Buy it... for one of the most dramatically wholesome and inspirational sports scores in cinematic history, Amelia Warner rising to the occasion with simple tonalities that work wonders in the picture.

Avoid it... if your brain cannot accept the general lack of complication to this score, or if you have an aversion to synthetic and rhythmic infusions that will remind you of Enya's heyday.

---

Warner

Young Woman and the Sea: (Amelia Warner) Originally targeting Disney's streaming platform only, the 2024 historical drama Young Woman and the Sea impressed the studio to such a degree that it was awarded a limited theatrical release as well. Met with high acclaim from audiences and based on the life of famed female swimmer Gertrude (Trudy) Ederle, the story takes some liberty with the particulars of its characters but follows all the basics of sports underdog conventions, raising ethnic and gender issues of the 1920's along the way. Daisy Ridley stars as Trudy, who survives both the measles and the overbearing social limitations of her strict German upbringing in New York City to achieve her dream of becoming a swimmer along with her sister. She excels at the sport and eventually competes in the 1924 Olympics, but her determination to swim across the English Channel earns her the reputation that yields a world record and a massive parade back in New York. Before getting there, however, she perseveres through setbacks caused by gender restrictions and an adversarial coach, constantly pushing the boundaries and her physical capabilities. It's an ultimate feel-good film in a genre rich with aspiring entries, and the filmmakers knew they needed an inspiring orchestral score to help push Trudy through the waves. Although the director and producer had collaborated with the broader realm of Hans Zimmer and Remote Control compositional team through the years with great success, they specifically sought a female composer for Young Woman and the Sea. This task wasn't easy, as being a Jerry Bruckheimer production, the sound of the movie was inevitably destined to followed a more masculine sonic personality than a 1920's topic about a female swimmer might suggest. Despite working with Geoff Zanelli prior, the filmmakers ultimately leaned on Lorne Balfe to help produce this score. The extent to which his involvement guided the final product is unknown, but the score does espouse countless characteristics of distinct Zimmer/Balfe heritage. The sole compositional credit, however, fell on English actress-turned-composer Amelia Warner.

To say that Young Woman and the Sea was a dream assignment for Warner would be an understatement, as it not only allowed her the ability to write a score for a major studio but also enter the Bruckheimer and Balfe realm of career success. She professes to having long wanted to write film scores despite no classical, formal training, parlaying both her musical abilities and connections in the industry via her acting career to make that happen. Often times, such transitions result in marginal careers, but Warner had shown promise in her early works, and any coaching or technical assistance she may have received from Balfe helped her take the next important step. Her first major score was Mary Shelley in 2018, which not only previewed the female vocal tones heard in Young Woman and the Sea but also laid the groundwork for the use of contemporary percussion and electronic backing with an orchestral ensemble. Her prior two scores, Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) and Mr. Malcolm's List (2022), contained very promising lyrical sensibilities, often utilizing cyclical rhythmic formations. Informing the 2024 score in particular is the propulsive spirit of "The Chase" from Mr. Malcolm's List and "Lost in Darkness and Distance" from Mary Shelley. Warner also showed an affinity for prominent string solos that carries over as well. These early works were all three-star efforts with some appealing highlights, though nothing could prepare listeners for the sudden advancement the composer conveys in Young Woman and the Sea. Warner admits having listened to some of the most famous sports scores of the Bronze and Digital eras of film music in preparation for this project, and it's no surprise that you hear her picking up techniques from a classic like Vangelis' Chariots of Fire in how she structures her rhythmic motifs and selects her instrumentation. Her choice of ensemble is fairly conventional, strings and brass accented at times by lone woodwind flourishes and a few prominent placements for piano. More important to the score is that she and the filmmakers determined that a strictly 1920's sound wasn't going to work for this story. There is plenty of source music applied to serve that need in snippets between the nearly omnipresent score cues.

