COMPOSERS: George Fenton
LABELS: RCA Victor
WORKS: The Crucible
PERFORMER: Various
CATALOGUE NO: 09026 68666 2
In George Fenton’s soundtrack to The Crucible we have graphic titles, but you’d never guess, from the music, which was which.
‘John Proctor’ comes over as sweet violins and wistful woodwind, as does ‘The village’ and sundry other tracks. In ‘The witch hunt begins’ we get an additional bell or two; ‘Vengeance’ brings in some drums; ‘Interrogation’ adds moody bassoons.
After ‘The hanging’ comes ‘The resolution’, but this saccharine score has left nothing to be resolved: it would make excellent aural wallpaper for board-meetings, where rough edges must be smoothed. Fenton claims that the ‘tonality of the score is rooted in the music of the period’, but if it relates to any period, it’s to Nineties Hollywood.