Soundtrack Review: The Duchess (2008)

Welcome back! Have you subscribed to my RSS feed yet? Make sure you don't miss anything by getting all Soundtrack Geek posts by Email. Also check out Soundtrack Fans, a new social network for soundtrack fans. Thanks for visiting!

This is a review of the motion picture score for The Duchess by Rachel Portman.

“I feel that Rachel Portman has crafted a score so powerful that nominations should be lining up. This could indeed be this year’s “Atonement”, and I have to say I like this score a lot better.”

I have an embarrassing confession to make. This is the first score I review from a female composer which is a shame because there are a few out there that really deserves to be mentioned and Rachel Portman is probably the most popular. She won an Oscar for best music, original score didn’t you know? It was for Emma in 1996 and has since been nominated twice for The Cider House Rules and Chocolat. The Duchess seems a likely candidate for me this year and the movie, a 18^th century period drama seems to draw the right kind of music. But let’s not give out the Oscars just yet. Let’s see if this score is actually any good first.

Track List

1. The Duchess (*****)
   
2. Mistake Of Your Life (*****)
   
3. I Think Of You All The Time (****)
4. No Mood For Conversation (***)
5. Gee And Grey Make Love (***)
6. Gee And Grey Together In Bath (*****)
   
7. German Dance No. 10 In D Major From Twelve German Dances (Ludwig Van Beethoven)
8. Awakening (***)
9. Rape (****)
10. Bess’ Sons (****)
11. Gee Give Up Baby (***)
12. Six Years Later (*****)
13. Some Things Too Late, Others Too Early (***)
14. Adagio From String Quartet Opus 1 No. 3 In D Major (Joseph Haydn)
15. Never See Your Children Again (****)
16. Grey Comes Back (***)
17. Gee Is Taken To The Country (***)
18. End Titles (*****)

Classical Modernism

It’s a movie that gets a lot of attention here in the UK, perhaps because of lead star Keira Knightley. Rachel Portman is British as well, but she gets far less attention. I like Rachel Portman and it’s a good time to listen to a Rachel Portman score because it has been a lot of action scores lately and this certainly does not categorize as one. Here is what you will get. A classical type period score with lots of strings and piano. Sounds good? Well it should because when I started listening to it, I remember why I like scores like this. It can easily be compared to “Becoming Jane” by Adrian Johnston and “Pride & Prejudice” by Dario Marianelli. Both of those scores I like very much and it’s all to do with the way they sound like classical music, but with a modern touch. It’s just pure beauty and I’ve reviewed “Pride and Prejudice” before so you can take a look of that. This score stands well on its own however and includes 16 tracks from Rachel Portman and 2 from the masters Beethoven and Haydn which we won’t cover here.

Theme Beautiful

It sounds oh so beautiful when it starts off with The Duchess which has a powerful theme which I have consciously or sub-consciously hummed to all day to my friends annoyance I’m sure but they are too polite to say anything of course. Well it’s certainly hum worthy and the theme introduced here is very memorable. It’s light and refreshing, but gives a sign of what’s to come. Oh there is drama here and yes it get’s darker which you can start hearing in “Mistake Of Your Life”. It is still a very broad and thematic cue which introduces a variation of the first theme, but I think I want to call it theme 2 because it stands well on its own. It goes dark again in “I Think Of You All The Time”, but it plays nicely on the theme introduced in the second cue with strings. “No Mood For Conversation” is a short, dramatic and hurried song which is an intro to “Gee And Grey Make Love” which is not a hurried, but highly dramatic.

Darkness Follow

Now that we have passed the intro, we get into the middle of it, at least for me. Here we are introduced to my favourite cue on the score called “Gee And Grey Together In Bath” which starts in a slightly whimsical way with small plunks of strings until it goes on to play the main theme in a powerful way and also using solo violin which just beautifies it no end. Then we quickly skip Beethoven, although it’s a beautiful cue by him (as always). “Awakening” leaves no mark in my memory and is just a filler track for what’s to come. Darkness comes swiftly in the form of “rape” which is a dark subject and this has to be the heaviest cue on the soundtrack. “Bess’ Sons” is a sad melancholy song played with a single violin with background music.

There is one more cheerful song before we reach the dramatic ending. The cue is called “6 Years Later” and we are in a more optimistic mood, yet it feels different, and things have changed like time itself. Great beginning with snappy, almost funny, violin extracts but you can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s not so happy anymore. The theme is played again and that’s pretty much it for upbeat, positive cues. Joseph Haydn has a go and it’s great while Rachel Portman portrays darkness and mistrust in the cue “Never See Your Children Again”. A couple of more dark theme until we get to the ending which is a reprise of the beginning, albeit slight longer and still very beautiful.

Conclusion

I feel that Rachel Portman has crafted a score so powerful that nominations should be lining up. This could indeed be this year’s “Atonement”, and I have to say I like this score a lot better. It has power, drama, happiness and sadness coupled with possibly the most memorable theme this year. Go and get it people. I truly love this score and it has quickly become one of my favourites for score of the year.

Listen to The Duchess by Rachel Portman below:

[asa facts]B001DZN60C[/asa]

[asa default3]B001DZN60C[/asa]

Other articles of interest:

• Soundtrack Review: Frost/Nixon (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Flash of Genius (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Forfeit (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Valkyrie (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Seven Pounds (2008)

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.