Moments after winning a Golden Globe for his score to Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Toronto-based Mychael Danna is answering questions from journalists backstage in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. I’m watching it all on YouTube. It’s been only three days since he was nominated for two Oscars.
“Ang is the master of subtlety,” Danna is saying. “He wants emotion to be built up and held and held and then at certain very key moments, released. And that’s something that musically I’ve also worked on, that sense of holding back emotion that becomes submerged and then released at the right moment and effective that way.”
The 50-something Danna fell into his career as a film composer by accident. While studying composition at U of T he got involved in theatre where he met Atom Egoyan. Danna’s scored all of Egoyan’s films beginning with 1987’s Family Viewing. He’s worked on dozens of movies since, from Girl, Interrupted to Capote, from Little Miss Sunshine to Moneyball, from Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Ride with the Devil to Deepa Mehta’s Water and three films by Mira Nair.
He has an uncanny, but totally unforced, ability to combine Western and non-Western music seamlessly in his scores. And he’s someone who loves being part of the filmmaking process, who loves being a member of the team serving its master, the film. He brought a scrupulous sense of responsibility to Life of Pi.
“I read the book [by Canadian Yann Martel] years ago and loved it. I felt very obligated to bring [its] essence to life,” he answers another journalist. “I worked on this score for over a year because we had to do the wrong thing many times before we could do the right thing.”
In fact, he told Movie City News’ David Poland recently that he worked four months solid on the Twentieth Century Fox lot from morning to night with two assistants. The process was so efficient that Ang Lee was less than 100 yards away editing. They recorded the orchestra right on the lot.
Back at the Beverly Hilton the press wants to know more, about his relationship to India and about his musical background. “I’m very familiar with India,” he says. “I’ve been there many times. I’m married to an Indian. We have family there. It’s like a second home. It’s a place where anything is possible except what you expect.”
In the 25 years Danna has been doing this highly specialized work, did he ever dream he would be nominated for two Academy Awards? That question isn’t asked at the Beverly Hilton. His music for Life of Pi is nominated for Best Original Score and “Pi’s Lullaby” which he wrote with Bombay Jayashri (she penned the lyrics in Tamil and sings it on the movie’s soundtrack) is nominated for Best Original Song. Jayashri wrote recently on her website that Ang Lee’s words — “A child sleeps not because he is sleepy, but because he feels safe” — were the catalysts for her lyrics.
Danna’s mini-press conference concludes with some personal history: “My biggest musical influences were not so much filmic. I grew up with progressive rock and classical training, in choirs and leading choirs but also with a huge interest in non-western music from all different countries of the world.”
It’s now mid-January and Life of Pi has grossed almost $100 million in North America and more than $350 million in the rest of the world. Anything is possible except what you expect. What accounts for the surprising appeal of this spiritual adventure about a teenage boy who survives for more than 200 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a Bengal tiger as his companion? In his Hot Button interview with David Poland, Danna spoke about the film in terms of tragedy and loss, crisis of faith, God vs. gods and universal ideas. “If the music portrayed those big ideas too directly it was difficult to watch,” he said. “The music had to address emotions but be simple.”
Balinese gamelan, all kinds of Indian instruments, choirboys and a Tibetan men’s choir were all components of the score. “The challenge was to make it effortless and simple sounding.”
He certainly succeeded in conveying its effortlessness. To me, the score’s overriding effect was one of serenity, of a calm centre at the core of what is essentially a harrowing experience. Right from the beginning of the film, the tranquility of “Pi’s Lullaby” sets the tone for what follows without overstating the scope of it. It’s a perfect example of Danna’s expressed aim to serve the film, and despite the song’s high melodic quotient, it does just that. As the music unfurls, it’s clearly in support of the action of the screen rather than a comment on it.
When the scene moves to Paris an accordion subtly underlines the change even as an Indian flute reminds us of Pi’s origin. As the film progresses the Indian flute takes on a substantial role, the leader as it were of the eastern musical forces Danna employs (orchestral strings represent the western tradition). Whether it’s the innocent appeal of a children’s choir or the insistent push of Indian drums, it’s the non-intrusiveness of the score that is as much the key to its success as is the music’s intrinsic beauty.
One of the few times the music swells occurs when the ship passes through the Mariana Trench, while the massive storm that sinks the vessel is accompanied by sound effects only. A later storm when Pi is on the lifeboat is set to music but its swells don’t mimic nature but instead match Pi’s sense of the storm’s majesty. Similarly, Pi’s walking through the meerkats on the mysterious island is unexpectedly set to an electronic tune, while the magical night that follows is supported by an equally wondrous celestial track. Even when Pi finally reaches the Mexican shore, Danna’s score makes no overt comment but only serves as a floor beneath the images.
The remaining Oscar nominees for Best Original Score this year are a mix of veterans and relative newcomers, all representing the pinnacle of their profession. The music they’ve written for the four other nominated films falls broadly into the category of that which makes an overtly emotional statement on the action on the screen.
Skyfall is Thomas Newman’s 11th Oscar nomination; he has never won. A signpost for music that comments on the action, it’s a big old-style score in keeping with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise. Right from its Istanbul opening it screams action, moves on to a blousy theme for the latest “Bond girl” and continues to ramp up the energy level in concert with what’s on the screen, even managing a slight reference to the original Bond theme before the finale in Scotland.
Lincoln is the 48th nomination for John Williams, whose 80th birthday last summer sparked rumours of retirement. He’s won five Oscars, the last for Schindler’s List 20 years ago, also a Steven Spielberg film that, like Lincoln, coincidentally had 12 nominations overall. Williams’ scores invariably comment on the action, pumping it up and emoting right along with it, many times with memorable results. Lincoln finds him relatively restrained; the allusions to Aaron Copland sit comfortably beside Spielberg’s subtle, understated but powerful direction, something the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s sensitive playing and gorgeous sound reinforces.
Alexandre Desplat might be the most prolific film composer working today. Seven films he scored were released in 2012, from the delightful Moonrise Kingdom to Zero Dark Thirty’s taut suspense. But it is his resourceful work for movie industry darling Argo that the 232 members of the music branch of the Academy chose to nominate. His fifth nomination, he’s yet to win.
For Anna Karenina, Dario Marianellibuilds on a snippet of the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4 as well as Russian folk songs and dance (the waltz and mazurka). His sui generis faux-19th century theatre music supports screenwriter Tom Stoppard’s and director Joe Wright’s brilliant conception of Tolstoy’s massive novel as a piece of stagecraft. This is Marianelli’s third nomination; he won for Atonement, which Wright also directed.
The 85th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, February 24, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The race for original score appears to be between Lincoln and Life of Pi. Lovely as “Pi’s Lullaby” may be, Adele’s “Skyfall” has the heft to win best song despite hardcore support for “Suddenly” from Les Misérables. Will Mychael Danna be facing another gaggle of journalists that night? Anything is possible except what you expect.
Paul Ennis is a Toronto-based, classically trained musician who has spent many years programming and writing about movies.
