By Sue Klasky Jul 7, 2008, 15:14 GMT
Composer Alex Wurman was born into a musical family. His father, Hans, created electronic music on the Moog synthesizer. Over the years, Wurman has written music for a variety of film projects ranging from dramas, comedies to documentaries.
They include the score for the Academy Award-winning documentary "March of the Penguins," the comedy "Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby" and the little comedy "The Promotion."
In "The Promotion" two assistant managers, Doug, (Seann William Scott) and Richard (John C. Reilly) both vie for a manager's position for a new grocery store that is set to open up soon.
Wurman uses synthesizers in his home studio to create his atmospheric scores, as well as incorporating musical instruments. It's hard to tell what is synthesized, but I hear drums, flute, horns, piano, harp, strings, guitars.
The score is low key, and features a musical waltz-type theme that repeats through most of the 22 pieces. That musical thread is cemented in the first track, "The Donaldson's Experience." Wurman seems to take this musical idea and experiments with it in different ways.
Many of the pieces are short, such as "Canada" and "Strawberry Charleston Chew," and before you can decide if you like them, they're over.
Taken one by one and not as a whole, I found some of the works interesting. I liked the horns and guitars in the lively "The Company Picnic," though I found the music repetitive.
"Fight Dance" was interesting. It started out mellow then half-way through, turns into a full-blown waltz. The short track "One Week Lot!" was cool and my favorite. It featured just percussion. And I liked the piano in "Four Handed Promotion"'.
I also liked "It's Pepsi's World," with its plucky violin and drum. At one minute, five seconds, I wish it was longer. It's one track that doesn't feature the "la-dee-da" theme. "Weiner's Welcome" and "One Week Lot" don't either.
The tracks are well produced. I'm sure the music goes along well with scenes in the movie, but it's tough listening to 20 pieces that all sound the same.
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