Soundtrack Snippets

This short, but heartwarming album, is the crux of what makes a good Christmas score.
The 2004 film, directed by, Chazz Palminteri is a simple drama telling the story of five New Yorkers who come together on Christmas Eve hoping for a miracle.
The soundtrack, composed by Alan Menken, tells their story wonderfully. Menken uses the stereotypical instruments used in a drama score; a solo piano with supporting strings. Cliche, though it may be, the score has a happy, and simplistic style to it. The album is a short 27 minutes total, all of which, is highly enjoyable.
The score has two themes heard on the piano, both of which derive from two source cues that appear in all of it's glory in two last cues. In a way, the entire score seems to be building up to those final two. The first theme, is heard most namely in the cues, Winter Light/Montage and Winter Light/End Titles. The cue is a mellow and heartwarming song performed and written by Adam Pascal which uniquely utilizes the score's second cue heard most notably in the track, Lux Perpetua.
Lux Perpetua, written by Alan Menken himself, is a gorgeous children's choir performance of an orchestral song, with the lyrics in Latin giving it a classic holiday feel.
Overall, the score remains an optimistic and simple, albeit, predictable and repetitive album. It does what a wintry holiday score should do warming both the heart and soul.

Best Cue(s)

• The Hospital
• Lux Perpetua
• Winter's Light/End Titles