My Architect Falls Church VA

My Architect

Soundtrack

Commotion / Koch Records, 2004

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/06/2004

It is rare that I get to see films these days. This is thereality of being a father of three kids working two jobs. If I wantto see any film, it usually has to be rented from Blockbuster andviewed in a few sittings over crying, screaming and frequentinterruptions.

Needless to say, I have not been able to get to the theatres tosee My Architect, a film which was an Academy Award nominee for"Best Documentary". (Despite playing in only a handful of theatres,this film has done respectably; Box Office Mojo lists it in the top20 highest grossing documentaries of all time.) Telling the storyof architect Louis Kahn, the mystery and secrets of his life andhis illegitimate son's coming to terms with his father's life andlegacy, the story has to be powerful on film. I know the music isquite haunting, even if it does begin to lose some of its powerpast the halfway mark of this relatively short disc (20 tracksclock in at just under 41 minutes).

Joseph Vitarelli's score is indeed sparse, mostly driven bypiano and little orchestral input with hints of Judaism thrown into reflect Kahn's background. All together, the soundtrack does abetter job at painting the struggle the movie is documenting thanmany other soundtracks written for major-market films. MarkVitarelli's name now - chances are good we will be hearing a lotmore from him in the years to come.

While the soundtrack's mood tells a little about Kahn's earlylife ("Beginnings…") and his religious upbringing ("HayomT'amtzeinu"), for the most part the music creates a picture ofuncertainty and struggle ("The Mystery Of Louis Kahn," "AmericanHymn I"), almost acting as an audio version of filmmaker NathanielKahn's quest to discover just who his father was beyond the worldof architecture. The inclusion of outside selections like "FanfareFor The Common Man" and "Happy Returns" does suggest rays of hopein the search, and maybe even suggests there is a happy ending inus all.