The composer wasn't as comfortable writing blatantly Jewish music for the topic of their suffering was were Jerry Goldsmith and Lee Holdridge during their careers. As such, there is not much inherently Eastern European Jewish convention at work in this music, but it's in "Innocence" and the related rhythms on clarinet in "Returning." A vocal performance of a traditional tune in "Shabbat" is provided at the forefront of the mix, too. Zimmer does apply stereotypical Jewish instrumentation to the score for The Last Days, most obviously in the favoring of strings and clarinet. The entire score is helmed by an orchestra of strings and woodwinds, with piano contributing at times. There are times when the synthesizers do betray the soundscape, especially in the later cues of the story. Not much else factors into the group, though, a lack of brass and percussion leaving concepts of dread to low winds and strings much like in The Third Reich (in Color). A small children's choir is also credited for the score, but it makes no significant impact. A fairly tight thematic narrative in the music follows the story, one theme extending through the whole film while two others concentrate on the early darkness and late redemption but never overlap or meet. The main theme for the Edith character is representative of all the stories in the documentary, its pair of ascending four-note phrases developing into an elongated, dramatic secondary sequence. Heard at 0:52 into "The Last Days Suite" on low strings and building to more dramatic higher strings, this theme transitions to a solo horn following the suite's heightened activity at 4:18, leading to multiple lush renditions with nice counterpoint at 5:07 for the full ensemble. An elongated form of this theme helms the vocal line at 0:18 into "Main Title Theme," and the first notes inform but don't fully guide the waltz formalities on strings in "Prosperity." The main Edith theme turns dark on solemn strings in "Occupation," fighting the angry chopping later in the cue, and extends quietly out of the occupation theme early in "The Arrow Cross" before shifting to sad, lonely plucking later. The idea fights off the occupation theme at 0:19 into "Separation" and is reduced to tortured fragments in "Auschwitz."

The primary performance of the leading theme in The Last Days comes in "Edith's Theme," where a solo electronic wind over piano at 0:15 eventually yields to secondary phrasing on cello over a lush string bed; the primary phrases reveal their purpose as a longer line in the latter half of the cue. The main theme then builds out of the remembrance theme on clarinet in the last two minutes of "Final Theme" for the end credits. The aforementioned occupation theme is where the similarities to Zimmer's The Third Reich (in Color) really come into play. This ominously churning, five-note sequence around key often starts cues, and it also does so on distorted bassoon and thumping piano in "The Last Days Suite." The idea opens "Main Title Theme" and "Deportation" on low woodwinds while deep strings take it to begin "The Arrow Cross." The theme is adapted into a brighter variant in "Wallenberg" before returning to original form at the cue's end. It is expressed with a little more power from bass strings in "Separation," and solo clarinet opens "Survival" with a stuttering form of the theme. From there, the score shifts to its remembrance theme, the closing portions of the score using this idea to offer its first true warmth. This new string melody is introduced in "Liberation" and carries over to "Remembrance," but it sounds badly synthetic in the latter. That melody is extended in "Life Today" with nice layering of phrases near the end, and the idea refines itself to sophistication on string quartet to open "Final Theme" for the credits. The somewhat artificial sound to some of these later cues is a detriment to the whole, and the emotional tone of the work is so restrained from the start that many listeners will find the whole disengaging. It's a completely functional score, but Zimmer sometimes struggles to emote passion in these circumstances, assuming the solitary nature of the performances will alone suggest their importance and tug at the heart strings. His music doesn't always succeed in that strategy, and The Last Days is only a marginally effective and forgettable product as a result. Originally released only as a 47-minute promotional CD by the Shoah Foundation itself, the score has been widely passed around by Zimmer's collectors. But don't expect it to deliver the emotional punch that the likes of Holdridge and other veteran composers in this genre were delivering at the same time.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download