Glory was the first of an informal trilogy scored by James Horner for director Edward Zwick, (the others being Legends of the Fall and Courage Under...... more
Glory was the first of an informal trilogy scored by James Horner for director Edward Zwick, (the others being
Legends of the Fall and Courage Under Fire) powerfully exploring themes of loyalty, honour and duty. The
film tells the story of the 54th Massachussetts, the first black regiment in the American Civil War, and of their tragic destiny in the battle of Fort Wagner. A breakthrough work for Horner, he was rewarded with a Grammy Award for Best Motion Picture Score of 1989, confirming the aptness of his decision to "score the underlying feeling of the
film" with the emotive sound of the Harlem Boys' Choir. The superb main theme is heroic, noble, elegiac, Horner finding a resonance with Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, while in the surging choir there is a suggestion of Orff's Carmina Burana. Exceptional though Horner's action music is, it is the soaring, lamenting, resignedly beautiful choral writing which makes this one of his finest works. The final selections are almost unbearably moving, and the whole must be considered a defining score of the 1980s. --Gary S. Dalkin
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