Beyondness by John Barry

From Filmtracks:

The Beyondness of Things: (John Barry) The twilight of one's own career is a time for reflection and celebration. John Barry's farewell to film scoring came in the late 1990's, and after four decades of extreme popularity, his career was drained away in unceremonious fashion with several rejected scores and fewer offers for work. Barry handled this decline by examining his career with far more reflection than celebration. His scores became more introverted and predictable in their melancholy consistency, and it was partly because he was no longer able to infuse his work with true creativity that the offers for work declined and scores were rejected. At some point in a successful man's life, does he really need to adapt to the world? Or should he be allowed to live out his years in the glory of an identity he feels comfortable leaving the party with? Barry embodied all of that stubborn attitude in the waning days of his career, attempting to force his scoring assignments into that comfortable mold. The clearest evidence of this defiance against change came in 1998, when Barry recorded a concert piece of almost an hour for release early in 1999. With The Beyondness of Things, Barry accomplished several goals. First, he reaffirmed to the world that he was so comfortable with the deliberate style of harmonic writing that had dominated his later years in scoring that he was willing to put it forth on a solo album. Second, he used the opportunity to provide some heavy reflection into his own life, writing about his childhood and favorite places in a tribute format. Third, the album allowed Barry to share with the public several of his ideas for the score for The Horse Whisperer, a much anticipated Barry work that Robert Redford chose to throw out. This last element is more of a side note to The Beyondness of Things, though detractors of Barry's later works will easily recognize that while the music in The Beyondness of Things is nothing less than pleasant, it has none of the authentic heartland style that Thomas Newman captured for the film. So while Barry fans will likely remain somewhat peeved at Redford for firing Barry on such a high profile film, the fact remains that Newman's replacement score for The Horse Whisperer is more than adequate, and likely more appropriate.