About the Soundtrack: "The Golden Compass" is composed by Alexandre Desplat, who concludes a busy 2007 campaign with his score for this fantasy based tale. The soundtrack was released digitally on iTunes in December with a full commercial release slated for January, 2008. While the album has a great running time, the audio quality is not the best as far as the audio levels are concerned. I had a bit of difficulty hearing some of the quieter moments of the score. As far as non-score cues, the album concludes with a song track (which was only available on iTunes if you bought the entire soundtrack) but the rest is all orchestral score material.
What You Need to Know: If the term serviceable was ever meant to be used, as far as a score's effectiveness within a movie is concerned, then this would be the time to employ it. In what is not an altogether poor effort, "The Golden Compass" offers music that is simply suitable; nothing grand or involving. There are even those in the industry who think Desplat missed a golden (no pun intended) opportunity with his work for the film. Fantasy based films usually offer composers the best opportunity to stretch their legs to write exciting fare that many films don't normally permit. While I won't go as far to say that Desplat dropped the ball, I don't necessarily think he opened things up as much as he could have, either.
The main theme for a fantasy epic is what usually defines the scope of the score and really sets up the entire approach. "The Golden Compass" offers its main theme in a more subtle manner and is a bit dark around the edges. While of course, there should be a grim touch associated to the theme, I also think Desplat could have provided a catchier, more up beat melody to set the pace.
On the other hand, the underscore is rich with ethereal subtleties. The finer moments of the soundtrack are heard when Desplat keys in the underscore to accompany the magical offerings on the screen. In particular, during a scene in which a pack of witches are soaring above in the night sky, Desplat uses a creepy, wind-like swirl to represent them. On the soundtrack, this moment might be passed by but during the movie, it's unnoticeably cool!
The one area I had not heard enough from Desplat in is the action music arena. I've really only noticed contemporary classical sensibilities in his work. In 'Compass,' he's obliged to strike the orchestra into an aggressive manner and delivers some entertaining action oriented excerpts in the process. The string sections really spark to life in these moments and he produces an original take on the sound of traditional action music with his varying levels of instrumentation. Personally, I would like to hear more of this from the composer in this vein because the talent for such is there.
Final Grade: On the one hand, it's very nice to hear a composer enter a genre that he or she isn't noted for. Of course, it would be even better if such an opportunity was fully taken advantage of. In this case, we land somewhere in the middle with a score that offers some sparkling moments of engagement but lacks an overall quality to take it to the next level.
