Stardust (2007)
Music Composed by Ilan Eshkeri
2007 was the year that two unknown composers broke out into the realm of major motion picture scoring -- the most notable one was Nicholas Hooper’s signing on for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (continuing his collaboration with director David Yates from TV films like The Girl in the Cafe) -- which left some in the film music community scratching their heads in puzzlement.
The second composer to break out in the limelight was Ilan Eshkeri’s signing on to score the fantasy picture Stardust, a fun throwback to 1980s style fantasy films starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Claire Danes and newcomer Charlie Cox. Like Hooper, Eshkeri had previously collaborated with director Matthew Vaughn on La4er Cake. Strangely, there were rumors circulating that John Ottman (X2, Superman Returns) had originally scored the film but the score was rejected and Eshkeri was brought on to rescore the film -- but those seem unfounded, as Eshkeri maintained that Vaughn said he wanted Eshkeri to score the film in the first place.
Whatever the case may be, it can’t be denied that Eshkeri delivers a rather colorful and energetic score. Like with many other composers, Eshkeri uses the same style of piano, twinkling woodwinds and mystical strings in “Prologue” to deliver the satisfactory and mystical main theme.
The subthemes are much more fun, however. Yvaine, the fallen-star-given-human form is given her own motif with an ascending string line coupled with female choir, which is briefly hinted at the end in “Shooting Star” and given the full treatment in “Yvaine” and the triumphant part of her theme resurfaces in the climatic cue “The Star Shines”. Tristan’s own theme is represented on woodwinds (which another reviewer points out that is too close to The Shire theme from Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings scores to have the desired impact in the film, but I disagree). Both themes intertwine with each other to form the romantic motif in “Tristan & Yvaine”, “The Coronation” and “The Mouse”, which like the theme is nice and works in the film wonderfully, but it feels too generic.
Where Eshkeri really lets his hair down is in the action and adventure cues. “Shooting Star”, “Cap’n’s At the Helm” and “Flying Vessel” offers some nice, bombastic throwbacks to the Erich Wolfgang Korngold and John Debney swashbuckling scores with adventurous strings and orchestral lines that push the limits of the 70 member ensemble of the London Metropolitan Orchestra. “Lamia’s Lair” (contrary to what the title says) has the central characters trying to head off each other to prevent a key character from crossing the magical threshold -- the tempo of this track is sped up slightly in the film, but it still works as an exciting track headed by frantic strings, brass and percussion.
Some in the film music community have criticized Eshkeri for including classical excerpts in the tracks “Lamia’s Inn”, “Flying Vessel” and “Pirate Fight” but since the latter two are presented as source music in the film, I can’t find a problem with that. Another criticism is that critics have said that Stardust is just a watered-down version of Wojciech Kilar’s score for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but I disagree, the latter score sounds more Gothic and just sounds more different than Stardust -- but it could’ve been used in the temp-track for the film for all I know.
Despite Stardust being a traditional and cliched score, the style, orchestration and energy it’s rendered with makes it a wholly enjoyable score from start to finish. Eshkeri has proven himself quite adept at a large-scale film score and I can’t wait to see what he does when given another opportunity to do another fantasy adventure score like this.
Track listing:
1. Prologue (Through the Wall) (3:45)
2. Snowdrop (2:46)
3. Tristan (0:40)
4. Shooting Star (3:46)
5. Three Witches (2:42)
6. Yvaine (2:48)
7. Septimus (1:22)
8. Creating the Inn (1:58)
9. Lamia’s Inn (8:04)
10. Cap’n Shakespeare (1:27)
11. Flying Vessel (3:41)
12. Cap’n’s At the Helm (1:01)
13. Tristan & Yvaine (2:05)
14. Pirate Fight (2:03)
15. The Mouse (2:25)
16. Lamia’s Lair (3:57)
17. Lamia’s Doll (1:41)
18. Zombie Fight (1:08)
19. The Star Shines (3:21)
20. Coronation (2:32)
21. Epilogue (0:52)
Total Time: 53:44
Music composed by Ilan Eshkeri. Conducted by Andy Brown. Music performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra and Metro Voices. Orchestrations by Julian Kershaw, Jeff Toyne, Robert Elhai and Nick Ingman. Soundtrack produced by Ilan Eshkeri. Soundtrack available on Decca Records.
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