First Thoughts: Snow White and the Huntsman Soundtrack

I’ve been doing searches on Spotify over the past week or so for the soundtrack to Snow White and the Huntsman, so you can imagine my joy this morning on discovering its sudden availability.  My colleagues at the office can tell you that I’ve been listening to the album all day on subwoofer-enhanced speakers. They haven’t complained, and they’re the type to let me know.

The soundtrack, which features a score by James Newton Howard, a solo track by Ioanna Gika, and the theme song “Breath of Life” by Florence + The Machine, is just what I hoped it would be.  Howard’s score features long notes and rich, atmospheric harmonies, momentous rhythms and subtle, distinguishable melodies, spooky tones and frightening blasts of sound.

The themes are not as catchy or memorable as those of James Horner’s Willow or some of Howard’s other scores–Unbreakable and Treasure Planet come to mind–but Howard doesn’t seem to have gone for such an experience.  Not having seen the film yet, I can’t judge how well it fits the visual scenes, but I’d bet a prince’s kiss it supplements them well.  He’s delivered a musical accompaniment that is both intelligible and otherworldly, much, I gather, like the movie itself.  It reminds me some of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Secret of Kells.

Unsurprisingly, the Florence + The Machine track is lush and wild: