The music of componist Tan Dun is familiar to many, though they don't know his name. But with the soundtrack for 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', the music by composer Tan Dun got recognised by many people. And as far as I know (I might be mistakin' on this one), one of the four Oscars the movie gained, was for the musical score.
Some general impressions:
For 'western ears', this work could mean a challenge. In many other movie scores, certain themes are associated with certain characters. Tan Dun used a different aproach. Most of the time the score is a minimalistic and romantic. Percussion, asiatic folk instruments, strings create a dense atmosphere, that works even without the pictures attatched. In the balancing act between western classic and eastern folk, instruments like Erhu, Bowu, Dizi, Rawap or hand drums set the accents. As well as the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, for some familiar from the movie score to 'Seven years in Tibet'. Overall, the music has a very melancholic touch to it, which probably comes from the story of the film. After all, this score was developed for the movie.
This is by far 'easy to consume' music. As only exception could the song 'A love before time' count, sung by the chinese popstar CoCo Lee. This track was co-produced by Jorge Calandrelli (Madonna, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin).
What was good:
If you like classic music or not, I think nobody can deny the atmosphere that this musical composition shows. If it is the mostly dominant eastern sound (the title track, 'Night Fight'), or songs that sound like mediteranian folklore ('The Ecnounter'), the atmosphere is great. Mayn of the instruments and sounds are indeed pretty unfamiliar for the 'average consumer' of a western country, but that makes it even more interesting IMO.
What was bad:
Bad is the wrong word here. Well, the music is kinda hard to get into, if you have no sense for classic-inspired music. Plus, if you listen to it in whole, it can stretch quite a bit. If you have to work, this could be a nice background soundtrack though.
Summary:
I find it really hard to describe this piece of music, as this is not music I listen to normally. But especially the fact, that this work impressed me as a Metal/Punk/Hardcore/etc-listener so much, makes this a record that should be checked out. I could not find samples of the pieces online in a quick google, but if you want to check it out, you could as well rent 'Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon' from your local video rental (as the movie is excellent as well).
Next to the music composed by John Williams for the Star Wars movies, this is by far the best score composed for a movie. If you're a fan of classical music or not, I bet at least one of the pieces could hold something for you.
Final rating: 4/5 (probably 4.5 or 5 of 5, but I'm afraid that would be too biased)
