The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Harry Gregson-Williams - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
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CD Details

Artist: Harry Gregson-Williams
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Limited Edition, Soundtrack, Special Edition
CD Release Date: 2005-12-13
Music Label: Walt Disney Records
Soundtracks:
  1. The Blitz, 1940 Score
  2. Evacuating London Score
  3. The Wardrobe Score
  4. Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus Score
  5. A Narnia Lullaby Score
  6. The White Witch Score
  7. From Western Woods to Beaversdam Score
  8. Father Christmas Score
  9. To Aslan�s Camp Score
  10. Knighting Peter Score
  11. The Stone Table Score
  12. The Battle Score
  13. Only the Beginning of the Adventure Score
  14. Wunderkind Performed by Alanis Morissette
  15. I Can�t Take It In Performed by Imogen Heap
  16. Winter Light Performed by Tim Finn
  17. Where Performed by Lisbeth Scott (new age artist)

Music reviews of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Music Review: Simply inappropriate!
Rating: 3 Stars

When I first listened to The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (from now on referred to only as "Narnia") I thought it was a fantastic score. After watching the actual film, this feeling hasn't changed at all: Narnia is a truly great score, just not for this movie.

Harry Gregson- Williams, rather surprisingly for me, delivered one of 2005's best scores with Kingdom Of Heaven, and if you're familiar with that score, you will instantly find yourself on well- known territory in Narnia. Gregson- Williams carried over the unusual solo instruments, like the duduk and the electric violin, as well as the ethnic percussion and plenty of Media Ventures drums, from his days as a Hans Zimmer- protegé;
add piano solos, flute solos and moments of brassy glory, and you have the sound of Narnia.
If you are looking for strong thematic material, you won't be dissapointed. The young composer gives us several beautiful themes that culminate in the final tracks "The Battle" and "Only The Beginning Of The Adventure". The children's theme, which gets introduced in "Evacuating London", is very calm and sad, and is primarily performed by woodwinds, while the hero theme, as can be heard at the beginning of "To Aslan's Camp", comes in a very bright, bold and adventurous manner with a sense of movement.
But where Narnia truly shines is when Gregson- Williams reflects the lyrical winter images and the magic of Narnia in his music; then he turns into a much more mature version of Danny Elfman and lets the light choir and the weeping strings fly.
Choral splendor isn't one of Narnia's weak points anyhow. It's very likely that you will find some of the best choral pieces of the year in "The Battle".

So many good things to say, so why do I give Narnia a pretty average rating?
Let me begin by responding to the many many reviewers out there, whose general consensus is "Harry Gregson- Williams did to Narnia what Howard Shore did to Middle- Earth". This is one of these rare instances in which a comparison actually makes sense. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were close friends, and Tolkien often said that Lewis' writing was a little too inspired by his own.
I'm very sorry, but Narnia and Lord of the Rings can't be on the same level merely because of the composers' attitude towards the films they had to score.
Howard Shore spent months and months preparing himself for the project by studying Tolkien's themes, their historical and mythological background and Ring mythology specifically, just to begin to comprehend what he had to capture and translate into music.
Gregson- Williams just "gave the theme a historical touch" to "hint" at "some historical background" (quotes from the DVD). Wow, I guess THAT was a painstaking process, huh?
See, that's the difference: Shore translated, Gregson- Williams just accompanied the movie.
Even worse is the idea behind the score: "Narnia has no definite sound yet, so it was nice to be able to work with a blank canvas".
This one makes you wonder if he is familiar with a single line from Lewis' book. The first thing you do as a composer working on a literary adaption is to sit on your butt and get behind author, story and characters. If you, who reads this review, would do that and only scratch on the surface, you will find that the above statement, not to mention the music, is not only wrong, but almost insulting.

And even if Narnia did have a blank canvas, the laziest thing would be to litter it with pictures you've already painted.
Not to mention that the last thing I would do with Narnia is giving it an ethnic, eastern touch. It just bugs me that composers today develop a specific concept and then slap it on every movie they score, with a few tweaks here and there.
Alright, you can argue whether the sound of modern drum loops and percussion is the right flavour for Narnia, but it's non- debatable that outside of Narnia, the film's a period piece and would have required some period music. But Gregson- Williams doesn't even give us that, but with "The Blitz" a double- standard Media Ventures cue.
And the vocals of Lisbeth Scott, as great as they may sound, are so out of place that it's almost a crime.

The three songs at the end are another horrible example for the "popification" of a movie that is supposed to have some dignity (the last horrid example would have to be Harry Potter 4).
That the score even somehow resembles these songs should be an alarming signal for every film score fan.

So, the bottom line is that this score IS great, but you should totally black out the film, that's the only way to fully enjoy Narnia. This could have easily been a four or even five star score, but to totally ignore a film like Harry Gregson- Williams did is unforgivable.
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Description of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The special edition includes the soundtrack and dvd (with over 45 minutes run time)

DVD Includes:

Film Art Gallery Concept Art Gallery Behind the Magic of Narnia - Featuring the Score with Harry Gregson-William The Story The Director Visual Effects Sets & Locations Models & Costumes Theatrical Trailer Music Inspired By the Film

Not to be confused with the collection Songs Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia, this album is Harry Gregson-Williams' instrumental score for the movie. Marking the composer's third collaboration with director Andrew Adamson (after both Shrek movies), this score also is one of the more mature offerings from Gregson-Williams, best known for his work on family films. The music is lush and assured, if a bit predictable. Indeed, it fits squarely in the current style popular for big epics--even using (on a few tracks) the vocals of Lisbeth Scott, which fall halfway between those of Enya and the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser (both of whom, uncoincidentally, appeared on the Lords of the Rings soundtracks). The CD concludes with four songs, with Gregson-Williams cowriting "Where." On "Can't Take It In," Imogen Heap's vocal acrobatics eerily recall those of the Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan, while Alanis Morissette's "Wunderkind" is an inspirational, almost girl-powerish track written from the point of view of the movie's Lucy. But the best of these songs is "Winter Light" by Tim Finn, four minutes of understated, piano-driven melancholia. Look for it tucked near the very end of the CD. The second disc in this special edition package is a DVD that includes galleries of film stills and concept art, a featurette about the recordings of the score and a making-of featurette. There's also a segment in which the (mostly) Christian bands involved in the Songs Inspired by... album talk about their contributions to that project. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

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