“That’s what I love about Pixar. It’s always about the story. That’s where every project begins, with the story — not the marketing.” — Michael Giacchino

I’m generally not that excited about filmscores that come out these days, but I know that every summer I can expect at least one that’s a refreshing break from the monotonous norm. This is because of Pixar. The studio that consistently produces the highest-caliber films today also parents many of the best scores because their emphasis on story over spectacle carries over into the production of the music.

Pete Docter chose Michael Giacchino to compose the score for Up, Pixar’s latest film, because Michael had not only cultivated a good working relationship with Pixar during his work on The Incredibles and Ratatouille, but also because he understands his role as a composer to be in subjection to the film’s story and not independent of it.

“It all starts really with just watching the movie and talking to the directors about the emotional arcs of the movie and the character development in the movie.

It [Up] is essentially a love story about Carl and his wife, so it was just about going there and finding out [what] that means. What I ended up doing was doing this very simple waltz that grows and twists and turns through the whole course of the film. As Carl goes on this adventure, everything just changes, [and] the music changes with him and his character as he develops and he grows.” – Michael Giacchino

Where most composers would have taken one look at Up’s beautiful and exotic scenery and hastily plunged into the composition of fanfares and exiting adventure music, Giacchino’s story-based approach to composition allowed him to step back and see what the film is really about. The visual setting for Up is incredibly lush and beautiful, but Giacchino didn’t let that dictate the direction of the music.

As Giacchino stated earlier, the film is really a love story between Carl and Ellie, so the two primary melodies in Up, Ellie’s Theme and Muntz’s Theme, were portrayed in the film as being representative of Carl’s foremost affections and the real life conflict he experienced between the two. Ellie’s theme depicts the simple joys of married and family life, contrasted with the reckless glorification of adventurism for its own sake that Muntz’s theme signifies. Watch how the two play off each other over the course of the film as Carl is emotionally buffeted, torn between childhood affections and the call of duty.

On a stylistic level, a much smaller instrumental sound was utilized than is common today. Whumpin’, thumpin’ percussion was replaced with small string ensembles and woodwinds. How often do you hear a muted trumpet, piano and solo violin in the same scene today? The uniqueness factor alone made the music striking and evocative.

“It’s a very small ensemble for the most part. Stand-up bass, guitar, violin, clarinet — those are the main pieces. We wanted that intimate kind of feel. There’s a tendency in animation to go huge, this idea that just because it’s an animated film it needs overbearing music to convey any emotion. And I’ve always hated that. If it’s a good story, you just need something simple to make it work.” – Michael Giacchino

The lightness and simplicity of the music really adds to the appeal of the film. The fact that you are not hearing an unrealistically large and exaggerated musical construct actually makes it easier to relate to Carl’s character and his struggles.

“Simple melodies are the best” is a statement you have probably heard time and time again. This is generally true, but what most composers don’t tell you is that they’re also the hardest to write. A good composer can write an appealing, unique and memorable melodic idea with the restriction 5-10 notes in a set key provides and come up with a powerful and emotional end product. A bad one has to find “originality” by rejecting every structural element of traditional composition that could potentially let two waveforms sound alike.

Giacchino’s ability to write a simple, catchy melody with appeal is yet another testament to musical proficiency that leads some to tout him as the next John Williams. Though I wouldn’t go quite that far (at least not yet), his focus on story does remind one of Williams more than any of his colleagues or contemporaries. And it’s this focus that’s looking to solidify the working relationship between Giacchino and Pixar as one the most memorable and successful ones in film history. Here’s a quote by another of Giacchino’s close work associates:

“Michael is not only an exceptional composer, he also has an amazing, acute sense of story. He is someone who I talk through story with, who I show early scenes to, who I will show a script at a very early stage to. He is as valuable as a producer as he is a musician and composer.” –J.J. Abrams

The score for Up is fantastic and the best I have heard in a good while. Though popularity is not necessarily the mark of excellence, this film is a favorite with virtually everyone who sees it, and has accomplished a rare feat in making big bucks at the domestic box office while getting high marks from the critics.

Though the film is excellent on its own, I can’t help but wonder how it would have fared without the score that I anticipate being the strongest of the year.

Today, nearly everyone knows what pirate music sounds like because nearly everyone has seen the Pirates of the Caribbean films. But for whatever reason, the rich heritage of swashbuckler scores that graced the silver screen before the first POTC looted and pillaged the box office in 2003 has been almost completely forgotten.

This is unfortunate, because there was a lot of music written pre-Jack Sparrow that may actually capture the piratical and nautical nature of the traditional swashbuckler feature better than Zimmer/Badelt’s rousing and exciting Pirates of the Caribbean scores.

Note: I do not say five soundtracks “stronger,” “better” or “more enjoyable,” than Pirates of the Caribbean; I say five soundtracks more swashbuckling than Pirates of the Caribbean because my intention with this post is not so much to find the scores that best fit their individual films as it is to discover which music is most representative of the historic swashbuckling tradition as defined by the likes of Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and R.L. Stevenson.

Also note: This post was not written in any way to promote the biblically illegitimate vocation of piracy. It just so happens that the dashing style of music historically used to romanticize piracy is one that is very energetic and enjoyable.

Though I usually judge a film’s music based on how well it matches and strengthens its individual film, I am making an exception for this post, and am ranking the following five soundtracks based on how well the music stands on its own. Remember this, because otherwise my list will won’t make much sense.

I was not expecting a soundtrack this good or this fun from a film this crummy, but I love surprises (half of the time) — chances are this is one of those soundtracks that will lay claim to permanent residency on your ipod’s playlist.
My favorite aspects of this soundtrack are:

- A number of recognizable themes and motifs (not so common these days) that are really pretty good
- Well executed and clean orchestration that successfully incorporates a number of ethnic Irish and modern instruments to form some excellent instrumental textures
- With the exception of the two songs at the beginning, a very balanced and diverse track listing that sounds good from beginning to end.

