Glory Film Score

While the film Glory received many accolades from reviewers, the film score remained a critical component that was usually overlooked by the industry. While actor Denzel Washington managed to win an Oscar for his performance as a soldier, the Academy Awards did not even nominate the film score for an award. On the other hand, the prestigious Golden Globe Awards did acknowledge the contributions of the soundtrack and gave Glory a nomination although another movie received the actual award.

As time has passed since the release of Glory, many composers and listeners have discovered that the film score was actually of considerable quality. The work of composer James Horner hits all the right notes and helps to add tension and emotion to difficult movements in the civil war movie. The score owes a natural debt to traditional military music, with the use of martial drums and other typical instruments, but is creative enough to not appear as a copy to earlier works. In fact, many composers have been influenced by the score to Glory, with many reprising songs that appeared on the soundtrack. Recycled versions of pieces from Glory can be heard on scores of other films.

The main theme that was chosen by director Ed Zwick uses vocals from the Harlem Boys Choir and is an immediately recognizable song that remains one of the best known pieces from James Horner. This song and the entire soundtrack to the civil war movie increased Horner’s drawing power and he would ultimately land on some of the biggest movies of later years, including Titanic, a film which would net Horner his first Academy Award for Best Film Score. Starting from Glory, James Horner has been a regular composer of film soundtracks and his recent movies include Black Gold, Cristiada, and The Song of Names.