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| Horner |
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| Yared |
Troy: (Gabriel Yared/James Horner) In the arduousprocess of making what he claimed would be the biggest motion picture ofall time, director Wolfgang Petersen spent $175 million taking over partof the Mediterranean island of Malta for the shooting of
Troy.The 2004 re-envisioning of the Trojan War and attack on Troy by thearmies of Greece had "epic" written all over its production values,including a variety of male leads highlighted by Brad Pitt flexing hisbeach-appropriate muscles as famed warrior Achilles. Peter O'Toole'sperformance as the King of Troy, as true a nod to classic epics ofHollywood as anything in this movie, is made memorable by an unnatural,booming mix of his voice. Spectacular sets and costumes were betrayed,however, by the inane treatment of the story itself, alternating betweenboring conversational scenes and generic action involving specialeffects modeled after
The Lord of the Rings. Critically,
Troy has often been referred to as one of the most expensiveflops in the history of cinema, though while it failed to recoup itsbudget domestically, lingering overseas grosses eventually neared half abillion dollars, at least earning Warner Brothers a fair sum of cash forits artistically flawed property. It has also often been said that nomusic score could have saved
Troy from its much larger troubles,though its soundtrack has become its most famous production element.Petersen approached Academy Award winner Gabriel Yared more than a yearbefore the film's scheduled release, hiring the classically inclinedcomposer despite the obvious fact that Yared had never written an epicbattle score of this magnitude in his life. The director put asignificant amount of faith in Yared based on the quality of music thathe had heard in the composer's existing works, and Yared was eager tobranch out of the romance and drama genres in which he felt himselftrapped by his success in those modes. (He sought
Troy as meansof expressing his action style and
1408 as an opportunity tofinally tackle a mainstream thriller.)
In April of 2003, Yared began work on the score for
Troy, researching source music necessary in the shooting ofseveral scenes on location. Recording the rest of the score later in theyear, Yared assembled a 100-piece orchestra in London, added layovers bya 25-member brass section, hired a Bulgarian chorus to produce authenticEastern-European vocals and, most importantly, sought the help ofMacedonian singer Tanja Tzarovska for a specific flavor of solo vocals.The undertaking was immense, with considerable diversity in therecording sessions all dubbed into a nearly finished product that wasincluded as part of the film in test showings of
Troy in March of2004. Enthusiasm among all of those involved with the project was great,especially with the musicians and recording crew. This optimism includedthe strong approval of the music by the director, and hopes were skyhigh. In two test screenings in California, however, the film receivedvery low marks, and the filmmakers claim that every viewer indicatedthat Yared's partially finished soundtrack was a primary reason fortheir dismay. It had been criticized as being "too brassy and bold,"ironically too old-fashioned for the modern expectations of historicalepic music. The studio went into a panic, and Petersen immediatelysought help from other composers even before he summarily terminatedYared and expunged his score from the film. In general, rejected scoresare a surprisingly frequent occurrence in Hollywood. High talent likeJerry Goldsmith and John Barry on many occasions had functional (if notexceptional) music rejected from a film for one curious reason oranother. What happened with
Troy, however, is an exception. Yaredcontended that he was offered no chance to remix or rerecord any of hismusic, with Warner Brothers executives very suddenly dismissing theentire work as being too incompatible with their newfound notions ofwhat the score should sound like. Peterson, who was largely responsiblefor requesting the old-fashioned epic sound from Yared in the firstplace, did nothing to defend Yared despite his overflowing support forthe composer prior to the screenings.
