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The Fall of the Roman Empire was the final epic film of producer Samuel Bronston in a series that had included King of Kings, El Cid, and 55 Days at Peking.  With a budget of $20 million (the Roman Forum remains to this day the largest outdoor set ever built for a film), the film was a box office flop and cost Bronston his Spanish production facilities.  Not surprising really.  At nearly three hours, it remains one of the most boring films I’ve ever seen, with dire acting and bizarre sword waggles for battle scenes.  The score might make it worth watching for film music fans, but for anybody else – watch something like Ben-Hur or El Cid instead.The film was intended to re-unite Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, the stars of El Cid.  Heston turned down the role, instead expressing interest in 55 Days at Peking.  Stephen Boyd was cast instead, who would later blame the film for ruining his career.

Most of the crew from El Cid returned to work on The Fall of the Roman Empire.  A notable exception was composer Miklós Rózsa, who wrote the best score of his career for El Cid and earned himself two Oscar nominations.   Rózsa, who did not discover until the premiere of the film that a significant portion of his score had been cut from the film, refused to work for Bronston again.  Dimitri Tiomkin was brought on board to score 55 Days at Peking the previous year, and would also compose the score to The Fall of the Roman Empire, earning the film’s sole Oscar nomination and providing what was really the film’s only positive aspect.

Tiomkin wrote over 2½ of music for The Fall of the Roman Empire.  Of that, under 40 minutes were included on the soundtrack album, which, combined with its scarce availability (resulting it being expensive to get hold of) and the just decent sound quality, has long been a source of frustration for film music fans.  It was therefore a moment of great delight when it was announced in 2011 that Prometheus Records and Tadlow Music would be releasing Tiomkin’s complete score for the film.  Coming from the same team who brought us the complete recording of Tiomkin’s other masterpiece, The Alamo, in 2010, as well as Tadlow’s release of Miklós Rózsa’s complete score to El Cid, and many other recordings of the highest quality, I can’t remember a time when I’d awaited a soundtrack release so eagerly.  Completely unsurprisingly, this is yet another masterful recording to come from Tadlow and Prometheus, and is easily the best film music album that has debuted so far in 2011.

Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus prove once again that they are masters of Tiomkin’s music, though to be honest, they’ve proved themselves masters at just about everything they’ve released, from Lawrence of Arabia to El Cid to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes to Exodus.  This is the third complete score by Tiomkin that they’ve recorded now; the previous two being The Guns of Navarone (2005) and The Alamo (2010), the latter of which is generally considered the finest score of Tiomkin’s career.  The release of the complete score for The Fall of the Roman Empire, coupled with La La Land’s recent expanded release of Tiomkin’s score for 55 Days at Peking, make this a great year for all who love his music.

Instead of an Overture, typical for scores of this type, Tiomkin starts of with a series of crisp brass fanfares.  The score immediately launched into the Prelude, which introduces the score’s primary theme, “Fall of Love”, in Gothic fashion with a large organ, later joined by an orchestra which consisted of 130 musicians for this piece alone.

There’s heroic music, there’s mournful music, there’s intense action music, and more.  The mood of the score regularly changes with no warning, but the orchestra does a great job of making the changes clear.  All the music is superb, but the single best cue is perhaps “Pax Romana”, a similar glorious piece with its heroic fanfares and orchestral splendour.  The fantastic performances of the rapid action cues like “The Roman Forum”, “Triumph”, “Balomar’s Barbarian Attack” are testament to the orchestra’s wonderful abilities, with the terrific percussion elements of the former cue being a particular highlight.

The choir’s only significant role is quite late in the score, but the beautiful performance of “Fall of Love” in the cue “Addio” is worth waiting for.  “The Fall of Rome” concludes the score in stunning fashion with the main theme building up slowly until it’s played in its full glory by the organ and orchestra.  A concert suite version of the opening “Prelude” brings the album to an epic close.

An extensive track by track review is pointless here because the amount that could be said about the glorious quality of this score and recording would bore you out of your mind.  This is amongst the most complex and greatest of film scores, and make no mistake, Tadlow and Prometheus have done it yet again.  This is easily the best film music album released during 2011, and with their recording of Basil Poledouris’ Conan the Destroyer coming later this month, this will no doubt be yet another fantastic year for new recordings from them.  Though this certainly isn’t amongst the finest films that Tiomkin scored, it’s certainly amongst the finest scores that he wrote, and this brilliant release of it in its full glory is plenty reason for any film music fan to celebrate.

