Michael Giacchino 'Up' with an Oscar

Reposting a reedited version of one of my old write-ups on Michael Giacchino’s UP score

With swinging rhythms, mute trumpets, clarinets and xylophones in ‘UP with Titles’, Michael Giacchino takes us back in time, sets up a laidback mood and builds curiosity in a listener who just returned from listening to his music at its bombastic best in ‘Star Trek’. The moment the piano hits the first four notes of the gorgeous main (Ellie’s) theme on Piano in ‘We’re in the club now’, it is evident that this is the main theme of the movie that is going to be rechristened itself into various forms; that is going to be played on every single instrument of the orchestra and that is going to be hummed by every single member of the audience who come out of the cinema hall after watching the movie.

The main Ellie motif is packs so many varied emotions - nostalgia, romance, grief, and solitude in it. These are exactly the emotions that Ellie leaves behind for Carl. It is the heart and soul of the score of ‘UP’, which is so evident in the very next track ‘Married life’ where the theme is floated on a waltz rhythm, swaying its way through the emotional highs and lows of the life journey of Carl. Every soloist in the orchestra gets his few seconds of fame by playing the theme for most memorable and also painful moments in Carl’s life. The mood shifts in those 4 minutes of montage masterpiece are carefully underpinned by a shift in the instruments, a shift in the tempo of the theme and a shift in the emotions spilled by the backing arrangements.

It is in ‘Carl Goes Up’, for the first time in the score, the string section wakes up (so does we the listeners, wake up to the sudden appearance of an enchanting string section that sounds refreshing and uplifting after umpteen solo versions of the theme) to a brisk swirling and stirring for Carl who gears up to fly high with his house. Carl attempts to liberate himself from the loneliness and the darkness that has now completely engulfed his life. It is in this piece, the main theme moves on from solo instruments to a group of violins as Carl moves out from loneliness to an adventuresome journey in his life. After the initial hullaballoo created by string section for taking off, a serene peace sets in as Carl’s fly becomes steady and stable. The orchestra descends down in its volume playing its final notes and leaves its way to a solo guitar to play the main theme piece to sound that serene peace when Carl relaxes in his chair looking at Ellie’s portrait.

The full orchestra show up for the first time with a dominant brass section in ’52 Chachki Pickup’ playing an edge of the seat action cue for hiccups he has in floating his house against the storms. ‘Paradise Found’ is an ambient piece with soothing strings cascading one over the other to reveal a picturesque beauty of the place that Carl and Ellie always wanted to visit together. ‘Walkin’ the House’ has a comical rhythm to it and it is setup to the rhythm in which Carl’s pulls his floating house with Russell hanging along.

The moment I heard the pulsating rush in the riff that plays on strings in the beginning of the next track, I thought of Michael Giacchino’s earlier works ‘100 Mile dash’ from ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘100 Rat Dash’ from ‘Ratatouille’ and when immediately saw this track’s name I smiled. Yes, it is another dashing theme; it is ‘Three Dogs dash’ this time. Two of the other dashing themes are my all time favorites in term of orchestration and here is another one. There is at least one scene in every Pixar movie where things dash each other and Michael Giacchino puts a connecting link to all the movie scores through a similar musical riff.

In ‘Kevin Beak’n’ enters the bird Kevin, which is one of the principal characters of the movie. It has got its own beautiful theme which is established here, which sways to its characteristics. The Congo drums adding a unique rhythm to the way Kevin moves, bass clarinets plays the main theme for Kevin’s salient features. Giacchino often uses different drums and Chinese percussions instead of usual Timpani’s in his action cues and such percussions along with the malicious flute melody work well in ‘Canine Conundrum’ that is played when Carl and Co are chased by Muntz’s dogs.

