Not so long ago, soundtrack albums were the one reliable way to hear music from movies once you left the cinema. No one could really own their own copy of a film in the age before home video, but with the proliferation of new technology, movies are more accessible than ever. Why just buy the music when you can have the whole package?
The question pestered me as I listened to a stack of new soundtrack CDs released in conjunction with the late fall rush of Oscar contenders. One answer is that, like music written for ballet or opera (whose performances nowadays can also be purchased or streamed), the music must have sufficient interest in itself—apart from the story or visuals it was meant to accompany.
Sometimes this happens—but not always and maybe not even often. John Williams meant his score for Steven Spielberg\'s War Horse (Sony Masterworks) as a stand-alone. His music evokes the ghost of Vaughn Williams, but let\'s face it, the earlier composer\'s pastoral reflections on the British countryside set the standard for such things. John Williams\' score doubtlessly buttresses the film\'s mood, but I have a hard time visualizing a purely audio audience for the music.
On the other hand, Howard Shore, also working in the classic Hollywood orchestral tradition, is represented by two new soundtrack CDs worth hearing apart from their films. Hugo (Harmonia Mundi) conveys the carnival of dreams of Martin Scorse\'s production, and A Dangerous Method (Sony Masterworks) captures turbulence, grandeur and unease. Both might stand up to repeated listening.
Director Alexander Payne took an entirely different path for the soundtrack to The Descendants (Sony Masterworks). Rather than commission an original score or collect an obvious batch of familiar hits, he carefully compiled tracks of Hawaiian popular music, most of it recorded from the \'70s through the present. The lilting songs, many of them sung in Hawaiian, are sunny but with a touch of shadow. The Descendants soundtrack sets the right emotional tone for the film and provides a good way for mainlanders to sample the sounds of the islands.
