duduks à la Gabriel and Debney, he uses recorders and wood flutes. He likes building from simple folk themes to extravagant expanses where a lone flute segues into a sweeping string arrangement that morphs into slowly cascading voices. He taps into Gregorian chant and plainsong, and even when he uses Persian vocalist Azam Ali (from Vas and Niyaz), he has her singing an Abbess Hildegard-style hymn called "Nazareth." But this is a Hollywood Biblical epic and Danna bends to another commandment of the genre: "Thou shalt wring tears and awe-inspired wonder." You don't need to see the film to know that the heavens must be opening--as they only do in Hollywood--on "And Thou Bethlehem." Danna's The Nativity Story isn't a sea change like Gabriel, but it is a new tributary. --John Diliberto

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHILLING SCORE TO ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, December 11, 2006

By 

Anthony Shaun Dukes "ROMEOCASTLE" (ASHEVILLE, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

I SAW THE MOVIE AND I WAS BLOWN AWAY, BUT IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AS MEMORABLE WITHOUT A GREAT SCORE TO HELP CARRY IT. TELLING THIS STORY ALONE IS POWERFUL ALL BY ITSELF, BUT THE POINT OF THIS MOVIE WAS TO CAPTURE PEOPLE IN WAY LIKE NEVER BEFORE, THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DONE WITHOUT THIS AMAZING SCORE. IT HELPED CARRY THE EMOTIONS OF THE CHARACTERS AND CREATE A HAUNTING MOOD FOR EACH SCENE. I WOULD NOT HAVE CRIED THE WAY I DID AT THE END WHEN JOSEPH IS CARRING MARY LOOKING FOR A ROOM IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE MUSIC SURROUNDING THIS SCENE WHICH SLOWLY TURNED FROM A MUSICAL PIECE TO CREATE SUSPENSE INTO A RIVITING VERSION OF CAROL OF THE BELLS. IT WAS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL.
FROM THE MOMENT THE CREDITS OPENED TO THE ENDING CREDITS, THE MUSIC WAS INCREDIBLE INTENSE AND WORKED VERY WELL WITH EACH SCENE. SINCE THE MOVIE AND THE SOUNDTRACK, THIS MUSIC HAS LIVED INSIDE ME. THIS SOUNDTRACK IS ONE NOT TO BE MISSED. TRUST ME, YOUR CHRISTMAS MUSIC COLLECTION IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT THIS SCORE WHICH DOES AN IMMACULATE JOB OF REMINDING US OF THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. BLESS ALL OF YOU OUT THERE, AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS. PLEASE GO SEE THIS MOVIE AND THEN GO BUY THE SOUNDTRACK.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!, February 21, 2007

By 

A. Menjivar (Santa Rosa, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

This CD is the actual movie score containing all the beautiful music you heard throughout! It's soothing to listen to even when it's not the Christmas season!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the price of the CD, March 5, 2007

By 

Connie E. Winch (Dublin, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

This soundtrack has THE most beautiful version of Silent Night I've ever heard; it's worth the price of the CD just to get that track. (Since the choral portion of the track is sung in Latin, it's called Silens Nox.) When I heard it in the movie, I immediately thrilled to it--it was so gorgeous I wanted to close my eyes and just drink in that glorious music...Bravo!