Until I heard ‘The Nickel tour’ I was thinking of the theme that got introduced in ‘Up with Titles’ as a one-off piece. In this track, the theme reprises in its orchestral form and I understood the complete beauty of the theme in this track. In the immediate next track ‘The Explorer Motel’, the same theme turns darker. The first high rush, bombastic action cue arrives in ‘Escape from Muntz Mountain’, and from the name it is very clear that Carl is escaping from Muntz, who wants the bird Kevin. The music slavishly twists and turns according to the visual action, and in spite of the randomness that could easily creep in such action cues the composer maintains coherence with catchy riffs and ostinatos keeping it as a one homogenous piece and easy listen even off the visuals.

‘Giving Muntz the bird’ starts on a happy note with Kevin’s theme and suddenly darkness spreads over as Muntz is chasing to take the bird from Carl. The Muntz’s theme (the theme from the track ‘Up with Titles’) turns completely dark in this track. As Muntz’s devilish intention become clearer, the theme gradually moves on from soothing string section to the darker parts of the audacious brass section.

‘Stuff we did’ made me realize how terribly I missed the main theme of the movie thus far. The theme reappears to evoke nostalgia and the chords and counter melodies helps the theme in bringing the emotion to complete effect.

Don’t believe the negativity in the title ‘Memories can weigh you down’ of this track, the sound is anything but negative. All this while, I was lying on my bed and listening to the soundtrack on my iPod. When I heard the whole orchestra freaking and breaking out playing the reprise of the main theme that we didn’t hear for quite some time, in its most energetic form, I got goose bumps all over. The love theme is played like a fanfare theme in all its glory with brilliant counter melodies and harmonies. It sounds like Carl has pumped up all his energy from his memories of Ellie to fight Muntz. And that glorious streak continues in ‘The small mailman returns’.

‘He’s got the bird’ and ‘The Spirit of Adventure’ follows up with Carl’s high energy and his actions to encounter Muntz to win Kevin. It is a freaking roller coaster ride of action music that alternates between Ellie’s and Muntz’s themes in which the whole orchestra is playing with an adrenaline rush, pumping more and more energy and pace into the music.

‘It’s just a house’ starts with the theme we heard in ‘Walkin’ the house’ and soon moves on to a spirited orchestral version of Ellie’s theme. At the end of all things, Carl understands that the memories of Ellie is more important than the house and leaves the house behind. The theme as it progresses grows weaker and weaker and finally leaves way to the overpowering orchestra to take over Ellie’s theme. In ‘Ellie’s badge’ the theme returns to its original simplistic form.

‘Up with End titles’ is a compilation of all major motifs from the movie. Ellie’s theme, Muntz’s theme, House theme is all connected into one seamless music piece. In spite of having listened to them in various forms all through the soundtrack, when all the major themes from the movie parade one after the other with a new orchestration, it is hard to skip.

The OST of ‘UP’ is one wholesome soundtrack. I can listen to each and every track of this score without skipping. The last Hollywood movie OST that I could say the same about was that of ‘Wall-E’. ‘UP’ music has created a lot of curiosity in me about the movie. I am sure my admiration and liking to this score will be even greater after watching the movie. My only grouse is that the score is not released in CD; it is only available for digital download on amazon.com and on iTunes.

Now, here is one of my favourite cues from ‘Up’ which wasn’t a part of the Original Soundtrack release. It is a dramatic music piece scored for the scene in which Carl Fredrieksen is shown doing his daily chores alone after Emilie’s death. Conventionally any composer would have played the Emilie’s theme on a sober scale in a solo piano to evoke a sense of loneliness but for the way this scene is cut showing the boredom of Carl, this approach works and makes us feel that he has learnt to get on with his life. The grand bangs fit aptly as we witness how the surroundings of Carl’s house have changed for worse.

