The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score
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CD Details
Composer: Mychael DannaEdition: Music CD
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2006-12-05
Music Label: Watertower Music
Soundtracks:
- Veni, Veni Emanuel
- Words Of The Prophet
- Nazareth
- You Shall Be His Wife
- The Annunciation
- To Elizabeth
- The Magi
- Why Is It Me?
- Corde Natus Ex Parentis
- Return Of Mary
- I've Broken No Vow
- Census
- The Journey
- Give Me A Sign
- The Shepherd
- And Thou Bethlehem
- Is There A Place For Us?
- A Star Shall Come Forth
- I Bring You Good Tidings
- The Strength I Prayed For
- The Shepherd's Gift
- In Rosa Vernat Lilium
- Silens Nox
- Rosa Aeterna Floret
Music reviews of The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score
Music Review: Better Than Most Soundtracks Lately, but Too Solemn in Every Song
Rating: 5 Stars
THE NATIVITY STORY SOUNDTRACK is a very good CD, but the songs don't stand alone as being great tunes all by themselves, just very decent tunes. The mood of the CD is very somber and solemn throughout, which is okay, but it would have benefited more if there were a bit more variety in the mood, across the entire CD.
THE NATIVITY STORY SOUNDTRACK is better than most CD soundtracks from other films, these days, but it still doesn't have too many memorable melodies to let the listener recognize which song is which.
Sometimes the music uses a hint of a classic Christmas carol, which is always the most distinguishable element of any of the songs. To be fair, this is a movie SOUNDTRACK of background music, and even though the best movie soundtracks contain famous melodies that are instantly recognizeable, (like STAR WARS or JAWS, among others), these most famous melodies are exceptions to the rule. These days, most soundtracks are just lucky to be decent souvenirs of the movie experience, until the film itself is finally released on DVD for home viewing.
If I didn't know this was the soundtrack to this great, underrated, and little seen movie, THE NATIVITY STORY, then I wouldn't be so interested in listening to this soundtrack at all. As it is, I like this CD as a way to help support the movie itself, and to listen to it around other folks, to help remind them that they need to eventually see this film.
I like listening to the CD the best using the back of the CD's song listing, so that I know which songs go with which scene from the film, using my memory. This helps to put the songs in perspective. Otherwise, all the songs start to become one long, indistinguishable session across the entire CD.
Though this soundtrack mostly lacks any really great melodies to use as landmarks throughout the CD, the instrumentation is VERY interesting and expertly researched and arranged! They use a lot of Middle Eastern musical instruments, with a touch of modern recording equipment tricks, and the sound itself is very pleasing and reverent.
I like seeing the film more than I like just listening to the soundtrack at home, of course, but unless I am reading THE NATIVITY STORY NOVEL, or looking through THE NATIVITY STORY GIFT BOOK, then I don't get much listening time out of this CD.
If you are wanting to get THE NATIVITY STORY experience at home, while waiting for the DVD release, then I would recommend THE NATIVITY STORY NOVEL, which has the whole story, and tons of great, extra Bible times details mixed into the story. You will learn a lot about the ancient times and customs and culture from THE NATIVITY STORY NOVEL. I like THE NATIVITY STORY NOVEL even better than the soundtrack, as far as movie souvenirs at home are concerned.
THE NATIVITY STORY GIFT BOOK is not as good as the STORY NOVEL. The GIFT BOOK has one large photo on most pages, but most of the chosen photos have already been used extensively in what little movie promotion was used, so you might not feel like you're seeing anything new, that hasn't already been seen online or in movie review photos. Most of the photos that are used are not very good at showing the movie scenes and events. The STORY NOVEL will ADD to your understanding of THE NATIVITY STORY in a way that the GIFT BOOK and MOVIE SOUNDTRACK do not.
Description of The Nativity Story: Original Motion Picture Score
This score follows not only Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, but the centuries of musical reverberations thereafter. It plants its humble seeds in the Middle East where the gentle tones of Persian and Turkish ney flutes articulate melodic figures, and strident Roman horns and drums bind Herod the Great's soldiers to the military terminology of the age. The score then blossoms from these seeds, extending its tendrils across centuries of European traditions. Pre-Baroque instruments such as viola da gamba, vielle, harp, and recorders guide the score westward with the elemental sounds of strings and winds. The second half of the soundtrack covers Mary's isolation and her relationship with Joseph by weaving throughout the choral writing and knitting the work together into a dramatic, reverent whole.In the beginning, soundtracks to Biblical movies adhered to a Hollywood template with more fidelity than most people attend to the Ten Commandments. The first commandment of Biblical film scores was: "Thou shalt render orchestral grandeur unto the epic as did Elmer Bernstein on The Ten Commandments and Miklos Rozsa on Ben-Hur." Peter Gabriel's score to The Last Temptation of Christ, released as Passion, changed all that like the Second Coming. His mix of world-music elements, wailing singers, and otherworldly electronics prevailed, influencing countless film scores and emulated to almost plagiaristic perfection by John Debney's soundtrack for The Passion of the Christ. Mychael Danna departs from that path on The Nativity Story, the 2006 film interpretation of Mary's journey. His sound is more medieval and classical than Middle Eastern. Rather than blowing Turkish duduks à la Gabriel and Debney, he uses recorders and wood flutes. He likes building from simple folk themes to extravagant expanses where a lone flute segues into a sweeping string arrangement that morphs into slowly cascading voices. He taps into Gregorian chant and plainsong, and even when he uses Persian vocalist Azam Ali (from Vas and Niyaz), he has her singing an Abbess Hildegard-style hymn called "Nazareth." But this is a Hollywood Biblical epic and Danna bends to another commandment of the genre: "Thou shalt wring tears and awe-inspired wonder." You don't need to see the film to know that the heavens must be opening--as they only do in Hollywood--on "And Thou Bethlehem." Danna's The Nativity Story isn't a sea change like Gabriel, but it is a new tributary. --John Diliberto
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