The Twilight Saga: New Moon (The Score)

The French composer Alexandre Desplat has written music for more than a hundred film and television projects, including such 2009 feature releases as Julie & Julia, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the second installment of the Twilight series, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Composer Carter Burwell did a fine job on the first film in the series, 2008’s Twilight, and Desplat’s work on the follow-up is one of his best efforts. “New Moon” starts things off with the movie’s main theme, arranged for piano and orchestra; another cue, the delicately restrained “Edward Leaves,” reworks that thematic material to accompany a key moment in the film. It’s good to hear Desplat stretch out on two lengthy tracks, “To Volterra” and “The Volturi,” which effectively employs rumbling percussion, stabbing flutes, and string glissandi. The relatively spare “Dreamcatcher” utilizes guitar, flute, and other instruments to create a magical mood, and “Full Moon,” another variation on the main theme — and a fine one at that — closes the album.