MICHAEL CLAYTON—James Newton Howard

Out of all the choices in this year’s Oscar category, Michael Clayton seems to be the oddest of the lot at first.  But what one hears in this score is an intriguing blend of an urban film scoring style.  There are some aspects of minimalism here unlike that of say Glass or John Adams.  Howard instead takes small motivic ideas and repeats them in his texture.  Sometimes these are tonal (that is featuring some melodic contour), sometimes these are non-tonal (that is either based on percussion or drum machine sounds, or ambient design ideas), and sometimes these are harmonic. 

While all these aspects make for a rather underwhelming experience when heard as a CD presentation, they can provide a sense of background continuity musically to a scene.  The score tends to focus more on underpinning inner conflict of characters, trying to lend a subtle musical suggestion to the underlying conflict of the character or of a particular scene.  This often means that the music seems to remain relatively static at times creating tension through repetition of these smaller ideas instead of with huge orchestral swells.  The score tries then to get under the skin of it the audience in subtle unaffecting ways that create a sense of coldness to the score that make it unique.

Lately there have been plenty of composers experimenting with pure sound design as music.  These have been relatively experimental scores often really hard to crack and even harder to listen to even though one can admire the attempts (Paul Haslinger has been doing this a lot, and Brian Tyler explored this approach in Bug).  Howard has tried to find a way here to more fully integrate this technique into the fabric of his music.  Sound design as an instrument, rather than an effect, is the result and it is on great display throughout this score.  You might wonder why that is important and in order to understand that it is worth remembering how composers experimented with adding in synthesizers and electronic effects when these opportunities first appeared.  Back when Goldsmith was exploring these things, the Academy was fairly conservative and only a couple of scores made it into the final 5.  Patton tentatively explored the echoplex and this technique of manipulation of sound was at least given a nod, as was the odd, aleatoric approach that John Williams took for Images.  But it has been difficult to find scores that are able to integrate non-traditional sound with standard orchestral music that really work without overwhelming the picture.  And so, with Michael Clayton, we have at least one way that composers might consider in approaching the modern drama.  The problem is that this is very difficult to make work and still maintain one’s individuality. 

Throughout Howard’s score, we rarely get any kind of harmonic epiphany as it plays out.  Things are always fairly static until we come to “Times Square.”  This particular cue encapsulates a lot of Howard’s approach here as subtle string lines are overcome by an almost magical synthetic sound idea leading to a mini-climax on a major chord.  It’s not much, but it does pack more of an emotional punch musically.  As the CD progresses, Howard begins to incorporate more of the cues that feature these small climactic pushes and does a great job of never letting them go to the point of feeling fully satisfied.  This is another mark of the score’s importance that it leaves us as frustrated as its title character.  Howard also demonstrates an ability to create larger musical structure in these cues.  A lot of film music taking the sound design approach tends to suffer from truncated musical ideas and very short cues.  Here, Howard is able  to expand and extend this for longer sequences, heard in “I’m Not the Guy You Kill” and “25 Dollars Worth” most effectively—a cue that takes a page from trance music in some respects.  When acoustic instruments do appear prominently, we take notice in a way that we might not have before, and this often helps create some sense of closure to a particular scene or musical idea that, while subtle, is quite effective.

While many had hoped Shire’s Zodiac would be on the list this year, this particular score bears some resemblance to the approach in that film.  Shire’s score tends to work from a deconstructed thematic idea, whereas Howard is working from a deconstructed musical climax…working away from the kind of forward buildup we expect in the score, teasing us with the possibilities of what might happen, but in the end leaving us wondering, where could this all head.

Five Reasons Why this Should Receive the Oscar

1.      It displays a rethinking of what “music” is and blurs that distinction with ambient sound design.

2.      The score explores an alternative approach to minimalist style in film music while also incorporating a pop style, trance, into its musical language.

3.      The score uses sound design more as a musical instrument in the texture rather than as a special effect.

4.      The score demonstrates how one can build smaller climaxes without heavily relying on thematic development.

5.      Using small gestures instrumentally, or within the sound design, demonstrate a command of underscoring a scene without overwhelming it.