Even as Yared still had orchestral sessions scheduled toput the finishing touches on the score, Peterson desperately called JohnDebney for last minute assistance and was turned down. The director thenpleaded for help from James Horner, with whom he had collaborated on
The Perfect Storm. Horner's reaction was one of smug, indignantdisdain for how his score was badly mixed with the sound effects of theoceans in that prior work, but he accepted the challenge of scoring
Troy in just ten days after viewing the same unfinished versionpresented in the screenings and being horrified by Yared's score. "Idon't even know how to describe how atrocious the music was," Hornerstated not long after. "It was like a 1950's Hercules movie. And itwasn't because Gabriel's not a gifted writer; it's because he justdoesn't have any knowledge of writing film scores. Real film scores likethat. It was so corny. It was unbelievable." Citing Peterson's almostjuvenile-seeming misdirection of Yared's "overblown" score, Hornercontinued, "Gabriel dutifully did whatever was asked of him by Wolfgang,and Wolfgang's musical tendencies are to overscore everything, like aWagner opera. He's not into subtlety. Apparently it made the audiencelaugh in places during serious scenes. And this combination of this'please do it bigger and bigger and bigger' and 'more is better' fromWolfgang and Gabriel's not knowing what big cinematic action musicshould be... they both came up with this score that was absolutelydreadful. Absolutely dreadful." He diminished Yared's Oscar-winningscore for
The English Patient at the same time, saying that it"was really very much based on Bach's music. I mean, if you listen toBach's preludes and fugues and those things you'll hear Gabriel'sscore." Horner had also expressed irritation with not being tapped toscore the film from the start. "I wasn't asked to do the original, whichwas sort of a bit of a twinge for me, because I did such a nice job, orhe seemed so pleased on
The Perfect Storm," he said. "Wolfgangwas white. Completely shaken. Totally lost his confidence. I met withWolfgang, and he of course, was completely cowed out, apologetic,embarrassed, and said I would be allowed to do whatever I wanted...'would I please, please, please, do this, as a favor?' And how gratefulhe would be at that trouble."
The fact that Horner churned out almost two hours of musicin such a short amount of time is testimony to his talents. "I took iton as a challenge," he conceded, "I thought it would be a real challengefor me as a writer to see how much music I could write in nine days."His negative public comments about both Yared and Peterson (the latterjustified, by all accounts) at the time didn't earn him many browniepoints, though. He went on to criticize Peterson for not asking him toscore
Poseidon despite the fact that he remarked, "I would nothave done
Poseidon Adventure if you'd paid me 10 milliondollars." His bitterness over his collaborations with Peterson causedhim to conclude about
Troy that "they're really not reallygrateful. They just want you to do it, help them out, and that's whereit ends." Not long after this ruckus began, Yared stirred the pot in anunprecedented move that was also criticized by Horner: "Gabriel,meanwhile, in Europe, is furious. He's going on his website saying hewas cheated and short-changed and they put his music in the film withoutthe chorus and the chorus makes the difference. And you know, you'resaying to yourself, 'this guy just doesn't get it.' The chorus wouldhave made it worse." Indeed, Yared was expressing his displeasureimmediately in the summer of 2004 with total disregard for protocol. Hehad already been fired twice in recent years, first for
LesMisérables because of a mutual falling out with directorBille August and with his own blessing when he was hired to replaceEdward Shearmur for
Wings of the Dove but had his replacementscore dropped in favor of Shearmur's original, a choice Yared stronglyagreed with.
Troy was clearly different, however. He made surethat both fans and members of the industry were completely informed onthe circumstances of his
Troy firing by writing a lengthy openletter about the event that was most unorthodox and, some would say, aprofessional faux pas. Given the passion with which Yared describes thefull year that he invested in the film and score in that letter, you canunderstand his frustration. "What shocked me the most was that I wasn'tgiven the chance to fix or change my score or even to answer to any ofthe questions or accusations being leveled at my work," Yared wrote,"despite the fact that I had sessions booked to redo some cues to thenew picture and new versions of other cues."
