• Composed by Jane Antonia Cornish
• BSX Records / 2011 / 24:29

Fireflies in the Garden first appeared at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2008, going on to receive cinema releases (though not much attention) in Europe over the rest of the year and the first few months of 2009.  A soundtrack album featuring Javier Navarrete’s music was released at the time.  It came as a bit of a surprise, then, when BSX Records announced late in 2011 that it was releasing the soundtrack to the film, featuring music by Jane Antonia Cornish.  The film finally got released in America after three years on the shelf following a substantial re-working – part of which was the commissioning of this new score.  So, Fireflies in the Garden joins that very small group of films for which there have been two separate score albums, featuring the music of two separate composers, neither of whom’s score was technically rejected.

Cornish’s music is brief but very beautiful.  An elegant, classical-sounding work, it features a small orchestra along with prominent solos for violin, cello, oboe and piano.  The composer manages to pack several impressive themes into the 25-minute running time, and while much of the film is rather downbeat, the music is frequently anything-but.  Admittedly there is an inherent sadness to some of it, but also an undeniable beauty – in particular a theme for piano, violin and cello which is really rather haunting.  The album is a strong one, its only drawback being that many of the cues are on the short side which prevents the music building up a particular flow, but there’s no doubt that it is very appealing indeed and certainly recommended.  *** 1/2

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