“The field is particularly strong” for Best Original Score nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards, writes Anne Midgette in Tuesday’s (1/23) Washington Post. “Jonny Greenwood … got his first Oscar nomination for … his rich score for ‘Phantom Thread.’ The prolific Carter Burwell … is nominated for ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ … a dark, sardonic score. And Alexandre Desplat, a previous winner for ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ with seven additional past nominations, has been nominated for the liquid music he wrote for Guillermo del Toro’s fairy tale, ‘The Shape of Water.’ … Hans Zimmer’s … score for ‘Dunkirk’ is based on … the sound of a ticking watch … and the ‘Shepard tone,’ an auditory illusion that superimposes individual ascending tracks to make it sound as though the music is rising to infinity…. But can anyone beat John Williams? … ‘The Last Jedi,’ his eighth symphonic score for the [‘Star Wars’] series, has been acclaimed as one of the best yet…. At a time when the conventional wisdom is that audiences don’t like new music, people are passionately interested in the music written for movies…. As for Williams: He is increasingly acknowledged as a true master … an heir to Wagner’s tradition.”
Posted January 25, 2018
