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Momentum RLP Records is pleased to announce the release of the original television score “One Christmas Eve" written by William Ross and Jerome Leroy.
Hallmark Hall of Fame’s One Christmas Eve is about a family brought closer together through some outrageous adversities, and the project fittingly brought two friends back together—albeit in a much less hazardous way. William Ross first collaborated with director Jay Russell in 2000 on the family film My Dog Skip. “We were looking for a composer who might understand the emotion and poetry of the little movie we were trying to make,” says Russell. “And Bill just absolutely nailed it. From that moment forward, I knew I would always work with Bill.” They’ve since paired on the youth romance Tuck Everlasting and the firefighter drama Ladder 49. “We’ve hit a point and a stride now where Bill almost anticipates what I’m going to ask him,” says Russell. “So our relationship is a rather quiet one, because I don’t have to say a whole lot—I know he’s reading my mind in advance.”
For One Christmas Eve, which stars Anne Heche as a newly divorced mom whose first Christmas alone with her kids is nearly destroyed by a parade of catastrophes, Ross constructed a glistening gingerbread house of a score, built around the warm hearth of a lyrical main theme. “I referred to it as the ‘family’ theme,” the composer says. “It anchors us in the warmth. You have these little catastrophes—you fall into the trench, and then you get pulled out and you find a nice warm chair to sit together in. It’s one aspect of the dynamic that makes the film work, so for that moment of family closeness and respite from the struggle of what they’re going through, having a theme like that worked nicely. Jay liked the thematic approach, so we were on the same page from the very beginning.”
The film is a comedy, so the score is flourished with lots of sprightly writing for solo woodwinds and pizzicato strings. “Comedy is, without question, the hardest kind of score to write,” he admits. “I love the challenge of finding a piece of music that works over a funny scene, but could work equally well for something else.”
Scheduling factors had Ross call upon Jerome Leroy, his partner at Momentum RLP, to write music for some of the scenes. “It really was a huge honor to be involved,” says Leroy. “It’s this classic, Christmas mayhem type of movie, and Bill understands that style so well. It was exciting being able to do some variation on the family theme and apply that to the scenes I was in charge of.” “I tried to make sure the score would have its own identity,” adds Ross, “so we developed various motifs for each character as we were scoring it, which we would both use when appropriate. The idea was to create a musical thread that would always revolve around the story itself.”
The score for One Christmas Eve exudes holiday cheer as it bounces on a wild sleigh ride from one wacky exploit to another, always arriving back home to the family at the film’s heart. “It’s great to be able to contrast the comedy with something warm,” says Ross. “I always try to get some kind of emotional landscape going.” Jay Russell was thrilled with the final result, and considers it another fine addition to their growing collaborative output. Ross recalls, “Jay said, ‘Bill, this is a Christmas movie, and we want there to be no mistake. We put the snow up there, we put the Christmas trees up there, and we want the music to help us right along. We need sleigh bells, we need chimes, and we need celeste! We need it to sparkle.’” “We talked about films where you can shut your eyes and know the time and place and what the film is about, just by hearing the first few bars of a piece,” adds Russell. “And Bill nailed that, because in the opening of our film, within three bars, you know exactly where you’re headed.”
William Ross is a prolific award-winning composer and arranger whose work has spanned feature films, the recording industry and television. He has composed music for such films as The Tale of Despereaux, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Touchback, Ladder 49, Tuck Everlasting, and My Dog Skip. He also adapted and conducted the score to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Jerome Leroy has written original music for the independent feature films A Better Place, After Ever After, IKLLR, The Mistover Tale, and wrote additional music on New Line Cinema’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Touchback, and 50 to 1. His work in the film industry also includes stints as music programmer, arranger, orchestrator, and score producer.
One Christmas Eve was released on iTunes, Amazon and FastSpring (high-definition) on November 28, 2014.
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/album/id945741483
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Christmas-Original-Television-Soundtrack/dp/B00R788VZ4/
FastSpring: http://sites.fastspring.com/momentumrlp/product/onechristmaseve
One Christmas Eve — Original Television Soundtrack
Music Composed by WILLIAM ROSS and JEROME LEROY
Release date: November 28, 2014
http://www.momentumrlprecords.com/one-christmas-eve/
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I'd recommend at least checking out the samples for this. It's got tunes, range, variety, and some fun jazzy takes on Christmas carols.
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