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This was indeed the most eagerly awaited score since JW's 1999 Phantom Menace, and we finally got our hands on it ! Without further ado, here's an analysis of what may be remembered as the last great scores of John Williams's career.
One could choose not to comment on the numerous retreads of the Taiders March riddling the KOCS score. However, the amount of unexpected variations around this famous theme give us a feel of John Williams' mindset on this fourth score. The orchestration is tinged with undisputable nostalgia and proves to be tamer than on Temple of Doom: the stress on flutes & woodwind sections mellows the heroic bursts of the melody, without depriving it of its universal scope. The End Titles are even more surprising : this true symphonic prowess streches over 10 minutes, introduces a brand-new coda, the maestro seemingly decided to 'jostle' his legendary work whenever the occasion arises.
Marion Ravenwood's leitmotiv follows in the same logic, starting on a well-known base and wandering into new territories. John Williams thus develops, to the last incidental, a melody he'd added to the Raiders score at the last minute, and the new bars (mostly found in the finale) could well take fans aback. Whereas one could have expected the composer to effortlessly sail the musical seas of his own legacy, KOCS becomes the stage of a true artistic soul-searching, which grows, in no small part, through the 3 new themes.
True to the Raiders tradition, the KOCS score is based on a showdown between the protagonists' themes. The main leitmotiv (for the mysterious power-laden Crystal Skull) becomes at once an arena and a common goal. On one side, Williams depicts the 'good guys', namely Indy (whose daring feats play to the strains of the Raiders March, which the composer twists & turns across all possible tonalities, at times even only retaining its so-familiar pounding rhythm) and his sidekick Mutt (Shia la Beouf). On the other, Williams musically paints the main new villain, Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). If the overall structure remains the same, the writing proves defiantly radical, bridging all of the composer's musical vocabulary (jazz à la Charles Ives, Mozart & Wagner's operas, tortured Bartokian orchestrations) and some of his latest experiments (musique concrète from War of the Worlds, exclusive rhythmic use of brass in the latest Star Wars movies): The result being a score of exceptional textural wealth but also (and primarily) in complete contradiction to the current film scoring trends.
No composer today would use the musical palette characteristic to this new opus. And the reason is simple : such a work cries for a composer that has a musical culture, training level & creative genius mostly absent in the new generation, which is more comfortable in 'advertisement' lyrism à la Hans Zimmer. Derived from Mozart, the D Major 'motif' for Mutt (in The Adventures of Mutt) unrolls a succession of descending rapid-fire scales that, in addition of being daunting for the orchestra's virtuosity, provides a backup to Indy's Theme against the sonic onslaught of Irina Spalko. Irina also gets new singular musical colors, proving that John Williams is the last great theme composer alive. Tinged with melancholy, but also noble and threatening, evoking an ambitious & tragic Russia, Spalko's leitmotiv is a showcase of complex musical writing, from unnerving (but thoughful) chromatisms to unexpected (but to-the-point) cadenzas. A complexity the composer hides behinds steady rhythms and canon-like accompaniments, thus helping melody to 'sink in' in the listener's unconscious. The juxtaposition of the three themes that compete in the album's first half breeds awesome musical setpieces that will no doubt leave their imprint on the saga (most notably, the Jungle Chase).
This leaves us with the final 'Crystal Skull' leitmotiv, which may desorient many, or attract brimstone from the fans of ' great envelopping melodies'. Based on an barely modified inverted version of the Ark Theme which reappears in track 6 (for musicians the Skull theme is a B half note, F natural quarter note, and B quarter note up one scale whereas the Ark theme was F sharp half note, F natural quarter note and B quarter note below), the Skull theme proves to be the most unnerving leitmotiv of the whole saga, and drowns the whole story in a feeling of raw nightmare. The album's whole second half veers to an 'ebony' blackness territory, stressed by musical cues edging on the atonal (Grave Robbers and its tribal rhythms, Secret Doors and Scorpions and its shrill piccolos, Ants ! and its brawl between the orchestra and the percussions) Wildy exotic (The Journey to Akator even allows for a peruvian interlude) and riddled with epic trademark Williams outbursts, KOCS can teach meny lessons to the new upcoming generation of movie composers, whether dealing with romance, blockbusters or horror movies. Let's just hope they can learn from it.
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