HALLOWEEN III—SEASON OF THE WITCH
Music composed and performed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.
25 Tracks (Playing Time = 67:55)
Produced by Alan Howarth. Score recorded, mixed, sequenced, and synthesizer programmed by Alan Howarth at Pi West Electronic Music Studio, Glendale, CA. Digitally edited and mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland, Tacoma, WA. CD art direction by Mark Banning.
Alan Howarth Productions Inc. AHICD001(Limited Collector's Edition - 1,000 copies)
Rating: ***
It may be hard to believe, but Halloween III was released 25 years ago (1982) last fall. To celebrate, Alan Howarth has assembled nearly 70 minutes of music that includes the bulk of the original popular album release and some 13 "bonus" tracks.
For those of us who had just discovered the orchestral film score with STAR WARS, the following years of experimental electronic music that appeared in horror scores seemed relatively innocuous until Vangelis won an Oscar for using electronic instruments in the dramatic period film CHARIOTS OF FIRE. How, many wondered, did that score get picked over RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or even Alex North's DRAGONSLAYER? What followed this win were a series of bad attempts at the same thing. But if you followed the careers of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, one would notice that there was a bit more art involved in this music than met the eye, and also that they were doing some of these experimental things in film music for several years.
Whenever I get horror genre scores to review, I enter into a period of anticipation because out of all the genres in film music, it is this one that really shows off a composer's skills. If you can't be experimental within a horror score, at least in some aspect, and take a fairly safe approach, chances are you will probably not be able to do that later in more traditional mainstream films. Enter Carpenter and Howarth who very early in the development of electronic instrumental sounds were dabbling in this sort of music making, mostly out of necessity. For these low budget horror films, there was rarely a budget for any kind of ensemble and time often was crucial in getting these films to market. In the HALLOWEENscores, Carpenter tended to begin by using small motivic devices and then exploring what sounds could be created around them. The earlier of these tended to feel keyboard-driven, sounding safer thematically while also trying to find ways to create tension through unusual sounds or amassed effects. The reason these things were so "chilling" is that it sounded different to an audience. The electronic media being used were still relatively new and unusual.
In the third HALLOWEEN installment, SEASON OF THE WITCH, Howarth and Carpenter took a different approach by improvising to film the score material drawn from a series of motivic ideas. If you think about this a bit, it is not unlike say Steve Reich or Terry Riley's minimalist approach of various ideas that could be played in any random order. The music here is not "minimalist" in that sense, but it seems at times as if the approach to thinking about sound structured around some specific quality or effect is at play here. The equipment being used is now a bit more sophisticated and we can already hear the sort of Vangelis' waves of sound familiar from his CHARIOTS score.
The music for this score is not so thematically driven, hovering along pedal points with unusual sounds floating in and out of the texture rather freely. This give and take between the ostinato atterns of the original HALLOWEEN film, now elongated and often hinting at the theme rhythmically rather than melodically, and longer undetermined stretches of sounds makes this particular score a bit more unique. A sort of heartbeat pulse also helps to increase tension in this score as it moves towards the conclusion of the story. Various rhythmic pulses are layered against one another which eventually form a single insistent pulse moving quickly against the slower heart rate pulse. Pitches also move through moments of indeterminacy as well. And the somewhat improvisational approach of creating music to film in the studio lends an interesting edgy feel to some of the music making.
All of these techniques make for instructive listening. Howarth's production values for this disc are superb and it is good to have a chance to hear the ways the synths ain clear sound. He lists all the equipment that was used for this score in the booklet notes which will be of interest to fans of electronic-based music.
There are only 1000 units available from select soundtrack vendors. Recommended to fans of the series and electronic music fans.
--Steven A. Kennedy , 27 February 2008
Comments regarding this review can be sent to this address: stev4uth@hotmail.com
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