Thank You, Maestro

Upon seeing the trailer for the upcoming documentary, Music by John Williams, I felt inspired to come back to writing in order to talk about a few things that I will forever be passionate about: music and film.

Now, when I say film, I’m also roping in television because there are so many projects that I consider to be iconic. Within the trailer for the documentary, someone had mentioned that there are many projects that would not be the same without their soundtracks. I wholeheartedly agree. 

Yesterday morning, on the 2nd of October, I found myself scrolling through the most popular titles on Max to find a new show to stream. Although there were many options, I found that it was long overdue that I watch Succession. So, without any spoilers besides hearing the main title theme, I decided to start on my journey with the Roy family.

The opening scene was as dark as it was confusing (much like the entire third episode in the last season of Game of Thrones) as I sat and anxiously awaited Nicholas Britell’s score. Though I have heard clips of popular pieces on social media, I have never been able to hear it in context until right now. Knowing that Britell has made other recognizable projects, I had a lot of high hopes for this one. 

Even though I am moving slowly along with my watching progress, I think I can confidently say that I will never want to skip this opening every time I sit down to watch. As the opening scene to the pilot cut out and I heard the beat immediately cut in, it felt completely different seeing the song with the title credits rolling. 

Not only that, but the intro music begins on a quick note—the driving beat of the intro song perfectly matches the chaotic energy that the Roy family and the children bring to the show. As the clips of the complicated family and present-day corporate America contrast each other, the score is a definite reminder of the experience any viewer is about to have and I have a feeling this type-A driving force won’t burn out anytime soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77PsqaWzwG0

This was not the only experience I have had where film scores have changed my viewing experience. In the summer of 2023, my best friend and I took ourselves to the theater to experience the Barbenheimer summer; it was here that Ludwig Göransson’s score enlightened my viewing experience on an entirely new level. Without his talent, I firmly believe that the entire film would have been different, and I still think this about many films to this day. I won’t say which ones, instead I will leave that up for discussion.

“Can You Hear the Music” set the stage for the entire film, along with Christopher Nolan’s directing and Jennifer Lame’s editing skills. The one part I remember the most was sitting forward in my chair, my leg anxiously bouncing on the ground while my palms were sweating, awaiting the Trinity Project to be set off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0d8sSmZqzs

While I do feel the silence before the actual explosion contributed a lot to it, the song directly leading up to the event ( which Göransson appropriately named “Trinity”) made me feel like I was experiencing it myself. The layering of the harsh string sounds was enough to get my heart rate up and keep it there for almost the entire three hours. I barely had enough time to recover before going straight into Barbie; and that was an entirely separate experience within itself. 

The string instrumental themes are steady throughout this film, much like they are in Succession (Göransson and Britell are well-known for using these instruments a lot in their project, much like John Williams is with brass instruments), and they are responsible for most (if not all) of the anxious feelings that were caused during my viewing. Composers have this long-lasting effect on most of us—even if we do not realize it at the time. Their projects have the ability to stick with us as long as the filmmakers’ do, if not longer. 

But, I am not trying to compare the two in any way, rather I want to emphasize their importance as they work together in harmony. It takes a lot of talent to be able to tell the movie or the show’s story through the music, and there are only a handful of composers that I feel like have truly been able to capture that through their work. I could probably write an entire thesis on this topic, but I’ll spare you all from that.

What I will say if you are unfamiliar with this topic, start by listening to composers such as Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, John Williams, Natalie Holt, Nicholas Britell, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Ramin Djawadi, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, and Harry Gregson-Willams. You know, just to name a few.

If you are interested in diving into more film scores, I would encourage you to listen to my playlist that I have been adding to over the years. Yes, normally a 47 hour playlist would be excessive, but not when it comes to something such as this.