Michael Giacchino – It’s time for an Oscar. Of course I expect something big from James Horner for James Cameroon’s ‘Avatar’. But considering that it is a sci-fi movie, I doubt if it would outdo the simplistic charm of your score for ‘UP’.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya Background Score

The moment I heard those flamboyant piano runs in the theatrical trailer of ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’, I had a gut feeling that this film is going to be an A.R.Rahman musical. Since this is a Gautam Vasudev Menon film, I was initially surprised by the quirkiness of the soundtrack of the film. However, in few days, the music totally embraced me or rather I totally embraced it. I knew that these melodies would make base for delightful instrumental pieces for the background score of the film. There is a scene in ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’ in which after setting the frame and explaining how the camera should move to capture a shot for a film being canned within the film, K.S.Ravi Kumar says, ‘Inga Rahman background music potturuvaaru’ (Rahman will put some background music here). While making this film, I guess Gautam Menon would have told the same to his crew for almost every single scene. There is so much music in this film.

Usually, pure love stories are a composer’s delight to write background score for. Though it does not challenge with any freshness in what happens, the challenge is how to score for the freshness in how it all happens and bring within it the aura of romance through music. Gautam’s love stories have lots of silence in it, and little awkward dialogues and conversations with too many bits, pieces and phrases concatenated into full sentences. It provides a lot of scope for a composer to fill these silences with music and add to the romance that Gautam wants to ooze.

That conversation between Madhavan and Reema Sen in Reema’s house, after a power cut, just before the song ‘Verenna’ is one such instance where Harris Jeyaraj had his moment of glory in the background score. That saxophone bit did wonders in sparkling a chemistry and attraction in every meeting between Maaya and Anbuchelvan in "Kaaka Kaaka". There is this stirring orchestral version of ‘Uyirin Uyirae’ melody wells up in Anbachelvan’s eyes, when he carries a wounded Maaya to Hospital. I do not remember much of ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilayadu’ or ‘Pachaikili Muthucharam’.

This film is full of conversations between a boy and a girl in love - before, after and much later. They either they talk about loving each other or about parting ways. The moment we hear the stirring string section that flaunts the inner butterflies of a man, who falls in love with a girl on the very first sight, it is evident that Rahman is going to shower this film with his musical rains. He does and How! The score lightens the film, sprinkles romance in the air, and builds drama and adds momentum to a film that is packed with a series of conversations between a boy and a girl.

Melodies of all the songs in the film are used beautifully in the background score. Hosanna melody fills in for that initial euphoria of Karthik in finding his soul mate. The little funny moments in between them before they begin to talk to each other is filled with Vibraphone version of the song. The lyrical melody of the poetic “Yen Idhayam Udaithaai Norungavae Yen Maru Idhayam Tharuvaen Nee Udaikkavae" plays on flute and angelic female voice to enhancing the serenity of silences, where it is, throughout the film. The cello theme from ‘Kannukkul Kannai’ is aptly used whenever Jessie walks out of a conversation in the scenes preceding the song. The best used song musically and thematically is ‘Mannippaya’, the lines of which reveal the whole story of the film. The title track is almost used entirely as a background score. Aah! That female version of ‘Aaromalae’ for Jessie is heavenly.

Apart from the melodies of the songs, there are many music themes in the film. The shocker bangs followed by symphonic strings swirling is for Jessie’s reaction to Karthik’s sudden proposal in the middle of the road. This theme recurs many times for all such twists and turns that arises out of the unpredictability in Jessie’s character. A mild piano theme that borders on ‘Kahin Toh’ melody from ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ gives a serene touch to the scenes of intimacy. There is another all strings theme that pumps in chokes with pauses in between phrases and also momentum into the scenes whenever something unfathomable happens to Karthik. Rahman mildly introduces a disturbing Guitar melody creating a subtle discomfort in the aura when the conversation between Karthik and Jessie is about to turn into a conflict. The folk-rock fusion in that odd boxing scene also works well for the effect of the scene. The only misfire in the whole background score is that rock-jazz number (this is the first song played when the end credits begin to roll) that loudly overpowers the scene in ODE cafe where Jessie speaks of break-up. However, may be the loudness and the genre chosen is intentional to imply how torturing it is for a guy to deal with a fickle girl like Jessie. Oh! Now that I think of ODE café, I recollect the scene where the camera zooms in from the shot of giant Wind chimes, for which Rahman also begins to play his music on wind chimes to set the atmosphere.

