{"id":2128,"date":"2011-01-11T14:10:05","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T19:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2011-01-11T14:17:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T19:17:37","slug":"mp3-maos-last-dancer-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2128","title":{"rendered":"MP3: Mao’s Last Dancer (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>M<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Lakeshore Records \/ Released:\u00a0September 28, 2010<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length:\u00a023 tracks \/ (64:59)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: Available as a downloadable MP3 album.<\/p>\n

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Composer: Christopher Gordon<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Lakeshore’s album seems to contain the bulk of Christopher Gordon\u2019s score, which fluidly moves through original, period, folk, and classical material within a fairly large orchestral palette.<\/p>\n

The story of Li Cunxin \u2013 a Chinese dancer who created an international incident when he wanted to stay in the U.S. after his exchange ended \u2013 is compelling, and certainly in the film\u2019s first half Gordon had plenty of material to create a musical setup that evoked Cunxin\u2019s village roots, his confusion in a dance academy after being taken from his family, and becoming aware of the government\u2019s powerful hold on citizens from every level of society in Communist China.<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s original score is generally based around two main themes: the first is heroic and vibrant, played on traditional Asian string and percussion instruments, as well as sweeping orchestral movements; the second is quiet, contemplative, and predominantly played on piano, underscoring Cuxin\u2019s sense of yearning for his family as boy, his love for American dancer Elizabeth Mackey, and moments where he weighs and wrestles with the decision to remain in the U.S., revoking his Chinese citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cDance of Longing\u201d is a variation of Cuxin\u2019s yearning theme, loving arranged for solo violin, yet given a passionate undercurrent with rich low strings. Gordon\u2019s score is a perfect balance between European Romanticism and evocations of Asia without veering into clich\u00e9d Chinoiseries<\/a><\/em>. Perhaps his approach works because interwoven with the classical excerpts \u2013 Minkus\u2019 Pas De Deux from Don Quixote, Tchaikovsky\u2019s Swan Lake, Mozart\u2019s Sonata in D K576 \u2013 the themes and extracts form a musical collage of Cunxin\u2019s life, which is necessary because the film flips between Cunxin in China and Houston (where most of the story takes place).<\/p>\n

As with his prior work (Daybreakers<\/strong>), Gordon\u2019s a master at balancing intimate moods and beautiful grand moments, but Mao\u2019s Last Dancer<\/strong> isn\u2019t a heavy score. The thematic material \u2013 classical or original \u2013 is compelling because of a reliance on melody and harmony. Larger cues such as the concluding \u201cVillage Dance and Finale\u201d do reflect the predictable melodrama that director Bruce Beresford didn\u2019t seem to care enough to avoid, but one still gleans a sense of Cunxin\u2019s conflicts with career, love, culture and nation.<\/p>\n

The soundtrack is perfectly engineered, with a full resonance from all levels of Gordon\u2019s substantial orchestra. The music is available on CD from Sony in Australia, and a resonant digital album from Lakershore in the U.S.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related links:<\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Mao’s Last Dancer<\/a><\/strong> (2009)<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buy from:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0Mao’s Last Dancer<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0M<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ M . Rating: Very Good Label: Lakeshore Records \/ Released:\u00a0September 28, 2010 Tracks & Album Length:\u00a023 tracks \/ (64:59) . Special Notes: Available as a downloadable MP3 album. . Composer: Christopher Gordon . . Review: Lakeshore’s album seems to contain the bulk of Christopher Gordon\u2019s score, which fluidly moves through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[32],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-yk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/2139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}