This chord creates an instant connection with the music of the whole franchise and informs us that what we are about to hear is not just any song, but specifically a James Bond song. But even though the song is not part of the film’s original score, it deserves mention because there is much cross-pollination between the music of the song and that of the film.įor instance, the song both begins and ends with a sustained version of the minor add-9 chord that begins the famous gun-barrel sequence in Bond films: Much praise has been lavished on the film’s title song both for Adele’s highly expressive performance and for the song itself-indeed, it has earned Adele and Paul Epworth an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The music is no exception, and Newman’s score for Skyfall is a combination of both the old and the new, as I demonstrate below in a film music analysis Cross-Pollination of the “Skyfall” Song and the Score Yet on the other hand, it ought to introduce new elements as well in order to keep the series feeling fresh with each outing. On the one hand, it must uphold enough of the traditions for audiences to recognize the connection with previous installments.

With such a long-standing franchise, the creation of a Bond film poses unique challenges to all involved. Although Newman has yet to win an Academy Award, he has been nominated ten times, most recently for his score to the 50th-anniversary James Bond film, Skyfall. Thomas himself is a veteran of the industry, having scored dozens of films including Scent of a Woman, The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, Finding Nemo, and WALL-E. Thomas Newman comes from a family with several film composers that began with Alfred Newman, who was the long-time head of the music department at 20th Century Fox and wrote for many films from Hollywood’s golden age in the 1930s and 40s. This is the fourth in a series of six posts on the 2013 Oscar nominees for Best Original Score. After discussing each of the five nominees in separate posts, the sixth post will give my prediction for the Oscar winner and my reasoning behind it.

Let the sky fall trilogy