Film music enthusiasts were treated to an especially
strong year on the big screen, a remarkable field of worthy scores and
composers competing for the top awards. Behind a handful of consensus
choices was a second tier of quality film scores that made 2019 a year
of impressive depth across all genres. Like 2018, the year's best music
resulted from sequels related to the fantasy genre, redevelopment of
proven formulas for success prevailing once again.
As in recent years, John Williams and John Powell eclipse the field
with their trademark franchises, the commonly expected finales to their
work for Star Wars and How to Train Your Dragon allowing
fans one last, masterful achievement in those outstanding bodies of
work. Beyond these triumphs, 2019 offered top film scores across the
thriller, romance, drama, and documentary genres as well. A younger
generation of talented composers figures more frequently, suggesting a
changing of the guard.
An unlikely trio of winners splits Filmtracks' 2019 awards, John
Williams remaining undeniable as the winner of the top award for
another year. He receives two nominations but is overshadowed by the
year's surprise composer, Benjamin Wallfisch, who enjoys four
nominations representing three scores. With three nominations each are
Bear McCreary and Thomas Newman, followed by two apiece for Powell,
Geoff Zanelli, Philipp Noll, Alexandre Desplat, and Naoki Sato.
Three scores absolutely dominated the field in 2019,
Williams'
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Powell's
How to
Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and McCreary's
Godzilla:
King of the Monsters never chased down by the year's later entries.
If there was ever a year to feature only three top film score nominees,
this was it. The mastery exhibited by all three make them obvious
necessities in any film music collection, their distinctly intelligent
continuation of franchise themes and exploration of compatible ideas
unmatched by lesser talent.
Both Williams and Powell have won this award, separately and together
for
Solo: A Star Wars Story, in the prior decade. The ascendant
McCreary is nominated in this top film score field for the second year
in a row, his work impressing with increased regularity each year. The
fourth-place finisher in 2019 is
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, an
award partly inspired by the strength of the franchise's original music
by James Newton Howard but also recognizing Zanelli and his crew for
their fantastic extension of that identity. Their efforts yielded
perhaps the year's most unexpected pleasure.
From the romance genre, Noll's lovely and humorous score for the German
movie
Traumfabrik barely surpassed George Kallis' expansive
historical epic,
Cliffs of Freedom, for the fifth position,
though this race was extremely close. The honorable mentions for 2019
include Wallfisch's brazenly effective superhero score,
Shazam!,
Sato's wild thriller for
Masquerade Hotel, Nainita Desai's
gorgeous and affable nature music for
Untamed Romania, and
Desplat's trademark precision for
Little Women. Looking in from
the outside of the top ten are Diego Baldenweg's solemnly pretty
Zwingli and Howard's equally respectful contemplation for
A
Hidden Life.
The mainstream spotlight focused brightly on
newcomer Hildur Guðnadóttir for her insultingly simplistic
but obvious music for
Joker, but countless other composers
yielded superior soundtracks during 2019. Among them, McCreary had a
truly remarkable year, though the majority of his work existed for
projects that did not receive a theatrical release, leaving only
Godzilla: King of the Monsters and
The Professor and the
Madman to propel him to a nomination for top composer. Due to the
combined strength of
Shazam!,
It: Chapter Two,
Hellboy, and
Serenity, Wallfisch steals this award; he had
been previously nominated for the same award in 2017.
For his continued command of Japanese film music in
Masquerade
Hotel and
The Great War of Archimedes, Sato earns his first
nomination in this category since 2014. Newman's duo of
1917 and
Tolkien return him to this field for the first time since 2012.
Desplat's presence is more regular, this year's nomination the result of
his varied efforts for
Little Women,
The Secret Life of Pets
2,
Adults in the Room, and
An Officer and a Spy.
Deserving an honorable mention for similarly prolific production is
Brian Tyler (
Rambo: Last Blood,
Charlie's Angels,
Ready
or Not, and
What Men Want).
The "Top Film Cue" category remains restricted to
twenty nominees in 2019, but the number of runner-ups is expanded to ten
while the honorable mentions expanding to fifteen. This year, no single
score achieved two nominations in this field, allowing for a greater
variety of works to be represented. The strongest scores did place
second or third cues in the runner-up and honorable mention lists,
however. The race in this category came down to a handful of incredibly
singular cues that easily stood apart from the competition.
Fascinatingly, none of these very top cues came from the year's dominant
three scores, testimony to how widely the best music of 2019 was spread
between many films.