As Yared continued about
Troy, "Indeed, thedecision to replace me had been taken and meetings with other composershad already taken place before I even spoke personally to Wolfgang. Iwas later informed that it was '...a problem with the writing' and thatthe score was beyond the hope of being fixed and they were happy to havea new composer write the whole score [in] just a month-and-a-half."Then, the composer did the unthinkable, following his statement of "Iapologize to those reading this who will never get to hear this score"by releasing for download a little over 30 minutes of the rough edits ofits highlights in MP3 format at his website. This caused extraordinarybanter about the circumstances of
Troy in the film music world,and it wasn't long before Warner Brothers demanded that the clips betaken offline. The quality of the score, despite continuing accountsthat it does not fit the tone of the movie, spoke louder than Yared'sletter, and the immediate bootlegs made from those thirty minutes ofmaterial became an extremely hot commodity throughout the rest of 2004.As Yared lamented, "In the end I am proud to say that with the greathelp and support of all my team I succeeded in producing what I firmlybelieve to be my finest score. It is original, musical, and every singlecue is crafted with a great deal of thought, heart, and inspiration in away that I feel works fantastically with the picture. My music wasfantastically recorded and mixed, and the detail of each overdub layergave a great and characterizing sound which was completely up-to-date,but with the scale and class of a great epic." Comparing the Horner andYared scores for
Troy comes with many caveats, but it's notsurprising that time and perspective has been much kinder to Yared'swork. This review will first cover Yared' rejected score (attempting toaddress cues in both of their track listing variants as spanning the twoleaks of the score to the bootleg market) and then touch upon the tworeleases of the replacement score. Horner made a valiant effort toprovide the film with an appropriate amount of noisy bombast but didn'tenjoy the luxury of deeper development in his motific ideas. Yared'smusic, on the other hand, plays like a work of art that was consideredand reconsidered, tested and retested, recorded and rerecorded over agreat number of late nights and coffee breaks. The different amount oflabor exhibited in the two scores is absolutely evident in thecomplexity and thoughtfulness of the finished products.
If Horner's
Troy is your average vanilla ice creamcone, then Yared's
Troy is the awesome exotic flavor that you'dnever expected to find when you walked into the ice cream store. Whenyou contemplate Yared's work and immediately appreciate the depth of itscharacter and performance, then you know exactly why he brokeprofessional protocol and issued his open letter. That is, in short,because Yared's work for
Troy is outstanding on every level. Itis a score that holds little resemblance to his soft, piano-drivenscores and instead unleashes a side of Yared that few film music fanscould honestly have stated that they knew he had.
Troy is easilythe pinnacle of Yared's career, utilizing the kind of research andpainstakingly complicated classical-styled writing that obviously takesa year to assemble. In its entire length, Yared's score is constructedto sound Eastern-European, with the style of far away, historicadventure that may remind you of Howard Shore's
The Lord of theRings scores and Jerry Goldsmith's
The 13th Warrior inportions. The beauty of Yared's score, though, is that his work is trulythree-dimensional. Aside from the expected brass fanfares, Yaredutilizes no fewer than four other distinct stylistic approaches with
Troy that round out its overall effect. First, the personalizedconflict scenes, such as "Achilles and Hector Fight," are scored withonly a diverse array of percussion. The drums and metallic objectsstruck in this cue offer a textured authenticity of combat that Horneris simply incapable of producing when he doesn't think outside of hisusual box. An unorthodox sound of mourning Macedonian female vocalscomes from Tzarovska and other vocalists in "Hector's Funeral;" this cuemay be the only detraction from Yared's score for some listeners who arenot accustomed to the sounds of such wailing. A deep male chorus bothchants and sings in free-flowing fashion throughout the Yared's musicfor
Troy, including "Greek Funeral Pyres," another highlight.These performances were sometimes tracked up to three times on top ofeach other to increase their mass, and Yared stated that the lyrics forthese sequences were invented specifically for the effect of emphasizingthe performers' Bulgarian tones. Ethnic woodwinds are another aspect ofthe score not overlooked, a flute in "Helen and Paris" elegantlyconveying their love theme in form and progressions ironically all toosimilar to Horner's
Willow.
This fateful similarity between Yared and Horner fades inthe end credits performances of the love theme for
Troy, though,when the very lyrical performance of the idea by Tzarovska (this time inMacedonian language) builds from a solo into a fully orchestralcombination. The beauty and authenticity that Yared incorporates intothe voices (both in ensemble and in solos) is refreshing compared to thetypical stock applications that you hear in dozens of scores of thisera. This heartfelt, ethnically sincere end credits recording is,ironically, far less brazenly mainstream than Horner's equivalent, whichwas translated into the usual pop song. The care with which Yaredtailors each section of the chorus makes such simplistic usage as in his
Message in a Bottle score seem basic. Additionally, the insertionof 25-member brass ensemble exploding with singular force in severallayovers creates a sound that fans of Elliot Goldenthal's
The FinalFantasy: The Spirits Within will salivate over, the lower brassespecially resonating in a way you almost never hear in modern filmscores. Several of the vista shots in
Troy were treated by Yaredto bombast reminiscent of John Williams' sound for his
Star Warsprequel scores. The amount of layering and counterpoint offered in thesecues establishes an appropriate majesty for these fabled characterswhile also progressing at a size worthy of legends. On the shorter,original presentation of Yared's music, this material was highlighted by"A Prince's Welcome," though in the fuller version, you hear it in thelatter halves of "Achilles' Destiny" and "Battle of the Arrows." Tothink that these snare-ripping, cymbal-crashing, chime-banging cues werethe ones responsible for the sacking of Yared himself is outrageousthough perhaps understandable if you have a test audience that doesn'tappreciate such an unusually large presentation of orchestral power. Thetexture of his score is dazzling, spanning the range of tones fromguilty pleasure ensemble fanfares of immensity to the challenging shadesof highly foreign-sounding percussion and vocals. The Achilles andHector fight sequence and aftermath alone spans all of these sounds inthe matter of four minutes, the raw percussive energy suddenly joined bysolo vocals as Hector is injured, and the full melodrama of theorchestra and choir conveying the drama of the "Achilles Drags Hector"cue. Yared introduces and develops several outstanding themes, balancingwell between modern lyricism and classical structure in theirdevelopment.
