Medal of Honor: Frontline Soundtrack

Medal of Honor: Frontline Soundtrack, Michael Giacchino, 2002

Both Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: Underground had made a point of treating World War II not merely as an excuse for a shooting spree. Instead, they approached the subject with an unusual degree of seriousness and respect. Medal of Honor: Frontline goes further still, basing its storyline on the failed Allied offensive Operation Market Garden. This allowed the developers to aim for an even greater sense of gravitas, shaped by defeat and tragedy. Michael Giacchino, by now the series’ defining musical voice, responded in kind to the game’s comparatively downbeat subject matter. Frontline gave him the ideal opportunity to expand the franchise’s emotional palette once again. The result is one of the most operatic and grand Western game soundtracks ever written.

Where Frontline truly sets itself apart from previous Medal of Honor scores is in its slower, downright elegiac material. These cues push the score’s theatricality to melodramatic heights that rival the game-music-as-opera surges of Heroes of Might and Magic II. “Arnhem” is one such piece, taken to emotional extremes by full choir with absolutely heart-rending effect. Built on a gently rocking, almost lullaby-like four-note motif, “Arnhem” is a stunning creation whose impact is nearly overwhelming, climaxing in two massive choral outbursts. Patriotism had always been present in this series, but here it comes from no place of solemn pride. Instead, it is born from sorrow and the desperate will to survive.

It might seem, then, as though Giacchino is exploring the darker side of war for the first time. Yet he still does so in monumental, melodically gratifying fashion. This is not Call of Duty’s vision of war, with its embrace of musical chaos. Even so, Medal of Honor: Frontline also addresses the horrors of war through means other than extrovert pathos. These compositions add necessary shades and subtlety to Giacchino’s treatment of the subject matter. Take “Border Town” and its desolate first half. This downcast atmosphere eventually gives way to a collision between the Medal of Honor main theme and a mounting sense of dismay. “Nijmegen Bridge” pushes these emotional contrasts still further, representing the feelings of Allied soldiers forced to hold the bridge against approaching Nazi forces while waiting in vain for desperately needed reinforcements.

This interest in the psychology of the games’ protagonists had already shaped Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: Underground. Unsurprisingly, Medal of Honor: Frontline continues that tradition. Indeed, it is the successful fusion of the operatic and the personal that allows Giacchino to write a score so vast in scale without ever making it feel overwrought or emotionally hollow.

With Jimmy Patterson’s return in Frontline, both his theme and the main Medal of Honor theme also return. Yet both sound wearier and more inward than before, starting with the very first presentation of the Medal of Honor melody in “Operation Market Garden”, where it is sung by a lone boy soprano. There is an undeniable feeling of bereavement in most appearances of Patterson’s theme and the main Medal of Honor melody throughout Frontline. This creates an especially effective contrast when those Allied ideas collide with the antagonistic material of the battle tracks.

The thematic material these Allied themes confront includes, of course, the Nazi fanfare from Medal of Honor. Surprisingly, though, that motif plays a relatively minor role here. Instead, in keeping with Frontline’s emphasis on the conflict’s personal dimension, it is the theme for antagonist Rudolf von Sturmgeist that more strongly shapes the score’s thematic foundation. Von Sturmgeist’s theme is a far more malleable creation than the original game’s harsh Nazi brass assault. It first appears in “Kleveburg”, presented as an ominous, slithering woodwind melody. With convincing ease, it creates anxiety through its pronounced chromaticism. From there, the theme passes through several variations until it carries “Escaping Gotha” – and the score as a whole – to a suitably powerful conclusion, as the full choir throws its weight behind the theme’s mad-scientist character.

Unsurprisingly, Giacchino’s action writing on the Medal of Honor: Frontline soundtrack is every bit as excellent as one would expect. A more pronounced play of dynamics and moods within individual cues means that the action music here is less immediately explosive than its rambunctious counterparts in Medal of Honor, which hit the ground running at full speed. At the same time, it is all the more exhilarating when the score finally kicks into overdrive and enters fortissimo territory. Giacchino’s Medal of Honor action cues had always stood out for their masterful development. Yet a perfectly self-contained piece like “The Halftrack Chase” arguably surpasses even his already sterling earlier efforts.

Everything comes to a head in “Escaping Gotha”. This is probably the finest action cue Giacchino ever wrote for a game score. By the time it closes with a cathartic recapitulation of the main Medal of Honor theme, finally heard on unambiguously triumphant trumpets, the Medal of Honor: Frontline soundtrack has established itself as one of the most superbly conceived and fully realised game scores ever committed to album.