The importance of a film's score cannot be stated enough as Pablo Larraín and Jonny Greenwood masterfully show in Spencer (2021).
By Alexis Puthussery
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in the opening scenes of Spencer / photo: Neon
Diana Spencer is running late to the Christmas celebration in Sandringham, the royal residence where the Queen and her family spend the holidays every year. It is isolated in the countryside of Norfolk, England where an expanse of endless green fields sandwich the roads on which Diana drives her Porsche, sans security detail. The fields are freeing, while the mansion Diana drives towards is anything but. The later she arrives, the more serious the offense is to the Queen, yet Diana takes her time, making stops, talking to locals, and walking through the sea of grass. As she gets closer to Sandringham, the tension that has been growing her entire drive becomes unbearable-- she is about to be trapped in the beautiful, horrific house of the royal family.
This is how Spencer, the critically acclaimed 2021 Pablo Larraín film opens. What makes the opening of this movie so striking is not the acting, cinematography, or even writing, but the music that scores the scene. “Arrival”, the first song on the Spencer soundtrack that plays as Diana approaches Sandringham at the beginning of the movie is able to tell the audience impressive amounts of information about the story they are about to embark on as well as create tension and emotion in the scene itself.
Jonny Greenwood, the composer for Spencer’s score, chooses shrill, high pitched strings forming a dissonant chord, not unlike that of a horror movie, to start Arrival. Hints of a horn can be heard in this eerie beginning as well. The track then evolves into a more traditional melancholy Baroque-style piece. After this, drums come in, almost out of tempo with the classical music playing over it and the eerie sounding chords from the beginning play again. The trumpet is back too, this time in a more obviously jazz style. Soon, jazz piano and upright bass can be heard and by the middle of the piece it is a cacophony of jazz and classical, of modern and old, of two things that shouldn’t be playing at the same time. The jazz dominates for a little while and then fades out, finishing the piece with the eerie classical music from the beginning as Diana arrives at the mansion. This piece is not the “put together” sounding movie score one is used to hearing from more commercial movies. This is not a traditional orchestra playing sad melodies for sad moments and exciting melodies for action sequences in time with one another.
Jonny Greenwood has created this soundtrack with purpose.
The older, baroque-style classical music and eerie chords are supposed to represent the Royal family. It is traditional, unmoving, and unsettling. This is exactly how Larraín portrays them in relation to Diana in this movie. Diana is then represented through the jazz in the score. It is more modern, free, and does not like to be restrained by traditional musical rules. When Greenwood puts these two wildly different styles of music together, he creates an uncomfortable track that puts the listener on edge. There is a push and pull that goes on between the jazz and classical music in this piece. They are at odds with one another, yet they continue to play on at the same time. In the end, the classical music emerges the victor and gets to close out the piece, leaving the jazz behind. Many have described this movie as a psychological thriller disguised as a biopic and Greenwood, through this opening track, is able to capture the discomfort, tension, and even horror that the movie tries to get across. Through this seven minute piece, Greenwood tells the audience about who the Royal family is, who Diana is, what their relationship is like, and what tone audiences can expect from the movie, all while contributing to the building pressure of the scene.
Jonny Greenwood’s work in Spencer is only one of the many great examples of intelligent and emotional scoring in film and TV recently. Hans Zimmer’s guttural, striking score for Dune, Nicholas Britell’s opulent, grand music on Succession, and Michael Giacchino’s menacing, seat-shaking motif for the Batman all can absolutely be broken down in similar ways as I have done for Spencer.
This rise in attention to the scoring of movies is something that brings me a lot of joy and excitement. Music in movies and television should be treated as another cast member or character. It is something that, if used correctly, adds just as much to a story as the dialogue, cinematography, or acting, as I hope was apparent in the case of Spencer. When done well and with care, it adds more “texture” to the scene, as every single dimension of what is on screen is being used to convey something to the audience. It’s like having a really good black and white sketch and then turning it into a fully colored painting. I think the German word, “gesamtkunstwerk” best explains this. Gesamtkunstwerk is roughly translated to “total work of art”. It’s the word for a piece of art that uses multiple mediums to create a comprehensive, complete product. In this case, it’s the unification of purposeful writing, acting, cinematography, and music that creates a piece of art. Music pulls from us visceral, sometimes unexpected reactions, and using it intelligently and purposefully in a story adds that extra layer that makes a scene or arc truly great.
A lot of work will go into the creation of a movie and more times than not, the music is something that gets largely overlooked. But, after the many recent releases that have captured my ears, I am hopeful for the art of scoring to only get better and get more attention in the future. Movies are many things to people. They’re entertainment, background noise, a fun Friday night activity, but at the end of the day, most of all, they’re stories. And a good story should be treated with care, precision, and passion. For movies, this cannot be done without proper attention to the music. So, the next time you’re watching a movie, I encourage you to listen carefully to how the composer has scored a scene, because while they don't use words, the music of movies have a lot to say.
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