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Music composed
and conducted by EDWARD ARTEMYEV
Performed by THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA. Recorded &
mixed at "TOWN HOUSE" STUDIO, LONDON in 1997 Re-mixed AT ELECTROSHOCK
RECORDS STUDIO, MOSCOW IN 1998 - ELECTROSHOCK
RECORDS ELCD 008, 1998
Award: Outstanding Directing
for a Miniseries or a Special, Andrei Konchalovsky, The Odyssey:
Part I & II
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Francis Ford Coppola
produced this extraordinary adaptation for television of The
Odyssey. A nearly impossible task considering the scale of
the epic, the story complexity, the superhuman qualities of the
characters - which is not surprising, some of them being gods
- without forgetting a rich catalogue of monsters, Cyclops or
witches. Cinema is in its essence a naturalistic art and nothing
can be less realistic than mythology or epic poetry. Most of the
times attempts to adapt great myths for the screen fall miserably
flat or become these masterpieces of kitsch we all enjoy to watch
from time to time.
Thanks
to the development of computerized
special FX Konchalovsky managed to give credibility to this fantasy
world where gods freely mix with human beings. But he was careful
to put the emphasis on the psychological side of the story ( with
the help of a magnificent cast ). We all know the plot: Odysseus,
the conqueror of Troy, thought because of his pride (hubris) he
was the equal of the gods and therefore the master of his fate.
Only after being humbled and having lost everything he managed
to return home where he could regain his kingdom because of Peneope's
love.
The music composed by Edward Artemiev
makes a formidable contribution to the film. The main difficulty
was to create a sound world adapted to the scope of the story,
its twists and turns, and express the remoteness of the time and
place. For the composer it must have been a real challenge. One
possibility was to do as Pasolini did for Medea where the soundtrack
is made of genuine ethnic music. It gives a wonderful and strange
flavour to the film. But film music has to be able to communicate
to the spectators the emotions of the characters. After all The
Odyssey is not an experimental film or an art house film as
Medea, but a TV mini series made for a very large audience. Underscore
music, e.g. film music, has a long tradition. Each genre like,
for example, western, comedy, thriller relies on very well defined
musical codes. Arguably it was Mikos Rosza who established the
rules and conventions of the antique/peplum musical genre in the
biblical epic Quo Vadis?. "As the music for Quo
Vadis? was intended for dramatic use and as entertainment
for the lay public," he said " one has to avoid the
pitfall of producing only musicological oddities instead of music
with a universal, emotional appeal. For the modern ear, instrumental
music in unison has very little emotional appeal." *
Now although the public is more
familiar with non western musical traditions, where the music
is monodic, this statement somehow remains true. For example,
in The Odyssey, when Edward Artemyev had to translate into
music the feelings of upheaval or elation of the main characters
or to stress the emotional impact of a scene as in "Return
to Ithaca " or "Odysseus drifts ", he resorted
to romantic symphonic music which still is best suited to describe
these moods and 'moves' the public. But today of course film music
composers can use a richer language than in the fifties. The audience
is used to many different styles of music.
For the Odyssey Edward Artemiev
pulls all the stops to create an extremely colorful, original
sound palette to evoke the Mediterranean/Greek world. He introduces
other instruments and timbres, quite unusual in a classical orchestral
context, like Pan flutes, bouzouki or synthesizers . And this
is where he is at his best. He is more daring in his orchestrations
than Ennio Morricone or Jerry Goldsmith. Not a surprising fact:
in the sixties, Edward Artemiev
was a pioneer of electronic music. In
Moscow, he composed music
for the ANS, the first Russian synthesizer invented in the forties
by Evgeniy Murzin, alongside composers like Alfred Schnittke and
Sofia Gubaidulina. #
But also he is able to draw on
every genre: tribal percussive music - "introduction"
"Escape from calypso", jazz violin flourishes, "introduction",
rock electric guitar "The Ship departs ", progressive
rock " Trojan Battlefield", XXth century orchestral
music in the ferocious and flamboyant The Horse and Burning troy
" etc... All these elements are blended with a great virtuosity
in a very imaginative way. The results sound very organic and
natural.
Electronic and electroacoustic
tracks "Cyclops" "Temple of Dead" "Sirens"
are furiously dark but powerfully evocative.
(Maybe my favourites). But there is neither gloom nor depression
nor even introspection; there is no room for it: Odysseus is a
superhuman hero and stays always confident in his powers even
when he goes through terrible trials. The music carries this heroic
feeling well. Also the tribulations of the hero are reflected
in the diverse variations of the Odysseus theme (leitmotiv).
All in all an extremely accomplished
score for a brilliant adaptation of
the Odyssey. We hope television could
give us treats like that a bit more often !
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