One of six films scored by John Barry in 1980, Jerry Jameson’s $40 million production of Clive Cussler’s Raise the Titanic is remembered only for its music. Something of a holy grail for Barry aficionados, Raise the Titanic remained unreleased until Silva Screen commissioned Nic Raine to reconstruct the complete score. A prolific conductor of Barry’s music and the orchestrator of his Oscar-nominated score for Chaplin (1992) , Raine is uniquely qualified to premiere this material.
The results are impressive and illustrate the composer’s interest in exploring the mythic, immortal elements of the Titanic story rather than externalizing or analysing the narrative events. In the ‘Prelude’, Barry presents an extended main theme that evokes the ship’s glory, while a contrasting minor-mode theme introduced in the ‘Main Title’ functions as a balletic requiem to the fallen. The Cold War sub-plot is underlined with tense, secondary motifs, but the composer is more effective when delivering a nostalgic, burnished reverie for saxophone (‘Memories of the Titanic’). Other highlights include a circular wind motif that accompanies the ocean search, and a brief but lovely waltz illuminating the salvage operation (‘Gene Explores the Titanic’). The aura of expectation and inevitability generated by the score is completed when Barry triumphantly recapitulates his major themes at the film’s conclusion (‘The Titanic Enters New York Harbor’). All of this is accomplished with classical economy and the romantic aesthetic that one typically associates with the epic Barry sound. A recommended recording, then, performed with commitment and attention to detail.'