Monday, July 12, 2010

Gabriel Yared's Soundtrack

For "Coco and Igor"
 
Nichoals Roerich's 1913 set design for: 
Part I: Adoration of the Earth, from The Rite of Spring
[Image downloaded for Wikipedia's entry on The Rite of Spring]

True to the spirit of the avant-garde, a period when Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky made their creations, the film Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky is an intricate kaleidoscope of the arts (which I briefly write about here), including music. The soundtrack to the film includes: Stravinsky's orchestral The Rite of Spring for the ballet choreographed by the dancer Vaslav Nijinksy; two piano pieces by Stravinsky; and eleven pieces by contemporary composer Gabriel Yared, who has also written soundtracks for films such as The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Here is the Wikipedia entry on Yared, and here is his own website with samples of his music. Some more music samples from Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky can be found at Amazon.com.

Yared's pieces on the CD (with the same name) total eleven, with enigmatic titles like "La Lettre" and "Parfums du Passé" (tracks 21 and 24). His  piano pieces uncannily resemble Stravinsky's "5 Easy pieces" and "Les 5 Doigts" (which are also on the CD), so I will take the liberty to conclude that they influenced Yared's compositions.

All the pieces by Yared are short and evocative (as one of Yared's compositions is titled). They are lovely. And the CD is also worth its price for Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.