Review Summary: A score that will ease the soul of the most troubled soldier.
Back in the mid 1990’s when Tom Hanks was doing his research for the war time epic,
Saving Private Ryan, he stumbled upon the works by Stephen. E Ambrose, and among those books was an amazing narrative on the men of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, US Army. The book was titled
Band of Brothers. Hanks was extremely driven and inspired after reading the book and after some talks with director Steven Spielberg, convinced him to attempt a full blown 10 part mini-series affair with HBO after finishing the filming of
Saving Private Ryan. This epic
Band of Brothers project became one of the most expensive television projects to date, a miniseries that captured the troopers training through to the capture of Hitler’s Eagle Nest, which was all filmed with some of the most poetic music scored for a war series.
Michael Kamen’s choice as composer for the series was a fairly straight forward decision, as he had scored many HBO series beforehand and had done some work with Hanks previously. Kamen was a wise choice for
Band of Brothers, as re-using John Williams (Saving Private Ryan) could have created numerous problems like a similarity between the two scores. A problem that would not arise with Kamen, as he was able to start with a fresh mind and score the series from a complete different set of eyes and what Kamen was able to do with those fresh eyes is spellbinding. The score for
Band of Brothers ranges from the most inspiring to the horrible bleak. Yet, in both examples Kamen shows evocative music. There is no better example of this than the “Main Theme”, which would undoubtedly be Kamen’s best work to date. Kames uses a choir to create a hymn filled phrasing, than includes roaring choruses from the lower brass followed by delicately played upper strings.
Another huge highlight on the soundtrack is the vocal performances, provided on “Band of Brothers Requiem” by Maire Brennan and Zoe Kamen. Their voices soar over a fleeting orchestra and tantalize the soul of the listener, leaving a mark on them. Most of the charts on the soundtrack feel almost hymn like, yet this is a War Time Epic score, so pieces like “The Mission Begins” are high octane, bold and energetic like the pictures simultaneously being shown on the screen. A mix of stabbed percussion and grandiose horns “The Mission Begins” is overwhelming in its presentation, yet the muddle clears into one spectacular final chorus of full blown brass and woodwind.
Michael Kamen had to deliver a score that sounded nothing like John Williams’ works for
Saving Private Ryan, yet fill the some sort of evocative music. Which Kamen successfully does in the great series, which a juxtaposition of hymn like sounds and bold, brave battle theme classics. The score for
Band of Brothers sits subtly along with the amazing footage being shown during the series, yet the evocative string that Kamen is able to pull adds much more to the screen with this amazing score.