In the end, Warner constructed a very contemporary score for Young Woman and the Sea, one that makes no attempt to address the setting or time period but rather tackles the sports underdog element wholeheartedly in Vangelis spirit. She has stated that each iteration of the work continuously pushed this counterintuitive strategy further, with some of the music ultimately taking a 1990's new age tilt. The thematic constructs are all rather simplistic in their rendering despite being long-lined throughout, the melodic emphasis reinforced by an unyielding tonal atmosphere that rarely dwells in discordant challenges, even when the story throws barriers at Trudy. Don't approach the score expecting layers of counterpoint in the themes or particularly unusual instrumental applications. This is a score about heart, and to that end, it succeeds brilliantly. The aforementioned adherence to Zimmer and Balfe traditions is brazen but extremely well executed. Although Warner professed to appreciating Zimmer's score for A League of Their Own, her approach to Young Woman and the Sea has far more in common with Zimmer's power anthem sensibilities of the late 1980's and early 1990's. The chugging string ostinatos and open brass are supplemented by a percussion element so resounding that it at times achieves the pinball machine effect that highlighted Backdraft. A solo electric cello is applied to help reinforce the bass while a regular cello supplies character gravity. The electric cello and synthetics of the score were meant to compete favorably with the sound effects of the water, and they do so with ease in the final film mix. It's tough to find a good balance between the orchestral players, choir, and the synthetic sweeteners in the bass for these kinds of scores, but Warner absolutely nails that combination here, the resonance of the music highly effective without broadcasting to the listener that such overlays exist in most cues. The score sounds fantastic in the film's surround mix, its placement often at the forefront of the overall soundscape. This was a story that required the music to crank up the drama of the visuals, as there are multitudes of times when there is minimal dialogue (and sometimes questionable special effects) and the score has to carry the impact almost entirely. Few films benefit from the obvious presence of their music as much as this one.

Warner's adherence to melodic tonality in Young Woman and the Sea is admirable, but because she seems more inspired by the Jerry Goldsmith model of long-lined themes rather than the Vangelis alternative, causal listeners may only recall the B phrase of the main melody by the end. Despite remaining faithful to her three primary themes for Trudy, Warner also tends to take these ideas off into tangents that then recur on their own, forming a web of related motifs that often share similar simplistic chord progressions. Normally, such meandering can cause narrative issues, but with the whole set of themes staying true to those related progressions and their renderings all masterfully conveying the emotional drama necessary, the use still works. Of the three themes for Trudy, the main one anchors the opening and closing of the film and comes in two parts. This long melody offers a distinctive sense of resolution in its phrasing, frequently heard over churning strings, and it eventually comes to represent the character's legacy and reputation. The film opens with two statements of the theme's A phrase in "Sisters," and the also lengthy B phrase for the concept of victory at 1:06 adds choir and repeats multiple times. At numerous points throughout the score, Warner applies the underlying chords of the B phrase even if the melody is absent, and that technique starts here. Those chords from the B phrase continue with anticipation alone in "First Race" and persist to begin "My Hero Was You" on pretty strings and choir before Warner tenderly expresses the A phrase of the main theme on piano. Whenever the composer uses the light, female choral tones in these choral chord shifts for the B phrase, there is a tonal resonance that reminds of Howard Shore's simpler beauty of The Lord of the Rings. A pleasant wash of the shifting chords for strings develop into the A phrase of the theme in "The Channel Plan," and the chords on choir continue with a notable woodwind solo for the B phrase at the start of "Reaction to Failure." The main theme prevails with a comforting piano moment at 0:43 into "Family Arrives" while the B phrase's chords encourage with force in the middle of "Jellyfish." (The withholding of resolving bass in these chords until Trudy begins exiting the field of jellyfish is an outstanding technique of payoff within the cue.) The A phrase then offers an unresolved glimmer of hope in "Entering the Shallows."

Average:		3.91 Stars
*****		32
****		26
***		13
**		7
*		4
			(View results for all titles)

The best score of 2024   Expand >> Brian H - February 27, 2025, at 5:14 p.m.

2 comments  (378 views) Newest: March 8, 2025, at 9:42 a.m. by Michael

• 1. Sisters (2:19) • 2. Trudy Survives (2:44) • 3. First Race (2:23) • 4. Free Spirit (1:35) • 5. Sisters Race the Australians (3:42) • 6. Winning Montage (1:15) • 7. 1924 Olympic Races (1:11) • 8. My Hero Was You (1:18) • 9. The Channel Plan (2:35) • 10. Swim to Penners (2:31) • 11. Travel to the Channel (0:54) • 12. First Attempt (1:51) • 13. Wolfe's Sabotage (2:20)

• 14. Reaction to Failure (1:42) • 15. Family Arrives (1:02) • 16. Trudy Escapes (2:05) • 17. We Go to England or Die Trying (1:49) • 18. Jellyfish (3:01) • 19. Swim Trudy Swim (1:48) • 20. Entering the Shallows (3:31) • 21. Lost in the Shallows (4:35) • 22. Distant Lights (1:57) • 23. Beach Celebration (3:40) • 24. Triumphant Return (2:19) • 25. Gertrude Ederle's Legacy (1:33)

There exists no official packaging for this album.