Notable tracks from Treasure Planet:
12 Years later
Billy Bones
The Map
The Launch

It’s very hard to place this anywhere besides #1 because –hey–it’s John Williams! As far as pirate music goes, this may not be the most definitive or representative score out there, and it’s arguable whether it should even be classified as pirate music at all. And it’s not even one of Williams’ best scores, but Williams’ duds are usually more masterful than most composers’ masterpieces.

Of the five films mentioned, this may contain the most masterfully crafted and complete melodies and it’s probably the best score to study and observe in the context of the film because no one (living or otherwise) has a better understanding of the relationship between music and film than Williams. If that were the contest there wouldn’t even be a runner-up. He is in a league all his own.

Notable tracks from Hook:
Prologue (Williams sure knows how to buckle a swash)
Presenting the Hook
You are the Pan

In the world of piratical film music, the first step in determining whether or not a score is worth its sea-salt is by seeing how well it measures up to this 1940 release. If it can’t come close, then forget it. OK, maybe not every pirate score has been judged that way, but they often are because the music for The Sea Hawk has been so influential in defining this genre.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a transplant from the Austrian music scene applauded by the likes of Strauss, Mahler and others, moved to the US in 1935 to escape Hitler’s takeover of his native land. That same year he wrote his very first film score for Captain Blood (another swashbuckler starring Errol Flynn), which proved to be an excellent testing ground for Erich to play with the “pirate sound” which he would take to new heights five years later with The Sea Hawk. Though he is best known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (yet another rollicking Flynn feature), this is arguably Korngold’s single best work for film.

Notable tracks from The Sea Hawk:
Main Title
Doña Maria and Capt. Thorpe / Elizabeth’s throne room
Condemned to the Galley / Doña Maria’s Song
Escape from the Galley / Fight on Deck / “Strike for the Shores of Dover”

It usually takes a film composer several tries before he really comes into his own as a veteran of the musical score, but Patrick Doyle wrote like one right from the start with Henry V, his first feature film outing. Disney’s summer b-release Shipwrecked marked his second, the soundtrack for which has become very difficult to obtain for a reasonable sum due to the limited popularity of the film.

Shipwrecked’s strong points are its strong melodic approach and the smaller, more intimate set of instruments Doyle used to set the tone for the film and match its (intended) period feel. These days it seems like every score is trying to be bigger and louder than the others, so by contrast a smaller sound can be very refreshing and striking to the listener. Be sure to look out for very economical and effective use of the classical orchestra, with emphasis on the strings.

Notable tracks from Shipwrecked:
Opening Titles
Off to Sea
The Chase

This film is so bad that when it was released in 1995 it was given the black spot by critics and moviegoers alike, finishing with an abysmal $10 million box office haul when about $200 million would have been required for it to break even.

In the rush to forget the film, John Debney’s brilliant score fell by the wayside and was relegated to the wastebins of cinematic history where it collects dust and appears on ebay every now and then. But now that everyone has forgotten the film, it should be safe to bring the soundtrack back into the light and enjoy it for its own merits, which are legion.

Is the soundtrack for Cutthroat Island:

Over the top? Likely to make you run off to sea? Filled with exaggerated bravado and an overblown sense of reckless adventurism? Fun and rowdy? Eschewed by the critics and musical academia who have labeled it as cheap, compromised and commercialized musical entertainment?

Yes. Otherwise it wouldn’t make #1 on this list!

Notable tracks from Cutthroat Island:
Main title: Morgan’s ride
To the bottom of the sea (great intro)
It’s only Gold/End credits

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Hans Zimmer’s first pirate score, Muppet Treasure Island. Just don’t listen past the first two tracks and you won’t be disappointed.
I know this is getting repetitive, but this is also a very hard-to-find soundtrack. I wonder why…

Northernsounds.com is currently hosting Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s classic work Principles of Orchestration in digital format as a free online course in orchestration.

Though Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is best known today for his piece The Flight of the Bumblebee and his brilliant symphonic suite Scheherazade, his knowledge of orchestration also heavily influenced and saturated the music of his students, among whom were Respighi, Glazunov, Prokofiev and Stravinsky (whose biggest strength was orchestration, in my opinion).

Principles of Orchestration is replete with selections of sheet music by Rimsky-Korsakov and others (most notably Tchaikovsky) illustrating the principles being described, whether it be woodwind doubling, stacking strings and brass, carrying a melody with the cello section or knowing when to use percussive accents.

The course also includes a number of very helpful charts and graphs that show instrument ranges, orchestra seating and other helpful data that can be nice to have on hand as reference when composing.

In the past, an orchestration manual on its own has been of limited use because you can’t hear what’s being described, but NorthernSounds.com solves this problem by creating Garritan Personal Orchestra renditions of every piece of sheet music found in the book, which can be played live as they are viewed on the web page.

When I went through the book/course a couple years ago I was not expecting it to teach me much about composition, but it did — I was surprised by just how applicable all this instruction is to the composition and orchestration of music for today! Sure, the book is over 130 years old and had to be translated from the original Russian, but the foundational structures and patterns that make “music” what it is (the “laws” or “constants” of music, so to speak) are the same, so many of the principles that Rimsky-Korsakov touches upon (such as mixing differing tone colors, understanding the relationship between melody and harmony, isolating and accentuating the primary musical elements, etc.) are for the most part just as relevant to orchestration today as they were in the 1870s.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, and I wholeheartedly recommend that anyone interested in the fields of composition and orchestration follow the link and check out the material.

Kudos to Gary Garritan and the team at northernsounds.com for making this book available as an easily accessible resource!