Clérambard (1969)

Composer(s):
Vladimir Cosma

Released in:
1969

Reviews

Clérambard, la magnificence
by Dorian (January 4, 2004)
Being composed in 1969, Clérambard is one of Cosma's oldest scores, actually one of the very few scores from 1960s, and one of even less 1960s scores released on CD. This made me very curious, so I purchased the CD even though I knew nothing about the movie itself.
After hearing the main theme for the first time, I was completely amazed by its melody. The sound is incredible, the changing of instruments playing the melody (reeds and flutes) is very clever and the grandeur feeling is present. The second track (the 'demoiselles' theme) is played on very unusual instrument, on cromorna. Then, in "Saint-François et les oiseaux", a choir of voices is singing the main melody with the harpsichord accompaniment and creates a feeling of flying birds. It is magnificent. The next tracks are mainly variations of the main theme or of the cromorna theme, only "La Langueur d'Octave" and "Les Amours de la langouste" introduce another nice theme, played by violin. Towards the end, the mourning "Le Chien mort" is followed by polka "La Polka du dragon" and by the grand, but alas short final theme "Clérambard, la chevauchée".
So far, the soundtrack is excellent. Unfortunately, the last track, "Le Miracle", a gospel with a light accompaniment, sounds a bit unnecessary to me, and I don't consider it being a suitable final track. Still, due to the great arrangements and magnificence of the rest of the score, Clérambard is one of my favorite scores ever and I just admire the genius of the great Vladimir Cosma.

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