In preparing to chronicle this year’s batch of Oscar music hopefuls, I stumbled across one of the most interesting and creative approaches to a Western score in some time: composer Marco Beltrami’s experiments to “musicalize” the sounds of wind over the plains for director Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman — all created acoustically, not electronically processed as he had done seven years ago in 3:10 to Yuma. We explored this together after a Society of Composers & Lyricists screening of the film on Sunday. (Story to come in Variety. Will post soon.)
Tag Archives: Tommy Lee Jones
Marco Beltrami, Billion Dollar Composer
Here is a group of stories I wrote for Variety about Marco Beltrami, one of today’s most innovative and sought-after composers for film. Just getting to his Malibu studio was something of an adventure. The main story includes quotes from collaborators ranging from James Mangold and Wes Craven to Tommy Lee Jones, and something of Beltrami himself talking about his journey. I also wrote about his unique studio and his recent, more intimate, scores.