"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one ... Now I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds."
【專輯名稱】: Oppenheimer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
【專輯藝人】: Ludwig G?ransson
【發行日期】: July 21, 2023
【品牌名稱】: Back Lot Music
【專輯類型】: Orchestral, contemporary classical, film score
【專輯簡介】:
When approached to score Oppenheimer, G?ransson was initially intimidated by the scope and magnitude of the project. In the film's early stages of production, Nolan shared the script with his visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson as he needed to convey phenomena such as quantum mechanics and nuclear reactions onscreen. The visual effects team began creating experimental footage of particles, waves, and chain reactions. Nolan then showed this footage to G?ransson, who used it to draw inspiration for his score.
Scoring Oppenheimer proved to be a unique challenge for G?ransson as he had never composed a soundtrack that only represented one character's inner workings and point of view. Nolan did not give specific direction on how he wanted the score to sound; the only suggestion he gave G?ransson was to represent J. Robert Oppenheimer's character and the film's main theme with the violin. Nolan explained, "There's a tension to the sound in a way that I think fits the highly-strung intellect and emotion of Robert Oppenheimer very well." Using the violin as a starting point, G?ransson and his wife Serena, a violinist, began experimenting with vibratos and microtonal glissandos; they aimed to convey the anxiety of Oppenheimer through the violin's ability to instantly switch from a romantic and sentimental sound to something "neurotic" and "horrifying."
G?ransson's score comprised three overarching movements: Oppenheimer's background in physics, the Manhattan Project and the Trinity test, and the Atomic Energy Commission hearing. The score begins with lush melodies by strings, harps, and piano as Oppenheimer explores theory and begins his career as a physicist. As the score transitions into the second movement, however, the tone shifts as the atomic bomb is being built, with the increased stakes being amplified by thumping bass and metallic ticking sounds. G?ransson was careful to not veer his score toward sounding "booming," especially in the film's second act, as he believed that if the score was too explosive, the detonations in the film wouldn't have as much of an impact on the audience.
While the film is a period piece and G?ransson did use instrumentation that fit with the times, he also wanted the score to feel "timeless," choosing to infuse the traditional orchestra with synthesizers and mono-production. He and Nolan also chose not to include drums in the score at the risk of it feeling militaristic, instead incorporating percussive elements such as foot stomping, ticking, and dosimeter static. In addition to its instrumentation, G?ransson conveyed the energy of the score through tempo. For example, in the piece "Can You Hear the Music", he employed 21 tempo changes—a large feat for a live orchestra. Originally, G?ransson called it "unplayable" and planned to record the song bar-by-bar, but his wife encouraged him to record the song in one take. After much experimentation, the music team achieved this by playing a click into the musicians' headphones before every tempo change. This piece alone took three days to record.
Unlike most cases when scoring begins in post-production, G?ransson began attending weekly meetings three months before filming began, writing 10 minutes of music a week for Nolan. G?ransson described the process as very "collaborative and open." Nolan was then able to begin filming with two to three hours of music that he could reference. Additionally, when editing began in post-production, Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame could use G?ransson's preliminary work for the first cut of the film without the need for a temp score. The final score was recorded in five days with a 70-person orchestra.
All tracks are written by Ludwig G?ransson, with additional writing by Thomas Kotcheff on "Trinity" and "Something More Important". All tracks are produced by G?ransson.
【專輯曲目】:
1. "Fission" 4:38
2. "Can You Hear the Music" 1:50
3. "A Lowly Shoe Salesman" 3:34
4. "Quantum Mechanics" 3:00
5. "Gravity Swallows Light" 3:30
6. "Meeting Kitty" 5:47
7. "Groves" 3:03
8. "Manhattan Project" 3:01
9. "American Prometheus" 2:37
10. "Atmospheric Ignition" 3:28
11. "Los Alamos" 2:38
12. "Fusion" 3:55
13. "Colonel Pash" 4:57
14. "Theorists" 3:14
15. "Ground Zero" 4:21
16. "Trinity" 7:52
17. "What We Have Done" 5:45
18. "Power Stays in the Shadows" 4:10
19. "The Trial" 5:32
20. "Dr. Hill" 4:23
21. "Kitty Comes to Testify" 4:52
22. "Something More Important" 3:25
23. "Destroyer of Worlds" 2:54
24. "Oppenheimer" 2:16
【專輯播放】 · · · · · ·
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