Music Composed by John Barry
Rating: *****

If you’re interested enough in film music to read a review on a site like this, chances are you’re familiar with a score by John Barry called Dances With Wolves. Chances are also pretty high that you own a copy of the score, and chances are even reasonably high that you’re pretty fond of it. It is, after all, one of the seminal film scores of its decade, one of the very few to break into the public consciousness and find popularity with audiences not necessarily particularly interested in film music. And it has made its label a lot of money. Sony’s original 1990 album was one of the few score albums to reach gold status and is now likely in the hands of just about everybody with any more than a passing interest in film music. Naturally then, the label has attempted to milk the score for all its worth in the following years. In the mid 90s a gold-pressing was released, ostensibly with better sound (though only true audiophiles would ever be able to tell the difference as the original album’s sound was crystal clear) and a handful of “bonus tracks” (read: redundant pop covers of the film’s main theme). Perplexingly, however, despite constant demands from the score’s fans, it has only now occurred to the label to wring more cash from the film by releasing the rest of Barry’s score.

John Barry

The original album after all, though a tight, thorough, and satisfying listen, only ran at some 53 odd minutes, carrying little more than half of the 100 minutes of music Barry wrote for the film. Fans have understandably been crying more for years, and while this new expanded edition still leaves a good 20 minutes of the complete score by the wayside, it does enough towards reinstating all of the remaining highlights to satisfy all but the biggest die-hard fanatic. So now we have a soundtrack album that runs for 75 plus minutes and the question to ask now is – is more necessarily a good thing? Well, yes and no.

Before going any further, let’s briefly discuss the score itself for the two of you who don’t already own a copy. It’s brilliant, one of the most significant entries in the film music cannon, and arguably Barry’s finest work. Breathlessly evoking both the beauty of the unmolested American landscape and its natives and the somber tragedy of its ultimate destruction, Barry’s score is the ultimate proof that music can carry bittersweet nostalgia and grim realism at the same time. The themes are among Barry’s , from the warm sentiment of the immortal “John Dunbar Theme”, to the optimistic wonder of the Journey sequences, to the tender lyricism of the Love theme, to the stoic tragedy of the destruction and loss themes. But despite the abundance of more prominent and popular melodies in this score, my personal favorite remains “The Wolf Theme” a beautiful testimony to how much impact and meaning the simplest melody can carry. Tender, gentle, and unbearably sad, with this simple piece of lyricism Barry captures the spirit of the entire film, single-handedly turning the wolf into a symbol for the loss of something beautiful.

While the original album was missing a handful of highlights, it really was brilliant in its construction. I’m not usually a big fan of sequencing tracks out of the film order, but here Barry had managed to make changes that made for better musical coherence without sacrificing any of the score’s narrative drive – though tracks were sequenced out of order, one could always clearly follow the story. It was tight, it was paced with breathless precision, and it made for a powerful listening experience. With that in mind, adding new music to the formula is a dangerous game – even when the new material is brilliant, it’s hard to reinstate it without disturbing the delicate perfect balance of the original album. For example, one of the biggest changes made has been the much-anticipated newly expanded version of the opening, “Main Title / Looks Like a Suicide” cue. Nearly doubled in length, the cue now contains a rousing waltz variation on the “Fort Hayes” theme. It’s a magical moment and it’s great to finally have it on the soundtrack, but at the same time, one can’t help but feel that in drawing the cue out for so long we loose a good deal of its ghostly tension and momentum that made it such a chilling opening to the original album. Essentially, this means that how much you enjoy Epic’s new expanded album then depends on how well you know and loved every note and progression of the original album.

But one might easily argue that this is only a matter of breaking in and getting used to the new material than it is a detriment in and of itself. And once you do break into the changes there are some wonderful new moments to be found. Most of the new additions come in barely-noticeable additions to pre-existing tracks, but the few isolated new cues reveal some great pieces to discover. “Falling in Love” cue, the score’s first introduction to the love theme, gentle and romantic but laced with a touch of menace. It adds a new dimension to the character, alluding to her traumatic past and making her more than a stock romantic interest. And of course, we are “finally” given the film version of “The Buffalo Hunt,” the Copland-esque action set-piece that Costner wanted for the film despite Barry’s reservations (his version, a galloping variation on the “John Dunbar Theme,” was used on the original album and is included at the end of this one). Though this is the first time the film recording has been released, this piece has been a staple of Silva’s Barry re-recordings for years, and to be honest, I’ve always preferred Barry’s option. The film version of the cue holds every Americana cliché that the rest of the score manages to avoid and seems to have been written for a faster tempo than the orchestra gives it here. The film version, however, does carry one significant saving grace, and that is the introduction. Opening with another mournful reprise of the “Killing Ground” theme, Barry gradually shifts the tone from somber despair to hope until seamlessly transitioning into the giddy swirling arpeggios of the hunt – I want that intro on Barry’s version! If you don’t already own a copy of Dances With Wolves, this score is an essential purchase and this expanded edition is certainly worth your money. But for the mast majority of listeners who already own a copy of the original 1990 album, there is nowhere near enough important new material in the extra 20 minutes to justify forking over the cash to buy this CD again, especially as it seems likely that Epic will release an even more expanded version again a few years down the line.

Music Composed, Conducted and Produced by John Barry; Orchestrated by Greig McRitchie and Mark McKenzie; Recorded and Mixed by Shawn Murphy; Album Produced by Didier C. Deutsch, Darcy M. Proper, Mark Wilder; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): Epic / Legacy, (EK 63555); Release Date: May 18, 2004

01. Main Title / Looks Like a Suicide (7′34)
02. Ride to Fort Hayes (2′02)
03. Journey to Fort Sedgewick / Shooting Star / John Dunbar Theme /
Arrival at Fort Sedgewick (4′55)
04. The John Dunbar Theme (2′18)
05. The Death of Timmons (2′25)
06. Two Socks / The Wolf Theme (1′31)
07. Stands with a Fist Remembers (2′11)
08. The Buffalo Robe (2′12)
09. Journey to the Buffalo Killing Ground (3′39)
10. Spotting the Herd (1′49)
11. The Buffalo Hunt (film version) (4′33)
12. Fire Dance (1′40)
13. Two Socks at Play (1′59)
14. Falling in Love (3′04)
15. Love Theme (3′46)
16. The John Dunbar Theme (2′06)
17. Pawnees / Pawnee Attack / Stone Calf Dies / Toughest Dies (6′15)
18. Victory (1′03)
19. The Death of Cisco (2′14)
20. Rescue of Dances with Wolves (2′09)
21. The Loss of the Journal / The Return to Winter Camp (2′09)
22. Farewell / End Title (8′46)
23. The Buffalo Hunt (Album version) (2′44)
24. The John Dunbar Theme (Film version) (2′22)

Total Playing Time: 75′46