Steven Spielberg’s directorial masterpiece Schindler’s List is a truly powerful story that highlights both extremes of the human moral conscience, based on the novel by Thomas Keneally and a screenplay by Steven Zaillian. The narrative follows factory owner Oskar Schindler and his efforts to save Jews from the Nazi regime, first for the profits of his own factory, and then to try and save as many lives as possible. Daring, passionate, yet restrained, the film is mostly shot in black and white, with a mastery of directorial skill and emotional charge. It swept Academy Awards (and various others) in 1993, finally giving Spielberg an overdue statuette, and firmly proving that, from a subject of a horrific and distressing nature, an elegant and dignified motion picture can be produced, one that appropriately examines such atrocities.
Undoubtedly a crucial element of the success of Schindler’s List was John Williams’ score. Having just completed the financially lucrative Jurassic Park, no one expected the pair to craft another film to top, or even equal, that particular cinematic extravaganza within the same year. Yet the score for Schindler’s List would overshadow the score for Jurassic Park, the former having such an emotional punch that the latter would come dangerously close to being lost in Williams’ staggering oeuvre. Schindler’s List has been argued as Williams’ greatest score in his career. This is a claim I have a few problems with – while it’s artistry excels, matching the film it underscores, and possibly surpassing any other Williams score, it doesn’t feel as extensively developed as some of Williams’ other efforts for his adventure/sci-fi films. The multiplicity of interwoven leitmotifs usually present in Williams scores are somewhat remiss here – there are three strong main themes and secondary themes, some powerful standalone musical pieces, and a lot of reliance on source material. Ultimately, the context is important, and sourcing Jewish music was appropriate for the motion picture. Obviously you won’t be having as much fun listening to Schindler’s List compared to music for an action-packed adventure blockbuster.
Having said all of this, Schindler’s List is completely a masterpiece, a tour-de-force of tear-jerking musical ability. So much of its gripping emotional enticement is intangible, and thus we must give credit to the musical performances, especially Itzhak Perlman on the solo violin and Richard Harvey on the recorder. Williams, rightfully, kept his musical approach simple, and like Spielberg, infused his music with beauty so primordial that it attempts to break your heart with every note. The orchestra was restrained, predominantly string and woodwind based, with choral elements in some tracks, and many of the main themes taken up by a solo violin or woodwind instrument. As such, through the choice of instruments and the structure of the melodies and counterpointing (undoubtedly influenced by source material), the music felt appropriately “Jewish” in nature.
Three major themes help to create this emotional experience. The first is the ‘main theme’, the iconic melody most strongly associated with Schindler’s List. Famously meandering between near-octave alterations, the simple yet effective harmonic progressions help to make these very basic movements unique and lasting in the memory of the listener. The first track on the score album is a concert arrangement, which begins with a few bars of introduction from the orchestra, and presents the A-phrase of the main theme. Mid-way through at 1:46 a B-phrase is introduced, with a melody on the oboe counterpointed by the violin, and switched between instruments, before the A-phrase returns with even more emotional punch, concluding on a sustained high note.
The secondary theme is introduced in ‘Remembrances’, another commemorative concert arrangement, but from a modern perspective as opposed to the primary theme’s companion for the horrific events as they unfolded. The ‘Remembrances’ theme is structurally similar to the ‘main theme’, allowing them to be easily counterpointed with each other, but sadly this happens infrequently. The theme is presented on strings with harp, again using achingly simple and repeated harmonic progressions to well up emotional spirit in the listener. After a brief interlude it appears again at 2:47 with even more intensity and lengthened chord progressions, almost becoming angry in its sadness. A third, less heralded theme is first heard in ‘Jewish Town’, and serves as a procession piece for Schindler’s factory workers. It’s a ‘working class’ theme, set to a churning bass rhythm and replacing the elegance of the other two themes with a mechanical sense of movement.
The score follows a somewhat hypnotic movement, progressing with many tracks of a similar nature following on from one to the next. After the ‘Theme from Schindler’s List’ we have ‘Jewish Town’, with the aforementioned ‘working class’ theme appearing at 1:15, book-ended by violin performances of another “Jewish” melody at the beginning and at 3:45, both times sparsely accompanied by other strings to accent the melody’s simple beauty and movement. ‘Immolation’ begins with slow strings in a tragic harmonic pattern, with subtle harp inclusion, rising and brimming with anger and despair. Then at 1:00 the choir enters, performing a tragic horror chant, and while the listener may not hear and understand the words, they will feel a sense of true horror and tragedy. The recorder and oboe performance of the ‘main theme’ at the end of the track almost wilts in acknowledgement of the horrific crime the earlier part of the track underscores.
