Tracklist:



1 Too Too Solid Flesh 2:43
2 Murder Most Foul 3:21
3 Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 1:51
4 Dark Room 3:11
5 To Be or Not to Be 2:42
6 Wiring Ophelia 4:45
7 The Funeral 2:01
8 Claudius Prayer 3:05
9 Hamlet Walks the Plane 2:21
10 Leates and Ophelia at the Guggenheim 1:57
11 Claudius Incites Leartes 4:50
12 The Duel 2:53
13 The End 3:26


I didn't know that it's from Varese, so PMe for the link.

Thanks

Thanks.

Hamlet: Original Score from the Miramax Motion Picture [Soundtrack] by Carter Burwell (2000)

Review

~Allmusic

Carter Burwell, in his latest score since What Planet Are You From? tackles a modern retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet. Instead of kingdoms, they are corporations in modern New York. But the storyline and dialogue remain the same. As far as Burwell's score goes, the dark brooding present in most of his films is here, and it most certainly doesn't disappoint.
Beginning with "Too Too Solid Flesh", we are once again acclimatized to Burwell's great use of arpeggios, with a simple but ever-increasing theme adding more and more to the tension - but never quite climaxing. A celeste in "Murder Most Foul" reminds me briefly of his score to Fargo - but it is The Hudsucker Proxy that pops into my head most often during this score (probably because I had recently watched the film again).
What strikes me is the realization that Burwell employs only strings and woodwinds - there is no brass of any kind in this score. That type of orchestration adds a softer, richer tone to the music, and it fits well, considering the cold steel corporate metaphor occuring in the film.
"Darkroom" takes advantage of a solemn guitar solo, just before the arpeggios take over once more. The big soliloquy in "To Be or Not To Be" is underscored by a rather simple building sequence by the small orchestra. But what I love about Burwell's style, and Hamlet is no exception, is the ability he has to write music that seems to take a rather simple path - but in actuality it's more complex than a Mandlebrot sequence. Just when you would expect the music to reach a climax, Burwell tosses you a red herring and it just keeps building - and then he sucker punches you with the climax just when you didn't think it could happen.
In probably the darkest cue on the album, "Claudius Incites Laertes", a solo cello reprises the bass arpeggio from the score, repeating it over and over, until about two-minutes later, the other strings and instruments slowly come in. It's dark, it's moving, and it's perfect. Still building, the cue finally climaxes around the four-minute mark, and it's close to emotionally draining.
"The Duel" is a more driving piece with (again) an underlying bass line that the other instruments build off of. The final cue, "The End" reprises the main theme from the film, and Burwell does a great job in pulling together the best moments from some of the other themes as well - if you want to hear the bulk of the score summed up, it can be all heard in this cue.
One of the better "dark" scores he's done, Hamlet shows that Burwell is still at the top of his game, and if he can continue to produce music such as that heard in this film, I'm positive that one day he will finally be recognized for all of his great work in the film music industry. With a running time of almost 40 minutes, Hamlet might not be for everyone - but it is worth picking up if you are a Burwell fan, and are used to his style of music.

~ Filmtracks.Net

Hamlet (2000): (Carter Burwell) In classic Hollywood, the film versions of Shakespearean plays were often presented in their original time and location, and actor/director Kenneth Branagh was endeavoring to do the same throughout the 1990's. But a younger generation of audiences and filmmakers then began embracing and producing adaptations of the original Shakespeare stories in contemporary, urban settings. From Romeo & Juliet to Othello, sparkling, modern representations of these classic tales played to split audiences, with some adoring the new visions and others believing that Shakespeare himself was rolling in his grave. Perhaps none of these stories has been translated onto the big screen as many times as "Hamlet," with several entries in the 1990's alone. After the 1990 and 1996 versions remained somewhat true to a historical setting, the 2000 version directed by Michael Almereyda throws the story into modern-day New York, suffering in the environment of the Guggenheim Museum and fax machines. If you could accept Bill Murray as Polonius, then you may agree with a base of critics that found the film to be generally pretty intriguing. It would have been an interesting job for composer Patrick Doyle, who was the resident expert in Shakespearian scores during the 1990's and had modernized his sound for Great Expectations, another contemporary adaptation of a classic tale, in 1998. But an existing collaboration with Almereyda led to composer Carter Burwell receiving the assignment for the Ethan Hawke-led Hamlet. Almereyda had been impressed with Burwell's work with a large symphony orchestra and now called upon the composer to utilize only a chamber orchestra for this effort due to a restrictive budget. Burwell's scoring schedule was tight at the time, but the composer responded to the assignment by carving the traditional Shakespearian sound down to an intimate scale for a small ensemble. The lack of contemporary instrumentation to accompany this group, however, is a curious choice due to the circumstances.

Whether you enjoy or accept the minimalistic result from Burwell depends on how you believe your Shakespearean films should sound. Traditional film score collectors are fond of Doyle's 1996 music for Hamlet and fans of postmodern music often gravitate towards Ennio Morricone's score for the 1990 Mel Gibson version. Burwell definitely leans towards Morricone's approach, allowing the story to speak for itself and leaving the pomp and outward drama inherent in the story completely out of the musical equation. This decision could probably have been expected, given Burwell's tendency to produce brooding, off-center music. Unfortunately, Burwell strays too far from the emotional heart of the classic story, allowing his music to be the victim of its own mediocre size and repetitive structures. The shallow score plays as though it was written with constraint in mind, rather than attempting to produce the most emotion possible out of the small performing group. If anything, Doyle's Great Expectations proved that you can insert modern rhythms, vocals, and traditional elements into a blend worthy of a classic tale. What Burwell wrote for Hamlet is repetitively monotonous, simplistic, and devoid of emotion. Moments meant to convey extreme action lack punch and vary very little from the mass of uninteresting, rumbling cues of slight stature. Burwell does succeed in moments of troubled contemplation, though, with a cello performing an alternating, churning motif that extends throughout the score as its overarching identity. But some of his use of what seems like a string quartet is a bit cliche, with the slow chopping of a bass string attempting to carry the duel scene. When the ensemble is put together in all of its force, such as in the opening and final cues, the score begins to exhibit the kind of attitude that could have guided it to success with more creative instrumentation. An acoustic guitar performance in "Laertes and Ophelia at the Guggenheim" barely touches upon this possibility. In this case, Burwell's loyalty to traditional symphonic instrumentation ultimately breaks the back of this version of Hamlet. It leaves you wondering if your stereo was ever on while you were listening to it, tumbling along in the deep regions where it's difficult to notice and even harder to care about.

I'd love a iink please, especially if it's lossless. Thank you.