At the start of the First World War, Albert’s horse Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. The fortunes of war see Joey serving both in the English and German armies before finding himself injured and alone in no mans land. Albert cannot forget Joey and embarks on his own quest across the war torn continent to find his beloved horse...

War Horse is the original music from The National Theatres multi-award winning production, which has recently been released as a film. The play is based on an original novel by Michael Morpurgo, the former Children’s Laureate and award-winning author, and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford. The main vocalists are John Tams and Tim van Eyken, the score was written by Adrian Sutton (Coram Boy, The Revenger’s Tragedy, and Nation).

You never know what you’re going to get with a cast recording, especially with such a recent play. What I wasn’t expecting was such a liltingly beautiful album. Although John Williams wrote a new score for the film I would recommend that people seek this version out as well.

The music is unexpected for a play. There are few ‘show tunes’ which would hold up to the greater body of music produced, partially this is because of its own traditions there are recognisable themes and type of music produced. Occasionally, shows would buck this trend, such as Hair and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as they are aimed at a younger audience. The songs on War Horse are good enough to have found themselves on a general release album.

The show opens with 'Devon at Peace' (2 min, 21 sec) a pastoral opening with just the hint of a discordant trumpet heralding the coming war. 'Only Remembered' (1 min, 51 sec) is the first vocal track which has a hymn like quality and sets the tone for the entire vocal tracks, being in nature, a folk song. With 'Albert and Joey' (2 min, 57 sec) we're back to gliding oboes, sweeping strings and the occasional brass, which sounds more like a northern brass band, though I’m sure that even Devon has discovered brass instruments.

My wife personally hates the next vocal track, 'The Year Turns Round Again' (2 min, 54 sec) as I can’t stop playing this incredibly beautiful song, which succeeds in being both sad and hopeful at the same time. John Tams, who also provided the lyrics for the show's songs, has such an evocative voice; mixed with the sombre accordion it sends shivers down my spine. Genre watchers might recognise Tam from his work on the Sharpe series, playing Daniel Hagman and especially for singing 'Over the Hill and Far Away'. If you remember and liked that song you’ll love War Horse.

It is a song of loss, but also one which looks forward to the New Year and the inevitably of change. This stands as the best track on what is anyway a good album as Adrian Sutton has perfectly captured the tone and nuance of songs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The rest of the album follows these musical themes with the songs 'Learning to Plough' (4 min, 26 sec), 'Wheel of Fortune' (1 min, 40 sec), 'The Scarlet and the Blue' (2 min, 03 sec), 'Devonshire Carol' (35 sec), 'Hold the Line' (56 sec), 'Goodbye Dolly Grey' (2 min, 42 sec) which is an original song popular in the Boer War, 'The Year Turns Round Again Reprise' (1 min. 12 sec) and 'Only Remembered Reprise' (1 min, 37 sec) which closes the show.

The instrumental pieces which make up the majority of the middle of the album vary between soft atmospheric piece and bombastic kettle drum powerhouses, when musically describing the war, including 'First Gallop' (1 min, 20 sec), 'Crossing the Channel' (1 min, 55 sec), 'The Wounded' (2 min, 09 sec), 'The Charge' (1 min, 43 sec), 'Friedrich’s Theme' (1 min, 49 sec), 'Emilie’s Theme' (2 min, 22 sec), 'Into the Crater' (20 sec), 'Pulling The Gun' (1 min, 08 sec), 'The Tank' (1 min, 21 sec) 'Joey’s Long Night' (2 min, 55 sec) and 'Albert and Joey Reunited' (2 min, 05 sec).

The songs tend to be sparser, musically than the instrumental pieces, which use a full orchestra. If given the exposure that the album deserves, I think that this is likely to go down as one of the great stage shows.

10

Charles Packer