Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Movie Music Mania: REQUIEM FOR A DREAM


Welcome to MOVIE MUSIC MANIA, where we talk about some of the amazing music that shapes the films we love. This week we take a look at the haunting score from director Darren Aronofsky's film...REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Clint Mansell, former leader singer of the band Pop Will Eat Itself, is the genius behind this musical masterpiece. Mansell is extremely talented and has worked with Aronofsky on all of his films since Requiem for a Dream, including Pi and Black Swan. When these two get together, magic happens.

Requiem For A Dream explores the life-altering effects that drugs have on its users' mental states. The music used in this film gives the audience a sense of what the drugs are doing to the user. For example, when I first listened to "Summer Overture" it gave the feeling of someone walking around in a chaotic, drug induced state. Another example is the aptly named track "Dr. Pill". It gives you the definite impression of someone abusing, whether it's taking pills or putting a needle in their arm. It has high and low melodies with beats in between. Mansell teamed up with the Kronos Quartet, an American string quartet based in San Francisco, to aid him in scoring this film.

The entirety of this score is absolutely wonderful to listen to, but the track that really struck a chord with me personally was "Lux Aeterna". It can be heard throughout much of the film and has been used in a variety of films, most notably in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer, where it was actually re-orchestrated and renamed "Requiem for a Tower".

Check out the video below:



The "Party" track is exactly that, a musical party. It has a hip-hop vibe to it, which I liked because mixing different music styles adds substance to many films. After listening to this track, it gives me visions of beer and weed flowing everywhere. This track would go perfectly in almost any film's party scene.

Another track that caught my attention was, "Meltdown". The melodies gave me the sense of someone coming off a powerful high, such as heroin or xanex. All the tracks in this incredible score have a haunting quality to them, an almost foreboding feeling. I thought all the music was good and moved the film along nicely. Requiem For A Dream gave the affects of drug abuse a melodic face. The score was music to my ears, pun intended. It's amazing how music can make us feel something without any words at all.


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