Draft:Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One

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Development[edit]

Film soundtracks[edit]

Title U.S. release date Length Composer(s) Label
Iron Man: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack April 29, 2008 0:54:14 Ramin Djawadi Lionsgate Records
The Incredible Hulk: Original Motion Picture Score June 13, 2008 1:50:55 Craig Armstrong Marvel Music
Iron Man 2: Original Motion Picture Score July 20, 2010 1:12:01 John Debney Columbia Records
Thor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) May 3, 2011 1:11:53 Patrick Doyle Buena Vista Records
Marvel Music
Captain America: The First Avenger — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack July 19, 2011 1:11:53 Alan Silvestri
The Avengers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) May 1, 2012 1:04:25 Hollywood Records
Marvel Music

Iron Man[edit]

Ramin Djawadi
Ramin Djawadi is the composer of Iron Man and Eternals.

Ramin Djawadi had been a fan of the character Iron Man as a child, saying that he always liked superheroes "that actually don't have any superpowers". After Iron Man director Jon Favreau's previous collaborator John Debney was unavailable to score the film,[1] Djawadi sought out the role himself.[2] Filming on Iron Man had already been completed by the time Djawadi joined the production,[3] and rather than wait until he could see the completed film, as he usually would, Djawadi began "playing with ideas" as soon as he saw the first trailer.[2] Due to time constraints and the final cut of the film changing until "the last possible minute", Djawadi had help with arrangements and additional cues from Hans Zimmer and Remote Control Productions.[2] Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, contributed guitar performances to the score.[4]

Favreau had a clear vision of heavy metal music and guitars for the project,[2] saying that Tony Stark was more of a rock star than a traditional superhero, and "there's Spider-Man, Batman and all these superhero movies. This superhero movie's different. I want to do something completely different, instead of going down the orchestral route. I want to do more rock and roll."[3] Djawadi subsequently composed most of the film's score on guitar, before arranging it for orchestra. Djawadi composed several themes for the character of Tony Stark, representing his different moods and attitudes, all inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. Other themes for the film are "not so much character based, but rather plot based that carry you through the movie".[2] Musicians John O'Brien and Rick Boston, frequent collaborators with Favreau, provided a big band-style arrangement of the Iron Man theme song from the 1966 cartoon The Marvel Super Heroes for a scene where Stark attends a casino.[5]

The Incredible Hulk[edit]

Director Louis Leterrier's first choice for composer on The Incredible Hulk was Craig Armstrong, once the arranger for Massive Attack, a band Leterrier was fond of and had collaborated with on the 2005 film Unleashed; this choice had surprised Marvel, who often had directors asking for the likes of John Williams or Danny Elfman, and the studio was hesitant due to Armstrong's lack of experience writing for action films. Leterrier listened to Armstrong's previous music while planning and editing the film,[6] and music editor Peter Myles used Armstrong's work and similar music by others in the film's temp score. Armstrong chose not to listen to the temp, or watch Ang Lee's Hulk, before composing the score, which he began in his home in Glasgow, Scotland, before moving to Remote Control in Los Angeles to be closer to the production. The score was recorded in four days, resulting in little time for adjustments on the day, forcing Armstrong to "create very specific demos" that were "completely accurate" for Matt Dunkley to orchestrate. Leterrier favored an orchestral sound over electronics, "because he didn't want the work to sound dated so quickly", though Armstrong did electronically enhance a lot of the orchestral recordings. Additionally, "about half the score" features various ethnic instruments performed by Pete Lockett.[7]

