Defiance

What words adequately describe such an atrocity like the Holocaust?  When lips tremble, and words falter, music spans the the gap between knowledge and speech.  Music is the bridge which spans the abyss of doubt and confusion and connects the voice which can not speak, to the mind which knows that it must.  

The movie Defiance is one which most mature young people must watch and soak in.  Not only because it has a very unique view of the Holocaust, but also because the music which James Howard has composed for it rivals even that of Schindler’s List.  For those of you who don’t know, Schindler’s List was composed by John Williams for Itzhak Perlman (a jew) and has been, since 1993, the defining violin solo for the Holocaust.  

Howard takes a different approach to Defiance which I think beautifully conveys meaning through a directionless and dark time.  Beauty, as I say it here would refer to this album being striking, moving or awe inspiring, not only from the sound it creates, but more importantly what it says.  (It is liken to the beauty of the cross of Jesus Christ which moves believer to tears of thankfulness to their Savior) Instead of the lyrical and very jewish theme of John Williams, which can at times feed into the directionlessness (say that ten times faster) of an already directionless time, Howard has a powerful and extremely passionate melody.  It always has an ending in sight.  Very appropriately, Joshua Bell performs the score.  What a perfect match.  Bell is the type of violinist which moves so much as he plays, that it is sometimes hard to tell how he gets such a good sound with all the motion.  Regardless, some of these pieces, especially the Main Titles, sends chills up your spine.  When Bell hits those opening chords, it grips your heart for the pain which is pictured on the screen.  

This music doesn’t just accompany the movie, it embodies it.  What is Defiance or more importantly, where is the hope in the Holocaust?  Listen to Howards music, and by the end of the soundtrack it will be sweeping, hopeful themes which quickly makes the confusion and pointlessness of these times become inspirational and affecting.  Not in the sense that they lose their impact nor that those terrible times become any less than that. 

 

Howards music is the bridge that helps the mind shout what it feels it must speak, either because it feels inadequate or is wholly unable to proclaim.  What is that you wonder?  Simply stated, those who died, died not in vain. 

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~ by stephengarvey on June 17, 2009.