Well, if the Oscar ceremony proved anything last night it was that surprise was the name of the game.  It also balanced handing out awards for standout work along with mindnumbing awards that left some scratching their heads. 

If you were a film composer, last night must have felt more like a trip to the Grammy's.  You could say that your chances of winning an Oscar are becoming diminished if you actually list yourself as a film composer!  Even Randy Newman, who has one foot in both the pop and film worlds, lost out to Melissa Etheridge.  How does a "score" like Babel win?  Well, you send out the 2-disc "soundtrack" to voters.  It was the only one to have any pop songs on it and the film itself had what, 20 minutes of actual score in it...some of it by Ryuichi Sakamoto? 

I first reviewed Gustavo Santaolalla's work in 2004, The Motorcycle Diaries.  There is in the other two film's I had heard his music in, Amores Perres and 21 Grams, the music seemed to fit the screen images but always lacked coherent development.  There is no doubting his ability as a guitarist, but the music does sound like improvised world pop.

There is still hope for film composers though.  Santaolalla is not slated to "compose" a score for a film being released this year.  That could change...how about the new Spiderman movie?

Thank God for Ennio Morricone.  One of the greatest of film composer's accepted his honorary Oscar with great humility and spoke up for all the hard working musicians whose work is never recognized.  Among those this year, was the in memoriam nod to Shirley Walker who died last November.  Her music is somewhat similar to Elfman's (some might say it became Elfman's style).  She had a good career as an orchestrator and conductor, one of the first women to break in to the field and pave the way for future careers. 

Well, I have now heard all but the Babel score of the 5 nominations for "original film score."  The last one on my list was this latest release of Philip Glass' Notes on a Scandal.  Out of many of the composer's offerings for film, this one continues to expand upon his musical language in rather unique ways.  The constant trance-like pulses are still there but now have a richer harmonic sound that shifts far more frequently and often in unusual and unexpected directions.  Thematic material is grafted onto this accompaniment but is integrated more into the overall orchestration.  This latter is perhaps the discovery that Glass has made after his interesting music for The Illusionist from earlier in the year.  That score had actual discernable melodic content that sometimes seems almost disconnected from the pulses that accompanied it, a musical illusion if you will.  Roving Mars a score written for an IMAX film was cast in a classic Glass style that critics who dislike his music would say could have been written for anything.  Notes is a score that results when you experiment with trying to integrate both into one musical entity.  The result is fascinating. 

My favorite Glass score is the last one written for the "Qatsi" series, Naqoqatsi, with Kundun a close second.  This one definitely is on the list for finest scores of 2006.

Updated Oscar thoughts

So one has to ask how is it possible that the Academy managed to pick at least a couple of standout scores from last year.  Both The Queen and Pan's Labyrinth have the kind of potential that could get their scores nominated.  Notes on a Scandal could be the dark horse candidate but my guess is that few will have paid much attention to it.  The Good German is an equally fine effort by Thomas Newman and one of the best scores of 2006.  So that just leaves good old Babel.  I've said my peace on this already.

The last few years, the Oscar has gone to scores with fantasy themes (ok, Brokeback Mountain being the exception to the rule...well maybe not).  That said, Navarrete could become the first Spanish composer to win an Oscar which would be a big deal for Spanish cinema.