Composing Greatness: #1. Oscars 2020 Edition - "Marriage Story"

Scene from Marriage Story (2019)

Welcome to a very special edition of Composing Greatness. In this limited series, I will be looking at the five scores nominated for this year's Best Original Score category. To avoid favoritism, the list will be done in alphabetical order of composers and feature the same guidelines as the original series. This is meant to explore the music behind the great films of 2019, and provide insight into what makes each of them special and whether or not they deserved to be nominated at all. Join me all week as I listen to the music, leave some thoughts, and hopefully sway you to check out these wonderful, wonderful scores.

Series Composer: Randy Newman

Entry: Marriage Story (2019)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Other Nominees:
-Joker (Hildur Guonadottir)
-Little Women (Alexandre Desplat)
-1917 (Thomas Newman)
-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (John Williams)

Note: Listen to the score here.

Exploring the Music

The area of the column where I will explore the music in as much detail as I see fit for each entry.

What's So Great About It?

Nobody can pull off a melancholic score quite like Randy Newman. Even the way that he tunes his strings has a sound as definitive as anything that John Williams does. Here he does something even grander by pitting the violins against the pianos in their own thematic custody battle for dominance in the score. It's beautiful and tender, and to watch them slowly intersect in their familiar melancholic ways creates something wholly unique and exciting within the score. It draws the listener in, feeling joy within the sadness while understanding what makes the characters different on a basic level of instrumentation. It's one of the more novel approaches to any score nominated this year. 

What's So Bad About It?

The one argument against it is that it's the shortest score in the group. It doesn't even clock in at a half-hour and most tracks feel like they're interstitials to the quiet dramatic moments. While this has its benefit, it does feel like chump change when compared to the grandiose heights of 1917 or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Here it's just a simple, muted score that mixes two motifs together in clever ways, but not in a way that draws attention to itself. If a Randy Newman score could be called understated, then this is a prime example of it. Even then, the piano melody alone makes it a touching achievement.

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

While it may be the least exceptional on the surface, Randy Newman has a gift as a composer for his definitive sound. Nobody makes pianos or violins sound quite so melancholic, or managing to shift between joy and sadness within a passage. There's so much to enjoy about the score once it gets going, but it also feels like its brevity makes it the most disposable on the list, serving more as a nomination that reflects how great Netflix's Oscar campaign was this year. The music is great and compliments the film brilliantly. It's just that it lacks the showiness of its peers in ways that are both profound and may be unnecessary as a nominee. 

Up Next: Alexandre Desplat - Little Women for Best Original Score

Rank the Nominees

1. Randy Newman - Marriage Story