Alien - Jerry Goldsmith - [EN Version]

For many fans, Alien (alongside with Poltergeist, Planet of the Apes, The Omen, Chinatown, etc.) is arguably one of Goldsmith's best scores.

Alien was in some ways a blow to the expectations of viewers already accustomed to the fashion of galactic films that emerged from the success of Star Wars. Away from the space opera vibe, Ridley Scott's film seemed to reference certain 1950s B-series to perform a demarcated thriller and horror exercise.

The music of the movie should necessarily lie in the antithesis of the brilliant sonorities of John Williams' “neo-symphonism” introduced into the genre - it should be visceral, address the spectator’s adrenaline directly, strike at his archetypal fears.

Scott's film opposes two conceptions of life so impossible to reconcile that the destruction of one is necessary for the survival of the other.

Goldsmith also divides his musical material into two major blocks. The one that refers to the ship's crew and the one associated with the creature - the first is tonal, with a certain melodic outline and the second is atonal, without melody and of wild aggressiveness. In any case, there is a distance assumed throughout the score - the human being is too cold, as a clinical observation of the human reactions to a limit situation and the monstrous side is a disproportionate experience with the boldest sounds that, by preventing the a point of reference with traditional music, completely alienates the viewer from a possible understanding of the survival mechanisms before the creature (which is seen as a mere invader and disintegrator of the established).

From the first notes, we realize that this will be another story about the unknown, of suspense and graphic horror.

The "Main title" that begins with a polytonic chord and continues immediately with, for example, an extraordinary trumpet solo, no doubt draws the chill and terror of space. The trumpet seems to indicate a lament of human loneliness in the face of this immense space (represented by the strings) - figures on the strings already give the prelude of a threat that will culminate in a disturbing crescendo; Bass metal sounds introduce a repetitive, uneasy motif into the wind section over a timpani ostinato that accompanies the initial traveling inside the ship. Loneliness and restlessness seem to mark the relations between the crew of the Nostromo.

A beautiful variation of this theme is heard in the landing scene on the planet where the extraterrestrial ship is located. First played by strings, and then by a flute solo and where the trumpet takes over the main motif even if guided by mysterious double bass interventions. The main motif is reinforced by the flutes, but also with interventions by the timpani and the low woodwinds (which gives the idea of a descent into an obscure and unknown world), until it expresses itself in a free development of the theme in the strings. illustrates the beauty of the space landscape. But this is abruptly interrupted by a more aggressive variation, with more violent sounds from the unsettling ambience which had accompanied the initial travellings through the Nostromo corridors.

But it is in the representation of the monstrous, where the composer reaches his greatest audacity - his favourite feature is the use of con sordino in the brass, combined with unusual percussion effects - the result is an organic song that seems to mimic the slimy movements of the creature. The creature is more suggested than shown and the music must complete this shadowy image, but it does so not by constructing a true musical motif, but also by suggestions of its nature, by the repulsive sounds of distorted metals, sharp, almost unbearable rope interventions or the lower registers of the woodwind section.

Terror is typical of the cockroach that roams a white aseptic surface of our toilet. Goldsmith's music transforms the feelings of revulsion, disgust, and terror into the musical plane.

Unique in its kind too, is the track "Breakaway", which represents a fierce percussion motif accompanied by interpretations of the metals.

In the tradition of Béla Bartók and Ígor Stravinsky, Goldsmith is able to extract a distinctive and experimental sound from the orchestra, as he does splendidly in "The Droid". Combining its characteristic rhythmic form of composition with mysterious string development, Goldsmith evokes in his viewers a mix of sensations - relentless fear and devastating curiosity.

Overall, Alien is a dark and modernist work that could be placed among the finest symphonic compositions of the twentieth century. A very atonal type of composition sometimes, but united in a whole, which are the various motifs of the plot. It is also important to note that most sound effects are acoustic, made from orchestra instruments and not from synthesizers.

in

- "A little bit about soundtracks ... and analysis of the music of some films" - Bruno Bizarro

- "Five Soundtracks in the History of Cinema" - Roberto Cueto