The Abbey Soundtrack, Emilio de Paz, 2008
A murder in a medieval monastery? A wise monk, accompanied by a young and inexperienced companion, investigating the crime? It is hard not to assume that The Abbey’s plot was influenced more than a little by The Name of the Rose. Then again, it remains an intriguing, still sufficiently original premise for an adventure game. The Abbey itself was not received quite as warmly as The Name of the Rose, with reviewers mostly settling on middling scores.
Where The Abbey most clearly departs from its obvious inspiration is in its surprisingly sumptuous soundtrack. James Horner scored The Name of the Rose with a low-key, largely synthetic work that has long divided film music listeners. The Abbey, by contrast, takes an almost diametrically opposed approach. Its score employs a full live orchestra, organ, and two choirs, one male and one boys’, to create the kind of gloriously melodic bombast one would more readily expect from a historical film epic than from a relatively obscure adventure game. The surprise is all the greater when one considers that Emilio de Paz wrote this outstanding soundtrack while also serving as the game’s project leader and lead designer.
From the outset, de Paz leaves little doubt about where he intends to take the The Abbey soundtrack. As soon as opening track “In Memoriam” begins with sweeping strings and choral statements, it becomes clear that he is going to exploit the game’s religious themes for all the melodrama they can bear. “In Memoriam” also introduces the score’s main thematic idea. In a clever nod to musical tradition, de Paz appropriates the centuries-old Dies Irae motif, entirely appropriate to the setting. But after quoting its opening notes, he departs from the traditional melody and redirects it upwards. Making full use of its obvious ecclesiastical associations, he turns it into a striking theme that recurs across several tracks, including “God’s Domicil”, “Embracement of the Night”, and “Kingdom of Dead”.
What is crucial to the soundtrack’s success is its seemingly endless supply of richly glowing melodies. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most melodically beautiful orchestral game scores ever written. There is a warmth radiating from these melodic statements that one does not often encounter. Just listen to how the weighty yet graceful nobility of “God’s Domicil” paints a remarkably nuanced image of the place it underscores. There is grandeur here, certainly, but also the reassuring sense of safety that comes from accumulated wisdom. “Abbot’s Theme” is equally subtle and multifaceted. The lead character’s gravitas and his gentler, more light-hearted side both register through quiet organ lines, charming woodwind figures, and an impassioned climax supported by soaring strings.
de Paz is plainly aware that a convincing epic must draw on more emotional registers than mere grandeur. True, there is no shortage of heavenly choir writing and large orchestral gestures in The Abbey. But he handles other expressive territories just as assuredly. “Fire and Iron”, for instance, carries the soundtrack’s melodic preoccupations into more period-specific ground. A lightly scored medieval folk dance, it recalls the gentle busyness of the Anno scores. One of the album’s prettiest pieces, “Benedicte Dominus” joins pastoral woodwinds to soothing choir, marrying the idyllic to the monumental. “Healing Hands”, though brief, is even more affecting.
The Abbey is, however, a medieval murder mystery, so matters inevitably darken. A chromatic cello line in “Embracement of the Night” introduces unease, which turns into outright horror in the sombre choral writing of “Cadaver”. As the investigation begins in earnest and the game moves into more methodical detective work, the soundtrack correspondingly shifts into more subdued terrain. Yet de Paz manages this turn towards more conventionally adventure-game writing with complete ease.
“Nazario of Milan” then restores some of the melodrama that had shaped the earlier portions of the score, though now in more crepuscular form. “Blaze in the Heart” reaches back towards the biblical bombast, and occasional fury, of “In Memoriam”. With emotions by now fully heightened, “Requiem” brings the album’s arc to its peak. A beautifully impassioned string adagio, it opens with a reprise of the Dies Irae-derived motif on solo violin before plunging headlong into a near-operatic flood of feeling. The string writing mourns, suffers, and rises again with a proud sweep that crystallises the soundtrack’s finest melodic qualities. The track’s most memorable moment is a violin outcry that recalls a similarly emotional gesture in “Abbot’s Theme”.
Finally, closing track “The Abbey Suite” successfully gathers the soundtrack’s thematic and emotional strands into a single seamless piece that plays like a concert overture. It is the perfect conclusion to what may be game music’s most unabashed love letter to the heart-on-sleeve melodicism of classic Golden Age film scores.
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