Featured scores
CutThroat Island
John Debney
Pirates Geena Davis and Matthew Modine compete with rival pirate Frank Langella to find hidden treasure in director Renny Harlin’s 1995 swashbuckling epic.
Oscar-nominated for “The Passion of the Christ,” composer John Debney strikes a decidedly less reverent tone with this unapologetically grandiose, old-fashioned adventure score. The furious blunt edge of brass and timpani lead a full orchestra and chorus to conjure a rousing musical evocation of wind-whipped seas, mighty ships and courageous derring-do with frequent reminders of the danger and uncertainty that also lurk in the deep below. A dash of swooning romance and a pinch of Renaissance harpsichord (Purcell Snatcher) complete the effort, a nautical symphony of heroic proportions – and one of Debney’s very best.
Oscar-nominated for “The Passion of the Christ,” composer John Debney strikes a decidedly less reverent tone with this unapologetically grandiose, old-fashioned adventure score. The furious blunt edge of brass and timpani lead a full orchestra and chorus to conjure a rousing musical evocation of wind-whipped seas, mighty ships and courageous derring-do with frequent reminders of the danger and uncertainty that also lurk in the deep below. A dash of swooning romance and a pinch of Renaissance harpsichord (Purcell Snatcher) complete the effort, a nautical symphony of heroic proportions – and one of Debney’s very best.
Perfume
Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer
Director Tom Tykwer’s English-language adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s 1985 German-language novel tells the strange, haunting and beguiling story of an 18th Century French outcast whose obsession with capturing the perfect scent entails another obsession… murder.
As per usual, director Tykwer himself collaborated on the score with regular composing partners Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, writing and recording substantial portions of the score even before production had begun, oftentimes even playing the music during shooting to create a mood. The result is a grand, free-flowing, emotionally fluid orchestral performance – courtesy of the Berlin Philharmonic and conductor Simon Rattle – that frequently feels more like a symphonic suite than a film score. Though each of the cues is dazzling in its own way, it’s the totality that most impresses with dense, richly-orchestrated tracks like the florid, haunting Distilling Roses, the sumptuously lyrical Grenouille’s Childhood and the swirling, furiously passionate Perfume, Distilled combining to create an emotionally complex portrait of genius at once dark and delirious, rapt and mysterious.
As per usual, director Tykwer himself collaborated on the score with regular composing partners Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, writing and recording substantial portions of the score even before production had begun, oftentimes even playing the music during shooting to create a mood. The result is a grand, free-flowing, emotionally fluid orchestral performance – courtesy of the Berlin Philharmonic and conductor Simon Rattle – that frequently feels more like a symphonic suite than a film score. Though each of the cues is dazzling in its own way, it’s the totality that most impresses with dense, richly-orchestrated tracks like the florid, haunting Distilling Roses, the sumptuously lyrical Grenouille’s Childhood and the swirling, furiously passionate Perfume, Distilled combining to create an emotionally complex portrait of genius at once dark and delirious, rapt and mysterious.
Total Recall
Jerry Goldsmith
Loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, this epic science fiction thriller from director Paul Verhoeven stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a construction worker who buys himself a “virtual vacation” to Mars only to discover that a previous and very top secret life has already been wiped from his memory.
Fueled by by Jerry Goldsmith’s energetic and unapologetically muscular score, “Total Recall” remains one of Schwarzenegger’s and Verhoeven’s most popular films, its unpredictable, mind-bending twists and turns brilliantly varnished by Goldsmith’s effusive orchestrations. Like most of his post-“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” work, “Total Recall” is a full-bodied orchestral score boasting detailed and nuanced application of the full orchestra in nearly every cue – heavy horns and percussion to generate suspense and tension, intermittently offset by impassioned strings and woodwinds to communicate empathy. Synthesizer and organ are but a few of the unexpected instrumental innovations that often blur the line between score and sound effect, another Goldsmith trademark of the era used here to exceptionally memorable effect.
Fueled by by Jerry Goldsmith’s energetic and unapologetically muscular score, “Total Recall” remains one of Schwarzenegger’s and Verhoeven’s most popular films, its unpredictable, mind-bending twists and turns brilliantly varnished by Goldsmith’s effusive orchestrations. Like most of his post-“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” work, “Total Recall” is a full-bodied orchestral score boasting detailed and nuanced application of the full orchestra in nearly every cue – heavy horns and percussion to generate suspense and tension, intermittently offset by impassioned strings and woodwinds to communicate empathy. Synthesizer and organ are but a few of the unexpected instrumental innovations that often blur the line between score and sound effect, another Goldsmith trademark of the era used here to exceptionally memorable effect.
