The Score to Hero Reviewed

By Mark Sung Sep 26, 2004, 0:25 GMT

Tan Dun's main theme for Hero is very similar to his theme for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but just different enough to tell them apart. Some would argue that this is just Tan Dun's style of working, but he doesn’t help matters by overusing his main theme throughout the score. Whilst the main theme is beautiful to listen to, it is the only standout theme in the score. The main theme features prominently in at least 12 of the 16 tracks. Tan Dun does however manage to successfully use the same theme to convey different emotions with the use of different instruments and the way he presents the theme. Throughout the score the main theme comes across as romantic, mournful and proud. The skills of violinist Itzhak Perlman are used for most renditions of the main theme.

A female soprano provides the vocals for the track ‘Gone with Leaves’. Her voice is ethereal and almost sounds instrumental at times. Her voice conveys a sense of sadness and despair which matches perfectly the gradual journey towards the final but certain outcome on screen. The track, like a lot of others in the score, is slow paced and almost dream-like in nature which is rather fitting considering the film is told through a series of flashbacks.

A rare flute performance of the main theme in the track ‘Take Me Home’ provides a welcome change in the score.

Tan Dun uses the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus to help give the score more weight during the scenes involving the huge armies. However there are moments where the China Philharmonic Chorus sound like they could have done with a few more voices to give the track that bit more extra depth. However the China Philharmonic Chorus does have a unique character to their sound and for the most part they complement the rest of the score very well.

The China Philharmonic Orchestra also help to give the score more weight often providing musical layers of strings or single note brass outbursts. The use of the brass outbursts found in tracks such as ‘At Emperor's Palace’ can come across as a bit overwhelming and sometimes out of place when compared to the rest of the score. However there is no denying that no matter how bizarre parts of the score sound they do match whatever appears on the screen during the film. However as a piece of music there are moments in the score which are not always easy to listen to.

Almost a minute of Kodo drums and chanting make up last part of the final track ‘Yearning for the Peace’, ending the score in a very unusual way.

Fans of Tan Dun’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ score will no doubt enjoy the score for Hero. Tan Dun’s main theme is very pleasant to listen to but his overuse of it results in a lot of the tracks sounding very similar.