‘Schindler’s Workforce’ begins with a simplistic horn and string performance of the ‘main theme’, which then changes to a sort of “Jewish worker’s march” at 1:45. A variation on the ‘working class’ theme, this simple ethnic rhythm of sharp, muted intensity, with room for flute and string solos, carries on hypnotically for another 7 minutes. ‘Oyf’n Pripetshok’ is a Jewish chorus performed by the Li-Ron Herzeliya Children’s Choir, which then bleeds into ‘Nacht Action’ at 1:07. Leading with a performance of the ‘Remembrances’ theme for flute, oboe and strings, the track suddenly takes a darker, more ominous turn, as a clarinet carries the sharply alternating solo melody.
‘I Could Have Done More’ is a hugely emotional track and a score highlight, underscoring the film’s conclusion and farewell to Oskar Schindler as he laments about how he could have saved more lives than he did. Opening with beautiful string work, the ‘main theme’ is briefly heard on woodwind, with string accompaniment both legato and staccato. At 1:02 an achingly heartfelt performance of the B-phrase from the ‘Remembrances’ theme appears, and then at 1:33 Perlman gives us a gorgeous rendition of the full ‘main theme’ with full orchestral accompaniment. At 4:43, after many statements of the A phrase and one of the B phrase of the main them, the strings take over the main melody, and the violin counterpoints and accents, resulting in a few moments of extreme artistry and beauty.
‘Auschwitz-Birkenau’ is the track which truly explores Perlman’s capability for dissonance, with malevolent violin solo over churning strings that crescendo and diminuendo back and forth, trying to convey the nature of a place created with the sole purpose of exterminating an entire race of people. ‘Stolen Memories’ takes the ‘Remembrances’ theme as its core, first played on the recorder at 0:51, and later on the strings, aching with emotion. At 3:05 the track changes tack slightly and a solo plucked guitar plays the ‘main theme’, eventually accompanied by strings. In ‘Making the List’ Williams shifts the attitude of the music towards defiance, both through the use of brass and by instructing the violin and flute soloists to emphasise the title theme with more force . The accompanying brass and strings for the ‘Remembrances’ theme at 2:38, and the swiftly following ‘main theme’, are the only slight hint towards the heroic nature of the title character’s actions. When the violin solo rendition of the ‘Remembrances’ theme enters again at 3:49, we are back to sorrowful lamenting.
The first half of ‘Give Me Your Names’ similarly structures itself around the ‘Remembrances’ theme, while the second half features more strongly the ‘main theme’, in both instances performed at first by the orchestra and then with solo instruments to counterpoint – the violin counterpoint for the ‘main theme’ is especially lovely. Just for good measure, at 3:58 the orchestra reverts to the ‘Remembrances’ theme with the orchestra and solo violin in counterpoint, resulting in a perfect musical and thematic marriage. ‘Yerushalaim Chel Zahav’ (Jerusalem of Gold) is another Jewish source song, performed by a Tel Aviv choir, and the album rounds out with two more concert arrangements of the main two themes, first the ‘Remembrances’ theme with Perlman’s violin carrying the melody, and then the ‘main theme’ first performed on a piano, and then taken up by the full orchestra.
As this is a score where simplistic beauty is key, much of Schindler’s List relies on careful instrumentation and performances by solo instruments and the ensemble. Perlman is often credited with bringing the music to its level of quality, but to limit the scores’ merits to solely his performances would be a disservice to the performances of the other solo instruments, not to mention the entire orchestra. Where Perlman is credited with performing (in just over half of the album’s tracks), the sincerity of his lament cannot be questioned, especially in the high ranges, but the violin truly excels as an accent to the flawless orchestra, in tracks such as ‘Give Me Your Names’ and especially ‘I Could Have Done More’. Overall, even John Williams was hard pressed to succeed on this level again, even when he collaborated with Perlman on Memoirs of a Geisha. The violin, so historically prevalent and symbolic for the topic of Schindler’s List, and the performances of all involved, were a perfect formula of timing and execution, resulting in a nearly unparalleled artistic masterpiece.
God bless,
Purchase the album from iTunes here
Here is a YouTube link for a clip from the conclusion of Schindler’s List featuring the music from the track ‘I Could Have Done More’ – have your tissues ready.
Highlights:
- ‘Theme from Schindler’s List’
- ‘Immolation (With Our Lives, We Give Life)’
- ‘Remembrances’
- ‘I Could Have Done More’ – my personal favourite
- ‘Auschwitz-Birkenau’
- ‘Making the List’
- ‘Give Me Your Names’
Scores of Scores 
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