Academy Award® Winning Scores

Luke attacking the Death Star; a shark’s fin knifing the water; a couple of street kids on the run in India . . . just the suggestions bring specific movie score moments to mind, right? The themes from Star Wars and Jaws (both by John Williams), as well as standout scores from more recent outings like Slumdog Millionaire (composer A.R. Rahman), have become part of our cultural consciousness. No less so the “Moon River” melody that defines Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the delicate but edgy patchwork of interlocking strings created by Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel, or James Horner’s doomed, eternally romantic Titanic chords.

There’s more from Santaolalla in Next Steps, this time with a Western theme.

With a simple, spare guitar motif, Argentine composer/musician Gustavo Santaolalla somehow captured the majestic sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the melancholy internal struggles that took place against that background in Brokeback Mountain, from which score we’ve lifted “The Wings.” At the other end of the spectrum, but no less effective is John Barry’s rich, forceful theme for the historic sweep of The Lion In Winter. Meanwhile, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland paired for one of the best and happiest examples of the so-American movie-musical art form with the unforgettable “Easter Parade.”

Our Oscar® score selection encompasses classic tales of gangsterism and Disney fantasy, in Deep Cuts.

It’s amazing to think that, not too long ago, Hollywood commissions were perceived as demeaning for composers, despite many great achievements. Today, such maestros as Nino Rota — represented here by the deceptively romantic “The End Title” from The Godfather Part II — are revered icons, and film draws top talents across a wide range. Chinese composer Tan Dun, who wrote the score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has earned acclaim for film and concert works, and talents like Alan Menken — whose distinctive Disney melodies can be heard on “Farewell” and “Transformation” — has become a part of the modern pop- culture landscape.

It’s tricky: a great film score must never intrude on the action, yet should make such an impression on an audience that any time it’s heard it will bring the images it accompanied back to mind, whether marching Imperial star troopers, a flying nanny, a farm in Africa or a posse of hobbits. In both orchestral works and songs, composers from Erich Wolfgang Korngold (a classical heavyweight in his own right) to John Barry (who died in January, 2011) and modern master John Williams, have defined and redefined the form. Year after year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® has honored the masters whose work appears among these award-winning Essentials. Close your eyes, and let the music transport you back to space, or the vast ocean, or first love. You can almost smell the popcorn.