Munich [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

1	Munich, film score~Munich, 1972 2:37
2	Munich, film score~The Attack at Olympic Village 3:00
3	Munich, film score~Hatikvah (The Hope) 2:02
4	Munich, film score~Remembering Munich 4:38
5	Munich, film score~Letter Bombs 2:48
6	Munich, film score~A Prayer for Peace 3:51
7	Munich, film score~Bearing the Burden 8:11
8	Munich, film score~Avner and Daphna 4:02
9	Munich, film score~The Tarmac at Munich 3:59
10	Munich, film score~Avner's Theme 3:07
11	Munich, film score~Stalking Carl 4:24
12	Munich, film score~Bonding 1:57
13	Munich, film score~Encounter in London / Bomb Malfunctions 3:37
14	Munich, film score~Discovering Hans 2:47
15	Munich, film score~The Raid in Tarifa 2:03
16	Munich, film score~Thoughts of Home 4:03
17	Munich, film score~Hiding the Family 1:25
18	Munich, film score~End Credits 4:06

Barnes & Noble

For the score of Munich, which tells the true story of the Israeli athletes massacred at the 1972 Munich Olympics by Palestinian terrorists, Steven Spielberg tapped longtime collaborator John Williams. From the outset, Williams summons a forlorn mood, nesting the haunting, wordless vocals of Lisbeth Scott in a bed of moaning strings on the ominous opening track, "Munich, 1972," and the equally atmospheric "Remembering Munich," reminiscent of a Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning). At the heart of this thriller is the quest by a team of Israeli secret service agents, led by Avner (Eric Bana), to find and assassinate the terrorists. As such, Williams masterfully hits all the right notes -- subtle timpani and cello arrangements heighten the escalation of the pulse-racing "Letter Bombs," while a Hungarian zither intensifies the foreboding of "Stalking Carl." And even as the score is suffused with an appropriately heavy mood, Williams offers a glimmer of light via the melancholy string arrangements of "A Prayer for Peace" and the unbowed resolve underlying his strings-rich rendition of the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah" (The Hope). Williams's compassionate and character-driven score lies at the heart of this controversial film, another fine byproduct of his winning partnership with Spielberg. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

In his brief liner notes (really more of an appreciation), director Steven Spielberg points out that composer John Williams' score for Munich, Spielberg's film about Israeli attempts to track down and kill the Palestinians responsible for the massacre of Israel's 1972 Olympic team, is his fourth score of 2005, following Star Wars: Episode Three -- Revenge of the Sith, Spielberg's own War of the Worlds, and Memoirs of a Geisha. That's not a bad output for a man who also celebrated his 73rd birthday during the year. Pointing to the very different sorts of film the four titles represent, Spielberg calls Williams "a master of disguise," a composer able to serve the different needs of such varying subjects. Every film composer must have something of that versatility, though in fact Williams may have it less than most, as he is the closest thing to a traditional Hollywood composer still active. With Munich, he is put in an area that is very familiar to him, since the film is set in Europe, allowing him to draw upon his familiarity with and affection for European classical music. He employs a large orchestra, and for the most part he has written a conservative score for it to play. The one aspect of the project that is unusual is the film's darkness, beginning with the massacre and then following the increasingly problematic actions of those assigned to exact revenge. This does not allow for the kind of stirring, swashbuckling themes of a Star Wars movie. Rather, it involves minor keys, lots of low tones (no less than eight basses are used), and plenty of slow tempos. To make this tolerable, onscreen and on disc, Williams alternates the passages of dread with more romantic (but still sad) ones. Thus, the throbbing, percussive "Letter Bombs" is followed by "A Prayer for Peace," and other lyrical cues such as "Avner and Daphna" and "Avner's Theme" (the latter a solo for classical guitar) are interspersed with more jarring titles like "The Tarmac at Munich" and "Stalking Carl." But this remains a very dark score to accompany a dark film. William Ruhlmann