The Academy started awarding Oscars for scoring in 1935. Since then, more than half the Best Picture winners have also been nominated for Best Score. An Oscar-winning Academy member, who has worked extensively with music, explains some of the issues surrounding the award, past and present.
NOLAN POWERS The Shape of Water is the heavy favorite this year…followed by Phantom Thread…then Dunkirk…
OSCAR-WINNING MUSIC EXPERT That simulated ticking clock? So annoying.
NP Then Three Billboards…and Star Wars. Is there a rule John Williams has to be nominated? He’s gotten 51 noms.
OME Those first two choices are really good. Phantom Thread especially. Very delicate. Very British.
NP Jonny Greenwood is a Brit. Anything else that jarred you this year, besides Dunkirk?
OME The last scene in The Florida Project. Where the two kids are running toward Disney World…and it starts with such a heavy emotional downbeat…it cheapened the whole experience for me.
NP These days I’ll be watching a movie with my wife, I’ll say, right off the bat, “The music is working too hard.” Or we’ll be into the movie, and, “I wish this music would shut up.”
OME Musical wallpaper. There’s a long dialogue scene, the director gets nervous, they just slather it on.
NP There’s no special recognition for music editing.
OME Well, in general, every composer has his or her music editor, who’s there on the scoring stage, and also present at the mix, representing the interests of the composer. But the director’s the 500-pound gorilla. And some of them can’t abide silence. They’re scared the audience will get bored. The more music the better…and that can result in nominations.
NP I seem to remember Ingmar Bergman said most movie music is barbaric.
OME He mostly used classical motifs. So many films I’ve worked on, I’ve wondered, “Why do we need this music?” The dialogue is so strong, the music undermines the scene.
NP And that’s the music you don’t come out whistling.
OME Whereas I can hum you the theme from Lawrence of Arabia…or Bridge on the River Kwai…or The Godfather.
NP Nino Rota was nominated for that, and then got disqualified. He re-used his music from Fortunella.
OME Rota’s music was a core emotional element. When it’s right, music can work wonders.
NP Leonard Bernstein’s score for On the Waterfront.
OME Oh yes.
NP Which didn’t win. The High and the Mighty won that year.
OME Ridiculous. That music can stand on its own. Which movie music is not supposed to do…supposedly.
NP Beethoven’s 7th worked pretty well in The King’s Speech.
OME Sold the whole climax. Barry Lyndon: The Handel Sarabande…
NP Wonderful. The funeral procession. I cry every time.
OME Leonard Rosenman won Best Musical Score, for arranging the Handel and the Schubert.
NP Go figure. Not too many movie composers write concert music.
OME Fingers of one hand. Aaron Copland. I believe Bernard Herrmann wrote a clarinet quintet. I don’t know that it’s in anybody’s repertoire. Philip Glass, he’s performed in concert.
NP His music for Jane drove me up the wall.
OME I agree. He’s not one of my favorites. I worked on a movie where he wrote the score. It was just too much.
NP All those arpeggios, they worked for The Thin Blue Line. And I guess for other docs. But they don’t suggest any particular emotion.
OME The advantage of it is, you can use it wherever you want. You have a scene that doesn’t have music? Throw in a little Philip Glass. Copy and paste!
First published in The Ankler.