Check out Sean Wilson’s interview with Abel Korzeniowski for Spitfire Audio’s Composer Magazine about his process scoring double golden globe nominee Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut, Emily. The film tells the origin story of Emily Bronte, the enigmatic author of Wuthering heights.
“Emily Brontë, in combination with Emma Mackey’s performance, creates such a vibrant portrayal,” Abel explains. “We couldn’t tell this story by having her solely constrained to her natural surroundings. The whole point is that Emily’s internal life and her imagination was so much larger than everything around her. Music was a natural way of allowing the audience to feel how wild she was inside. She was a nonconformist and ahead of her time.”
Abel noted that his score is “designed to “speak volumes about the social structure”. In order to amplify the absurdity, he deploys a range of striking techniques including a “blaring, Handel-like chorale” section of music. That musical contrast shows how “people continued to live powerfully on the inside”, one of several examples of compositional irony in the score. – Sean Wilson
“The first theme is the first cue that you hear in the film, for the opening credits,” he outlines. “You have the turbulent violin and it’s the first time you hear the church organs coming in. Then you have a theme which is essential for the whole structure. This occurs during Emily’s failed attempt to become a teacher in Brussels. There are many themes. There’s a group of cues that rely on the tingling, trembling, hovering sound of the entire orchestra. There are three or four cues following this idea including the scene of them taking drugs. You have the sharp notes on the violin and everything in the background over-saturates our senses.”
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Emily is available now.
Click here to read the full interview
Abel’s Spitfire Audio video “”The music I DIDN’T use” – Behind The Score with Abel Korzeniowski”