Immediately in "Approach of the Greeks," you hear Yared'sdueling identities for the Trojans and Greeks, the rising three notefigure for the former taunting the churning Greek battle march by fullensemble and choir in the remainder of the cue. Yared continuously pitsthese themes in sonic battle later in the score, highlighted by a fullreprise of the Greek march in "The Sacking of Troy." The three-notemotif for the Trojans is just a action-mode sideshow compared to theirfully development theme, a curiously devious and twisted romantic seriesof long progressions heard throughout "The Opening" and highlighted bythe absolutely gorgeous choral flourish of the idea at 0:45 into thatcue. The theme's most impressive statement is in the latter half of "TheSacking of Troy" (otherwise known as "Priam's Fugue"), where it ishanded to layers of choral voices ominously reflecting the fall of theKing and his city. This performance almost reminds of the grandiose,dark melodrama of Disneyland's original Haunted House music. Achillesreceives the victorious theme most gloriously associated with theGreeks, bursting with its fullest brass performance at about 2:20 into"Achilles and Boagrius" and reprised several times late in "D-DayBattle." It receives grand choral treatment at the conclusion of"Thousand Ships" but perhaps saves its most interesting variations forwhen it informs the secondary love theme in "Achilles and Briseis" andits dying equivalents in "Achilles' Death and Finale." Hector enjoys alonger, nobler identity best conveyed in "Hector, Hector!" thatsometimes informs the larger action scenes but is surprisingly absentfrom much of the score. His death has hints of the romance material forthe movie and his funeral scene is treated to nebulous chanting. Thefinal major identity in Yared's
Troy is the aforementioned "Helenand Paris" love theme, the centerpiece of the Tzarovska performance inthe "Closing Credits Chant" that will remind some casual listeners ofHarry Gregson-Williams' equivalent cultural mode in
Kingdom ofHeaven. Yared often forces several of these themes over each otherin ways that would impress Golden Age masters, the various battle themespresented on top of each other late in "D-Day Battle" (otherwise knownas "The Flurry") and in the middle section of "Battle of the Arrows,"where Yared even goes so far as to swap the instrumentation native tothe Greek and Trojan themes in the midst of the bravado, the deep chorustaking on the Greek march while the high brass reinterpret the Trojanfugue.
