We are introducing a new concept for this site – the leit review. The idea behind this kind of review is that it provides a more general overview of a score in a shorter article, without diving into all the details of the music. The name is derived from the word leitmotif, which is a short, recurring musical phrase, representing a certain concept, like a person, place, emotion or idea. The use of leitmotifs is a common concept in soundtracks, the music for Star Wars being its prime example. ‘Leit’ is also pronounced the same way as the word ‘light,’ making a leit review a lighter version of a regular review.
There are a couple of reasons why we are introducing the leit review. The people behind Soundtrack World, in particular the editor-in-chief but also the proofreaders and guest authors, all have regular jobs and writing full reviews can be a time-consuming process, especially when they need to be published in two languages. A leit review gives the crew some more breathing room and time between reviews, which can be spent, for example, on making small improvements to the site.
There are several scenarios where a leit review is appropriate. Sometimes many good scores come out in a short period of time and they all need attention. Sometimes many concerts happen at the same time that all deserve a report, resulting in less time to write an in-depth review of a newly released score. Instead of not writing anything at all, a leit review at least gives the soundtrack some of the attention it deserves and as such will allow us to bring even more interesting scores to your attention.
The final reason is that there are some soundtracks that are interesting enough to talk about, but that do not contain that many details in the music itself, making it very hard to write a full-length review about the music. A leit review solves that problem as well.
In our opinion, leit reviews will still be worth a read. The goal of them is still to inform the reader what to expect from the music. We hope you will be reading and enjoying them just as much as you do with regular reviews.
