The Village (CD - 2004)

Personnel: George Doering (guitar); Gayle Levant (harp); Eun Mee Ahn, Al Hershberger, Miran Kojian, Anatoly Rosinsky, Katia Popov, Tamara L. Hatwan, Ken Yerke, Jeanne Evans, Rene Mandel, Rafael Eishik, Hilary Hahn, Franklyn d'Antonio, Jay Rosen, Joel Derouin, Kevin Connolly, Mark Robertson , Sid Page, Richard Altenbach, Jacqueline Brand, Roberto Cani, Julie Gigante, Clayton Haslop, Natalie Leggett, Phillipe Levy, Sara Parkins, Sarah Thornblade, Roger Wilkie, Darius Campo, Liane Mautner, Dimitrie Leivici, Endre Granat, Haim Shtrum (violin); Marlo Fisher, Shawn Mann, Steven Gordon, Rick Gerding, Michael Nowak, Brian Dembow, Keith Greene, Roland Kato, Simon Oswell, Victoria Miskolszy, Darrin McCann, Shanti Randall (viola); Jim Walker , Pedro Eustache, Geri Rotella (flute); Frank Marocco (accordion); Phillip OConnor, Emily Bernstein, Gary Bovyer, James Kanter (clarinet); Tom Boyd, Phil Ayling (oboe); Michael O'Donovan, Ken Munday, Peter Mandell (bassoon); Warren Luening (trumpet); Andrew Thomas Malloy, Alan Kaplan, Phil Teele, William Booth, George Thatcher, William Reichenbach (trombone); Phillip Edward Yao, David Duke, Jenny Kim, John Reynolds, Steve Becknell, Brian O'Connor, Jim Thatcher (horns); Randy Kerber (keyboards); Michael Fisher, Peter Limonick, Robert Zimmitti (percussion).

Audio Mixer: Shawn Murphy.

Recording information: Sony Scoring Stage.

Brought to life by the Hollywood Studio Symphony and solo violinist Hilary Hahn, James Newton Howard's score for The Village, M. Night Shyamalan's twisty parable of fear and love, is one of the film's most compelling assets, and arguably more eloquent in expressing its themes than its often stilted dialogue. Likewise, Hahn's solos rank among the film's best performances; the painstaking delicacy of her work on the bittersweet "Noah Visits" and the growing anguish on "I Cannot See His Color" rival Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard's on-screen turns. Moodwise, most of the score hovers between brooding and hopeful, as exemplified by "What Are You Asking Me?" and "Will You Help Me?," but, as The Village is tangentially a horror film, "It Is Not Real," "The Bad Color," and "Those We Don't Speak Of" mix some eerie atmosphere and scary noises into the more meditative feel of the rest of the music. While the titles of those compositions and "The Shed Not to Be Used" unfortunately bring to mind the stiff, faux-antiquated dialect of the Villagers, all of these tracks are both more restrained and expressive, conveying much more with sound than the film's words do. The Village is a moody, often lovely score with a richness that benefits from the movie's not entirely successful ambitions while sounding complete on its own terms. ~ Heather Phares minimize