Memoirs Of A Geisha by John Williams

This score is so utterly different from anything John Williams has done before, it doesn't even sound like him. But, that's not a bad thing; I find it refreshing.

Don't get me wrong, I love John Williams' music (I have 36 albums of his), but he had begun to repeat himself a bit in the last few years (Episode II, AI and Minority Report all had a few cues that could have been interchanged).

In 2005, JW scored 4 films; Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I'm already predisposed to Episode III but I think my next favorite is Memoirs. Featuring the solo work of Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman (one might think that having two world-renown soloists on one album would be overkill, but I never felt that the music became "busy" or "crowded"), this score is lyrical and haunting with probably my favorite theme of the year in "Sayuri's Theme".

JW's last two forays into this territory (Empire of the Sun and Seven Years in Tibet) still sounded very much like John Williams symphonic scores; Memoirs is very "Asian" in its instrumentation and styling. It seems like JW has take a cue from recent popular Asian scores such as Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (also featuring Yo-Yo Ma) though I feel Williams' Memoirs is a smoother listen overall especially for American audiences.

The cd contains 18 tracks for a total of 61:01 minutes.

Not having seen the film, I cannot comment on how the music plays there but I continue to find the soundtrack album an enjoyable listening experiance.

I give Memoirs of a Geisha by John Williams FOUR out of FIVE stars.