The Academy Award for Best Original Score has undergone many changes since its introduction in 1935. Originally called Best Scoring, the category split in two in 1938 to form a distinction between scores with pre-existing material and scores that were original. This allowed for the very popular movie musical, which often featured pre-existing music, to be considered separately from an original score for a non-musical movie. In these early years, there would often be over 25 nominations between the two categories, but in 1946, the nominees were limited to the five in each category that we are used to seeing today.
Despite many name changes over the years and several periods of trying to combine the categories and reverting back, the split existed in various forms until as recently as 1998. Technically, Best Original Musical now exists as its own category, but there haven’t been enough qualifying films to activate it. As deemed by the Academy, “An original musical consists of not fewer than five original songs by the same writer or team of writers, either used as voiceovers or visually performed.”
The eligibility for Best Original Score is currently outlined by the Academy as “a substantial body of music that serves as original dramatic underscoring and is written specifically for the motion picture by the submitting composer(s).” The rules further state that at least 60% of the total music must be original to the film, with at least 80% in the case of a franchise or sequel. However, a score can still be deemed ineligible if it has been diminished by the use of pre-existing music even if it reaches that minimum. These rules are always changing and evolving as determined by the executive committee of the Academy’s music branch.
There are many factors to consider when listening to a film’s score, but a great way to start is by paying attention to the composition of the music and its orchestration, its spotting (where the music cues are placed in the story), and how well the music contributes to the overall artistic vision of the film. Some scores are very prominent to the listener, often serving a dramatic purpose such as helping to amplify the emotional stakes of the story. Other scores are much more understated, adding to the mood and spirit of the film in tandem with the other design elements without attracting too much attention to itself. Different films utilize original music in different ways, but a “good” score should always be measured by how well it services the film that it is a part of.
Let’s take a look at the 2021 Oscar nominees:
Da 5 Bloods – Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard’s work on Da 5 Bloods marks the 19th collaboration between Blanchard and director Spike Lee. Set in present-day Vietnam with flashbacks to the Vietnam war, the score is often grandiose and militaristic while also revealing a sense of anguish as if damaged by memories. In the orchestrations you’ll find many brass and woodwind prominent melodies supported by strings and military drum marches. The score was recorded by a 90-piece orchestra and that size can often be felt in the explosiveness of the war themes.
The score is defined by two primary ideas that blend together and pull apart over the course of the film. The first notable sound is heavily influenced by a history of music in war films and is characterized by brass-led melodies. The film’s opening cue “What This Mission’s About” features dominant horn lines with auxiliary militaristic drum rhythms. “Finding the Gold” opens softly but evolves into one of the more triumphant cues of this style in the film. “Paul’s Letter” features a more somber approach to a similar instrumental voicing. Even when these war themes are out in full force, there’s still a sense of mournfulness; this war is something of the past that continues to haunt the lives of these characters and the world of this film.
The other primary sound in the score features a more eastern sensibility to provide a musical space for Vietnam and is characterized by the use of a duduk. The duduk is an Armenian double reeded instrument that provides the fluttering melodic motif first heard in “Otis and Tien Have Dinner”, and can also be heard in the tender “David Meets Hedy” and “Tien and Daughter Talk”. In “Rice Paddies”, the score combines this motif with the brassy war style and is able to find a harmonious balance between the two worlds.
Some later cues in the score expand upon these sounds to give over to some of the action adventure sequences in the story. “Bloods Go Into Jungle” shows a more ominous side of the war theme and “Paul is Bitten” is cacophonous and chaotic. “Otis Talks Family” is unique in that it is written only for strings, gradually increasing in intensity and in number of countermelodies. “David Talks to His Mother” is an emotional string cue near the conclusion of the film that also features the duduk.
The “End Credits” features many of the different instrumental voicings used throughout the film and is a great way to get a sense of the film’s dual musical styles and grand orchestrations.
Mank – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Mank is the first of two scores nominated this year from the composing team of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It’s also the longest score among this year’s nominees, featuring 52 cue tracks and over an hour and a half of music. Much of the score’s style plays tribute to classic Hollywood scores of the 1930s and 1940s, pulling influences from composers like Bernard Hermann and Max Steiner. This is obvious right from the ominous opening “Welcome to Victorville”, as well as in the dissonance of cues such as “I, Governor of California” and the chaotic “Election Night-mare”. Some cues in this style are much less intimidating. “San Simeon Waltz” is a lovely piano solo that is joined by woodwinds and pizzicato strings and “Final Regards” is fitting of a tender goodbye.
The other half of the score is heavily influenced by big band jazz and swing music of the era. You’ll hear double bass, drums, piano and plenty of horns in toe-tapping cues like “Once More Unto the Breach” and “Glendale Station”. A softer jazz style could be found in the “All This Time” motif, which receives quite a few track reprises over the course of the film. Its final appearance, “All This Time (Happily Ever After)” is a lush orchestral arrangement of many of the score’s earlier ideas. The score also contains an original song “(If Only You Could) Save Me” sung by Adryon de León that’s simple, yet feels like it could be a jazz standard of the era.
Notable across all of the sound work in Mank, much of the score is either recorded or mixed in mono to suggest a sound quality accurate to the time period. Combined with muted brass instrumentation, several cues in particular are given that extra flair to sound like phonograph records. This is especially obvious in cues like “Every Thing You Do” and “Way Back When”. The orchestrations throughout the score are widely varied between cues and the instrument voicings are often very playful and whimsical; this is a glamourized and heightened Hollywood. The cue “A Fool’s Paradise” uses a typewriter as a percussive soloist, “ding” and all! If you listen to one cue from Mank, make it that one.
