Music Composed by Howard Shore
Rating: ****

Before Howard Shore became a film composer, he was the musical director for Saturday Night Live. As such, rather than being involved in the world of orchestral music, Shore was involved in the world of rock music; guitars were the string instrument of choice, not violins. Small scale and intimate, not epic, booming and large scale, as heard in The Lord of The Rings trilogy, was the name of the game. After the massive Rings scores, Shore has stuck to more intimate, low key music for his films for David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese; his latest score, The Departed, is the best, and most intimate, yet.

Instead of calling on an orchestra to provide the majority of the performance, Shore centers his score around guitar. Electric, acoustic, what have you, it’s always there. Omnipresent, in every cue. The orchestra is still there, but it’s almost always in the background, and it’s strings only. No brass fanfares to be found here.

Howard Shore

The album opens, in “Cops or Criminals”, with the score’s main theme, first heard on acoustic guitar, before building to add percussion and strings with the theme shifting between the electric and acoustic guitars. The theme is dynamic, driving, and engaging, and never once wears out its welcome, as Shore puts it through a variety of variations throughout the approximately fourty-minute run time.

The score’s other theme is introduced in “Beacon Hill”. Opposed to the main theme, it is a more fluid, almost gentle, but not quite, theme. But, much like the main theme, this theme is also given quite the workout by Shore. The theme is varied over and over in the score; no place is this more evident in the standout cue “Billy’s Theme”, a classic theme and variation cue where, over seven minutes, the theme never gets old.

The remainder of the score is a mixture of lighter, more tender moments (”Madolyn”), and tense, dark, dreadful moments (”Chinatown”, “The Last Rites”). Yet, even at its darkest, the score never loses the sense of drive and melody that Shore has infused his work with. The constant presence of the guitars always keeps the score moving forward; never does it get bogged down in its own weight or become dull. The music also benefits from the lively recording; everything sounds crisp and separated, the guitars never muddy or overbearing. The album wraps up with “The Departed Tango”, which recaps the score’s main theme in a dance-like way, such as implied by the title of the cue. It is a tango, after all.

In The Departed, Shore has brilliantly melded his old world, that of rock and roll, with his new world, that of classical orchestra, and the end result is remarkable. It lacks the sense of awe and grandeur one might come to expect if he’s only heard Shore’s Rings scores, but quite frankly, a score like that would be out of place here. Nevertheless, Shore’s music lacks none of the intelligence and dramatic impact of those Rings scores, but contains all of the intelligent melodic inspiration and orchestral uniqueness that befits all of Shore’s work. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Music Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted by Howard Shore; Recorded and Mixed by Lawrence Manchester; Produced by Howard Shore; Label: New Line Records (794043907821); Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: December 5, 2006

01. Cops Or Criminals (2:01)
02. 344 Wash (2:03)
03. Beacon Hill (2:36)
04. The Faithful Departed (3:02)
05. Colin (2:09)
06. Madolyn (2:14)
07. Billy’s Theme (6:58)
08. Command (3:16)
09. Chinatown (3:16)
10. Boston Common (2:53)
11. Miss Thing (1:45)
12. The Baby (2:48)
13. The Last Rites (3:05)
14. The Departed Tango (3:38)

Total Playing Time: 41:44