My Favorite Themes - Part XIX

Score: The Black Cauldron by Elmer Bernstein (The Great Escape)

About the film: A mystical cauldron that can raise the dead is sought by the evil Horned King. It falls to an assistant pig keeper named Taran to save the land. One of Disney’s most expensive (and most obscure) animated features, this is an uneven, but entertaining movie. Far from a masterpiece, but still worth seeing.

Title: “The Horned King”. The villain of the film manages to be menacing even without really doing anything, and a menacing presence deserves a theme to match. A pair of descending three-note motifs blare on horns (and sometimes organ), augmented by truly evocative swooshing from the Ondes Martenot. (Note: this score is heavy in the instrument, so if you’re not a fan, you won’t like it as much as I do. I believe that Cynthia Millar - the instrument’s performer - earned her paycheck a hundredfold with her work here.)

Other themes of interest: Much like The Punisher, this is a score rich in enjoyable melodies. There’s Taran’s six note struggling-for-heroism theme, the appropriately fluttering theme for the Fairfolk, a lovely five-note melody on Ondes for heroine Eilonwy, a bombastic, heroic motif for a magic sword, a wafting clairnet theme for sniveling minion Creeper (and, for some reason, a frenzied, trilling motif for when he’s being choked by the King), a sprightly march-like melody for Gurgi, a pseudo waltz for The Morva and two organ-based sub-themes for the evil forces: a three-note idea and an eerie drone.

Availability: One of Varese Sarabande’s first CD releases (way back in ‘85), it goes for ludicrous prices these days. The film (now a Toon Disney staple) is your best bet for a listening experience.