Minari – Emile Mosseri
In Minari, Emile Mosseri translates themes of the American dream into a piano/synth-led score which often features wordless vocals lines, acoustic guitars, and strings. Much of the score is very ethereal with light and slow melodies, pulling from different genres of new age and neoclassical music. It’s a very calm and relaxed score that often radiates a dreamlike optimism.
The score includes two main piano motifs that can be heard throughout the film. The first motif can be found in “Big Country”, which features the piano melody line joined by wordless vocals. Bright and warm, the melody rises as if suggesting a hopefulness for growth and a promising harvest. This motif is later used in several different contexts, including “Rain Song” which plays over the end credits and now has lyrics translated from English to Korean sung by Han Ye-ri, who also plays the mother, Monica, in the film. The second main reoccurring piano motif is most prominent in “Jacob’s Prayer”, and is used throughout the film as a character motif for Steven Yeun’s Jacob. Variations on the motif can be found with different instrumental voicings in “Jacob and the Stone”, “Minari Suite”, and “You’ll Be Happy”.
“Birdslingers” is one of the liveliest tracks in the score. It features a prominent rhythmic guitar and some percussive elements, while still including the score’s defining wordless vocal lines. The second half of the cue turns into the Jacob piano motif. “Grandma Picked a Good Spot” is another piano-led piece accompanied by strings, but here the piano feels slightly out of tune, which gives a nice old-fashioned layer to the score and feels like the acoustic version of the often-wobbling synths found elsewhere in the score. “Oklahoma City” has a high-pitched sliding vocal line with moments of harmonic dissonance, creating a more anxious sound compared with the rest of the score. This melody can also be heard in “Garden of Eden”.
The final cue titled “Outro”, features a wandering piano line on top of strings, followed by a synth version of Jacob’s theme before the music fades away. It’s messy and imperfect, yet somehow a harmonious finale.
News of the World – James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard’s score for News of the World is best defined by its desolate western sound, with instrumentations most often led by strings, guitars, and a lone piano. Much of the music feels burdened by a weighted melancholy in a way that supports the emotional undercurrent that runs throughout the story, as evident in the opening “Captain Jefferson”. There is also a vastness found in some of the sparse string moments that is beautifully haunting. It’s a sort of world-weariness that categorizes much of the more reserved cues in the score.
While much of the score is used to provide an atmospheric landscape for the film, there are several defining moods that encompass the full breadth of the score. “Arriving at Red River” plants us fully in the world of western Americana, while the rollicking banjo-led “The Road to Dallas” serves as a jubilant travelling theme. Both are examples of what we’ve come to expect from a more traditional western score. Deeper into the film, the sound often becomes more threatening with moments of aggressive percussion and piercing strings. Cues such as “Erath Country” and “Dime Mountain” underscore moments of action peril in the plot. There are also several more tender moments in the score where music is used to support an emotional resonance for the central relationships in the film, such as the touching piano motif found in “What Else Can You Teach Me?” and at the beginning of “Kidd Visits Maria”. The latter cue turns into a sort of epiphany for the protagonist with a great swell of the strings to highlight the film’s climactic decision.
The “End Titles” provide a great introduction to the style of the score as well as a sampling of the more uplifting themes found throughout the film.
Soul – Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross
Music is essential to the story of Pixar’s Soul right from the opening credits, which features a not-so-perfect middle school jazz band in the middle of a rehearsal. The film’s protagonist, Joe (Jamie Foxx), is an aspiring jazz pianist and much of this score is diegetic within the context of the story (the characters in the film are actually playing the music that we hear). The score is also unique in that it is formed from two separate sets of composers contributing to different sections of the film.
Jon Batiste is responsible for the New York City realism sections of the film, inspired by ensemble and solo jazz. Many of these cues are diegetically played by the jazz band in the film, but then transition into moments of underscoring other action. Within that jazz style, we hear all different sorts of instrumental voicings, including solo piano played by Joe in cues like “Born to Play Reprise” as well as a modern jazz quartet (featuring piano, drums, double bass, and horns) in many cues throughout the score, including “Celestial Spaces in Blue” and the saxophone-led “Space Maker”.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross create the musical world of the ethereal Great Before (the film’s creative vision of the soul’s existence prior to life on earth) with a new-age space sound led by synth melodies and electronic undertones. At first very atmospheric in cues like “The Great Beyond” to establish the otherworldly quality of this new place, their sound soon opens up and even explodes into pulsating rhythmic pieces to underscore more urgent and action-heavy sequences in the film. “Jump to Earth” is really playful in the way it continues to reset itself and “Escape/Inside 22” provides a layer of intensity that closest resembles what we’ve come to expect from the work of Reznor and Ross. The film’s antagonist gets his own motif, which is first heard in “Terry’s Time” before repeating itself each time that character appears. The motif is mysterious and mischievous, while still living in the electronic sound that defines the place he is a part of.
The brilliance of this score is found in the way the two musical styles learn to coexist over the course of the film. Despite being two individual sounds, they are beautifully merged together in the film’s emotional climax entitled “Epiphany” which showcases Joe playing piano, now supported by the Reznor and Ross sound. This thought is echoed in the score’s final cue “Enjoy Every Minute.” The pair of end credit cues, “It’s All Right”, performed by Batiste, and “Just Us” demonstrate the two distinct worlds found within the score.
