It's from Verdi's Requiem - probably an excerpt from the "Requiem Aeternam" if I remember the film correctly. As it happens, the films credited composer, Alfred Newman, wasn't at all happy when the director, George Stevens, insisted that this and the "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah should be included instead of the music Newman had composed for various scenes - making the soundtrack a sort of musical patchwork in place of his totally integrated score. I do think the Handel was a serious lapse of judgment, but the Verdi is by no means as intrusive and really works rather well.
Call me Ishmael...
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bok602
17 years ago
If taken on its own terms, and in its own right, I believe that the use of Handel was quite appropriate in the fact that it was actually in context for a change and not tacked in simply "for effect."
Granted Newman's own Handellian composition for the resurrection of Lazarus was far superior to the hastily tracked in pre-reprise of Handel, the use of the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the film was far more effective and Newman's arrangement of it was inspired.
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
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wallacesawyer
16 years ago
Granted Newman's own Handellian composition for the resurrection of Lazarus
Powerful music.
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bok602
16 years ago
And quite in keeping with the frequent quotations from the Old Testament with it's equally-Handellian text:
He shall be great
And called the son of the most high
And of his Kingdom there shall be no end
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
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