Music from the Twilight Saga - Review

Breaking: Twilight Dawn’s New Moon Eclipse
Review by Helen San

Once in a while, Hollywood finds a product so compelling it overwhelmingly crushes all competition—sequel after sequel after sequel. The TWILIGHT juggernaut is the new gift that keeps on giving. It’s already made over $2 billion so far (yes, that’s billion with a B), so it is no wonder that TWILIGHT products keep coming out every time you turn your head. Shortly on the heels of the last TWILIGHT compilation (MUSIC FROM THE TWILIGHT SAGA FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) comes this one: MUSIC FROM THE TWILIGHT SAGA. With music from all four existing films, this one is released by Silva Screen Records, the king of compilation albums. As usual for Silva, the recordings were made with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. If you’re familiar with work by both Silva and the City of Prague Philharmonic, you’ll know the quality is solid. Yes, there are probably better orchestras in the world, but I’ve never felt the need to complain about Prague.

The four film scores in the TWILIGHT SAGA are:

1. TWILIGHT by CARTER BURWELL
2. NEW MOON by ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
3. ECLIPSE by HOWARD SHORE
4. BREAKING DAWN I by CARTER BURWELL

It is widely known that I gush over CARTER BURWELL scores, so having two melancholic, romantic BURWELL scores in the same compilation is going to get me all tingly. Throw in DESPLAT’s incredible NEW MOON theme, and almost anything written by HOWARD SHORE, and I’m doing a happy dance even before I hear it. There, bias disclosed.

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Music from the Twilight Saga for Chamber Orchestra - Review

Team Compilation or Team Original?
Review by Helen San

MUSIC FROM THE TWILIGHT SAGA FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (MTSCO) is a new compilation produced by the label BSX Records (owned by Buy Soundtrax, a retail outlet catering to hardcore soundtrack fans). Right away, you know this album is made for die-hard fans. But in this case, it is geared more toward die-hard fans of the Twilight Saga, known as “twihards”. Yes, you heard right. They’re called twihards.

In case you’ve been living on a deserted island, the Twilight Saga is a series of films based on four books (TWILIGHT, NEW MOON, ECLIPSE, and BREAKING DAWN) about a young woman named Bella and her love triangle between a vampire named Edward and a werewolf named Jason. The triangle is crux of the legend, with Twilight fandom splitting into two factions: Team Edward and Team Jason. There have been four movies so far, with one more to go. There is one movie per book except for the fourth book. BREAKING DAWN is split into two films (a la HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS), with PART 1 released in November 2011, and PART 2 to be released in November 2012.

The scores for the four released movies are as follows:

1) TWILIGHT by CARTER BURWELL
2) NEW MOON by ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
3) ECLIPSE by HOWARD SHORE
4) BREAKING DAWN, PART 1 by CARTER BURWELL.
(BREAKING DAWN PART 2 will also be by CARTER BURWELL.)

The story is filled with adolescent angst, lovelorn torment, and bittersweet pining. It is a perfect recipe for the kind of beleaguered, romantic melancholy CARTER BURWELL likes to compose. Indeed, twilighters apparently agreed and petitioned for CARTER BURWELL to return to the franchise after the project went to DESPLAT and SHORE for the second and third films respectively. I have to agree that while DESPLAT’s and parts of SHORE’s music were more melodious and easier to listen to, BURWELL’s pain-filled score resonated much better with the emotional core of the saga. It works better in the film. It works better on album to evoke the memories and essence of the Saga.

Book and movie-wise, I am nowhere near being a twihard, or even a regular twilighter. However, as a film music enthusiast, I have found the music compelling enough to spend good money on all four of the original Saga scores. The new titles of the compilation match the originals, track for track. So I was well able to compare this album to the previous works.

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