美国国家公共电台 NPR Song Exploder: 'Moonlight' Composer Describes Process

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday. And along with best picture and best actor and actress, there's an award for best original score. One of the nominees¹ this year is the movie "Moonlight."

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SONG EXPLODER")

NICHOLAS BRITELL: My name's Nicholas Britell, and I'm the composer of "Moonlight."

SHAPIRO: This is the first Oscar nomination² for Nicholas Britell. He spoke³ about composing the score for "Moonlight" on "Song Exploder," a podcast that explores how songs are created.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SONG EXPLODER")

BRITELL: There was just this incredible sensitivity and tenderness and intimacy⁴ in the screenplay. When I first read it, I was just overwhelmed by this feeling of beauty and poetry. The director of "Moonlight" is Barry Jenkins. And what was amazing to me when I first saw the early cuts of the film after it was shot was how well Barry had preserved that feeling of poetry in the movie. And I actually was saying to myself, you know, what is the musical analog⁵ of poetry? And among the first things I sent to Barry was a piece of music I wrote that I called "Piano And Violin Poem" because I was sort of trying to channel this idea, and that actually is "Little's Theme."

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: It's a piano with these alternating harmonies.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: It's going between the major one and the minor⁶ four chord. You're in a major key, so there's this sense of stability, but at the same time the alternation back and forth⁷ creates, I think, a feeling of introspection.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: I was imagining how to get inside Little's point of view. You know, he doesn't say much. He is quiet, but you know that there's a lot that he's thinking and that he's feeling. That idea of introspection and thinking internally felt right with these kinds of harmonies. And there's a violin that's doubling the melody on top.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: The sound of the violin in that piece was something that I thought about right away.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: I've collaborated⁸ extensively with a very dear friend of mine, Tim Fain, who's the violinist. And what I asked him to do was to play it as quietly as he possibly could while still generating enough sound that he felt comfortable with the note. And then we recorded it very close to a mic.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: The ocean is a big part of the film. And there's something to me just musically that sounds almost like washing over itself somehow.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: With "Moonlight," which is divided into three chapters, the first chapter is the main character Chiron as a young boy where he goes by the name Little. The second chapter is when he's in high school, and he goes by Chiron, which is his name. So chapter two is called Chiron. And then chapter three is many years later when he's really in his late 20s, and he goes by Black.

One of the interesting challenges, I think, from a musical perspective is how do you provide a sense of cohesion⁹ across chapters while also allowing for transformation¹⁰? And Barry told me about his love for chopped and screwed music, which is a style of Southern hip-hop where you take tracks and you slow them down. And in the process of slowing the music down, the pitch goes way down.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "LITTLE'S THEME")

BRITELL: You get this incredible, beautiful, deepened and enriched sonic texture¹¹. We immediately started talking about, well, could we do that to the score? You know, could we actually write music - classical music - for the score, and could we apply these chop and screw techniques to it? And I was immediately into it. I said, I know we could do this. So with "Chiron's Theme," that was the first evolution of the track. There was this idea that the key would get lower as the film progressed, it would deepen. So whereas it's in D major in the beginning in chapter one...

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

BRITELL: ...In chapter two it's in B major.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

BRITELL: It's not played lower. It's actually chopped and screwed. So there's this - that's the audio, actually, is bent¹² lower.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

BRITELL: In chapter three, "Black's Theme" is actually an A major cello¹³ octet. There's cellos¹⁴ playing some tremolo, where the bow is shaking back and forth.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "BLACK'S THEME")

BRITELL: Pizzicato cellos, where they pluck the strings¹⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "BLACK'S THEME")

BRITELL: And then there are cellos playing arco with the bow, playing the music of "Little's Theme."

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "BLACK'S THEME")

BRITELL: That track, I recorded it in D major, so in the same key as the very beginning of "Little's Theme." And then I took that track as a master and pitched it down.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "BLACK'S THEME")

BRITELL: The sound of the cellos is fascinatingly changed, where they don't really sound like cellos to me, but they also don't really sound like basses¹⁶ either. They sound like some sort of hybrid¹⁷ string instrument. So that's where "Black's Theme" exists, it's a different orchestration, different key and then applying the chop and screw technique to it.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "BLACK'S THEME")

BRITELL: For me, one of the amazing things about the film scoring experience is that I think you really never know how things are going to turn out or work.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

BRITELL: There's this fascinating alchemy of how sound and picture relate. And I don't think anyone really knows why these things feel the way they do. So, you know, the more I get the opportunity to do this, the more I feel it's important to follow these kinds of instincts and feelings and let your emotional response to things drive you in different directions.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

SHAPIRO: That was Nicholas Britell talking about composing the score for the movie "Moonlight." His score has been nominated for the Academy Award for best original score. The awards will be presented this Sunday. His story came to us from the podcast "Song Exploder." It's produced by Hrishikesh Hirway. You can hear other episodes at songexploder.net, or wherever you get your podcasts.

(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL COMPOSITION, "CHIRON'S THEME")

1 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

5 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

6 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

9 cohesion   

n.团结，凝结力

参考例句：

• I had to bring some cohesion into the company.我得使整个公司恢复凝聚力。
• The power of culture is deeply rooted in the vitality,creativity and cohesion of a nation. 文化的力量，深深熔铸在民族的生命力、创造力和凝聚力之中。

10 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

11 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

12 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

13 cello   

n.大提琴

参考例句：

• The cello is a member of the violin family.大提琴是提琴家族的一员。
• She plays a melodious cello.她拉着一手悦耳的大提琴。

14 cellos   

n.大提琴( cello的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are manufacturer of high-and medium-end violins, violas, cellos and basses. 我厂是深圳专业生产制作高档、中档小提琴、中提琴、大提琴、低音提琴的企业。 来自互联网
• Our company specializes in producing violins, cellos, bases and instrument cases. 本公司是一家专业生产小提琴、大提琴、贝司和乐器箱包的企业。 来自互联网

15 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

16 basses   

低音歌唱家，低音乐器( bass的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Oh, good! We need basses, and you can sing just as loudly as you like. 噢，很好！我们需要低音。您唱的声音大小可以随意。
• We are manufacturer of high-and medium-end violins, violas, cellos and basses. 我厂是深圳专业生产制作高档、中档小提琴、中提琴、大提琴、低音提琴的企业。

17 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。