Aside from the source pieces in Yared's work, one of themajor themes is constantly under development in this score, keeping itengaging at all times. Overall, his classical sensibilities were bloatedto the maximum that his style will lyrically allow in
Troy, andthe resulting evolution of this music makes it a perpetual pleasure tohear. Comparatively, Horner's replacement score will struggle frequentlyto maintain your attention. Even for a veteran such as Horner, this taskwas a daunting one, with the composer assembling his crew and favoredmusicians with great haste and keeping Yared's primary vocalist,Tzarovska, for his score as well. Horner also managed to arrange a songperformance by rising singing star Josh Groban for the end credits, anability that may have put Horner in favor with Warner when they went insearch of music more accessible to American ears. Whether resale of themusic on album was an expressed concern for Warner or not, theycertainly ended up with an equation that they must have thought lookedbetter on album. Even if you are the biggest fan of Yared's music in theworld, you have to admit that Horner is a capable professional in hisfield, and his score for
Troy reinforces that statement. For anycomposer to write such an intense score in less than ten days isastounding, and Horner, despite his inherent flaws, pulls off afunctional and basically interesting score. Those flaws, however, seemto blossom into major problems when Horner is pressed to perform in ashort amount of time. Any film music fan knows, of course, that hisdownfall is his own endless self-repetition of style throughout hisscores. What was once brilliant in
Willow in 1988 was latersimple regurgitation in
Troy. What we have here is Horner in astate of panic and autopilot all at once. Everything in his score issaturated with stylistic similarities from his previous works, but witha sense of redundant urgency built directly into the recording. It'salmost as though the fast-paced composition of the score was translateddirectly into the music's haphazard and frantic restatements of bits andpieces of Horner cues that fans have been hearing (and for some,enjoying) for 20 years. A rambunctious level of frenetic activity inbrass and percussion is sometimes accompanied by Horner's heavy strings,sweeping in fewer parts than maybe expected. Keeping Tzarovska on theproject was Horner's sole effort to produce a score that was at allrelevant to the age and locale of the film, and the composer claimedthat her lovely performances in Yared's work were one of the reasons heagreed to take the assignment.
Unfortunately, Tzarovska's performances are notintegrated particularly well into the mass of orchestral material byHorner. For instance, whereas Yared inserts her voice among a hugepercussion array for a battle between Achilles and Hector, Hornerinstead presents Tzarovska's performances as more of the token "openingand closing bookends" to the score, similar in format to vocals in
Beyond Borders from the previous year. A lackluster love themeinforming the concluding song also hinders Horner's effort. "Briseis andAchilles" barely registers, emulating David Arnold's
Stargatetheme and exhibiting none of the intelligent manipulation as Yared haddone for the occasion. For both battle and love, the tone is Westernizedfor the subject matter, though there are highlights to Horner's effortsthat need mentioning. The pair of "Troy" and "Achilles Leads theMyrmidons" is forcefully presented with magnificent bombast of typicalHorner bravado. The "Troy" and "The Temple of Poseidon" cues offerwelcome fanfares for any Horner collection. The opening of "The TrojansAttack" is an intriguing militaristic melding of choir and thecomposer's usual trumpet calls. For skeptical Horner critics, though, anover-reliance on tolling chimes and a slurred form of the four-notemotif of evil (both Horner staples) could render the music fatallyirritating. This abundance of regurgitation starts in "Achilles Leadsthe Myrmidons" continues in "The Greek Army and its Defeat" andthroughout the score. The mention of
Willow earlier was noaccident; there are countless similarities between
Willow and
Troy, but
Troy exists without any of the personality ofthe former. Thus, it marches forward without much character of its own,even through the end credits song. It has been mentioned that "RememberMe" was the kind of marketing ploy that Warner was secretly seeking whenreplacing Yared, a sad and completely unrelated sound for the era andlocale meant to push unit sales. The song is not particularly one toremember, either, with Horner reaching into the successful, foamingcauldron of his own pop sounds and pulling out another piece of grocerystore and elevator cabin muck. He did attempt to provide this song withan identity, though, by using Tzarovska's voice as counterpoint to JoshGroban's. The combination of Groban's soft Western voice and Tzarovska'sharsh Macedonian one are a foul pairing that will send you in search ofthe stop button, if, that is, the standard looped rhythm that hails fromall of Horner's other overly-pleasant pop songs doesn't repulse youfirst.
