Glory: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [SOUNDTRACK]

James Horner

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 1992)
• Original Release Date: January 23, 1990
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000WH5
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,684 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Soundtracks > By Decade > 1990s

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Director Edward Zwick's 1989 tale of the first company of black soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War captured America's abiding fascination with that great struggle. However, its most unsung player was composer James Horner, who created one of his most grand and memorable scores. So memorable, in fact, that some of its rich cures have been recycled by other filmmakers and Horner himself. More than any other single work, it's Glory that's responsible for Horner's remarkable rise to the top of his profession in the '90s. --Jerry McCulley

Amazon.com
Director Ed Zwick's stirring, tragic Civil War epic inspires a gorgeous, deeply moving score from James Horner, who mirrors the story's bitter ironies and ultimate outcome through a main theme and recurring motifs that emphasize the elegiac over the conventionally heroic. While martial drums inevitably rustle beneath Horner's autumnal charts, the somber main theme, when stated by the Harlem Boys Choir, is at once beautiful and heartbreaking, telegraphing the fate of the story's regiment of African-American volunteers in the Union Army. The climactic battle scene, itself a marvel of cinematic impressionism, elicits a more urgent, insistent Latin theme reminiscent of Carl Orff, and just as dramatic. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars doesn't do it justice., September 12, 1999

By A Customer

I am a huge fan of movie soundtracks. I've listened to them my entire life, before any other form of music. This score stands out from all the others I have ever heard in my life. James Horner deserved the Oscar he got, but not for Titanic. Don't get me wrong, Titanic was good, but you have to admit that the Oscar was for the popularity of My Heart Will Go On. I see his Oscar as one for Glory, just delayed by 9 years. I am a huge fan of John Williams, but this one score by Horner is equal to any of Williams' Oscar winning performaces. Horner's use of drums and the fifes are just as powerful as Williams' violin solos by the legendary Itzak Perlman in Schindler's List. If you want to be emotionally moved by a piece of music, you won't find a better cd than the Glory soundtrack by James Horner. Other suggestions: Appollo 13 by Horner, Hook and Nixon by Williams, Star Trek First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic, wonderful music to fit perfectly with the movie, November 9, 2002

By	R. Shumskis "highlandbob" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've loved "Glory" since the first time I saw it (in school one day as a history "assignment"). Initially, I didn't quite understand all of the details of why I enjoyed it so much, however. Obviously, one of the main reasons is this score, which is sometimes so subtle you don't realize it's there, but is at all times applying an influence. It may be to uplift you ("Jubilee"), make you sad ("Whipping"), courageous ("Fort Wagner"), or somber ("Epitaph"). I've shed a couple tears while watching the charge on Fort Wagner, and even listening to the music alone can almost stir the same level of emotion.

The orchestral parts are superb, but there is something particularly stirring about the use of the boys choir. Namely at the emotionally-charged climax, when we are confronted with the harsh results of their failed plans. The simple, innocent voices contrasting against that imagery is startling.

I'm not an ascribed fan of James Horner, but I do love a good soundtrack, and this one -- as far as I'm concerned -- ranks up with "Star Wars" and "Gladiator".

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James horner CLASSIC, his best, September 28, 2005

By	Robert P. Del Grande "score lover" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When it comes to James Horner, I always rely on two scores of his: Braveheart and Glory. Both had beautiful themes which caught me. I've heard Horner recycles many of his scores, which i'm not denying as false, but I just never noticed it from the soundtracks he has composed that I heard. If anything, most of his soundtracks I really don't like that much, just don't grab me like Braveheart and Glory did. In Glory, I remember watching it, me in my civil war faze at the time. At the end of the movie, Shaw (Broderick) standing on the beach looking out into the ocean wondering whether it was his last breath, his last look at life. And then the Beautiful theme came up. It captured me, I fell in love with it and it just warmed my heart and at the moment, all that mattered was that moment of music. I must have rewinded it like 3-6 times JUST to hear that theme. Just a wonderful, powerful and dramatic piece. The rest of the album is good as well, but that theme alone is what makes the album. A classic movie score in my collection and in my heart.