Troy: Music From The Motion Picture (Score) [SOUNDTRACK]

James Horner (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 11, 2004)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Reprise / Wea
• ASIN: B000244F7I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,772 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Director Wolfgang Peterson took Homer's The Iliad, excerpted the epic Trojan Wars, ditched those troublesome Greek gods, and largely hung his film's fortunes on copious amount of CGI wizardry and Brad Pitt. Immersing himself in the sword 'n' sandal genre largely revived by Gladiator composer James Horner (whose work here replaced the original score of Gabriel Yared) faced some challenging musical choices: Employ the dark synthetic goth textures of Hans Zimmer, or evoke a more traditional, heroic orchestral tack? The veteran scorer's "3200 Years Ago" arguably goes Zimmer one better, its dissonance-laced textures and dark percussion evoking an ancient, frightening world. There are similar intrigues ("The Temple of Poseidon," "Hector's Death," "The Wooded Horse...") elsewhere, but whether because of the haste with which he composed the score or other filmmaking pressures, Horner also dispenses some cliched, orchestral heroism more worthy of Steve Reeves or Ah-nold. Aficionados often accuse the composer of repeating himself, and the repetitive brass arpeggios he uses as frequent punctuation here do seem straight from the playbook, not to mention Enemy at the Gates; at least he's thematically apropos. There's a closing nod to Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia lyricism, and then Josh Groban gets to burnish his career with a suitably melodramatic take on David Foster's bathetic, neo-exotica ballad Remember Me. -- Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Go to Yared's website and listen to his music for the film, May 15, 2004

By	Dogan Bilge "iBug" (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I didn't buy the CD because in the film, the music sounded so dull and unexciting. I watched the trailers with "Music By Gabriel Yared" for 6 months and was excited to hear how he would compose the music for an epic. Then in the last trailer I saw "Music by James Horner". Although I love Horner's work a lot more than Yared, I was like "What the h___?" A month before the opening, they change the composer? I never understood why this happened until I've read it in Gabriel Yared's website. In the test screening the music was found too powerful and too classical and it has been rejected. He even says that Peterson loved the music and sang the main themes in the corridors of Abbey Road during the recording sessions. Over 2 hours of music was recorded and Yared gave a year to this score which he claims to be his best. Yesterday when I watched the film I paid much attention to the music and it was as predicted, the mix of previous Horner motives and themes and nothing, absolutely nothing, new.

Then this morning I listened to Yared's collection of cues in the website and I must say that although the sound quality is poor, the music seems interesting and emotional, much more emotional and bigger than Horner's so called "score". And the worst thing is, we can all buy Horner's score but probably we'll never get to listen to Yared's score because as always, it's the property of the studio, not Yared. And they won't make a commercial release 99%. This kind of stuff happens every now and then but it's the first time I am angry this much.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unforgivable Treason, June 14, 2004

By	Noel Grima (Malta (Europe)) - See all my reviews

Originally, the soundtrack was written by Gabriel Yared. His music was also used in the trailers. But one month before public screening this music was thrown out of the window on the negative comments of a couple of people from a non-professional sample audience on unmixed music being used against the composer's will and without giving him the chance to modify the music on specific requests. Instead there came James Horner and wrote this soundtrack in one month... Apart from the fact that I don't believe it was but that Horner simply negotiated behind Yared's back to get to a blockbuster after being missing from it for a number of years, this soundtrack is without heart and strongly based on Yared's original ideas, copying even the melody for Remember.

My suggestion is to wait for Varese to negotiate with Sony on the release of Gabriel's soundtrack and get the real musical heart of this movie.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One month to write a score? Of course Horner is sub-par, May 21, 2004

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

When Warner Brothers decided to jettison the score Gabriel Yared wrote for the Wolfgang Petersen film "Troy" because of a supposedly bad test screening, composer James Horner was thrown into the breach a given a month to put together a new score. Horner kept Macedonian singer Tanja Tzarovska for the new score and worked in a song by Josh Groban for the end credits. All things considered, "Troy" is a pretty good as a score written in a month's time, but it really does not match the epic scope of the film and its revision of Homer's "Iliad" and the story of the Trojan War. Keeping Tzarovska was a good move in that she provides a sense of the flavor for the time and place, but for the most part Horner fails to take advantage of that and goes for something more conventional to American ear (to be fair, that appears to be what Warner Bros. demanded).

"Troy" is an epic story of love and war, and Horner's score does more justice to the latter than the former, which is clearly its biggest problem. Long before there was Kate and Leo, er, I mean Rose and Jack, there was Paris and Helen of Troy. But until you get to Groban's "Remember Me" at the end the only romantic theme on the album is the "Breisis and Achilles" track. Then again, they end up being the tragic couple in this telling of the tale because Paris and Helen actually end up living happily ever after on a slow boat to Rome with Aeneas at the end of the film. No wonder Horner was not inspired to turn their fabled love affair into a memorable piece of romantic music for this film; the characters really did not deserve to be immortalized that way.

Almost all of the tracks on the album focus on the war part of the film, with "Troy" and "Achilles Leads the Myrmidons" showing Horner's best efforts in that regard. There is also a nice little Horner fanfare for "The Temple of Poseidon" and "The Trojans Attack" starts off with a nice use of the Bulgarian choir. But the tolling bells become a bit much by the time we get to "The Greek Army and Its Defeat." The most memorable song on the album is the last one, although the idea of having Tzarovska's voice work in counterpoint to Groban's comes under the too little too late in terms of trying to give the score an exotic touch. It almost works, but that would have probably required more time than everybody had on this one.

In a nutshell the problem with Horner's score is that you do not have the fusion of music themes and characters or key scenes that is what usually compels us to pick up a soundtrack after seeing a film. Add to this the fact that you can check out excerpts from Yared's Easter European sounding score at his website, include a piano driven theme for Paris and Helen along with themes for several key characters, and you have to second guess Warner's decision and wonder what Horner could have done with a second month to get the job done.