This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Deep Impact (1998) by James Horner.
James Horner’s score for the 1998 film Deep Impact is one of those scores that I think is very competent and effective but I don’t necessarily connect with. There are a handful of Horner scores like that for me, most I really enjoy and can listen to often, but there are a certain group that respectfully sit to the side. Deep Impact, for me, is all about the track “Our Best Hope…” which is one of the most perfect things I think Horner has ever written and towers over the rest of the score with infinite superiority. The rest of the score sort of plods along and hits all the standard emotional and action beats but that’s about it.
Regardless, I do enjoy the film. I thought I would check it out and see how much music was missing. As I’ve said before, I don’t usually do CSBs on Horner scores that are close to 75 minutes because I assume there can’t be that much more missing music, unless the film is of substantial length. However, I have learned in doing these Breakdowns that often CD tracks are edited in the film, leaving room for plenty of unreleased material, and there can easily be alternate film versions, so you never know and it’s worth taking a look.
In the case of Deep Impact, whose CD release contains 77min 15sec, the film reveals there to be 11 and ½ minutes of unreleased music. Interestingly, virtually all of the new music is found in the first forty minutes of the film. The missing music includes 40 seconds of opening logo music tacked onto “A Distant Discovery”, 8 and ½ minutes of unreleased cues, and an alternate film version of the CD track “Sad News” -- the film version being a bit more desperate and bleak in the middle section compared to the CD track's more uplifting statement of the main theme.
The highlight of the small amount of unreleased music is the cue “E.L.E.” where Tea Leoni’s character meets with Morgan Freeman’s POTUS and chilly, sparse, eerie strings underscore her realization that her news investigation goes much deeper than she thought and the music builds slowly in intensity as she researches online the meaning of E.L.E. As she finds out the awful truth, the cue comes to a devastating and powerful orchestral close.
CURRENT CD RELEASE RUNTIME: 77min 15sec COMPLETE SCORE RUNTIME (AS HEARD IN FILM): 78min 30sec ALL KNOWN ORIGINAL MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THE FILM (INCLUDING UNEDITED CD TRACKS, UNUSED TRACKS, AND/OR ALTERNATE FILM VERSIONS, WITH NO IDENTICAL DUPLICATION REGARDING FILM TRACKS & CD TRACKS): 87min 15sec
UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME: 11min 25sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
+ – previously unreleased (or includes previously unreleased material)
1. A Distant Discovery Pt. 1 – Biederman (2:36) + – (extended opening 0:40 logo music not on CD) 2. A Distant Discovery Pt. 2 – Wolf (2:08) 3. Rittenhouse Resignation (0:50) + 4. Appeal to Conscience (0:52) + 5. Seizing Jenny (0:53) + 6. E.L.E. (3:30) + 7. World News (1:40) + 8. News Frenzy (0:50) + 9. Crucial Rendezvous (1:24) – (edited from CD track) 10. Our Best Hope… (13:43) 11. The Comet’s Sunrise (3:45) – (edited from CD track) 12. A National Lottery (8:20) 13. The Wedding (3:04) – (edited from CD track) 14. The Long Return Home (4:30) 15. Sad News (3:00) + – (alternate film version) 16. Leo’s Decision (3:02) 17. The President’s Speech (3:51) – (edited from CD track) 18. Drawing Straws (10:00) – (edited from CD track) 19. Goodbye and Godspeed (11:30)
Current CD Release Track Titles and Track Times:
1. A Distant Discovery (3:57) 2. Crucial Rendezous (3:59) 3. Our Best Hope… (13:25) 4. The Comet’s Sunrise (5:06) 5. A National Lottery (8:26) 6. The Wedding (4:01) 7. The Long Return Home (4:44) 8. Sad News (3:47) – (CD version) 9. Leo’s Decision (3:08) 10. The President’s Speech (4:30) 11. Drawing Straws (10:41) 12. Goodbye and Godspeed (11:34)
In addition to being incomplete, let me add that the existing CD (Sony Classical, SK 60690) seems to have been mastered too soft. You really have to turn up the volume to get some "impact," if you will. And then the loud parts are too loud. I don't think this CD would pass the car test that producers are said to put new albums through before signing off on a master disc.
My favorite cue by far is "The Wedding," and if anyone agrees, they should get the City of Prague Philharmonic re-recording. Their version of the cue runs 4:21, is mastered better, and the performance is superb.