And there is so much more music in the film which I have not talked about here. This is just a random rambling that I scribbled out of excitement immediately after watching the film. The background score of this film requires a detailed scene by scene analysis, which I am sure I will do later, after I get a DVD of the film. Until then, I am going to watch this film again, again and again in theatres, as many times as I can. The repeated viewing of the film is as much for the film as a whole as for its background score.

Nostalgia

My First Theme Music Cassette

And the Award Goes to..

Ilaiyaraaja’s score for ‘Naan Kadavul’ would definitely sound divine if heard as a standalone piece of music, but despite evoking apt emotions, it ended up sounding loud in the film. With ‘Eeram’ Thaman.S has finally arrived. Thaman has perfectly understood the film’s requirements and has given a score that helps to enhance the gloom, intrigue, thrill and eeriness in the visuals. The 13B score by Tubby and Parik is too loud to be called even average but still wanted to nominate to know how many actually liked this kind of loud scoring for a thriller. Shruthi Hassan managed to not draw any attention to her edgy Rock music score in “Unnai Pol Oruvan” and for a starter that is quite an achievement. Karthik Raaja’s orchestral riffs of tension and suspense, though doesn’t lift up the dull film, is apt in ‘Achamundu Achamundu’. I nominated James Vasanthan’s score for ‘Pasanga’, for no particular reason. I liked the film and liked music cues in some of the scenes which I don’t exactly remember now. The music just flows smoothly with the tone of the film, neither too subtle, nor so overpowering. It is important to note that James didn’t resort to any childish stock sound bytes for comedy scenes involving children. I haven’t seen Yogi yet.

My Favorite – Thaman.S for Eeram

Poll Result



Ilaiyaraaja is at his usual best in ‘Paa’. The enchanting violin theme of Auro needs no introduction. The chirpiness, the sarcasm and witty charm of Auro is embodied in the way Raaja plays the theme with playful staccato pauses between notes and phrases of the main melody. Though it was a melody originally composed for a somber philosophical number about soul wandering, Ilaiyaraaja proves that a composer can tweak a piece of music or a melody to evoke any desired emotion.

Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year is in my opinion, one of the toughest films to write a background score for, for any composer. The film is set in a pace that is true to real life by the writer and the director but the burden of adding rhythm, energy and pushing the momentum has been delegated totally to Salim-Suliaman. It annoys me when a filmmaker, who is unsure of his screenplay, pushes the job to the thump and loudness of a background score and wants it to solely carry the narrative through, but it worked perfectly for this film. It is a tough rope to walk on, but Salim-Sulaiman has succeeded in doing that. The score pushes the momentum to a desired extent and yet never overpowers the proceedings. It would be interesting to know what transpired between Shimit Amin and Salim-Suliaman, when they discussed the background score and the general aural tone of the film.

For the freaking madness of a capper “Kaminey”, Vishal Bharadwaj’s score is as gloomy as Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography. Vishal resorts to retro and western for action and chase scenes with the theme ‘Go Charlie Go’ recurring throughout the film, and switches to a surreal classical orchestration for Charlie’s colorful dreams. The Charlie and Guddu’s flash back aided by an aching violin solo tries to add an emotional heft to what happened in the past. The mad rock-choir song (which wasn’t included in the Soundtrack CD) that converge all parallel lines to an exhilarating climax is the cherry on the cake.

I have already written about Amit Trivedi’s Score for “Wake up Sid” here and also about why I didn’t nominate Dev.D here.

My Favorite – Amit Trivedi for Wake up Sid

Poll Result