When Armstrong first began working in Glasgow, he did so with three sequences which he called "the keys to opening up" the score: the Abomination and the Hulk's alley fight, "which was complex because of its choreography"; Bruce Banner and Betty Ross' reunion, "the romantic element of the score"; and the Hulk and Betty in the cave, which "combines The Hulk Theme and when Hulk and Betty are together, so the Bruce and Betty Theme was totally different than my music for The Hulk and Betty". For the Hulk's theme, Armstrong compared it to Williams' main theme for Jaws, with "simple notation" that "summed up the complete concept". The theme features a bass C note, with string glissandos up an octave and then back down to the original note. Other themes include Bruce Banner's theme, for "when he's alone and searching for the cure"; two theme's for the Abomination, a dark one for the soldier Emil Blonsky and a more aggressive one for when he becomes a monster himself (the latter is combined with the Hulk theme when those character's fight); the love theme for Banner and Betty Ross; and a scientific theme, for "when they are trying to crack the codes of the Hulk". Joe Harnell's "The Lonely Man" theme for the 1978 The Incredible Hulk television series is briefly quoted in the cue "Bruce Goes Home", with Armstrong playing the piano for the piece himself.[7]

Iron Man 2[edit]

For the sequel to Iron Man, Debney returned to work with Favreau, replacing Djawadi as composer.[8] Debney called his score for Iron Man 2 "quite different in many ways from the last score. This score while employing much guitar and more contemporary elements, it is also much bigger and darker in tone and scope."[9] He described his music as "Led Zeppelin with an orchestra",[10] and elaborated that "The two scores share a common pedigree [of rock-and-roll and electric guitar] but are generally different. They are different scores with different results."[1] Debney was not influenced by the AC/DC soundtrack for the film, feeling that "the songs and score play two very different roles in the film", and unlike the previous score he used a large choir for some of the film's more dramatic moments. Morello returned to again contribute guitar performances for the film, this time collaborating with Debney to write some of the music itself, with Debney first composing the score, and then working with Morello on the guitar parts and "textures".[9]

Debney called Iron Man 2 "odd in that there were not a lot of places where a true superhero theme could be played. Tony Stark is uber cool even as Iron Man, so, musically, we couldn't state a full-blown superhero theme. The strains of Iron Man's theme are heard only in a few spots by design. I'm hoping with future films, Iron Man might get his full-blown theme played aggressively."[1] For instance, Debney recorded several different versions of the score for scenes where Stark puts on the Iron Man suit, each with "different portions of the theme fleshed out or left out". What was ultimately chosen "was less thematic. It was sort of a groove with a little bit of French horn. Maybe that was the right choice, but it was a difficult decision. It was difficult to find the areas in the movie where we could let Tony be a superhero." He continued, "There were moments where I wanted to play a scene broadly or make a love scene out of it but we were never able to go there", such as for the end of the film where "Tony finally kisses Pepper ... there were a couple of versions I did that were really gorgeous and lush but it just didn't fit. It's a different kind of movie because they kiss and then all of a sudden the mood is broken. It's just the nature of this character." Debney felt that this process led to the score being "watered down and mashed up a little bit" from what he originally intended. However, Debney did not feel the same about his music for the villain, Ivan Vanko, which he described as a personal "joy". He said that Favreau "gave me a great opportunity to get into [the opening] scene and learn [Vanko]'s circumstances and to play sincerely sad music for him and the relationship he had with his father. Jon gave me the opportunity to morph that and turn it into something really dark and twisted. For me that was the most satisfactory part of the score and the film".[10] For Vanko's theme, the choir sang in Russian to "capture the dark Russian soul" of the character.[9]

Thor[edit]

Director Kenneth Branagh's frequent composing collaborator Patrick Doyle called Thor "the most commercially high profile film I have done since Frankenstein", and noted that "Marvel Studios have a brand in Thor. Their interest, like mine, was for strong thematic material that would capture the essence of that brand." Branagh and Doyle wanted the score to have a contemporary feel, while Doyle "was also eager for the score to contain a strong sense of melody, which [Branagh] responds to in my work. He was keen, as indeed I was, that the grand images were not in any way hyperbolized, and that there would be a balance between playing with, and against the images." To distinguish between the realms of Asgard and Earth musically, Doyle used "broader orchestral strokes and thicker orchestration" to depict the grandeur and beauty of Asgard, and more "contemporary, electronic and percussion driven" music for the Earth scenes, incorporating the then-popular ostinato technique "in a symphonic way whenever appropriate".[11]

