To move on so that the big scary post isn’t at the top of my blog…

Music rocks my world. Not in the same way finals have been rocking my world, but in a much better way. Here are 3 of the world’s most awesome soundtracks, which I’ve been listening to lately and which you’ve probably never heard:

1. Children of Dune by Brian Tyler

This was a soundtrack composed for a made-for-TV Scifi miniseries. The miniseries, while good, is wholly undeserving of the rich soundtrack it received. The score is evocative, with its strong mideastern instrumentations and haunting vocals and guitar solos. If you want to study how a theme can be woven throughout a score, replayed and tweaked and yet without getting old, you could do worse than listen to this score. Definitely one of my all-time favorites, and I strongly recommend it.

2. Lady in the Water by James Newton Howard

Forget what you thought about the movie. While most scores are very impressionistic, Lady in the Water goes one step further than most. It actually sounds, somehow, like water: like a bizarre cross between Debussy and Vivaldi. The melodies swell and rise and then retreat into the harmonies, much like the ocean’s tides; each time they go, they leave the listener satisfied and yet longing for more. But there is a sweetness to that. This is not a soundtrack where iTunes will do you much good: whoever did the sampling was either incompetent or had not listened to the tracks, for they do not give you so much of a hint of any of the major themes. This is a score, for fullest effect, best listened to all the way through.

3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Thomas Newman

This score is simply fun and quirky, which also makes it very difficult to describe. But you can be sure you won’t hear anything else quite like it. Part of the score’s uniqueness comes from pizzicato effects, and part from its short and fast-paced songs. The overall effect is much like the movie, and much like the books: an old, industrialized style with a modern twist. Like the other soundtracks here, it is far from standard and offers a new musical adventure quite different from what you might be accustomed to.

Here is another piece of music I’ve been listening to lately. Mother India, by Caedmon’s Call, from their album Share the Well:

Father God, You have shed Your tears for Mother India
They have fallen to water ancient seeds
That will grow into hands to touch the untouchable
How blessed are the poor, the sick, the weak

Father, forgive me, for I have not believed
Like Mother India, I have groaned and grieved
Father, forgive me, I forgot Your grace
Your Spirit falls on India and captures me in Your embrace

The serpent spoke and the world believed its venom
Now we’re ten to a room or compared with magazines

Father, forgive me, for I have not believed
Like Mother India, I have groaned and grieved
Father, forgive me, I forgot Your grace
Your Spirit falls on India and captures me in Your embrace

There’s a land where our shackles turn to diamonds
Where we trade in our rags for a royal crown
In that place, our oppressors hold no power
And the doors of the King are thrown wide

Father, forgive me, for I have not believed
Like Mother India, I have groaned and grieved
Father, forgive me, I forgot Your grace
Your Spirit falls on India and captures me in Your embrace

Isn’t there something terribly real about that? It is not my desire to tell the Indians, or any other people for that matter, that they must confess or perish in hell. I have no authority to say that. But I want to show them the greatness of Christ, because that is ultimately what will bring anyone to him: his own beauty. And I want to bless them – yes, materially, for how much material good do I have? If I say God is good (or in traditional evangelism, that heaven is good), how can I not work for the betterment of their lives? If we are with the poor and downtrodden, perhaps we will meet God there, for that is where he lives. There something tantalizing about that, and something that moves me.

Come, let’s leave this place and go, giving God’s grace to all people without reservation.