Great Expectations Theme

This theme song from the movie made up of motives, repeating the same melodic lines throughout. However, the composer is still able to maintain motion, interest, and create a sort of story or journey. I haven’t yet watched the movie, but from what I remember from the book, the music seems to relate pretty well to the story. It’s a story of passion, longing, searching, and never complete resolve, in the man’s long journey. The piece has a feeling of never endless motion with very few complete resting points. As soon as a phrase ends, it either goes straight to the next phrase or repeats itself. In the few cases when there is pause, the pause is still surprising and tense, and the music soon creeps back in and returns to its original state. The beginning of the piece has the sense of rushing and urgency, produced by speeding up at the end of phrases and by the constant short notes and circling sounds picked up by the string instruments of the orchestra. Then, the second part has the same melodic line, but takes a completely different quality, reserving back into a much more pensive and meditative feel. This is produced by a much slower and straighter tempo and a lighter density. It is first played alone by guitar, then a voice creeps in, and then strings. Each of these instruments plays with a much softer and relaxed tone color and in their middle ranges. Then it returns back to the original material. This time a voice part comes in with a very high register, giving the sense of reaching some destination and almost rejoicing. But then it quickly comes back down to the beginning part, and it dies off in the end without ever reaching total resolve.