Creation (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Album Review

Screen composer Christopher Young has a reputation for writing film scores that are better than the films in which they appear, particularly when he works in the horror genre. His work on director Jon Amiel's Creation, given the subtitle "The True Story of Charles Darwin," as heard on this soundtrack album, answers the question of what he can do when he is given a more prestigious project to work on. He has also been given a budget and used it to employ an 80-piece orchestra. He uses these resources to create a score that ties into the time period of the film. In particular, he is interested in evoking the styles of Late Romantic and Post-Romantic concert music, especially as purveyed by French composers who were near contemporaries of Darwin (1809-1882), especially Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) and Debussy (1862-1918). Allowed relatively long cues on this album, he develops his ideas in contemplative passages with prominent single-note piano motifs complemented by sweeping string sections. This is music meant to echo the ruminations of the 19th century genius who presented theories still reverberating in the 21st century, even as the music it echoes provided the bridge from the Romantic to the Modern eras.