Composing Greatness: #2. Oscars 2020 Edition - "Little Women"

Scene from Little Women (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: Alexandre Desplat

Entry: Little Women (2019)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Other Nominees:
-Joker (Hildur Guonadottir)
-Marriage Story (Randy Newman)
-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?

There is one thing that is abundantly clear: Alexandre Desplat is among the greatest composers of the 21st century. If he doesn't release a new great score every year, then he releases a few at once that will blow the listener's mind. In this case, he has created his best since The Shape of Water and the results are infectious. On the surface, it's another classical score that recalls Thomas Newman's own Little Women score from 1994. However, it's far richer in tone and atmosphere, managing to have a dueling instruments approach that reflects the four March sisters cohabitating in beautiful, discordant harmony. It also has a lot of contemporary techniques, pulling melodies more associated with rock and pop that make this just as subversive on an instrumental level as it is on a narrative one. It's impossible to not enjoy what he's doing because it's so deceptively sweet and just as infectious as his best work. There's very little to suggest that he's slowing down in the years to come.

What's So Bad About It?

In actuality, there's not that much. It is quite a tapestry of music that whirls around the listener in a state of blissful whimsy as Alexandre Desplat plays something that grows with each track. If there's anything bad, it's more in the idea of Desplat winning another Oscar in such a crowded year for interesting winners. Hildur Guonadottir's Joker score is doing interesting work for cellos while Thomas Newman's 1917 is yet another masterpiece by Oscar's greatest overlooked nominee. As much as I prefer Little Women as a piece of music (I do have a Desplat bias), it would feel wrong to see it win in a year that Guonadottir could continue the trend of interesting young composers, or Newman gets his overdue trophy (the latter preferably). Beyond that, Desplat's music is a large component of why Little Women works, and I am glad to see it among these nominees.

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

Alexandre Desplat has continued to be one of the modern greats in film scoring. Whereas it does feel like John Williams has been coasting with legacy nominations, Desplat is continuing to push himself into different styles and genres with an excellent appeal. The fact that he could take the classical score and reinvent it in subtle ways only plays into the Little Women ethos perfectly, reflecting how similar it is on the surface but grows different and more contemporary underneath. It's an event to know when he has another masterful score on the way, and this is among his best yet. If he gets a third Oscar for this, I won't complain. Then again, I imagine that he's capable of winning more in the future, so let's not go too crazy all at once. 

Up Next: John Williams - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for Best Original Score

Rank the Nominees

1. Alexandre Desplat - Little Women
2. Randy Newman - Marriage Story