MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

If one was to take everything that is good about John Barry’s music and compress it into one, all-encompassing album, you would end up with The Beyondness of Things. Strictly, The Beyondness of Things is not a soundtrack: it is a unique, individual classical piece written by Barry for his own pleasure and released by London Records for us all to enjoy. But, more than that, it is a celebration of the work of a true film music legend – a testament to nearly forty years of dedicated service to the industry, in which time he has composed some of the most well loved and beautiful music the cinema has ever known. It is also a personal odyssey on Barry’s part, in which he has tried to musically sum up his life to date, capturing the innocence and wonder of his childhood in the Yorkshire countryside, the heady heights of fame in America, with all its trappings and temptations, and finally the satisfied, relaxed semi-retirement he enjoys today (I say semi-retirement – he has just released Mercury Rising and has two other scores currently on the back burner, so it is not as though he is not working!)

The music is, of course, unmistakably John Barry. Many of the tracks are skilful reworkings of some of his most famous themes, and every single cue is absolutely first rate. The opening track, ‘The Beyondness of Things’, has all the long, lustrous, multi-layered strings, the subtle brass melodies and the metronomic pacing that so many fans of his work will recognise instantly, from scores such as Out of Africa and Somewhere in Time. ‘Kissably Close’ and ‘Nocturnal New York’ are pastiches of his popular score for Midnight Cowboy, presenting gentle, jazz-influenced tracks with harmonica solos by Tommy Morgan and alto saxes by David White, while ‘The Heartlands’ has the same faraway, dream-like feeling as the Stands With A Fist Remembers cue from Dances With Wolves, and again features Morgan’s harmonica solo.

‘Give Me A Smile’ and ‘Dawn Chorus’ are somewhat unique in the Barry canon because, while they again present beautiful string-based themes, they are accentuated by the addition of a female voice choir – the first time I recall Barry ever doing this in one of his compositions. ‘A Childhood Memory’ begins by being a little lighter in tone and more playful, with a woodwind element reminiscent of parts of My Life, but develops into something rather more dramatic with the addition of an insistent snare drum, á la the opening titles of Dances With Wolves.

‘Meadow of Delight and Sadness’ is quite simply a joy to listen to – it shimmers with energy and life, conjuring up images of wide open plains and panoramic vistas, like the ‘Buffalo Hunt’ cue, again from Dances With Wolves. ‘Gifts of Nature’ is almost pastoral in its sound, similar to his score for Robin Hood, but ‘The Fictionist’ is quite different: on an album which, for the most part, is full of lyrical orchestral beauty, the slightly downbeat tone, sorrowful melody and deep bass that Barry uses here comes as quite a shock after all the gracefulness that preceded it. The album concludes with ‘Dance With Reality’, a wonderful tribute to his classic Bond scores of the 1960s and 70s, featuring muted horns, a solo piano, an electric guitar and White’s jazzy also sax performing a sleazy, sexy melody that perfectly captures the decadence of the decade.

It has been said that parts of this album contain some of Barry’s unused cues from The Horse Whisperer (Barry was, of course, replaced by Thomas Newman mid-project after director Robert Redford decided that he was dissatisfied with Barry’s work). I’m not sure which of the tracks were originally from The Horse Whisperer but, whichever they are, I can only assume that Redford failed to insert his hearing aid on the day they were presented to him, because every single one of the tracks on this album is gorgeous. The English Chamber Orchestra, who Barry works with a lot of late, deliver an impeccable performance, and make The Beyondness of Things a truly magnificent album that no fan of Barry’s work can afford to be without.

Track Listing:

• The Beyondness of Things (4:15)
• Kissably Close (4:01)
• The Heartlands (5:06)
• Give Me A Smile (4:49)
• A Childhood Memory (5:14)
• Nocturnal New York (4:33)
• Meadow of Delight and Sadness (3:53)
• Gifts of Nature (4:29)
• The Fictionist (3:47)
• Dawn Chorus (4:57)
• The Day the Earth Fell Silent (5:05)
• Dance with Reality (4:48)

Running Time: 55 minutes 25 seconds

London/Decca 460-009-2 (1998)

Music composed and conducted by John Barry . Performed by The English Chamber Orchestra. Solo harmonica performed by Tommy Morgan. Solo alto sax performed by David White. Recorded and mixed by John Richards. Album produced by John Barry.