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I'm not much of a soundtrack buyer, though there are exceptions. I absolutely loved a tribal song in "Thin Red Line," and bought the soundtrack based on that one song. It was a mistake though. The rest of the soundtrack was just slow & moody - effectively building the atmosphere for the movie but depressing to listen to. (In my opinion.)

All that said, I made the same decision again for this soundtrack. I loved the last movement they played in the movie & couldn't get it out of my head. Thus, I took a plunge & went for the soundtrack.

What I found was a true musical gem. It does have some of the mood building scene pieces that "Thin Red Line" and other soundtracks employ. However, interspersed with this are some old folk melodies & delightful bits of Corelli, Bach, & Boccherini (to name a few). I was delighted to learn how much I enjoyed classical pieces highlighting the violin & cello. Most of what I listen to tends to be full orchestral pieces, but I definitely want to look more into this type of music.

All the more so, I feel deeply that the balance of mood-building pieces, folk pieces & classical pieces capture the spirit of the books & the movie in unexpected ways. It swings from low, somber tones to light & hope-filled pieces to joyful dancing tunes...effectively showing the constant triumph of the sailors' spirit over their frequent danger & despair. Yes, there were many dark times, but the same instruments that create the dark atmosphere suddenly pull together in a new score, turning around an oppressive situation. I find listening to the sound-track to be very soulful but also hopeful.

My one criticism is that they often cut short the classical pieces. Perhaps this is for the flow of the entire soundtrack, but I do long for more. Overall, however, I definitely recommend this soundtrack.


Should've won an Oscar.   March 16, 2004
 61 out of 63 found this review helpful

The use of classical music in the "Master" soundtrack is inspired.

Yo-Yo Ma's playing of the first of J.S Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suites seems perfect for the scenes on the Galapagos Islands. The snippets of Mozart's Violin Concerto # 3 and Boccherini's sublime "Musica Notturna" are well chosen as the music played by the captain and the doctor.

Those eager to hear more by Baroque composer Luigi Boccherini, whose swoon-worthy piece, "Passacalle," closes the movie, will find what seems to be the original recording of it on the CD "Respighi: Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma," by the Berlin Philharmonic, directed by Herbert Von Karajan. The last five tracks are Boccherini's "La Musica Notturna Delle Strade di Madrid" op.30 No.6, including "Passacalle." That's the danceable, contemporary-sounding number at the end of the movie, the one in which Paul Bettany and Russell Crowe pick up their instruments and strum them like guitars, and Bettany (or his counterpart in the Berlin Philharmonic)launches into a passage high on the top string.

For those who wish to hear more of Mozart's violin concertos, several great recordings are available, one by Arthur Grumiaux with the London Symphony Orchestra. Listen to the third movement for the passage used so effectively in one of the captain-doctor jam sessions.


The classical duets and sailor songs work well without the film   May 24, 2004
 42 out of 46 found this review helpful

I really mean it as a compliment when I say that the score for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" suffers a bit when you are listening to it divorced from the film. It would be the same thing as saying that Jack Aubrey is not quite the man ashore that he is when he is afloat on H.M.S. "Surprise," so fans of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring yarns of the British Navy during the Napoleonic era will understand my point. It is not surprising that in the search for authenticity, which was one of the hallmark of the Aubry-Maturin series, that director Peter Weir went in a different direction from the stirring music associated with movies where Errol Flynn was sailing the seven seas. After all, a score was needed for this film that would compliment those moments when the crew would break into song or the captain and his particular friend would retire to play a duet for violin and cello. Violinist Richard Tognetti plays the violin and taught actor Russell Crowe how to play as well. The other main contributors to the soundtrack are composers Iva Davies ("The Ghost of Time") and Christopher Gordon ("Moulin Rouge"), but Weir also selected several classical and traditional folk pieces to appear in the film as well. If you were expecting a bold brassy score for "Master and Commander" then you will be disappointed, but you would have known better if you ever read the books.

With two composers and the other two types of music thrown into the mix, this soundtrack does not offer anything close to a cohesive whole, and you preference is probably going to be for the fiddle and drum songs of the sailors on deck (e.g., the medley of "O'Sullivan's March, Cuckold Comes Out of the Amery, Mother Hen, Mary Scott, Nancy Dawson") and the duets played in the captain's quarters (e.g., Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 "Straussburg" K.215, 3rd Movement). The main plot of the film involves a chase between "Surprise" and a French raider, but there are also sections of dramatic tedium, for which the classical music plays nicely. The music for the battles seem almost out of place given what we have become accustomed to in the rest of the film.

What stands out in the battle sequences is Mike Fisher on his Taiko drums, who provides the driving power of the scenes, matching the action on screen below the decks as the guns are being run out and fired. The emphasis is more on rhythm than anything else, which is why what works on screen is not as interesting when listening to the CD. Of the three composers the string work by Tognetti stands out the most, even as it distances itself from what is written by Davies and Gordon. The soundtrack is pretty much divided evenly between the original and classical/traditional works, and with a total playing time of barely over a half-hour you have to be disappointed on that score as well. An appropriate reaction would be to just go back and watch the film or to track down complete recordings of the classical pieces by Mozart, Bach, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Arcangelo Corelli, and Luigi Boccherini, or even some of the traditional sailor songs.


An enjoyable, but choppy, soundtrack   November 12, 2003
 19 out of 26 found this review helpful

This is a great soundtrack, but with drawbacks. First of all, the combination of heavy percussion and low-key orchestra works wonderfully. If you're in the mood, it's great to listen to. However, the numerous additions of classical pieces and unoriginal works that have been integrated into the film resulted in a dicey soundtrack. The original music that was written works great on it's own, but when you throw in all of the folk melodies and classical passages it breaks the soundtrack up a lot.