Nicholas Britell, a celebrated film and television composer with credits like 'Succession' and 'Moonlight,' dives into the evolution of his music. He discusses the fusion of classical and contemporary styles, particularly the groundbreaking use of hip-hop in film scores. Britell shares his creative collaboration with directors, exploring the emotional depth behind his compositions. He reflects on his unique journey from a Harvard-educated pianist to a transformative force in movie music, blending diverse influences while crafting memorable soundtracks.
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Moonlight's Swimming Scene
Nicholas Britell's score for Moonlight's swimming scene evolved after Barry Jenkins' feedback.
The initial score was too optimistic, so Britell reworked it into a darker, more evocative piece.
insights INSIGHT
Britell's Musical Style
Nicholas Britell blends classical training with modern influences, creating unique film scores.
His work is memorable even without knowing his name, spanning various genres.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Britell's Unconventional Path
Britell's diverse background includes Harvard, Wall Street, and a hip-hop band.
This unconventional path led him to Oscar-nominated film scoring within five years.
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The book follows Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia, who embarks on a harrowing journey to freedom using a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Along with Caesar, a fellow slave, Cora faces numerous challenges and dangers, including the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. The narrative blends historical reality with fantasy, offering a powerful meditation on the history of American slavery and its ongoing impact on society.
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin
The novel tells the story of Tish, a 19-year-old Black woman, and her lover Fonny, a young sculptor who is falsely accused of rape. The narrative explores the struggles of their families as they work to clear Fonny's name, highlighting the pervasive racism and injustice faced by Black Americans in the 1970s. Through Tish's perspective, the book delves into themes of love, family, community, and the systemic injustices that shape their lives. Baldwin's writing vividly portrays the emotional and social complexities of the characters, making the story both poignant and powerful[2][3][5].
You have almost certainly heard Nicholas Britell’s music, even if you don’t know his name. More than any other contemporary composer, he appears to have the whole of music history at his command, shifting easily between vocabularies, often in the same film.
His most arresting scores tend to fuse both ends of his musical education. “Succession” is 18th-century court music married to heart-pounding beats; “Moonlight” chops and screws a classical piano-and-violin duet as if it’s a Three 6 Mafia track.
Britell’s C.V. reads like the setup for a comedy flick: a Harvard-educated, world-class pianist who studied psychology and once played in a moderately successful hip-hop band, who wound up managing portfolios on Wall Street.
That is until he started scoring movies, and quickly acquired Academy Award nominations.
“What I’ve found in the past,” said Jon Burlingame, a film-music historian, “is that people have found it impossible to incorporate such modern musical forms as hip-hop into dramatic underscore for films. When Nick did it in ‘Moonlight,’ I was frankly stunned. I didn’t think it was possible.”
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