by Robert Fiedel
JOHN WILLIAMS' STAR continues to rise with his exuberant, witty. and often breathtaking score for Warner Bros.' super production, Superman. For this latest and most elaborate screen resurrection of the enduring, quintessential comic character, Williams has once again tapped his seemingly inexhaustible supply of epic-heroic thematic material to provide an effective and entertaining musical embellishment.
His approach to Superman is appropriately as straightforward as the film's narrative, using lavish orchestral themes and leitmotivs to identify key characters and concepts. Superman himself has, not one. but two distinct tonic-dominant heroic brass themes to accompany his exploits. Particularly noteworthy is the first theme's resemblance to the old Universal Pictures fanfare, which subliminally reminds us of the character's 1930s-'40s origin and provides a spiritual tie with previous screen realizations.
The planet Krypton and Superman's father, Jor-El, are represented by a single tonic-dominant brass motif-an apparent inversion of the aliens' peace motif in Williams' Close Encounters of the Third Kind, thus endowing Krypton and Jor-El with a mystical benevolence. The slim-witted villain, Otis. is aptly depicted by a comical, flatulent march theme for bassoon against sparse. eccentric string harmonies. And finally. Lois Lane and her encounters with the Man of Steel are characterized by a lovely (despite Margot Kidder's drunken "vocal") romantic pop ballad, displaying Williams' talent for composing a good pop tune and integrating it into a typically grand-scale symphonic idiom.
The composer has generously supplemented these themes by scoring several scenes as total entities with more extended thematic material. The swirling, John Williams hauntingly mysterious strains of "The Trip to Earth" and the poignant, expansive sonorities of "Leaving Home" are stunning examples of this technique.
The one conceptual flaw I find in the score is that Williams has not lent musical support to the overt messianic analogy that enhances this retelling of the Superman myth. Jor-El s cosmic communion with his super-son, in which he tells him of his earthly mission with such pregnant lines as, "They need someone to show them the light, which is why I have sent them you, my only son," is the film's most obvious allegorical moment.
This plus the infant Superman's arrival on Earth in a Star-of-Bethlehem-shaped spaceship, Jonathan and Martha (read Joseph and Mary) Kent's "immaculate conception" of son Clark, and at least a dozen other Biblical allusions indelibly weave the Superman-Christ analogy into the total cinematic tapestry.
Since it is inconceivable that Williams was oblivious to this concept, he must have consciously chosen to overlook its musical possibilities and instead focused on Superman's romantic adventure flavor. As successful as the result is, I can't help feeling that the music would have been that much more integral to the film, and that the overall film experience that much richer, had he recognized this crucial aspect.
Also, I still have ambivalent feelings about the unmistakable and repeatedly heard influences of certain other composers in Williams' scores. Korngold and Stravinsky are called to mind by, respectively, the vibrant, rousing "Main Title" and the strident, frenzied portions of "The Trip to Earth." "Leaving Ho ie" contains passages of Coplandesque Americana, and Prokofiev might have devised Otis' theme for a rotund, malevolent Lieutenant Kije. Williams brings off this eclecticism with such flair and imagination that I accept it here more readily than I have in the past, but I still hope to see him develop a more cogent and individual stylistic identity.
(Recordings of Williams' first symphony, given its world premiere by André Previn and the London Symphony, and his violin concerto, composed concurrently with Star Wars, would offer a fascinating glimpse into his personal workshop and be welcome additions to his growing discography.) That Williams' Superman music perfectly complements and enhances the film with an ambience of excitement and awe is obvious. That it also conveys these qualities without the visuals is one of its remarkable achievements, making the soundtrack album an especially rewarding listening experience. A few cues are rather fragmentary (an occasional necessity to meet the film's requirements), but most hold up quite well as self-contained movements, a quality Williams has taken care to preserve by discreetly rearranging certain sequences for this recording.
The most outstanding selections are the "Main Title," a driving scherzo arrangement of the score's principal themes; the "Trip to Earth" and "Leaving Home"; "The Flying Sequence & 'Can You Read My Mind?,' " an enchanting, magical treatment of Lois Lane's theme: and "The March of the Villains," an elaborate version of Otis' theme that I don't recall hearing in the film. Clearly there is as great a potential here for concert performances of a Superman suite as there has been for Williams' Star Wars and Close Encounters--and indeed I note that the composer is guest-conducting such a suite in this season's Previn and the Pittsburgh PBS series.
Warner Bros. has generously given us almost all of the music from Superman on two well-pressed discs. The individual selections are presented more or less in proper sequence, affording the listener the added enjoyment of following the film's continuity. However, the omission of liner notes and even technical credits for the album's production is inexcusable for such an important release.
Williams conducts the London Symphony with all of the strength and vitality the score requires; the heavy demands on the brass section are well met. The sound is a bit dry, and there is a noticeable lack of orchestral presence in the mastering-problems often encountered in soundtrack recordings. But, overall, these flaws should not interfere with anyone's enjoyment of this marvelous, high-flying score.
SUPERMAN. Original film soundtrack recording. Composed by John Williams; London Symphony Orchestra, John Williams, cond.
WARNER BROS. 2BSK 3257, $14.98 (two discs, manual sequence). Tape: 2K 53257, S14.98; . 2K 83257, $14.98.
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