The Hildur Guðnadóttir thread

[Jay 37,337]

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Hildur Guðnadóttir to Score David O. Russell’s Next Feature

Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Chernobyl, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Mary Magdalene) confirmed at today’s first panel at Variety’s Music for Screens Summit that she will be scoring director David O. Russell’s next, currently untitled, feature. The film is written and directed by O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Three Kings) and stars Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington. No plot details have been announced. Matthew Budman (Detroit, Spree) is producing the New Regency production. Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki serves as the director of photography of the project, which marks first feature scoring assignment following her Academy Award-winning score for Todd Phillips’ Joker. The movie is set to start shooting in early 2021. A release in late 2021 is expected.

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2020/11/30/hildur-gudnadottir-to-score-david-o-russells-next-feature

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Good.

[Thor 7,490]

Yes, could be interesting.

[TSMefford 1,509]

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Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki serves as the director of photography of the project, which marks first feature scoring assignment following her Academy Award-winning score for Todd Phillips’ Joker.

 

What a terrible sentence. You can't just switch the subject in the middle! Sounds like the DP is scoring it now. 

 

On topic: Cool. Looking forward to more from Hildur. I'll admit that I was annoyed that Joker won Best Original Score and it has soured the score a bit for me, but it's not bad. I also like her work on Chernobyl. Looking forward to her new projects!

[Edmilson 7,426]

I don't hate Joker, I thought it was a decent score that supported well the movie. As for Chernobyl, I don't even remember if it had a score, since it was mostly background noises (to listen to the Chernobyl OST is probably a chore).

[TSMefford 1,509]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I don't hate Joker, I thought it was a decent score that supported well the movie. 

 

I don't hate it at all. I just don't think it should've won Best Original Score. I have no idea how it works in context as I was utterly uninterested in Joker as a film.

[Henry Sítrónu 494]

She‘s performing her soundtrack  

for Chernobyl today in Berlin. Can‘t wait! It’s a benefit concert for Ukraine.

 

https://ctm.stager.de/Chernobyl/tickets

[bruce marshall 1,315]

That score can be PERFORMED?!

WOW#

[Henry Sítrónu 494]

12 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

That score can be PERFORMED?!

WOW#

well, with computers and software, obviously. Like a DJ setup. Hildur did some live vocals though, too. It was an amazing experience. The venue was a former power plant. Very Berlin!

https://kraftwerkberlin.de/de/

 

[Jay 37,337]

Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Goes for Double Oscar Nominations as ‘Tár’ Music Is Deemed Eligible

[JNHFan2000 2,957]

A writren article about the Q&A of Tar at the New York Film Festival. Below in spoiler brackets the questions about the music.

 

https://cinemadailyus.com/interviews/new-york-film-festival-tar-press-conference-with-actors-cate-blanchett-sophie-kauer-nina-hoss-director-todd-field-composer-hildur-gudnadottir/

 

Spoiler

Q: Hildur and Todd, maybe you could talk about your collaboration. It goes without saying, music is important in this film. Talk about what were your touchstones and what ideas developed as you shaped the score — both of you. 

HG: Music is very important in this film, very, very important. I was so thrilled when Todd asked me to get involved, because it’s a rare opportunity as a composer to get to work on a process film about music. A lot of the time, as a composer, you’re often asked to underscore or you are highlighting emotions. You’re definitely ending up with the product of finished cues or finished pieces of music.

But in this case, we really got to dive into what it is to compose, what it is to listen when you compose, what it’s like to rehearse, to practice, to stray away from your creative alignment and get stuck in another world. There were just so many incredibly juicy aspects of the practice of composing and rehearsing music that it was such a privilege for me to dive into. That’s probably the part of music that I’m more interested in than the finished product.

Behind every piece of music that you hear, there’s decades of practice, decades of preparation to get to the point that you actually listen to. It’s like what happens in rehearsal when you’re rehearsing with a group of people, the journey that everyone goes through musically. Through music, you’re communicating beyond the words. So when you’re practicing with other people, it’s a form of transformational communication, and it’s very strong. In rehearsals, this is the point when you feel like everything is really coming together and the music starts to blossom. For me, that’s where the real beauty of music lies. It’s not the perfect take, it’s how you got there that’s so interesting.

In this case, Lydia Tár is not only rehearsing music, she’s also composing music, so then we’re looking at the process of how do we communicate the way of internally hearing the music before you write it?  You have to feel it, so you don’t really hear it. When you’re writing music, you have these melodies or textures that you hear internally. So it’s not a voice, necessarily, or an instrument, but it’s a feeling of the music and how do you portray that visually in a way that you feel it?

It was really important for us to write that music really early on. Todd and I had lots of meetings before they started shooting. When he was location scouting, we tempo-mapped the whole film and made bpms [beats per minute] for each character with the tempo they were walking in, the tempo they were writing in, and the tempo they were rehearsing in. We had this overarching tempo map of the film. Then I wrote music to accompany that so we could all listen to that music and could hear that music so the music is in the delicate subconscious DNA of the film, even though the audience isn’t hearing [it]. Hopefully, they will feel the tempo.

