The slow, sorrowful opening of this soundtrack shows the emotional power of the unrivaled master of the movie soundtrack, John Williams. All that is needed for this track is the bare minimum of instrumentation to back a female’s voice to send shivers down a listener’s spine. The tracks grows in intensity and power to become even more dark than the previous section, with a back and forth like sound that seems to take a hint from Jaws. “The Attack at Olympic Village” shows that Williams has other plays in eir playbook that do not reflect eir own scores; hints of 2001: A Space Odyssey find their way into a track that differs immensely from its influences.
“Hatikvah (The Hope” seems to have a little more ethnic sound; when one listens to the track they can envision a New York City neighborhood in the early parts of the twentieth century. The mourning, sorrowful vocals that started out “Munich” (in “Munich, 1972”) return in a major way for “Remembering Munich”. The track does more than parallel earlier pieces but really continues on a specific sound for Williams. This soundtrack does more than just underline emotional moments of the movie; in a sense, John Williams’ “Munich” is another narrative, a way to relive the incident of the bombing without having to resort to vocals. The darker side of the disc is continued with “Letter Bombs” before the other side can respond with “A Prayer For Peace”.
While individuals will no doubt be able to hear the beauty of each of the tracks on a separate level, there is a whole other layer of beauty to be found when someone puts on the soundtrack and lets it play. These two threads come together in the epic-length track “Avner and Daphna”, which signifies more than just this culmination of sounds but as a focal point to this soundtrack. Soundtracks do not deal with arrangement in the same way as pop music; where it is usually a necessity to put the best tracks on a band’s disc up at the front, a soundtrack has to fit the movie it is predicated on in the same order. “Avner and Daphna” is the best track on the disc, if not only because it ties together these two different strands of music and heightens the tension found throughout the track. Another great score for John Williams; with a copy, one need not necessarily watch the movie to get the gist of what is happening.
Top Tracks: Avner and Daphna, Letter Bombs
Rating: 6.8/10
OST: Munich / 2005 Universal / 18 Tracks / http://www.munichmovie.com / http://www.unoiversalclassics.com / Reviewed 26 February 2006
[JMcQ]