Doyle took inspiration for the score from his own Celtic background, which he described as "very intertwined" with the Norse mythology that Thor is based on, as well as the works of Richard Wagner. He found the main challenge of the score to be composing a "superhero theme" for the titular character, and a second main theme representing Asgard, the latter of which Doyle wanted "to come across as an old folk song from a Celtic world". He noted that the Asgard theme develops throughout the film to also represent traveling, action, and fighting. Of the other themes he composed for the film, Doyle also noted a theme for Jotunheim, another world visited in the film. On specific instrumentation for the character of Thor, Doyle jokingly noted that a piccolo would be inappropriate, and that a character with such a big personality and physicality required "a slightly more robust set of musical instruments: horns, low brass, slow strings etc." To represent the character's longing for home after he is banished from Asgard to Earth, Doyle used a cor anglais, which he felt also captured Thor's pathos and nobility.[11]

Captain America: The First Avenger[edit]

Alan Silvestri served as composer for Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel's The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

By February 2011, Marvel chose Alan Silvestri to provide the score for Captain America: The First Avenger after composing the "iconic scores" for Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, over a number of other composers including Michael Giacchino, John Powell, and Henry Jackman.[12][13] Silvestri then met with director Joe Johnston to spot the film, and had seven and a half weeks to compose the score. Johnston wanted a full orchestral score "to allow for movement" between the film's two genres: a period piece and a futuristic, high-tech sci-fi film. Silvestri noted the appropriateness of the fact that his style of music, which he describes as "romantically heroic", is often described by others as "patriotic", as well as his tendency to use brass instruments, which can "compete sonically and give the music some kind of presence where it might not have any", something necessary during the film's action sequences.[14]

In Silvestri's first meeting with Johnston, the latter raised his desire for a central theme. On this, Silvestri said, "To have some kind of musical signature either for a character or some aspect of the film, truly holds the score together. A theme makes the music feel like one piece in a sense." For this central theme, a fanfare for Captain America, Silvestri did not look to any past film scores in particular, instead looking to "certain kinds of elements that we have, over time, associated with that kind of heroic statement", such as the percussive elements, intervals, and brass instrumentation of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man". He noted that Captain America is a "very bold and bombastic idea, so you don't need to inflate that in any way. But that doesn't mean you have to play those elements down either", adding that he felt Captain America was fleshed out more as a character simply by facing "a really bad guy" in the Red Skull in a similar way to Luke Skywalker's development in the presence of Darth Vader. On the Red Skull himself, Silvestri looked to take the character seriously and "play him as bad", but allowed for more compassion for the character when he talks about his tortured past.[14] He also introduced a theme for the Tesseract, Red Skull's energy source.[15]

The Avengers[edit]

In November 2011, Marvel announced that Silvestri would return to compose the score for the crossover film Marvel's The Avengers. Silvestri found it helpful to have already been part of the "Marvel process", which gave him a "sense of how Marvel treats their characters, cares for them, and a bit of what that Marvel post-production process feels like".[16] Director Joss Whedon preferred an "old-school ... old-fashioned" score to using pre-existing songs, which he felt makes "the moment [become] about the song". He called Silvestri "letter perfect for this movie because he can give you the heightened emotion ... but he can also be extraordinarily cue and character specific, which I love."[17] Silvestri did not want the score to have the same "military" feeling as Captain America: The First Avengers's, as Stark says in the film "We're not soldiers." However, Whedon did want aspects of the film to resemble a war film, and "there are times where [the Avengers are] absolutely functioning as this paramilitary unit", so Silvestri did add some "military seasoning" in places. Both Whedon and Silvestri wanted the score to build throughout the film, to climax in the final battle. For the aftermath of that fight, Silvestri uses a simple guitar piece to give the audience a rest with a "complete sonic break" from what comes before in the film. He then segues back into the full orchestra for the end of the film. For a sequence where the villain Loki attacks while a string quartet plays Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, the editors had already overlaid the piece with a temp track for when Loki "starts to do his thing". Silvestri expanded on this for the final score, having the music transition from the onscreen quartet to the entire orchestra playing the same piece when the fighting begins.[18]

