For many fans of film music, the work of Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared has always exuded an unstoppable charm. He is known for his romantic and timeless melodies, and every note seems to be burned into the hearts of the listeners.
In 1996, Jarrod, who was still unknown at the time, met director Anthony Minggra, and a "British Patient" pushed each other's careers to the peak. The soundtrack is widely regarded as Jarrod's finest work, and won four music awards that year: the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Grammy Award, and the British Academy of Film Arts.
A love hymn of the war years, it sets off the deep desire for transcendence in the hearts of people who have suffered the trauma of war. Jarrod has always been adept at composing a soundtrack on the subject of love, and in this Hollywood-style tragedy, Jarrod blends Bach's Goldberg Variations, Hungarian folk songs and North African music to create a quiet and sad exotic and a childlike love of the big times.
Gabriel Jarrod
Among them, Hungarian folk songs are particularly impressive, like ghosts that haunt the audience's emotions, and the tone of the chant seems to herald the tragic end of the male and female protagonists. In addition, the tragic structure of this film is quite complete, and the high dramatic tension strengthens the propaganda power of the music.
"The English Patient" is the most complete structure of Jarrod's musical career, with 28 music segments and a length of 75 minutes, which makes the film full of musical rhythms. The theme melody of the soundtrack reflects the usual characteristics of Jarrod's later works: the oboe solo with softness and rigidity, coupled with the flowing water and the string music in the dark, reflect a "lonely beauty".
Jarrod's theme melody may not be as sensational and exciting as the typical Hollywood soundtrack, and his musical language is cold, especially the portrayal of strings, which is the most distinctive feature among Hollywood composers, with a degree of tension, implied strength, euphemism through the wind of vigor, delicate glimpse of the vast atmosphere.
Stills from The English Patient
The English Patient can be considered the epitome of The Arrod's Hollywood peak soundtrack, and almost all of his popular masterpieces followed this musical language. It's just that with different film themes, the collocation of internal elements varies. But its signature string unison and rhythmic mastery are consistent.
For example, in the 1998 classic film "City of Angels", although the soundtrack only contains four original soundtracks of Jarrod, and most of the films use popular songs as background music, Yarod still impresses fans and fans in the limited space to play. In this soundtrack of pop songs and original soundtracks, Jarrod's charm clearly overwhelmed the pop singers, and many of the people who collected this soundtrack went to the four pieces of music composed by Jarrod.
These four pieces, except for the second one with guitar as the main line, the other three songs are more uniform in style, continuing the style of "The English Patient", slowly flowing strings, laying out a leisurely sad atmosphere. Jarrod's rendering of the atmosphere is exquisite, the ups and downs of the melody are not abrupt, and there is also a lack of colorful music to boost the eardrums, at first glance, it sounds like a cup of boiled water, light and tasteless, but under the delicacy, there is a strong aroma.
Stills from City of Angels
In "City of Angels", Jarrod seamlessly connects the electronic synthesizer with the orchestra, and the sound effects of the electronic music and the sound of the strings maintain a high degree of consistency in frequency, and when the string music appears, the electronic music adds a dreamy color to the music with an untracement. A tension between the theatrical melody of the piano and the monophonic hum of the soprano, the former representing the "cry of the world" and the latter depicting the "voice of the angel". These four pieces of music need to be repeatedly tasted in the dead of night to smell the dreams and beauty of them.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Jarrod's creative power was extremely strong, and there were fine works every year. The following year, in 1999, Jarrod composed two classic soundtracks: Genius Ripley and Letter in a Bottle.
"Genius Ripley" is a second collaboration between Jarrod and Minggra, the film focuses on the complex evolution of good and evil in the human heart, and The music composed by Jarrod for the film is as beautiful and soothing as ever, with complex and profound motives implied in the seemingly bland notes. Such genres were rare in Jarrod's scoring career.
Stills from Genius Ripley
"Letter in a Bottle", starring Kevin Costner, is Jarrod's best love theme. The film has been compared by many viewers to the classic 1993 film "Seattle Sleepless", and its ingenuity lies in the fact that it does not arrange a reunion ending for the protagonist's thousands of miles, but satisfies the audience's appetite with layers of advancing dramatic tension.
Jarrod in "Letter in a Bottle" still maintains the reluctance to say goodbye, and in terms of instrumental choice, Jarrod uses strings, piano, guitar, oboe, flute, harp, and vocal chanting to construct a light and elegant ink painting.
The piano fragments in the soundtrack are arguably the most brilliant of all of Jarrod's works, and Jarod allows the piano to conjure up an emotionally changeable face, sometimes playing memorable fragments without jumping out. In the "Teresa" section, the piano is performed with a lingering sympathetic performance, the melody is fresh and fresh, presenting a blunt sensationalism rarely seen in Jarrod's works.
Stills from Letter in a Bottle
Jarrod composed a catchy theme melody for Letter in a Bottle, with a bit of pop temperament, appearing in different ways in the soundtrack, sometimes gently played by the piano, sometimes by the guitar. Perhaps deliberately diluting the tragic atmosphere of past works, the overall style of the work is less of a throbbing deep into the bone marrow and more of a sweet and warm soothing than other famous works of Jarrod. In particular, the frequency of the guitar is extremely high, which greatly dilutes the sense of persecution that often appears in previous works.
The string fragments maintain the same rhythmic pattern as "The English Patient", the rise and fall of the sentences are full of clear layering, and the simple and clear harmonic texture makes the music appear full and elastic. The addition of vocal chants is reminiscent of "City of Angels".
Stills from Autumn in New York
In 2000, Jarrod collaborated with Chinese director Chen Chong on Autumn in New York, still maintaining his signature style.
In 2003, he collaborated again with Mingla on the composition of Cold Mountain. The hugely invested, star-studded film was described as "ambitious" but ultimately didn't get good results. Jarrod is also not suitable for composing music for such commercial blockbusters, and the soundtrack of "Cold Mountain" comes with two versions, one is the song and the other is the soundtrack, and this time, his music has not been able to beat the song.
Due to his natural preference for niche literary films, Jarrod gradually faded out of mainstream films. However, those nostalgic people often remember the spatial mood woven by Yarod with the vast music, and the beautiful and elegant music style often creates endless emotions in a quiet and solemn atmosphere, brewing the warmth of the sun shining in the sea of love, or the waves of clouds and rain...