The very existence of the Groban song in Horner'ssoundtrack, topped off by the little Groban insert card that spills outof the CD when you open its 2004 album's packaging, is tasteless andshould send any film music collector back in the direction of Yared'salternative. The greatest irony of
Troy is that Horner clearlyproduced cues that, in their basic technique and some progressions, aresimilar to what Yared had already tried. The vaguely exotic choralshades of "3200 Years Ago," the layering of brass, snare, and choir in"The Trojans Attack," and percussion leading to solo vocals in "Hector'sDeath" are all inferior versions of Yared's similar approach. So, in theend, Horner's nasty criticism of Yared was indeed truly baseless. Onalbum, the Horner score's history is relatively standard while thejourney of Yared's music is an ongoing saga. A surprisingly redundantand anonymous 75 minutes of Horner's music was available commerciallyimmediately from Warner. (The two copies of the album received atFilmtracks have both had difficulty playing correctly with the firmwareof multiple optical drives, perhaps adding insult to injury.) The quietportions of the score weren't mastered so that they are audible comparedto the fuller sequences, so expect to adjust the volume frequently; muchof "The Temple of Poseidon" and "The Night Before" may as well simply besilence. It's missing the long concert arrangement of the love themethat informs "Remember Me," a substantial flaw. In 2017, Intrada Recordscaused heartache for enthusiasts of Yared's score when the label insteadprovided a 2-CD release of Horner's replacement music. Not surprisingly,hearing 110 minutes of Horner's score rather than 70 simply reinforcesthe notion that Horner wrote a significant amount of anonymous fillermaterial for
Troy by necessity due to the time restraints. Theadditional cues are largely pointless, and they expose the techniquesthe composer used to fill time without writing many notes. Longsequences of bloated whole notes and sparse rhythmic phrases repeatingin copy-and-paste fashion dominate the score in its full presentation,making it an even more tedious experience. The longer album also revealsother places where Horner adhered uncomfortably to the temp trackunwittingly offered up by Yared, especially in the places during whichHorner's supplies his rather obnoxious, high-range, dissonant chorallayers. The Intrada product includes both the album and film versions ofthe song, the film version's mix conveying Tzarovska's vocals furtherforward in the soundscape and with a longer introductory sequence.
Enthusiasts of the Yared score have long hoped that oneof the soundtrack specialty labels would offer Intrada-like treatment tohis music, and there was indeed some disappointment when Horner's workalone was revealed to be the subject of 2017's expanded album treatmentfrom
Troy. The rejected score, of course, is guarded by Warnerand may never see the light of day on an officially licensed album, thisdespite the composer's insistence that he has lobbied for the studio toallow for such a release. Initially, the 33+ minutes of music on Yared'sofficial website caused it to be nearly inaccessible due to heavy loads(and frustrated many with Flash plugin errors and those on Macs, whichcouldn't access the clips at all). Illustrious film score fans capturedthe streaming cues before Warner demanded they be removed, and MP3bootlegs of those 33 minutes resulted immediately. The sound quality ofthat presentation was quite poor, however, especially in the "EndCredits" vocal performance. In subsequent years, lossless copies werefiltered out to reviewers on CD, expanding the presentation out to over75 minutes and offering what seems like a more refined mix of thescore's elements. In some compressed versions of this presentation thatwere downloaded prolifically on the internet, lingering issues with thevocal mix (and especially the overall sound of the credits performance)hampered the listening experience. Sometime over the next few years,however, fully lossless versions of the 75-minute "promotional bootleg"(if anything could truly be deemed as such, this would be it) emerged. Afew of these appended the nearly 5-minute concert arrangement of themain Horner theme missing from his score's original album. For Hornercollectors, that commercial album will be average to mildlyentertaining, and it will certainly suffice over the nicely assembledbut completely unnecessary 2-CD alternative. A novice collector mightconsider it a four star effort if he or she is not bothered by theimmense recycling from prior works and the tiresome repetition within.The Yared score, on the other hand, belongs in all film scorecollections, regardless of your opinion about whether or not it shouldhave been rejected. It is music of rare intelligence and classicalquality in an era dominated by derivative crap masquerading as trulyeffective soundtracks. Yared produced exactly what the director calledfor: a massive Golden Age score with enough modern sensibilities tosuffice for the Digital Age. And he did it spectacularly. Someone shouldroll up Yared's manuscript and use it to lash Peterson's bare rear endrepeatedly before giving a good whack to Horner's tongue with it, too.
@Amazon.com:CD orDownload- Music as Written by Gabriel Yared: *****
- Music as Written by James Horner: ***
- Music as Heard on the Yared Bootlegs: ****
- Music as Heard on the Horner Albums: **
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is3.15(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is3.23(in 204,046 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars. |
The insert of the 2004 Reprise Records album for Horner's score includes no extra information about the score or film. That of the 2017 Intrada album features extensive notes about both, but its notation is badly lacking on the circumstances of the Yared score's replacement and does not include any of Horner's more controversial quotes about the assignment. The various Yared bootlegs contain no official or uniform packaging.