The best single moments of the year came in Wallfisch's incredibly
rousing suite, "SHAZAM!," from
Shazam!, Newman's immensely
impactful "The Night Window" from
1917, Howard's longingly
gorgeous "A Hidden Life" from
A Hidden Life, and Noll's
triumphantly romantic "Milous Traum" from
Traumfabrik. But many
hearts were stolen by David Arnold's nostalgic love letter to the James
Bond franchise in the short campaign film
From N.Peal With Love,
his one cue for that glorified advertisement reminding the entire world
of what the Bond franchise is missing without Arnold's music. Few
moments have been so totally gratifying for film music enthusiasts in
recent years.
From the best scores of 2019 are highlights that include the pivotal
"Farewell" from Williams'
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the
rambunctious "Exodus!" from Powell's
How to Train Your Dragon: The
Hidden World, the massively respectful "Redemption" from McCreary's
Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and the heartwarming "What is
Going on Here?" from Zanelli and crew's
Maleficent: Mistress of
Evil. From the remaining top ten scores come the reverent "Fog of
War" from Kallis'
Cliffs of Freedom, the opulent "Masquerade
Hotel - Main Title" from Sato's
Masquerade Hotel, the dramatic
"Untamed Romania" from Desai's
Untamed Romania, and the cheerful
"Plumfield" from Desplat's
Little Women.
The remaining nominees often represent the highlights of otherwise solid
scores, including the outstanding thematic presentation in "Far From
Home Suite Home" from Michael Giacchino's
Spider-Man: Far From
Home, the evocatively classical "Prologus" from Diego Baldenweg's
Zwingli, the hypnotically immersive "Fellowship" from Newman's
Tolkien, the painfully victorious "You're All Grown Up" from
Wallfisch's
It: Chapter Two, and the Jerry Goldsmith-inspired
"Preparing For War" from Tyler's
Rambo: Last Blood. Representing
truly standout highlights from otherwise disappointing scores are the
enthusiastically adapted "Train's a Comin'" from Danny Elfman's
Dumbo and the agonizing "This Isn't You" from Wallfisch's
Hellboy.
The ten runner-ups for this category in 2019 include additional cues
from all top five scores, led by the heartbreaking goodbyes in "Once
There Were Dragons" from Powell's
How to Train Your Dragon: The
Hidden World, the inspiring "Training Course" from Williams'
Star Wars:
The Rise of Skywalker, the monstrous "King of the Monsters" from
McCreary's
Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the resounding "We're
Dark Fey" from Zanelli and crew's
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,
and the victoriously closing "Traumfabrik" from Noll's
Traumfabrik.
Rounding out the ten runner-ups are five unexpected delights from
lesser-known or critically panned films, including the grandiose
"Prologue" from Christoph Zirngibl's
Finis Terrae, the
dramatically relieving "The Train" from Christopher Wong's
Mat
Biec, the energetic "There's a Mystery in Everything" from Craig
Armstrong's
Mrs. Lowry and Son, the playful "Air Coconut Chase"
from Mathieu Lamboley's
Minuscule: Mandibles From Far Away, and
the lively "Jellicle Ball" adaptation in "End Credits" from Andrew Lloyd
Webber's much maligned
Cats.
In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the
following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by
film title): the strikingly dramatic "Come Back to Us" from Newman's
1917, the nicely adapted "The Dunes" from Alan Menken's
Aladdin, the conclusive "Main on End" from Alan Silvestri's
Avengers: Endgame, the creative "The New Electricity" from Chad
Cannon's
CyberWork and the American Dream, the feel-good "A Dog's
Journey/A Dog's Purpose" from Mark Isham's
A Dog's Journey, the
stomping "Rebirth" from McCreary's
Godzilla: King of the
Monsters, and the subtle lyricism of "Deeper Than It Looks" from Carter
Burwell's
The Good Liar.
Also contending but eliminated were the humorous "The Dumbest Car Chase
of All Time" from Nathan Johnson's
Knives Out, the flowing "Jo
Writes" from Desplat's
Little Women, the affable "Hello,
Beastie!" from Zanelli and crew's
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,
the climactic "Turndown" from McCreary's
The Professor and the
Madman, the ominous "Ready or Not Overture" from Tyler's
Ready or
Not, the frenetic "Lance Saves Walter" from Theodore Shapiro's
Spies in Disguise, the beautiful "Don't Go" from Nathaniel
Mechaly's
Swoon, and the weighty "Peanut's Next Wondrous
Invention" from Steven Price's
Wonder Park.
