No contemporary composer has done more to blur the barriers between absolute and film music than John Williams. With Jean-Jacques Arnaud’s handsomely produced Seven Years in Tibet, the composer nearly destroys the distinction. The film stars Brad Pitt as Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who fled to Tibet after being incarcerated in a prison camp during the Second World War, befriended the 11-year-old Dalai Lama and taught Western customs while receiving reciprocal instruction in Buddhism. Williams has adopted a classical-orientated approach for his score, assisted by the presence of fellow Sony recording artist Yo-Yo Ma (for whom Williams has composed a cello concerto). Obviously inspired by Arnaud’s visual storytelling style, the composer decided to be less narrative-specific than is customary in his scoring. This helps focus attention on Ma, whose spare, serious dialogues with the orchestra grace ten of the 14 tracks.
The principal thematic material is presented in the opening seven-minute suite. A composition destined to belong in the concert-hall repertoire, the structure of this piece is remarkable. The orchestra breaks into a sweeping introduction of the main theme, the tone reminding us that the film is at least partly informed by the epic spirit. Ma enters at 0'49'', performing the lyrical, minor-key main theme before presenting two secondary themes. After a brief return to the first theme, the orchestra and cellist introduce a major new theme at 3'42'' (associated with Tibet and the Dalai Lama). A short hymn for brass and strings segues to a first theme conversation between piano and cello, before Ma offers several concluding remarks in a restrained cadenza.
One of Williams’s achievements in this score is his facility for employing modernisms while remaining melodic (the stark “Premonitions” is a notable exception). The brass section has been neglected for a change, but lovers of strings will not complain. Another atypical but welcome characteristic is an increased use of ethnic music (even including vocal quotations from the Gyuto Monks on two tracks). All told, Seven Years in Tibet is an excellent work and one which is likely to appear on the shortlist for this year’s Oscars. KM