The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
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CD Details

Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2008-12-16
Music Label: Concord Records
Product features:
  • SOUNDTRACK THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON(2CD)
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Postcards
  2. Mr. Gateau
  3. Meeting Daisy
  4. A New Life
  5. Love in Murmansk
  6. Meeting Again
  7. Mr. Button
  8. "Little Man" Oti
  9. Alone at Night
  10. It Was Nice to Have Met You
  11. Children's Games
  12. Submarine Attack
  13. The Hummingbird
  14. Sunrise on Lake Pontchartrain
  15. Daisy's Ballet Career
  16. The Accident
  17. Stay Out of My Life
  18. Nothing Lasts
  19. Some Things You Never Forget
  20. Growing Younger
  21. Dying Away
  22. Love Returns
  23. Benjamin and Daisy Original Score Composed, Conducted and Produced by Alexandre Desplat
Music CD 2
  1. My Name is Benjamin - Benjamin Button
  2. We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City - Doc Paulin's Marching Band
  3. Some days I Feel Different - Queenie & Benjamin Button
  4. Ostrich Walk - Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke
  5. How Old Are You? - Benjamin Button & The Preacher
  6. That's How Rhythm Was Born - The Boswell Sisters
  7. When Was The Last Time You Had A Woman? - Benjamin Button & Captain Mike
  8. Freight Train Blues (Traditional) - Billie & DeDe Pierce (5:34)
  9. Basin Street Blues - Preservation Hall Jazz Band
  10. Thanksgiving, 1930 - Benjamin Button
  11. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight) - Louis Armstrong and His Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra
  12. What's YOUR Secret? - Captain Mike & Benjamin Button
  13. Chanson Sur Staline - Choeur de la Cathedral de la Rue Daru, Paris XVII
  14. A Date Which Will Live In Infamy... - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941
  15. Arabeske For Piano In C Major Op. 18
  16. Coming Home - Benjamin Button
  17. Out Of Nowhere - Sidney Bechet
  18. Dear Old Southland - Louis Armstrong
  19. Defined By Opportunities - Benjamin Button

Music reviews of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Music Review: Gentle, delicate masterpiece
Rating: 5 Stars

A film by David Fincher based on the 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the tale of a man who is born old, and gets younger as his life progresses. Set in Louisiana in the late 1800s, it stars Brad Pitt as the titular Button, who is born with the physical appearance of an 80 year old man, much to the shock and embarrassment of his parents. As the years pass, Button gets younger and younger, fighting in wars, attending college, and falling in love - but backwards, and with the knowledge that, the longer time passes, the closer he is to losing everything and everyone around him. The film also stars Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Tilda Swinton, and is tipped to be a major player at the 2009 Academy Awards.

All of David Fincher's films to date have been dark, brooding works with dark, brooding scores by composers such as Elliot Goldenthal, Howard Shore and David Shire. For The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a lighter and more elegant touch was required to capture the life of the protagonist, and as such the project came to French composer Alexandre Desplat. As regular readers of this website will know, over the last 5 years or so, Desplat has become one of my favorite working composers, and each new score he writes is an eagerly anticipated event for me. Somewhat predictably, I thought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was magnificent; it's a stylish, slightly melancholic score which beguiles and encapsulates the listener from beginning to end with its subtle, emotional themes and gossamer orchestrations.

Desplat's performance ensemble comprises 87 members of the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra, with special emphasis on strings, piano and light percussion, and with notable solos for of cimbalom, harp, baritone saxophone, bass harmonica, electric organ, and accordion. Listening to the score, two words continually spring to mind: clarity, and precision. Desplat is a composer whose work is never muddy, never a `wall of sound'. Every single instrument has its place, has its moment in the sun, and when they come forth, they shine. Whereas other scores are simply content to present layers of music that come at you in a big blob of overkill, in a Desplat score you can hear every note, every nuance, every inflection, and that's a large part of what makes his music such a joy to experience.