After writing War Horse in 1982, Michael Morpurgo had tried many times to get his acclaimed novel to the screen, but always unsuccessfully until 2007 when it was adapted for the stage. Two years later, legendary director Steven Spielberg bought the rights and decided to direct it for Dreamworks. Spielberg assembled all his usual collaborators for the film, including composer John Williams, who had been absent from film scoring for three years until his return earlier this year with his marvellous score for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (also helmed by Spielberg). Whilst very different scores, they both prove beyond any doubt that Williams is still top of his game even whilst approaching the age of 80. There are many ways to compare Tintin and War Horse, but, to put it simply, Tintin is for fans of more action oriented scores, whilst War Horse is for those who love the memorable thematic material for which Williams is so famous. Being a member of the latter group myself, this is my favourite of the two, but make no mistake, both scores are fantastic in their own way.

Williams’ last year of major production was 2005, during which he composed four scores, and in all of those but one (Revenge of the Sith), they were not dominated by memorable themes. Though as already mentioned, there are several memorable themes to be found in the score for War Horse, there isn’t really one that can be considered the “main” theme. There are four primary themes for the score of War Horse and the odd few secondary ideas. Much of the score is clearly influenced by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, but that said, there are also many comparisons that can be made to earlier scores by Williams, such as Born on the Fourth of July, Far and Away, Saving Private Ryan, and The Patriot. Two of the aforementioned four primary themes could be called the “main” theme, and both are introduced in the first track, “Dartmoor, 1912”, and both reoccur throughout the score.

After a brief introduction to the first of the themes, performed by a solo flute with string and light brass accompaniments, the score swells at 2:09 into a fully orchestral rendition of the second theme. Representing the English countryside, it’s a beautiful composition, somewhat reminiscent of certain moments from Williams’ 1992 score for Far and Away.

High points in particular are “Bringing Joey Home, and Bonding”, containing some wonderful comedic music on cellos starting out, and then moving into the more emotional material for strings and horns, similar in both melody and orchestration to moments from Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, “Learning the Call”, which after a lush rendition of the aforementioned second theme, Williams launches into a series of heroic brass fanfares towards the end of the cue, somewhat reminiscent of Hook in places. “Plowing”, is another, with it’s noble horn performances of another of the score’s themes being a definite highlight.

Though, as already mentioned, Tintin is the score dominated by action music, but War Horse has its fair share as well, with “The Charge and Capture” and “The Desertion”, and later “Pulling the Cannon” and “No Man’s Land”, making excellent use of heaving percussion and violent brass, with the latter cue being the primary highlight of the score’s action music. Following “The Reunion” and “Remembering Emilie, and Finale”, two beautiful, emotional fully orchestral pieces, the album concludes with the usual concert arrangement of the score’s main themes in “The Homecoming”.

In summary, this is easily one of the top five scores of 2011, and I think it can be said with utmost confidence that John Williams will become the single most nominated musician in the history of the Academy Awards in 2012 (he’s currently tied with Alfred Newman), since either War Horse or Tintin, or both will certainly be up for the award. Hopefully, his work will also be rewarded with a long overdue sixth Oscar win. Listening to the maestro’s two scores from this year really reminds you of his genius – especially when you compare them to the computer-generated film scores that so many blockbusters are cursed with these days. Buy without hesitation.

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Track Listing

1. Dartmoor, 1912 (3:35)

2. The Auction (3:34)

3. Bringing Joey Home, and Bonding (4:42)

4. Learning the Call (3:20)

5. Seeding, and Horse vs. Car (3:33)

6. Plowing (5:10)

7. Ruined Crop, and Going to War (3:29)

8. The Charge and Capture (3:21)

9. The Desertion (2:33)

10. Joey s New Friends (3:30)

11. Pulling the Cannon (4:11)

12. The Death of Topthorn (5:45)

13. No Man’s Land (4:35)

14. The Reunion (3:55)

15. Remembering Emilie, and Finale (5:07)

16. The Homecoming (8:06)

Total Time: 65:46

Credits

Music Composed, Conducted & Produced by John Williams

Orchestrations by Eddie Karam

Awards

Nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Oscar.

Insert Notes

The album’s liner notes contain credits and the usual note from Steven Spielberg.

All images and artwork are Copyright © Dreamworks & Sony Entertainment