The Wilder Blue Yonder
I finally got around to seeing The Aviator a few days ago. I had been familiar with Howard Shore's score since I bought the CD, but it wasn't until I saw what it was doing in context of the film that I really understood what he was doing. I had heard that there wasn't much of the score in The Aviator, but when I saw it I found that the score was used quite well, and is very prominent during some very key moments in the film, in particular the test flight sequences (which are among the film's best). Shore is capturing Howard Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio - terrific) passion for flight, but offsetting it with the castanets emphasizing the character's instability. It is about his drive for speed. Flying has always been something that Mankind has dreamt of being able to do, and it figures prominently in mythologies throughout history, but it is only within the twentieth century that it had become within the realm of possibility. The sky is not a natural place for Mankind to be and thus carries with it great dangers (not least of which from ever-violent Mankind himself); this means that the album also deals with the warning of the Icarus myth.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this would be an interesting topic for a mix, even more so because I tackled a related topic, the concept of flying as freedom, in a previous compilation, Flight. But where that was more about the allure of flying, the follow-up would be more about that constant desire to be airborne; if that disc was more idealistic, this one is more practical. As a result, this one is more intense than the original, but I offset some of the heavier passages with material that examines this same desire in a more humorous manner, such as the excerpts from Young Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Broughton and Dragonheart by Randy Edelman. I opened and closed the album with Bill Conti's Oscar-winning The Right Stuff, which is one of the most iconic examples of its central idea. Just as the penultimate track of the original Flight, which was from John Williams' Hook, celebrated the most ideal fantasy of flying, so does this album sign off with the climax of Bruce Broughton's gorgeous The Boy Who Could Fly before returning us to where we started.
This is the shortest disc that I've made yet. Interestingly, its length is the same as that of the original Flight premix, before I decided that the album needed to be a bit more rounded out. This disc is a bit more focused, however, and so I felt that it should be succinct.
Conquering the Skies
Flight II
(41:09)
1. Breaking the Sound Barrier (The Right Stuff) 2:16
Composed and Conducted by Bill Conti
The London Symphony Orchestra
2. Waxflatter Flies Again (Young Sherlock Holmes) 0:30
Composed and Conducted by Bruce Broughton
The Sinfonia of London Orchestra
3. Bowen's Ride (Dragonheart) 0:52
Composed and Conducted by Randy Edelman
4. Flight to the Wasteland (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) 3:06
Composed by Elliot Goldenthal
The London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Dirk Brossé
5. Orthanc (The Fellowship of the Ring) 1:03
Composed and Conducted by Howard Shore
The London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Voices and the London Oratory School Schola
6. Have A Nice Trip (Explorers) 5:45
Composed and Conducted by Jerry Goldsmith
7. Imaginary Air Battle (Empire of the Sun) 2:30
Composed and Conducted by John Williams
8. Main Title (The Hindenburg) 2:47
Composed and Conducted by David Shire
9. Flight to Nepal (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) 1:51
Composed and Conducted by Edward Shearmur
The London Metropolitan Orchestra
10. Finale (The Battle of Britain) 2:50
Composed and Conducted by Ron Goodwin
11. Air Bond (The Living Daylights) 1:35
Composed and Conducted by John Barry
12. Taking Off and Old Sydney (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) 3:07
Composed and Conducted by Maurice Jarre
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
13. H-1 Racer Plane (The Aviator) 3:08
Composed and Conducted by Howard Shore
The Flemish Radio Orchestra
14. In the Air (The Boy Who Could Fly) 4:26
Composed and Conducted by Bruce Broughton
15. Yeager's Triumph (The Right Stuff) 5:14
Composed and Conducted by Bill Conti
The London Symphony Orchestra