Megalopolis (soundtrack)

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Megalopolis (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
Osvaldo Golijov
ReleasedSeptember 27, 2024
RecordedFebruary 2024
StudioStudio 22, East Connection Music Recording, Budapest, Hungary
Genre Film score
Length82:14
Label Milan
Producer Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov chronology
La Nuit des Chevaux Volants
(2021)		Megalopolis (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(2024)

Megalopolis (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2024 epic science fiction drama film Megalopolis directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The album consisted of 32 tracks, predominantly featuring the musical score composed by Osvaldo Golijov and classical music heard in the film. The soundtrack was released under the Milan Records label on September 27, 2024.

Contents

Background

Coppola, who refrained from working with a Hollywood composer for scoring Megalopolis, eventually listened to Golijov's compositions which he liked it and in turn, he handwrote a letter to Golijov in 2003 to invite him at his residence in Napa Valley, California so that he could discuss the project. Golijov obliged with his offer and read the script together which he found fascinating. Coppola then asked the musician to compose a symphony that would have dictated the film's rhythm, and would be used even before the start of production. [1] : 20  [2]

Golijov stated that: "It would be set in New York in the near future, but it would also reflect Rome in its decadence [...] It would be an epic, with an intermission, like an opera." [2] Megalopolis was abandoned as the project did not get the financial backing and Coppola would later collaborate with Golijov on Youth Without Youth (2007), Tetro (2009) and Twixt (2011). [1] : 20  When Megalopolis was relaunched in late-2019, Coppola invited Golijov again to write the score and sent him the new script. [3]

Production

In February 2023, Golijov visited the sets at Atlanta and met Coppola where he insisted to compose a love theme in the lines of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's composition Romeo and Juliet (1870). After the production wrapped, Coppola showed the final edit to Golijov where he insisted him to "think of the music and the film as an adventure" and provided him the creative freedom to sketch the themes and cues. [1] : 20–21 

Golijov admitted on expressing time in numerous ways. Cesar's time-stopping "superpower" had the use of the love theme that was played by a musical saw in a "non-realistic, spooky way". Given that Coppola's ways of using unusual and specific musical touches for each film, Golijov attributed that "the color of the musical saw and of the glass harmonica provide those fingerprints for the eerie cues" while the organ had been used prominently in the Madison Square Garden sequence. He further wanted the score to blur the line between music and sound design, where Coppola wanted the rhythm to be natural and envisioned the texture of the film as a constant rhythm. In practical aspects, each orchestral cue demanded a clear rhythmic, propulsive element. [1] : 21 

Given the ambiguity surrounding how the city and the music of Rome surrounded, he relied on Hollywood portrayals and composed a Roman suite inspired by Miklós Rózsa's score for Ben-Hur (1959). He described the suite as an independent musical piece, but the themes stem from the Roman themes in the film, where at times it would establish a grandeur throughout the sequence. The Madison Square Garden sequence is a film-within-a-film narrative which demanded more music and as Coppola liked the Roman suite, he extracted several cues on it which would be used in multiple sequences. [1] : 21 

Recording

The score was recorded at the Studio 22 in East Connection Music Recording located at Budapest, Hungary. [4] Arturo Rodriguez conducted the score performed by Budapest Art Orchestra and provided orchestrations with Golijov and Kris Kukul. Percussionists Cyro Baptista, Jamey Haddad, saxophonist Jeremy Udden and accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman performed solo pieces. The music was edited by Jeremy Flower and additional compositions were provided by Flower, Baptista, Haddad along with Coppola and his mother Italia Coppola. [5]

Release

The score was released by Milan Records day-and-date with the film on September 27, 2024. [6]

