Search - John Barry :: The Whisperers: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]

For Bryan Forbes's The Whisperers, composer John Barry indulges in a somber musical psychology to probe the thoughts and feelings of an alienated elderly woman (played by Dame Edith Evans) who is prone to hearing voices. In doing so, he takes an effective departure from his usual full orchestra with a sparser chamber style. This soundtrack is also a relatively rare instance in which a composer had written all of the themes before the film was edited. Barry's key instruments are a harpsichord and harp that dominate the several incarnations of the Whisperers theme. There are some quaint moments in waltz time and just one lapse into feel-bad jazz, but the overall mood is (what the liner-notes call) a "tone poem of depression and forced solitude." --Joseph Lanza