My favorite cut by far is "The Wedding," and if anyone agrees, they should get the City of Prague Philharmonic re-recording. Their version of the cue runs 4:21, is mastered better, and the performance is superb.
Interesting. I will have to check out this re-recording of "The Wedding". Where might one find this version? Sounds enticing...
Thanks, DeputyRiley, for doing this post and your others featuring Horner scores. Some solid reading.
In addition to being incomplete, let me add that the existing CD (Sony Classical, SK 60690) seems to have been mastered too soft. You really have to turn up the volume to get some "impact," if you will. And then the loud parts are too loud. I don't think this CD would pass the car test that producers are said to put new albums through before signing off on a master disc.
I know exactly what you mean here with these observations. This disc's mastering doesn't fit the typical film score disc aesthetic, nor the increasing-exponentially trend in the years since 1998 (in many music genres, i.e. mainstream rock/pop) regarding compression equalizing out the highs and lows of the dynamic range. (You mention "The Wedding" - one of my favorite cues too, but when I used to put it on my own "mixtape" compilations for home or vehicle listening, I would boost it a good 8 to 12 dB.) Two observations, though:
1) That's a personal taste/aesthetic/viewpoint thing, and I view this disc as more resembling a broad-dynamically ranged classical CD - where the quietest passages might hardly be audible and the loudest risk clipping and that's viewed as superb. Some classical music buffs and/or critics feel that unless you're continually turning up the volume ("riding" that volume) to hear, say, a delicate flute solo passage and turning it down to hear a fortissimo orchestral passage, you're not really capturing a realistic classical performance on a recording.
2) This was, I believe, the first score recorded and mixed by Simon Rhodes where Horner's long collaboration with recordist/mixer Shawn Murphy had just ended. The audible differences on "Deep Impact" were heard and noted by many at the time - not only the mastering and disc aesthetic but the recording style, mic placement, etc. I think it would take a few more scores before Horner and Murphy really settled into their groove together - as it would with any collaboration.
1) That's a personal taste/aesthetic/viewpoint thing, and I view this disc as more resembling a broad-dynamically ranged classical CD - where the quietest passages might hardly be audible and the loudest risk clipping and that's viewed as superb. Some classical music buffs and/or critics feel that unless you're continually turning up the volume ("riding" that volume) to hear, say, a delicate flute solo passage and turning it down to hear a fortissimo orchestral passage, you're not really capturing a realistic classical performance on a recording.
Those people are stupid. I want to hear every note, without injuring my ears, when I'm out walking with my iPod. The classical CD mastering you describe, with such an enormous difference between soft and loud (dynamic range), would be intolerable to me.
2) This was, I believe, the first score recorded and mixed by Simon Rhodes where Horner's long collaboration with recordist/mixer Shawn Murphy had just ended. The audible differences on "Deep Impact" were heard and noted by many at the time - not only the mastering and disc aesthetic but the recording style, mic placement, etc. I think it would take a few more scores before Horner and Murphy really settled into their groove together - as it would with any collaboration.
Maybe that explains why Varese Sarabande's re-recording of "Rose's Theme - Solo Piano Version" (TITANIC: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION) sounds SO much better than Horner's own BACK TO TITANIC album (recorded by Simon Rhodes). As with "The Wedding," the re-recording of "Rose" has clearer, brighter sound and incidentally a superior musical performance.
The Varese album's engineer was Vincent Cirilli, whose name I just saw in the end credits of JURASSIC WORLD at the show.
Those people are stupid. I want to hear every note, without injuring my ears, when I'm out walking with my iPod. The classical CD mastering you describe, with such an enormous difference between soft and loud (dynamic range), would be intolerable to me.
And that's valid (the walking-with-iPod) as, obviously, a listening scenario that is common and the aesthetic preferences for the recording to match that scenario. It's difficult to engineer a recording for every listening circumstance and scenario - some recordings might hold high as their goal the "audiophile" ideal of sitting in a chair in the center of a quiet living room - no other distractions, easy ability to raise/lower volume or "lean in" (literally or just figuratively with "perking up" one's ears) to concentrate on quiet passages, etc. But how realistic that is in anyone's life and listening scenarios can vary tremendously. I've heard of some people going to the extreme (with classical recordings of extreme - no pun intended - dynamic range) normalizing their own WAV files from the CD to prepare special versions for iPod/car listening.
