The Mask of Zorro (James Horner)

(1998)

Zorro had been absent from the screen for many decades in 1998. Much the same could be said for the swashbuckler genre. Both were revived with surprisingly good results by director Martin Campbell in The Mask of Zorro. Released to both financial and critical success, the film spawned a sequel seven years later with The Legend of Zorro.

Composer James Horner was of course well introduced to mainstream audience in 1998. Earlier in the year, he had won two Oscars for his work on Titanic, a score that remains to this day the best selling of all time. Horner’s score for this film is one of the best I’ve ever heard from him, and easily ranks amongst the best of its year.

There are several obvious works that Horner was influenced by with The Mask of Zorro. It is easily comparable to Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s swashbuckler scores, as well as those of Alfred Newman (who, of course, scored The Mark of Zorro in 1940, and indeed, Horner’s main Zorro theme is ripped directly from a combination of Newman’s own Zorro score and Captain from Castile), Dimitri Tiomkin’s The Alamo, and Miklos Rozsa’s El Cid. Regardless of that however, the score contains enough of Horner’s style to make it a very enjoyable seventy minutes of music.

The score contains most of Horner’s usual trademarks, the two major ones being the sakuhachi flute and that damned four note danger motif (actually from Rachmaninov’s 1’s Symphony). I’ll get this out of the way first, because it’s the only real problem I have with the instrumentation. The sakuhachi is used to brilliant effect several times in the score, but it’s in “The Plaza of Execution” and “Elena and Esperanza”, the first two cues, where it’s a real problem, where moments that would be glorious orchestral swells are spoiled by the loud sakuhachi blasts. It’s a minor issue, but a rather annoying one at that.

That aside, this is as enjoyable a score by Horner as I’ve ever come across. It sees the composer making a return to the style that made him such a success with his early scores for such films as Star Trek and Willow. The four note “danger” motif from Rachmaninov’s 1st is of course featured, but given that the end result is such an entertaining listening experience, the few negative points of the score can be easily overlooked.

The number of highlights this score offers are indeed many. The opening two cues, both over eight minutes long, introduce the main themes – the one for Zorro and the score’s love theme, both of which are put through many exciting variations throughout the score. “The Ride”, is a superb accompaniment to the chase sequence and arguably the best cue on the album, and was the music used in the trailers for the film. Horner uses the sakuhachi prominently in this cue, and it works wonderfully. Why can’t he restrict his use of the damn instrument to when it’s appropriate?

The danger motif is featured in two cues, most notably in “Elena’s Truth”, where it crops up randomly several times in what is otherwise a dark, ominous piece for strings. “The Fencing Lesson” is a particularly enjoyable cue where the sound effects in the film synchronize brilliantly with the music as the younger Zorro learns from the older one. The learning of the lesson is represented by a triumphant fanfare.

Both the cues “Tornado in the Barracks” and “Stealing the Map” contain some pulsing action music, as well as enjoyable variations of the main Zorro theme. “The Confession” is a gentle, tender piece which starts out as a solo flute performance, which are then joined by strings in a beautiful rendition of the piece. “Zorro’s Theme” features a fully fledged string performance of the primary theme.

The 13 minute long “Leave No Witnesses…” is another candidate for the album’s best cue, with some rousing action music as the two Zorro’s battle their arch enemies. The older Zorro wins the battle but is mortally wounded, and his passing is accompanied by the final orchestral cue “Diego’s Goodbye”, a gentle piece for string and woodwinds. Finally, is the song “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You”, which sounds wonderful but is sadly somewhat spoilt by the offensively awful lyrics by Will Jennings.

Despite a few minor upsets, this is wonderful score and definitely a highlight of Horner’s career. It easily ranks amongst the best of film music of 1998, and comes highly recommended.

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Track Listing

1. The Plaza of Execution (8:28)

2. Elena and Esperanza (8:20)

3. The Ride (3:25)

4. Elena’s Truth (4:11)

5. The Fencing Lesson (5:29)

6. Tornado in the Barracks (5:12)

7. The Confession (3:43)

8. Zorro’s Theme (3:01)

9. The Mine (Montero’s Vision) (3:00)

10. Stealing the Map (6:30)

11. “Leave No Witnesses…” (13:21)

12. Diego’s Goodbye (5:31)

13. “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You”

Credits

Music Composed, Conducted and Produced by James Horner

Orchestrated by James Horner and Thomas Pasatieri

Lyrics by Will Jennings

Awards

None

Insert Notes

None – the album was purchased as an MP3 Download

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