Reception

Ty Burr of The Washington Post wrote "Osvaldo Golijov's score is old-school orchestral movie music with strange sunbeams shining through it." [7] Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press described it as a "sweeping, romantic score". [8] Lou Thomas of NME wrote "Osvaldo Golijov's jazzy score is also a high point." [9] Fred Hawson of ABS-CBN wrote "The rich and vibrant aural backdrop was provided by musical scorer Osvaldo Golijov." [10] Peter Debryge of Variety and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called the music to be one of the positive aspects of the film. [11] [12]

Track listing

No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."New Rome" 6:02
2."The Map of Utopia" 5:29
3."The Catilinarian Conspiracies" 3:05
4."Suor Angelica: Senza mamma, o bimbo, tu sei morto" Renata Scotto 1:14
5."Noir Love" 4:34
6."Kiss in the Heights" 2:02
7."Saturnalia: The Unveiling of Megalopolis" 4:47
8."Sunny Descends" 1:26
9."My Pledge"Vesta Sweetwater3:53
10."Rope" 2:24
11."Entrance of the Gladiators" Julius Fučík 0:53
12."Breathing Statues"Jeremy Flower3:11
13."Sunny's Room" 2:33
14."Time Shall Have No Dominion"
2:39
15."Cesar Descends"
6:05
16."Cesar Crosses the Styx" Franz Liszt 4:07
17."No Turning Around"Sweetwater3:09
18."Julia Sees the Future" 1:56
19."The Wedding of Wow and Crassus" 2:14
20."Catwalk"
  • Golijov
  • Baptista
  • Haddad
  • Flower
2:38
21."Nush the Fixer"
  • Flower
  • Golijov
  • Baptista
  • Haddad
  • Ward-Bergeman
1:51
22."In the Bathhouse"Flower1:52
23."Megalon Team" 1:13
24."Mother" 1:42
25."Julia Comes Home" 1:08
26."The Golden Aleph" 0:46
27."The Poison Letter" 1:14
28."Cicero Versus Cesar" 1:04
29."Insurrection"
  • Flower
  • Golijov
1:49
30."Learning, Creating, Perfecting, Celebrating"
  • Flower
  • Golijov
0:57
31."The Turn of the Seasons" 1:21
32."Esperanza" 2:56
Total length:82:14

Personnel

Credits adapted from Film Music Reporter: [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis: Productions Notes" (PDF). Cannes Film Festival. May 13, 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 17, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Church, Michael (February 14, 2006). "Osvaldo Golijov: Composing the soundtrack for a Coppola movie". The Independent . Archived from the original on April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  3. ↑ Fairman, Richard (July 14, 2024). "Composer Osvaldo Golijov on writing a Passion 300 years after Bach". Financial Times. Archived from the original on July 17, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Director Francis Ford Coppola Makes a Splash during Stay in Budapest". Hungary Today. February 18, 2024. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Megalopolis – Music Team Credits". Film Music Reporter. September 26, 2024. Archived from the original on September 27, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  6. ↑ "'Megalopolis' Soundtrack Album Details". Film Music Reporter. September 26, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  7. ↑ Burr, Ty (September 25, 2024). "Review | 'Megalopolis': Francis Ford Coppola's grand vision is quite the mess". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 27, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  8. ↑ Bahr, Lindsey (September 25, 2024). "Movie Review: Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' is a wild fever dream of excess and idealism". AP News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  9. ↑ Thomas, Lou (May 20, 2024). "Megalopolis review: as mad and memorable as everyone is saying". NME. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  10. ↑ Hawson, Fred (September 27, 2024). "'Megalopolis' review: Coppola's cornucopia". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on September 27, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  11. ↑ Debruge, Peter (May 16, 2024). "'Megalopolis' Review: Francis Ford Coppola's Bold, Ungainly Epic Crams in Half a Dozen Stars and Decades' Worth of Ideas". Variety. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  12. ↑ Rooney, David (May 16, 2024). "'Megalopolis' Review: Francis Ford Coppola's Passion Project Starring Adam Driver Is a Staggeringly Ambitious Big Swing, if Nothing Else". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 31, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
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