All we can do with recorded audio is try to approximate a live listening experience. A well-designed concert hall can carry that quiet flute solo right to the back of the hall without anyone having particular trouble hearing it; nor are the loudest orchestral passages so loud they have people reaching to cover their ears. More problematic to replicate in a conventional stereo format that squeezes all that down into two channels and relies on mic placement to convey the recording rather than how that given ensemble sounds live.
Maybe that explains why Varese Sarabande's re-recording of "Rose's Theme - Solo Piano Version" (TITANIC: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION) sounds SO much better than Horner's own BACK TO TITANIC album (recorded by Simon Rhodes).
If you look at Simon Rhodes' credits ( http://www.allmusic.com/artist/simon-rhodes-mn0000045145/credits ) up to the time of Deep Impact (1998), he did some film score work (for Trevor Jones for instance) and musicals recording, but the bulk of his experience was quite a large body of classical recordings (Mahler, Mendelssohn, Nielsen, Shostakovich, etc.). To me that makes total sense as to why "Deep Impact" sounds the way it does with him coming from that background. Over their (Horner/Rhodes) next few albums together this approach would gradually be adjusted into methods more common to film score recordings both in-film and on soundtrack disc.
Thank you, Deputy. That was a nice breakdown. I do have some comments about it. The missing 40 seconds from the opening cue seems to be tracked from The Long Return Home. There seems to be more alternates, according to Tim Burden. I really hope La La Land (since they had two future Horner releases) or Intrada can release an expanded version of this one. It's that kind of score which it's good enough to release 78 minutes of it, and makes you want to get what's missing. Also, I always found strange how low the volume is on the CD, but in the movie sounds pretty loud.
The film version of "Our Best Hope..." (which is indeed the best cue in the score) is slightly different compared to the album:
Using the album track for timecode purposes, at 7:06 into the cue when most of the orchestra drops out and you hear the trademark snare pattern over some tense rhythmic strings, the film version of this section uses a solo snare drum and some low brass underneath, adding some suspense to the music.
1) That's a personal taste/aesthetic/viewpoint thing, and I view this disc as more resembling a broad-dynamically ranged classical CD - where the quietest passages might hardly be audible and the loudest risk clipping and that's viewed as superb. Some classical music buffs and/or critics feel that unless you're continually turning up the volume ("riding" that volume) to hear, say, a delicate flute solo passage and turning it down to hear a fortissimo orchestral passage, you're not really capturing a realistic classical performance on a recording.
Starting with WILLOW, this was common with many Horner scores for many years, at least the ones with strongly symphonic leanings, and it annoys me to no end.
I wish all his scores sounded as lush, grand and in-your-face as KRULL. Now THAT one is a sonic delight!
My favorite cue by far is "The Wedding," and if anyone agrees, they should get the City of Prague Philharmonic re-recording. Their version of the cue runs 4:21, is mastered better, and the performance is superb.
ZapBrannigan...
Just got this re-recording and wowzers it sound infinitely better...now it's crystalline clear that Deep Impact needs a deep remaster, holy hell! What a difference.
The only thing I miss in the re-recording of that cue is it doesn't duplicate the choral part from 0:52-1:08 of the original CD track. At least I think it's choral, the sound quality is so shoddy on the original CD it's hard to make out, but I could understand why the re-recording couldn't afford a choir or whatever, and it only makes up a small fraction of the track anyway.
Still, the re-recording vastly outshines the original track, so thank you very much for bringing it to my attention.
On that note, how worth it is checking out all of the other re-recordings on the Titanic: The Essential James Horner Collection 2CD set? If there are other superior re-recordings on that set, I want to know about it, galldangit! This re-recording of Deep Impact's "The Wedding" has lit a fire and if there are other luminous re-recordings on that set worth checking out, please let me know. Thanks again!
I think if you're not on a tight budget, the Prague Horner tracks are worthwhile. I haven't A/B'd the bunch of them because there are a lot of JH albums I don't have. But I can tell you for instance that FSM's TWOK CD doesn't need help. The OST is fine now. The Silva sampler is probably best for those of us who don't own all the actual soundtracks.
Looking beyond Silva, my other "big improvement" for sound and performance is "Rose's Theme" (piano solo), which is Track 2 on Varese's TITANIC: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION. You can sample the individual track on iTunes.
The choral part in "The Wedding" sounds like synth chorus. It's a great idea for the cue, and suffers only for having been under-done. Like it's mixed in too low or something.
