From the beginning, the music is intense and haunting. You expect that, right? After all, this IS the story of the headless horseman who chases poor Ichabod Crane. Anything less than haunting in the musical background would be a disappointment. What I did not expect was the similarity of the music throughout the soundtrack. Strings rumble, bells chime, voices in chorus - male and female - sing in ahhs and ohhs. Occasionally drums beat and a woodwind or two is heard. When the moments are extremely intense a trumpet suddenly plays the same three note pattern.

There are a few tracks that stand out, though. "Masbath's Terrible Death" is a very descriptive piece. It is not so much in a minor key, as in a totally dissonant key. Low strings vibrate underneath the other instruments, and the chorus of voices sounds faintly in the background. There is a sudden rush of strings climbing higher and higher, then the brass instruments grate on the nerves, climaxing in a harsh barrage of sound that abruptly ceases as Masbath dies.

"Into The Woods/The Witch" is another interesting piece. It isn't so much music as emotion. Listening to it, one can picture a person just entering the woods, walking along the edge, enticed deeper and deeper by siren song of the witch - one light soprano voice calling, calling. Then, when it's too late, there is a rush, a torrent of sound - the walker is captured.

"The Tree Of Death" is a piece filled with contrasts. At first gentle and soothing, a low woodwind whispering a lovely melody, it abruptly sounds of metal implements crashing. Immediately after, the melody continues, this time played on light, silver-toned bells. The music swells, pounds harshly against the ears, fades to the bells, swells again to an intense cacophony, mellows out for a while, then finishes with several minutes of pounding, driving sound by strings, brass and drums that doesn't resolve; it just fades away. One of the longer tracks at 9.5 minutes, it is also the one that most makes me want to see the movie, just to find out what the music is describing at that point.

There are several tracks with "dream" in the title: "Sweet Dreams," "More Dreams" and "Bad Dream/Tender Moment." Elfman has used the same theme in all of these pieces, expressed by a soprano voice, but then improvised upon differently in each piece. "Love Lost" also uses the same melody, but this time the strings play it. In spite of its title, "Love Lost" is one of the most hopeful sounding pieces on the entire disk.

"The Chase" does an excellent job of putting you in the picture. There is nothing else it could be but a chase scene. One can even visualize the runner and the chaser as the music jumps back and forth between the two.

I do find it very disconcerting though, that I can't tell without looking at the track number when the music changes from "The Final Confrontation" to "A New Day!" It is just indicative of the general sameness of Elfman's music. I'm sure that it makes an excellent background to the movie, but I do not recommend it for future listening pleasure. One could easily listen to the first two tracks, "Introduction" and "Main Titles," and to the final track, "End Credits," and come away with a complete picture of all the music on the album.