Saw 3D
Charlie Clouser
Phenomenal horror franchise centered around the deranged crimes and copycat legacy of a killer who devises physical and psychological tests for his victims.
Composer Charlie Clouser — the former Nine Inch Nails member and remix specialist — proves himself a master of tension and momentum throughout the Saw series, increasing tempo and heart-rates with devilish facility. Propulsive strings, hefty beats, and bursts of industrial shredding feature prominently, along with artfully demonic echoes, electronic scratches, persistent electronic notes, and finessed off-kilter piano lines, and each Saw score is tethered to variations on the excellent main theme (aka Hello Zepp).
Composer Charlie Clouser — the former Nine Inch Nails member and remix specialist — proves himself a master of tension and momentum throughout the Saw series, increasing tempo and heart-rates with devilish facility. Propulsive strings, hefty beats, and bursts of industrial shredding feature prominently, along with artfully demonic echoes, electronic scratches, persistent electronic notes, and finessed off-kilter piano lines, and each Saw score is tethered to variations on the excellent main theme (aka Hello Zepp).
Tsotsi
Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian
South African director Gavin Hood’s breakout telling of Athol Fugard’s novel about a young delinquent (Presley Chweneyagae) whose life is forever changed when he steals a car with an infant in the back seat would go on to win the 2005 Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film,” propelling Hood to such big-name Hollywood productions as “Rendition” (2007) and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009).
Soulful, spiritual, at times almost bordering on the ethereal, this score by fellow South African composers Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker, with the assistance of renowned Sotho singer Vusi Mahlasela, coalesces an entire nation’s musical identity – from indigenous tribal folk to European orchestral – into a single heart-rending whole. Apart from a few detours into ritualistic exhibitions of tribal percussion (Bye Bye Baby, Dog Flashback, and Job at the Dube’s) this is a seraphic accompaniment to a painfully purgatorial tale, a musical guardian angel ever mindful that even in the bleakest of dilemmas, miracles can still change lives.
Soulful, spiritual, at times almost bordering on the ethereal, this score by fellow South African composers Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker, with the assistance of renowned Sotho singer Vusi Mahlasela, coalesces an entire nation’s musical identity – from indigenous tribal folk to European orchestral – into a single heart-rending whole. Apart from a few detours into ritualistic exhibitions of tribal percussion (Bye Bye Baby, Dog Flashback, and Job at the Dube’s) this is a seraphic accompaniment to a painfully purgatorial tale, a musical guardian angel ever mindful that even in the bleakest of dilemmas, miracles can still change lives.
The Three Musketeers
Paul Haslinger
Veteran action director Paul W.S. Anderson throws a 3D steampunk curveball at Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic in this latest screen retelling which has Athos, Porthos and Aramis looking to snatch a set of Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for a dirigible. As per usual, D’Artagnan soon joins the fray while Cardinal Richelieu (Oscar-winner Christophe Waltz) aims to spoil the party.
Leaving his Tangerine Dream days well behind, Austrian-born composer Paul Haslinger opts for more traditional fare here with a throttling swashbuckler of a score designed to evoke the popular Hans Zimmer/Klaus Badelt “Pirates of the Caribbean” music. On the epic end there’s the soaring, chest-swelling fanfare All for One while intimate tracks like The King and Queen borrow from the tenor of Renaissance folk and minstrel music. There’s also just the vaguest hint of electronic instrumentation in the arrangements, infusing the score with the same cyber-classical sensibilities as the picture’s revisionist plot.
Leaving his Tangerine Dream days well behind, Austrian-born composer Paul Haslinger opts for more traditional fare here with a throttling swashbuckler of a score designed to evoke the popular Hans Zimmer/Klaus Badelt “Pirates of the Caribbean” music. On the epic end there’s the soaring, chest-swelling fanfare All for One while intimate tracks like The King and Queen borrow from the tenor of Renaissance folk and minstrel music. There’s also just the vaguest hint of electronic instrumentation in the arrangements, infusing the score with the same cyber-classical sensibilities as the picture’s revisionist plot.
Effi Briest
Johan Söderqvist
Theodor Fontane’s classic 1894 novel about the tumultuous life of a 17-year-old aristocrat’s daughter after she is married to a Baron twice her age receives its fifth screen adaptation in this lush 2009 Hermine Huntgeburth-directed German-language production.
