Weekly Recommendations – w/e 19th January 2024: Adieu Bonparte, & Marcel Barsotti: Best of Emotional Film Music

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 19th January 2024.

Adieu Bonaparte (1985) – Gabriel Yared (Decca Records France)

Set during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, the historical epic Adieu Bonaparte (dir. Youssef Chahine) explores the complex relationships between French soldiers, the Egyptian locals, and the impact of Napoleon’s conquest. The dark thematic material and the sometimes dissonant music that Yared uses in this score was a surprise to hear. I had not come across this score before. Yared mixes conventional orchestra, electronics (ondes martenot or theremin), and ethnic instrumentation (e.g., oud, qanun, ney) to create a complex and beguiling score that seems to reflect the psychological aspects of the film rather than follow the “action”. The score balances well the mix of darkness and geographical locale, though the repetition of the various themes over the course of the playing time can become a challenge. This digital release appears to be a release of the complete score and differs somewhat from Music Box Records’ 2016 CD release in terms of track order and track number.