4/18/2023 0 Comments Young sherlock holmes![]() ![]() The third theme is the more romantic theme for Holmes and his young paramour, Elizabeth, the niece of his mentor Professor Waxflatter. The effervescent, bubbly string countermelody in this cue is especially superb, and would go on to become something of a Broughton trademark. Cleverly, Broughton also often plays his themes in counterpoint both the Intellect theme and the Friendship theme play off each other in the lovely “Solving the Crime,” insinuating that Watson’s appreciation for Holmes’s intellect fuels their friendship, giving the two concepts a symbiotic relationship. A fine melody with more than a hint of Elgarian Englishness, warm and approachable, it is first introduced as a duet for cello and oboe in “Watson’s Arrival,” and develops through subsequent cues such as “The Bear Riddle,” and the more lively and lighthearted “Fencing With Rathe”. ![]() The second main theme is the Friendship theme, illustrating the growing fraternal relationship between Holmes and Watson. This little performance technique actually reoccurs at select junctures throughout the score as a marker for the lurking presence of evil. An interesting touch in the orchestration is the use of col legno, in which the string players tap the cases of their instruments with the backs of their bows to create an unsettling rattling effect. Initially heard on a piccolo, it eventually gets taken up by the full orchestra, augmented by magical chimes and flighty, swooping flute accents. After several minutes of creepy scene-setting, the “Main Title” finally introduces the score’s main thematic idea, a sweeping theme for Holmes and his brilliant mind, subtitled the Intellect theme, but which also has a real sense of playfulness and mischief. The score actually opens with two suspense and action cues, “The First Victim” and “The Old Hat Trick,” which resound with dramatic orchestral mayhem squealing woodwinds, shrieking violins, chaotic percussion runs, and the like. It’s not afraid to convey some moments of darkness either, as evidenced by the bold and menacing choral work for the secret cult, as well as some surprisingly vivid passages of light horror dissonance. It’s a wonderful score from top to bottom, which is richly orchestrated, features at least five memorable themes, and comes wrapped in a delicious sense of fun and adventure and whimsy. The nature of the score, combined with the fact that the film was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, led many people to speculate that Broughton would be ‘the next John Williams’ – an epithet that has since been given to any composers – and listening to Young Sherlock Holmes it’s not difficult to see why the label stuck with Broughton for many years. ![]() Written for a large symphony orchestra and choir, recorded in London, the score is a masterpiece of the genre. Young Sherlock Holmes was just Broughton’s fourth score for a theatrical film, and although Silverado earned all the plaudits, including a Best Score Oscar nomination, Young Sherlock Holmes is more than its equal in every respect. The score for Young Sherlock Holmes was by 40-year-old Bruce Broughton, who at the time was enjoying a stellar beginning to his film music career, him having written the score for Silverado earlier in the summer. The film co-stars Anthony Higgins, Sophie Ward, and Nigel Stock, and received generally positive reviews, especially for its special effects: the film is notable for including the first fully computer-generated animated character in the shape of a knight made of stained glass, and was one of the first films worked on by pioneering animator John Lasseter, who would later go on to found Pixar. After a series of murders in which the victims – one of whom is Holmes’s mentor and former professor Rupert Waxflatter – experience terrifying hallucinations before they die, and after having his suspicions rebuffed by an incompetent police chief, Holmes and Watson begin to investigate the case themselves, and uncover a secret cult of Egyptian god worshippers who appear to be responsible for the deaths. Written by Chris Columbus and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the film stars Nicholas Rowe as Holmes and Alan Cox as Watson, who meet as teenagers at London’s Brompton Academy in the 1870s. The 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes is one such tale, an original story chronicling the supposed first meeting between Sherlock Holmes and his long-suffering friend John Watson, and their first adventure together. The fascination with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes has often been such that people have ventured beyond the realms of the original 60 stories, and written extrapolations investigating both Holmes’s childhood and his life after his career ended, as well as re-imaginings of the character in more contemporary settings. ![]()
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