Minari (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2020 film of the same name released by Milan Records on December 11, 2020. The score, composed by Emile Mosseri, met with critical acclaim and has been nominated for numerous accolades including the Academy Award for Best Original Score and BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, among others. The soundtrack was preceded by the single "Rain Song" released on November 20, 2020.
Development Mosseri scored the film using only the script as a reference rather than a locked cut. Editor Harry Yoon opted not to use temp tracks and instead cut the film around Mosseri's demos, which were later fleshed out into full recordings.
The Fames Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra performed the score with over 40 string players. As with Mosseri's previous ventures, the film consisted of new ivories. Initially he wanted to use a new piano for each project traded from local Los Angeles company. However, due to the short duration he had scoring the film while finishing Kajillionaire (2020) he intended to use the same Yamaha piano, although he never felt the sounds necessary the same and was different from the 1940s guitar he had. He detuned the guitar to as low so that it could hold intonation and then doubled it with the piano to give it a grounded quality and not exactly sound exactly like guitar and piano. Mosseri admitted that "when those two sounds are married, it creates a third sound".
Mosseri wrote and recorded a demo for "Rain Song", which he sent to Chung while suggesting the lead actress Han Ye-ri record the vocals. He felt that the song was to be a lullaby from Monica (Ye-ri) to her son David (Alan Kim), hence the suggestion it would be appropriate for her to sing the vocals. Stephane Hong translated the English lyrics into Korean.
Track listing
Reception Music critic Jonathan Broxton wrote "Minari is a surface level score; it sits on top of the narrative creating an overarching mood, a pervasive tone, but never actually gets into the meat of the storytelling craft that is at the heart of good cinema." James Southall of Movie Wave called it as a "a distinctive score, one which achieves its emotional support in unusual and creative ways, and it makes for a really satisfying album." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair complimented Mosseri's score as "a woozy chorus, sounding like a lullaby". Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Times called the score as "sublime". Benjamin Lee of The Guardian called it as a "hair-raising score" that only "increases in stature as the film progresses". It has been listed by IndieWire as one of the "best film scores of 2020".
Accolades Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Academy AwardsApril 25, 2021Best Original ScoreEmile MosseriAustin Film Critics AssociationMarch 19, 2021 Best Original Score Emile MosseriBritish Academy Film AwardsApril 11, 2021Best Original MusicEmile MosseriBoston Society of Film CriticsDecember 13, 2020Best Original ScoreEmile MosseriCritics' Choice AwardsMarch 7, 2021Best ScoreEmile MosseriHollywood Critics Association AwardsMarch 5, 2021 Best Score Emile Mosseri Hollywood Music in Media Awards January 27, 2021 Best Original Score in an Independent Film Emile Mosseri Best Original Song in an Independent Film "Rain Song" – Emile Mosseri and Stefanie Hong Online Film Critics SocietyJanuary 25, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Satellite AwardsFebruary 15, 2021Best Original ScoreEmile MosseriSeattle Film Critics SocietyFebruary 15, 2021 Best Original Score Emile Mosseri Washington D.C. Area Film Critics AssociationFebruary 8, 2021Best Original ScoreEmile Mosseri
References