As part of my Knowing The Score series, I'm opining on some of my favorite themes in Trevor's scores. I'm going to begin with Race To Witch Mountain from 2009.
This score is actually one of my favorites in terms of blending orchestral, rock and electronica elements, but not in the same way as we've experienced in other scores doing the same thing, such as Gone In 60 Seconds or Bad Company. Race has a more analog - for want of a better term - feel to it, and I believe part of that comes from the story itself, as it involves extraterrestrials. The themes and cues involving the Siphon, an alien assassin, use vintage synth samples to evoke a definite sense of sci-fi menace.
But the score for Race To Witch Mountain was an online-only release. I am thankful Disney saw fit to release it at all, but it's still a bit disheartening that one of Trevor's best contemporary scores (i.e. from the last decade) was given such a seemingly ephemeral distribution.
The theme which plays behind the opening credits - "Unidentified Main Titles" - (see, I told y'all Trevor has a sense of humor) is one of his very best, though it appears in a movie which was likely not seen by the sort of people who pay close attention to scoring. "UMT" really displays his Bernard Herrmann influence in my opinion, combining a very complex time signature and momentum-driven motif with touches of guitar riffing, percussion and bass-bomb dissonance interwoven with strings which are pure ostinati, supported by the brass, piano and choir voicings. It's as heavy a thing as Trevor has ever written for rock n'roll, which only goes to support his contention that the weight of, say, a 40-piece orchestra can rival any rock band for sheer power. Trevor's sense of rhythm and melody allows him a perspective which someone working from a wholly classical orientation may not be able to utilize.
The theme returns at a few points, such as in "Tracking The E.B.E.s" and "Meet The Press" and is entirely compelling each time - it basically dominates the entire score, much as "Aftermath" did for Deep Blue Sea - and that is the hallmark of a truly memorable and compelling theme: no matter how many times you may hear it, you enjoy it fully every time it comes around.
