Atmospheric Film Music

The coincidence of the way the disks rotate on the various shelves has given us a little Greek phase recently. I think that will end for a while with this disk from Eleni Karaindrou of music from a film by Theo Angelopoulos called Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow. The disk could just as easliy have been called theme and variations because that is what the music amounts to. I guess the use of a common motif in film music is a standard device originating from the time of Wagner and the simple melancholy theme used here just very occasionally threatens to outstay its' welcome. The clever use of different musical conbinations keeps that at bay however, utilising piano, harp, cello, accordion, Byzantine lute, French horn, violin, double bass, vocal ensemble and string orchestra. I haven't seen the movie but it apparently deals with the upheavals wrought on a Greek family by the conflicts of the 20th century which included forced repatriations particularly from Odessa and Smyrna. The disk encourages me to keep an eye out for the film. Not a record to be played with great frequency but an atmospheric piece when in the right mood to be receptive to it.