Troy: Music from the Motion Picture

Last updated
Troy: Music from the Motion Picture
Troy Soundtrack Cover.jpg
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedMay 11, 2004
Recorded2002–2003
Genre Opera, Soundtrack
Length75 mins
Label Warner Bros. / Reprise Records
Producer James Horner, Simon Rhodes, track12 David Foster

Troy: Music from the Motion Picture is 2004 soundtrack album from the epic adventure war film. Composed by James Horner, it was released on May 11, 2004 via Reprise Records.

Contents

Background

Composer Gabriel Yared originally worked on the score for Troy for over a year, having been hired by the director, Wolfgang Petersen.

Yared wrote and recorded his score and Tanja Carovska provided vocals on various portions of the music, as she later would on composer James Horner's version of the soundtrack. However, after a screening of the film with an early incomplete version of the score, the reactions at test screenings were against it and in less than a day Yared was off the project without being given a chance to fix or change his music, while Warner Bros was already looking for a replacement. [1] According to Yared, his score was removed due to a complaint by the screening audience that the score was too "old-fashioned". [2]

The replacement score was written by composer James Horner in about four weeks. He used Carovska's vocals again and also included traditional Eastern Mediterranean music and brass instruments. Drums are conspicuous in the most dramatic scenes: most notably, in the duel between Achilles and Hector. Horner also collaborated with American singer/songwriter Josh Groban and lyricist Cynthia Weil to write an original song for the film's end credits. The product of this collaboration, "Remember Me" was performed by Groban with additional vocals by Tanja Tzarovska. The song is available on the film's original soundtrack. There is a slight difference between the version of the song available on CD soundtrack and the one playing in the end credits. The score features wailing vocals, which was popularized in Gladiator (2000) by composer Hans Zimmer. [3]

Track listing

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."3200 Years Ago"James Horner3:38
2."Troy"James Horner5:01
3."Achilles Leads the Myrmidons"James Horner8:30
4."The Temple of Poseidon"James Horner3:28
5."The Night Before"James Horner3:29
6."The Greek Army and Its Defeat"James Horner9:38
7."Briseis and Achilles"James Horner5:19
8."The Trojans Attack"James Horner5:01
9."Hector's Death"James Horner3:27
10."The Wooden Horse and the Sacking of Troy"James Horner10:02
11."Through the Fires, Achilles... and Immortality"James Horner13:27
12."Remember Me"Josh Groban, Tanja Tzarovska4:18
Total length:163:46

Reception

The music critic Alex Ross claims that large portions of the score were essentially plagiarized from works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff ( Symphony No. 1 First Movement ); one instance cited by Ross, fanfares from the "Sanctus" of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem , has been explicitly recognised by another critic as an "exact copy" by Horner. [4] [5]

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References

  1. "The Score of Troy – A Mystery Unveiled: by Gabriel Yared". TheScreamOnline.com. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
  2. "Troy (Rejected Score)". MovieMusicUK.us. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
  3. Dave Roos (May 25, 2004). "Wail watching". Salon.com . Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  4. "Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: Das Lied von der Brad". The Rest Is Noise. 2004-05-24. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
  5. Simons, Peter (2004-05-14). "TROY – James Horner (review)". Movie Music UK. Retrieved 2015-06-23.