Well, with a few days to go to this year's Oscars, I thought I would take a few days here to share some thoughts about each of the 5 scores nominated this year.  A couple of caveats here.  First, it will be obvious (perhaps) which films I have actually had a chance to see and so those decisions will be more informed.  It is important to always see how the music actually works in a film because a great CD does not always mean the score works in the film (i.e. last year's The Last Legion).  Second, these are not in any particular order of preference.

THE KITE RUNNER--Alberto Iglesias

My exposure to Iglesias’ music comes from his Almodovar films.  Often he is expected to match that director’s love of Hollywood’s Golden Age by matching, or melding together a sound that is often a cross between Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann.  This seems to work in those contexts but Iglesias is also capable of writing amazingly dissonant music that is extremely complex in its harmonic language.  This is a sound he often prefers when working with a smaller ensemble, or at least when a full orchestra is not in play.  For some reason though he has risen to the top of the foreign composer Hollywood list with two rather different scores both featuring ethnic musical language and instrumentation (most recently in The Constant Gardener).  More so in the present score he has found a way to blend that instrumentation with the richly dramatic narrative style of scores like the somewhat recent Bad Education.    

One of the composer’s skills is his ability to take preexistent musical models as inspiration for incorporation into his own score.  These often take on aspects of ambient music, Herrmann-esque orchestral combinations and string scoring style, contemporary pop references, and world musics.  All of this is on display in the present score.  (I have not been able to see this film yet, so apologies for not being able to discuss this in more detail.)

What is most fascinating in Iglesias’ score is that rather than create a Western-influenced score that mimics Afghani music, he takes as his models a variety of pieces from the period of the narrative.  We hear a variety of ethnic instruments added to the mix here and a guitar line with a great fresh lightness to it.  The orchestral sound is a bit leaner here with a tendency to focus on the world music sounds.  The use of a female vocalization flows more seamlessly out of the texture sounding more natural, a part of the world style of the story than some post-Gladiator musical influence.  Of great interest in this score is its amazing asymmetrical rhythmic patterns that perfectly match the story and which create an energy that is immediately engaging without becoming Westernized.  The rawness of Iglesias’ musical choices is one of the hallmarks of this particular score and a more primal aspect of this is on display most in “The Stadium” where an electric guitar adds an almost surreal quality to some of the additional ambient sounds that appear in this segment of the score.  One of the things that fascinates me in this score is the way the various musical styles all seem to have characteristics in common with one another.  The Celtic flavor of “Kite Tournament” is soon overcome with Arabic percussion ideas that plunges into an amazing set piece which is a highlight of the score.  Of additional interest is the way Iglesias begins to move from a more lean aesthetic into a far more chilling one with greater dissonance and wild rhythmic convergences that are almost prim .  This earthy tension often ends in musical pauses where motifs begin to reassert themselves almost trying to reconstruct audibly the contours of their thematic content.    

The orchestration is again a key aspect of this score’s greatness.  The attention to individual instrumental lines that weave in and out of the texture is fascinating to hear and these ideas are set with some of the composer’s most engaging melodic ideas.  The score features interesting contrapuntal writing that allows for a more linear approach to the way we hear Iglesias’ themes.  The breathy flute line in “Sin” is one brief aspect showing off the composer’s rich harmonic language and ability to underscore the emotional context of a scene.  We are reminded in this score that while we may all have different ethnic backgrounds there is something inherently familiar in our musics and in our human experiences.        

Five Reasons Why this Should Receive the Oscar

1.      This is an amazing blend of world music and traditional scoring approaches.

2.      The score is demonstrates an amazing display of idiomatic writing for less traditional instruments.

3.      The score blends traditional harmonic language with more linear writing approaches from Afghani and Arabic-influenced sounds.

4.      There are several outstanding musical moments in the score, the best of these being “Kite Tournament.”

5.      Thematic elements are integrated in unique instrumental combinations often stretching what our expectations are for a “theme.”