Another word which springs to mind when listening to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is `intimacy'. This isn't a score which beats you over the head with its powerful themes; instead, it's a score which whispers softly in your ear, forcing you to actually listen to what's being presented. This is not a score you can simply play in the background while you're absent-mindedly doing something else. It takes a little bit of effort from the listener to consciously sit and experience the music, to take it all in, and to let it work its delicate magic.

As is often the case with Desplat's music, the main theme is in waltz time, and has a precise, steady rhythmic element around which the ornate instrumental elements dance. Harps, piano, and high strings form the cornerstone of "Postcards", the beautiful but slightly despondent opening, before it moves off into the slightly more upbeat "Mr. Gateau", which has the same particular rhythmic center, but is augmented with a slightly bolder tone, with more emphasis on brass and bass, and a touch of John Barry in the percussion writing.

Muted horns, softly lilting flutes and prancing violins come to the fore in "Meeting Daisy" in a more light-hearted and innocent setting of the main theme; "A New Life" introduces a romantic solo cello and a jazzy baritone saxophone in to the proceedings, underpinned by the now-familiar dancing flutes from Birth; "Love in Murmansk" adds a tinkling cimbalom to bring a touch of geographic specificity (and another acknowledgement of John Barry) to the light, lyrical orchestra. When the full complement of the string section rises during "Meeting Again", the result is utterly beautiful.

And so the score continues, presenting cue after cue of wonderfully sophisticated, gracefully rendered film music. At times the score is reminiscent of some of his earlier works, notably The Luzhin Defence and the aforementioned Birth; as a listener becomes familiar with a composer's history one unavoidably notices compositional traits unique to him, but this simply earmarks his stylistics, and should in no way be taken as an accusation of repetitiveness. There are one or two darker moments, notably the frenetic "Mr. Button", the stark "Submarine Attack", the unexpectedly dark and dramatic "The Hummingbird" (which twists the main theme into a disjointed version of itself), and the bubbly, slightly chaotic-sounding "The Accident", but these are few and far between, and actually add a welcome change of pace and tone to the album.

As the score reaches its conclusion, there is more than a little hint of sadness in Desplat's music; much like Button's life, as the inevitable tragedy of the central character becomes more apparent, Desplat's score seems to mourn with him. "Nothing Lasts" has a sense of quiet acceptance tinged with a certain moodiness, most noticeably through the use of clarinets, while "Some Things You Never Forget" sees Desplat using his piano in a more introspective, reflective way to excellent effect. "Dying Away", as one might expect, has an enhanced emotional content of loss and resignation, as Desplat acknowledges Button's desperate plight as he watches his life, his love, and his accumulated experiences drift into nothingness.

These moods are lightened by cues such as "It Was Nice To Have Met You", which occasionally border on the realms of gentle comedy with their light plucked strings and whimsical tone, or the hypnotic "Children's Games", which contains a harp duet so feather-like, so crystalline, that it almost seems to float on air. Elsewhere, "Sunrise on Lake Pontchartrain" brings the cello and the saxophone back to the fore in a deliciously warm and enticing setting, while the finale cue, "Benjamin and Daisy", contains a piano solo that simply makes you melt.

A regular criticism of Desplat's work is that it is "boring" or "too slow", and his detractors will be disappointed to learn that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could easily be described in similar terms by those who don't appreciate his style. If you listen to film music for the flashy action writing and the big themes, I can see how Desplat's music could be construed as such. Some people just don't see the appeal; I understand that. My opinion just happens to be the exact opposite of that.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button proves once more that Alexandre Desplat is one of the most exciting young composers working in film music today, and is well on his way to becoming one of the greats. He is clearly the heir apparent to John Barry and Georges Delerue, both of whom wrote mesmerizing romantic scores of great beauty and clarity, and whose penchant for simple, elegant orchestral writing is very much in evidence in Desplat. The effortless grace in his work never fails to enchant me, and has done so again. This is easily one of the best scores written in 2008, and could very be a major contender for awards when the season rolls around.
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Description of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

SOUNDTRACK THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON(2CD)

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