{"id":6612,"date":"2013-05-14T13:30:13","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T17:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6612"},"modified":"2013-05-14T13:30:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T17:30:13","slug":"mp3-s-o-s-titanic-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6612","title":{"rendered":"MP3: S.O.S. Titanic (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Label:\u00a0Silva Screen<\/a> \/ Released: March 18, 2013<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 29 tracks \/ (56:58)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: n\/a<\/p>\n

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Composer: Howard Blake<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Most of Howard Blake\u2019s s film scores \u2013 The Duelists<\/strong> (1977), Amityville 3-D<\/strong> (1983) – are complete works, but S.O.S. Titanic<\/strong> is comprised of main theme and mostly dramatic bridge material, largely because the film was originally a TV production designed with ad breaks, and featured a huge amount of source cues.<\/p>\n

Silva Screen\u2019s CD contains the complete score, and the CD begins with the grim title theme (literally based on the three-pulse Morse Code signal for help), after which the programme switches to a series of period marches, waltzes, fiddle jigs, and rag tunes before Blake slowly introduces his score. The upside for Titanic fans is the CD features a vivid musical recreation of the music likely played on board, performed by a small orchestra, and meticulously orchestrated to reflect the style of the teens, but it\u2019s also a lengthy chunk of source material before Blake\u2019s original theme finally takes over the soundtrack, and when it does assume control, extreme variations are fairly minimal.<\/p>\n

Part of a disaster film\u2019s formula is to let characters experience the arc from innocence and glee to fear, paranoia, and sudden tragedy, and Blake\u2019s original cues certainly establish the direness of the Titanic\u2019s sinking with eddying triplets, dissonant strings, and leadened beats with blaring brass (as in the chillingly monochromatic \u201cThe Hit\u201d). His innovative use of the s.o.s. pulse may be the score\u2019s propellant, but it\u2019s the density of instruments which give the music its power, especially the cold colours which repeatedly drown any melodic fragments. Perhaps taking a tip from Holt\u2019s The Planets, Blake\u2019s s.o.s. motor never lets up, and the rare melodic segments never stray from tragic imagery, especially \u201cBeesley\u2019s Jump,\u201d which is based on the Dies Irae<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The score\u2019s mood and thematic repetition is wholly dire, but the music is beautifully performed, and Silva\u2019s bonus cue \u2013 \u201cBethena\u201d \u2013 gives listeners some closure, as the solo lounge piano evokes memories better times, if not the famously brief, flickering images<\/a> of Titanic\u2019s maiden voyage when her future seemed so assured.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

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

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Select Merchants:<\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" —\u00a0BSX<\/a> —\u00a0Intrada<\/a> —\u00a0SAE<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ S . Rating: Very Good Label:\u00a0Silva Screen \/ Released: March 18, 2013 Tracks & Album Length: 29 tracks \/ (56:58) . Special Notes: n\/a . Composer: Howard Blake . . Review: Most of Howard Blake\u2019s s film scores \u2013 The Duelists (1977), Amityville 3-D (1983) – are complete works, but […]<\/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":[1210,2041],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1IE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612"}],"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=6612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6615,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions\/6615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}