DOUGLAS ROMAYNE: Expressing the Inexpressible Available At iTunes Movie Music Online CD BABY “...The music from Freedomland...is centered around a gentle theme that unfolds like a soothing elegy, and in “Beautiful,” the theme goes through a number of gentle variations as Romayne switches from strings to woodwinds, and concludes the cue with a delicate turn towards a semi-tragic theme, using chamber string instruments and harp. A tilting four-note motif on piano is carried by gentle chordal swells by strings, while the theme restatement in the suite's concluding cue, “Free,” is deeply tender, mostly due to the slow and comforting sound from a solo oboe.” — Mark R. Hasan, KQEK, 08.27.07

The decision to score Freedomland was incredibly easy. JC Schroeder sent me his film after hearing my work on Shelter and asked if I'd be interested. The story is told through a series of flashbacks from the perspective of a wheelchair-bound young man, who appears to be a tangle of contradiction. The film's ending left me stunned and haunted for several days, and anytime that happens after watching a rough cut (which is rare) I know I have to be involved.

The only difficulty was the fact that JC was in Ohio while my studio is in Los Angeles. I rarely work on projects not based in town. Communication is so key to a successful director/composer relationship that I tend to turn down such projects. But as I said above, the film was so compelling, and JC's idea of having beautiful, elegiac music accompanying the film was such a perfect counterpoint to the story, that I waived those concerns and jumped in.

As it was the phone and email conversations that took place between us were purposeful and articulate, so the potential landmines of miscommunication were avoided. JC had constructed an appropriate temp score that clearly laid out his intention for each of the flashbacks, where the majority of the score is used. Much of the temp was from Shelter, which worked well dramatically and was obviously something I was familiar with. The other good part about temping with Shelter was that the music budgets for Shelter and Freedomland were similar, so I knew we could pull off the sound. As I point out in my workshop, one of the dangers of temp music is that often the temp is from a much more expensive movie than the one being made and consequently it is nearly impossible to duplicate the sound that the director has grown accustomed to with the temp. I don't think JC was necessarily thinking about all that - it just worked for his film, which is the most important consideration in choosing temp. But it was an advantageous byproduct of his choice.

The film opens and closes with the main theme, a lyrical melody grounded in an American tradition of folksong and hymn, scored for strings. The melody of the B section, indicated by the entrance of the English Horn in the opening cue, "Beautiful," is based on a variation of the second half of the patriotic song "My Country 'Tis of Thee." It was less an attempt at being clever ("sweet land of liberty" = "freedomland") and more the result of looking for a way to infuse the score with an underlying sense of Americana. The following section features a mournful duet for flute and clarinet, which sets up some rhythmic motives that are used in subsequent cues. This then leads into a call and response section for cello and violin over a bed of strings and harp arpeggios. It is this last section that later forms the basis for the end credits cue, "Free," which features a new melody for oboe and the gorgeous performance of Chris Bleth.

I must also acknowledge the influence of American composer Samuel Barber on the score. Barber is probably most famous for his "Adagio for Strings," but he wrote many other beautiful pieces in his quintessential American voice.