Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, first-time director Paul J. Hildebrandt’s documentary about the Apollo 8 mission, First to the Moon (2018), gives viewers a glimpse into this important historical moment.  The film was released to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission and helps us get to know the three astronauts who were involved in this first flight: Frank Boorman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders.  The film brings us personal experiences from each of them and is combined with archival footage.  Historically, it is framed against the growing political unrest in America, the civil rights movement, ratcheting up of the Cold War, and the Vietnam War.  Against this turmoil, NASA somehow managed to fund and launch what seems like an impossible achievement.  Composer Alexander Bornstein has written for a number of shorts and television projects.  He has worked with Christopher Lennertz (on series such as Lost in Space, Reolution, Agent Carter).  His score here was recorded with the Budapest Symphony and is being released on CD and as a digital download from Notefornotemusic.com.

The album opens with a propulsive cue (“1968”) that has a repeated percussive pattern against brass.  The music takes a more atmospheric turn before a fine heroic statement begins to grow.  The style here overall is a bit reminiscent of the Media Ventures/Remote Control crew with the small, repeated motives in churning strings and brass-led thematic presentation.  The music blends the ethereal atmospherics with acoustic instruments well.  A touching guitar theme appears against the electronics as we move into “Crew”.  Borstein selects a variety of delicate colors against the beautiful backdrops of arpeggios and restrained string writing.  It comes to the forefront of “The Good Earth” which has a gorgeous little idea for oboe and ethnic flute which eventually moves into the action-like suggestions.  This will also inform the rhythmic undercurrent for “Becoming Apollo 8” and “Fireball”.  Later, the longer “The Dark Side of the Moon” serves as another expressive exploration of thematic material with the most Zimmer-esque qualities of the score coming to the forefront here.  An asymmetrical pattern, combined with mallet percussion is also a nice change of pace in “Model Rockets.”  As the score progresses, continual blends of electronic overlays are added to the orchestral score.  This perhaps gives the music its “science fiction” feel while still holding on to a narrative dramatic style that often loops about underneath.

Bornstein’s approach to the score here parallels just the sort of big orchestral drama one might expect out of the Zimmer-influenced scoring style.  His themes are still engaging with big orchestral moments allowing them to soar where needed.  There is a sort of graceful beauty to many of them with the harmony sometimes hinting more at the danger and other impending drama.  Sometimes one forgets this is for a documentary as the music would seem equally at home in a superhero blockbuster these days.  That makes this an equally fascinating release for those who have come to enjoy this particular approach to narrative film music.  Bornstein’s thematic development helps pull things together well with these various soundscapes bringing listeners along for the historical journey.—Steven A. Kennedy

Swiss director Stefan Haupt is known for his many documentary films.  He explores the life of the founder of the Swiss Reformation, the priest and theologian Ulrich Zwingli, one of the many Renaissance reformers of the Catholic Church.  Though he would have many adherents to his way of thinking, his ideas did not spawn their own Protestant church.  The Reformer—Zwingli: A Life’s Portrait begins in Zurich in 1519 as Zwingli takes up his post there.  The film has been released in Switzerland but does not seem to have a wider release yet, though it has begun to garner some critical notice.  The score is by the award-winning composing sibling team of Baldenwegs (Zone Rouge).  There work in advertising and feature film has continued to garner numerous nominations and awards.  For this score, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra is accompanied by the violinist Daniel Hope.

A warm thematic idea gradually enters into a gorgeously-scored “Prologus”.  The music is marked with a touch of Renaissance flavoring (this recurs in a few other spots like “Epistula Ad Fratrem”).  A vocalise adds a somewhat angelic quality against static string writing in “Pura”.  The melody is quite captivating here.  It is in the thematic ideas that the score really adds an extra emotional pull to the narrative.  The melodic lines sometimes take cadential turns that suggest Renaissance musical arrival points.  The often open quality of the writing also adds to this touch, though the music has a slightly more romantic tinge that helps bridge the period.  One can hear these elements explored well in “Adiuva Nos, Deus”.  The score helps navigate some of the religious backdrops by creating these connections musically with chorus and darker string writing.  A tough of Baroque string style also inserts itself in tracks like “Tempus Fugit” and “Agitatio”, taking on a post-minimalist vibe in other places like “Verbum Vivat”.  Chant also serves as another church reference in “MDXIX” which is a quite stunning blend of pedal points against rather modern choral harmonies that add an ethereal feel to the piece.  These components become the primary material that will be explored as the score progresses.  Often the choral lines will move to a blend of troubled eeriness, an almost spooky quality, that is made more so when string lines are added to this texture, or add extra dissonance.  Sometimes this moves into an interesting blend of the solo violin against these gorgeous harmonic motions in the orchestra (“Lux”).  “Crypta”, the penultimate track, introduces a brief moment of dissonance and ramps up the tension with the addition of strange sounds and a recessed pipe organ adding to the unusual quality of the score.  It is quite effective.  The score creates this sense of religious piety and connection with the divine that is expressed through a blend of vocalise, choral ideas, and a sense of reaching outward in some of its primary themes.

On one level, Zwingli recalls the sort of modern romantic and contemporary quality of The Red Violin with a touch of Howard’s The Village, but it casts this into a darker, richer tapestry of string sound and adds an often angelic choral element and solo voice providing an often engrossing experience.  It is a beautiful score well worth tracking down.