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ScoreKeeper Previews PETITES PEURS PARTAG
Greetings! ScoreKeeper here sneaking an early listen to Mark Snow’s score for director Alain Resnais’ new film, PETITES PEURS PARTAGÉES or PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES (IMDB lists the current title as COEURS), set for release in November 2006.
I am anxious to see the film for a host of reasons, one of which is a hauntingly evocative score by Mark Snow. I have about twenty-one minutes of score which I have listened to about a dozen times. Each time I find my heart rate climb ever so slightly with the music no matter what else I’m engaged in at the time.
This will be Snow’s first collaboration with the legendary French director who has been quoted as being a fan of Snow’s for sometime. Many listeners may observe the overall sound akin to THE X-FILES; however, I don’t think THE X-FILES offered Snow this much dynamic opportunity to explore such a deep emotional palette as this music suggests.
Although the score contains Snow’s signature lyrical melodies, his harmonic language in this score is its strength. Phrases cadence on unexpectedly arrived chords which quickly elide with a concluding phrase dressed in a new harmonic color. There’s so much vibrancy in the harmony but yet it remains deceptively dark and brooding. There are moments of extreme tension complemented with moments of expansive brilliance.
In typical Snow fashion, he seamlessly weaves electronic and acoustic textures into a single tapestry while the solo piano garners much of the aural spotlight. What I’ve liked about Snow’s music in the past, especially with such projects as THE X-FILES, is that he utilizes artificial synth textures for their unique sonic quality much like Goldsmith did throughout his career.
There’s a moment in the score for PETITES PEURS PARTAGÉES where a lush bed of strings gives rise to a deliberately pacing solo from an obvious synthetic sound. It blends well with the texture and doesn’t disrupt the sanctity of the sound itself. This has long been a signature characteristic of Mark Snow’s music.
I’ve made the argument before that Mark Snow is nowhere near where he should be in the film music lexicon of composers. His work on THE X-FILES might have scared away potential suitors looking for him to deviate from that particular sonic palette; however, Snow has proven on a variety of occasions that his work remains stellar even when venturing outside the archetypal baleful hymns he composes.
Regardless, Snow is a composer that I’d love to hear more from. To this day, his opening cue from THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE (1997) is among the most energetic and terrifying pieces of orchestral music I’ve heard in a film. I would relish Snow taking the musical reins of an ALIEN-inspired terror-pic or possibly even a SE7EN-ish urban detective thriller.
As a fan of Mark Snow, it’s nice to see diverse directors such as Alain Resnais, give Snow a project that harnesses his strengths while highlighting a mélange of characteristics not as familiar with a world-wide audience.
Although he’s had a long and distinguished career, THE X-FILES alone is worthy enough to herald Mark Snow as a great composer for film and television. I believe however, Snow has yet to scratch the surface of his complete creative potential. Maybe PETITES PEURS PARTAGÉES will be that scratch.
Want to hear for yourself? Below are five thirty-second clips from the score.
Enjoy!
SAMPLE #1!!!
SAMPLE #2!!!
SAMPLE #3!!!
SAMPLE #4!!!
SAMPLE #5!!!
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I am completely underwhelmed. 30 seconds of music isn't enough to begin to feel anything. Why bother posting this?
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Honestly, the show is one of the most popular of the 90's, and Snow's music was entirely electronic, so why was there never a decent CD pressed of his wonderful music?
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erm.....
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azo8heDmNoQ
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They included the main theme of the show but often I've never been able to find a score itself...
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The Truth and The Light: Music From the X-Files. Music by Mark Snow Words by Chris Carter. 1996 Warner Bros. Records.
The CD is sitting next to me. It's the score from the first few seasons. Intermixed with audio clips. It's a GREAT cd, the only score CD I even own. -
Millennium was a million times better than the X-Files and so was Snow's score for it. Let's have that soundtrack over anything else!
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The Millennium music is much better then that of The X-Files, melancholy and jarring at a turn, and it needs a soundtrack NOW. Good to hear I ain't alone in thinking so.
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....but the release was exclusively on iTunes. I had to have a friend who was on iTunes download it and burn a CD for me. Good stuff, though. Now if someone would release some of Snow's work from the last seven seasons of TXF, since the "Truth and the Light" CD only encompasses the first two seasons of the show. Also good is the CD "The Snow Files", which has a lot of other Snow music on it including a long suite of TXF stuff that frankly is the same stuff you get on "Truth and the Light", minus the dialogue.
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Ya, there's an album on iTunes called "The Best of Millennium". It has 22 tracks from seven different episodes. I agree it's some really great music. There should be more than one CD worth out there.
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I'm going to download it now!
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Good Stuff. Thanks, Scorekeeper.
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Great to see Snow getting some attention. His X-Files and especially Millennium scores are really intriguing because they have a dark, SF/horror sound--not just sustained strings and synth eruptions. The scores were FUSED with those shows, and there are so many great moments that I wish Snow would release them the way the Babylon 5 scores all came out. The beautiful themes for "The Field Where I Died" and for Mulder's abduction as well as the Millennium theme variations are very evocative. (I never watched an episode while those shows were on TV and only recently started watching them, so these shows are brand new to me.) That X-Files score CD is worth digging up. It's probably got 5% of the scores I'd like to hear, but there are solid, creepy cues there. If you like to write horror stories it's a great accompaniment. Snow's Morricone-sized output is worth digging into. Some are simply background stuff, but there's a ton of stuff I'd love to hear apart from the episodes.
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Damn freaking great episode and the music is sensational. You quoted one of my all time favorite Snow episode scores. Even though it's a tad close to the theme from the 2nd movment of Bruckner's 7th Symphony i'm not complaining. That was some of Snow's greatest!
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I miss Snow's music, has he done anything else recently? (I got The Snow Files from Sonic Images, too ... I was also a tad disappointed with the non-copyright-infringing mix straight off TTATL that dominated the CD)
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I'll have to see the film for the full effect.
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