Of course, I wrote the music that she writes in the film. We would have conversations about it. I would very badly try to explain how it is to compose, how it is to hear it and to sit with it, because it’s a very delicate and personal process that you don’t normally share that much with people. That was a really interesting and beautiful process for me as a composer, to get to share it with such beautiful artists.

Q: Todd, do you want to add anything? 

TF: Well, it was an unusual situation, as Sylvia said. Most of the time, there’s a pre-circumcised kind of situation. The process is a, b, c, d and e, “e” being you come in and the composer inherits your sins and tries to absolve you in a way. This was an unusual situation, and a gigantic creative opportunity in terms of being able to collaborate with Hildur. She was at “a” and was with us through the end. As she said, we didn’t just spot for cues, we spotted for what is the gait.

For instance, if you watch Cate and put a metronome on her, she’s walking at 120 beats per minute. But Sophie’s walking at 60. This contrast between her older and younger selves and creatively, where she is at, as opposed to, for instance, where Sophie’s character is.

We had in-depth conversations about how we relate to music, how we relate to sound, and the idea that you’re making a film about characters that make music. They make music for real and make it on screen. So to underscore their lives would be absurd and like putting a hat on a hat.

One of the things that I deeply admire about Hildur’s music — long before she was scoring — is the way that she makes very, very dense sonic scapes that work on you in a particular manner that’s non-equational. There’s a great deal of score in this film that’s probably, based on how we mixed it, but you’re unaware of. It’s there nonetheless, and there’s a real intent behind it all.

It was a gigantic luxury to have that kind of continuity of cooperation with a composer, and it was integral not just to our conversation, but to the conversation with Cate and what she was doing, obviously, all the way through into July when we actually recorded a concept album with the London Symphony Orchestra — Cate was conducting and Sophie was playing. [That was done] with Elgar in the same place where Jacqueline duPre plays Elgar, at Studio One at EMI, now Abbey Road. Hildur actually recorded with the full orchestra what Cate’s character is writing in the movie. That will be out on vinyl with Lydia Tár on the cover, the way she planned in January.

 

Plus another interview with Gudnadottir

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/consequence.net/2022/10/hildur-gudnadottir-interview-tar-todd-field/amp/

[JNHFan2000 2,957]

Release this friday.

 

 

1. Guðnadóttir: For Petra (Vocal Version) – Hildur Guðnadóttir (1:11)
2. Guðnadóttir: Mortar – Hildur Guðnadóttir & London Contemporary Orchestra (3:36)
3. Introductory Words by Hildur Guðnadóttir – Hildur Guðnadóttir (0:19)
4. Guðnadóttir: For Petra (Recording Session) – London Contemporary Orchestra & Robert Ames (8:18)
5. Hildur’s Impressions – Hildur Guðnadóttir (0:14)
6. Guðnadóttir: Tár – I. Largo – The London Contemporary Orchestra (5:44)
7. Guðnadóttir: Tár – II. Allegro – The London Contemporary Orchestra (4:14)
8. Guðnadóttir: Tár – III. Moderato – The London Contemporary Orchestra (4:56)
9. Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor / Pt. 1 – I. Trauermarsch & II. Stürmisch bewegt (Rehearsals) – Cate Blanchett, Jan Wolf & Dresdner Philharmonie (3:19)
10. Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor / Pt. 3 – IV. Adagietto (Rehearsals) – Cate Blanchett & Dresdner Philharmonie (4:24)
11. Introductory Words (Recording Session) – Rachel Smith & Natalie Murray Beale & Sophie Kauer (0:21)
12. Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85 – IV. Allegro (Recording Session / First Take / Excerpt) – Sophie Kauer, London Symphony Orchestra & Natalie Murray Beale (1:32)
13. Control Room Talk (Recording Session) – Rachel Smith, Natalie Murray Beale & Sophie Kauer & Todd Field (1:19)
14. Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85 – IV. Allegro (Recording Session) – Sophie Kauer, London Symphony Orchestra & Natalie Murray Beale (2:08)
15. Applause (Recording Session) – Rachel Smith & Natalie Murray Beale (0:20)
16. Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85 – I. Adagio – Moderato (Recording Session / Excerpt) – Sophie Kauer, London Symphony Orchestra & Natalie Murray Beale (3:44)
17. Here’s That Rainy Day – Al Kay & New Trombone Collective (2:41)
18. J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869 – Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 (Lesson / Excerpt) – Cate Blanchett & Zethphan Smith-Gneist (1:27)
19. Lydia Tár Field Recording – Cate Blanchett & Elisa Vargas Fernandez (0:30)
20. Fernandez: Cura Mente – Elisa Vargas Fernandez (3:14)