Best known for his haunting “Let the Right One In” score as well as his collaborations with Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier, Swedish composer Johan Söderqvist here pays opulent homage to the 19th century romantic origins of Fontane’s novel with a sweeping, melodramatic underscore designed to externalize the tempestuous emotions of a young woman thrust into a life she would never have chosen for herself. Soaring strings and impassioned crescendos ebb and flow like tides of fate carrying Effi to her destiny
Best known for his haunting “Let the Right One In” score as well as his collaborations with Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier, Swedish composer Johan Söderqvist here pays opulent homage to the 19th century romantic origins of Fontane’s novel with a sweeping, melodramatic underscore designed to externalize the tempestuous emotions of a young woman thrust into a life she would never have chosen for herself. Soaring strings and impassioned crescendos ebb and flow like tides of fate carrying Effi to her destiny
Animals United
David Newman
Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe direct this animated adaptation of the 1949 book by Erich Kästner. When the annual flood fails to arrive in the African delta, a pair of friends -- a meerkat and a lion -- set out to find water. Along the way they meet a motley crew of creatures displaced by man's abuse of the environment. Discovering that a resort has built a dam to contain the flood, the animals embark on a mission impossible to break up the dam and liberate their much needed water.
Academy Award nominated veteran composer David Newman -- son of the legendary Alfred Newman -- provides a sweeping orchestral score that captures the majesty and wonder of the African savanna. Full of drama, excitement, and curiosity, Newman deftly explores his main in arrangements as lush as the full orchestra, or as spare as a single piano. Playful excursions into other forms abound, from techno arrangements, to ethnic themes explored with drums and choir, and even a whimsical Italian waltz.
Academy Award nominated veteran composer David Newman -- son of the legendary Alfred Newman -- provides a sweeping orchestral score that captures the majesty and wonder of the African savanna. Full of drama, excitement, and curiosity, Newman deftly explores his main in arrangements as lush as the full orchestra, or as spare as a single piano. Playful excursions into other forms abound, from techno arrangements, to ethnic themes explored with drums and choir, and even a whimsical Italian waltz.
A Single Man
Abel Korzeniowski
Fashion mogul Tom Ford’s adaption of Christopher Isherwood’s acclaimed novel stars Colin Firth in an Oscar-nominated performance as a '60s era English professor struggling to cope with the loss of his longtime life partner.
In a film that contrasts the outwardly suave style of its era and setting with the turbulent emotions of its lead character, Golden Globe-nominated Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski’s haunting score provides a crucial dramatic component. Characterized by passionate arrangements for piano and strings – at times painful in their loneliness, elsewhere euphorically orchestral – Korzeniowski’s music is that rare work that manages to be both magisterial and meditative at the same time.
In a film that contrasts the outwardly suave style of its era and setting with the turbulent emotions of its lead character, Golden Globe-nominated Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski’s haunting score provides a crucial dramatic component. Characterized by passionate arrangements for piano and strings – at times painful in their loneliness, elsewhere euphorically orchestral – Korzeniowski’s music is that rare work that manages to be both magisterial and meditative at the same time.
Chloe
Mychael Danna
In Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s 2009 remake of the French erotic thriller “Nathalie…” a female gynecologist (Julianne Moore) hires call girl Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to test her husband’s (Liam Neeson) loyalty, unwittingly inviting an emotional predator into both their lives.
Regular Egoyan collaborator Mychael Danna eschews conventional “thriller” motifs in favor of a more pastoral score, instead emphasizing sparse, seductive, occasionally romantic and almost incidental cues crafted to keep audiences from too easily anticipating the film’s trajectory until it’s sprung on them. Simple tracks like People Like You and I Felt Him suggest a kind of romantic gentility while more rhythmic soft contemporary tracks like Windsor Arms and Conservatory turn the screws on the story’s darker, more suspenseful intentions. Finally, a shift toward minor keys in atonal Hermannesque cues like Don’t Want this to be Over and Told You Not to Call Me helps complete the narrative and musical odyssey into madness.
Regular Egoyan collaborator Mychael Danna eschews conventional “thriller” motifs in favor of a more pastoral score, instead emphasizing sparse, seductive, occasionally romantic and almost incidental cues crafted to keep audiences from too easily anticipating the film’s trajectory until it’s sprung on them. Simple tracks like People Like You and I Felt Him suggest a kind of romantic gentility while more rhythmic soft contemporary tracks like Windsor Arms and Conservatory turn the screws on the story’s darker, more suspenseful intentions. Finally, a shift toward minor keys in atonal Hermannesque cues like Don’t Want this to be Over and Told You Not to Call Me helps complete the narrative and musical odyssey into madness.