In the magical, winter- white land of Narnia, a mystical battle of good against evil is played out to the waves and whispers of a grand music.
Thanks to Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams, the film score to “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” perfectly captures the dramatic tension between the wicked White Witch and Aslan, the noble lion.
Indeed, with a collection of awards under his belt, including a Golden Globe nomination for “The Chronicles,” the 45-year-old is masterful in his ability to render words and action through music.
“Quiet moments are interspersed among noisy, heroic music,” said Gregson-Williams, who will conduct the world premiere of his “Grand Orchestral Suite” from “Narnia” at Boettcher Concert Hall tonight and Saturday.
“But the way the music is presented in the film isn’t suitable for orchestral performance. It’s been quite an exercise preparing the music for the concert hall,” he said.
The premiere was rescheduled from September when Gregson-Williams realized he needed more time to narrow the dozens of starts in the film version of the score into a stand-alone suite.
“I think it’s quite rare to perform movie music on stage,” said the English maestro, who has amassed accolades not only for “Narnia,” but also such blockbuster scores as “Shrek,” “Shrek 2,” “Chicken Run” and “Antz.”
A few of his many other film credits are “Seraphim Falls,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” “Enemy of the State” and “Smilla’s Sense of Snow.” Upcoming scores include Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone,”; “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” and “Shrek the Third,” which opens today.
“John Williams, whom I consider the ‘head boy’ of film music, does this sort of thing quite often,” Gregson-Williams said of the legendary composer behind “Star Wars” and scores of great films. “But beyond that, it’s somewhat unusual for film scores to be performed by a proper orchestra in a traditional concert setting.”
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra will be joined by The Choir from Cherry Hills Community Church to perform the 30-minute chronological progression of the film, broken down into five movements: “Wartime and Family,” “The Deep Magic of Narnia,” “Aslan,” “The Battle of Beruna” and “Christmas and Coronation.”
“Composing music, let alone reorganizing music for concert performance, is quite a lonely job,” said Gregson- Williams. “In my studio on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, I spend hours upon hours re-thinking how the music should be delivered. It’s rather a trick to find a point of view for the music when you take away the pictures.
“You have to make certain adjustments to bring out the dramatic nature of the music in isolation from the film.”
Even so, slides of movie scenes will be projected onto screens at Boettcher throughout the performance, enhancing the musical experience of C.S. Lewis’ classic story. Costumes from “Narnia” will also be on display in the lobby.
Gregson-Williams’ career is rooted in his childhood.
“Growing up, stories and music were what my family did,” he said. “I have three brothers and a sister, and we all played music.
“I had a thoroughly excellent musical education at some fabulous music schools in the U.K.,” he said. “But when I popped out at the other end, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. Having been blessed with brilliant teachers myself, I was inspired to roam about teaching for a while thinking that was the best application for my fresh musical knowledge.”
Gregson-Williams also worked as orchestrator and arranger for the late film composer Stanley Myers. He composed his first scores for veteran English director Nicolas Roeg. Then, by chance, he crossed paths with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
“Someone suggested to Hans that I could help him with the choral nature of his filmtrack for ‘Crimson Tide.’ We got on quite well and he invited me to Los Angeles.
“He would say that he gave me my first studio, but I would call it a closet – basically a room with a computer – and off I went.”