On composing for a film with such a large cast, Silvestri said, "I've worked on films where there have been a number of stars and certainly worked on films where there have been characters of equal weight in terms of their level of importance and profile in the film, but this one is somewhat extreme in that regard because each of these characters has their own world ... the film is really about the coming together of these characters, which implies that there is this entity called the Avengers which really has to be representative of all of them together."[16] Later elaborating on this, Silvestri said, "We knew that if we were to have a theme for every character in this movie, the music would get very clunky and intrusive. So I stayed away from all of that." Instead, Marvel and Whedon wanted a central, definable "Avengers" theme for the film, which Silvestri wanted to have a heroic aspect and a grandness, but also be "generated from that scene when they're all gathering for the last great battle ... the interesting thing about it as the 'big moment; of the score is that they're not doing anything. They're standing there, which allowed me to move away from the idea of it being an action moment."[18] Silvestri did ultimately use some other themes in the score: he developed a motif for Loki as the central villain of the film, a "low, ominous sequence of chords, [used] when his presence is either visible or implied"; he reprised his Captain America theme, for when that character "makes his entrance, or when he's in the middle of a fight scene ... yet not using it fully" as "a little of his theme goes a long, long way", and his Tesseract theme, including over the opening logos of the film; and midway through Silvestri's work writing the score, Whedon had seen some completed scenes featuring the Black Widow and "wanted to explore music that was a bit more thematic for her", so Silvestri introduced "a lonely, plucked theme with an Eastern European flavor" to define the character.[15][18][19] For the other major characters, Silvestri used instrumentation to differentiate their scenes, for instance Iron Man "always has the more contemporary, rhythmic component to a lot of his music."[15]

Short films[edit]

The Consultant[edit]

Marvel's first Marvel One-Shot short film The Consultant, was scored by DJ Paul Oakenfold.[20]

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer[edit]

The second One-Shot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, was scored by DJ Paul Oakenfold.[20]

Item 47[edit]

The third One-Shot, Item 47, had a bigger scope and budget than the previous shorts. Marvel approached Christopher Lennertz to provide a "big and fun and funny" score; Lennertz described the One-Shots as "a little quirkier than the movies, in terms of making sure that they're fast and they usually have a little bit more of a comedic bent to it". Lennertz' score for the short is "rock-based", with a lot of electronics and guitars. For the opening bank robbery, "We had a big twangy low guitar theme, almost like a Jack White kind of a thing on guitar". At the end of the short, when money 'rains down', Lennertz paid homage to Ennio Morricone with vocals in a "classic spoofy" way.[21]

Compilation albums[edit]

Title U.S. release date Length Label
AC/DC: Iron Man 2 April 19, 2010 (2010-04-19) 60:15 Columbia Records
Avengers Assemble (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture) May 1, 2012 (2012-05-01) 48:20 Hollywood Records
Marvel Music

AC/DC: Iron Man 2[edit]

Director Jon Favreau had used songs from hard rock band AC/DC in the first Iron Man film, and had been inspired at an AC/DC concert to introduce Iron Man in the sequel during a concert-like event. Favreau said on the band, "What's fun about them is they were the full-on real deal of heavy metal when I was in high school. They were as real deal as it got. They made some people nervous—people questioned whether they were devil worshipers or not. And now these days they put on the same show...and there's a sense of humor about the whole thing....there's even a strange gentleness to the music to me now, even though at the time it was as edgy as you get. It's celebrating immaturity and youth" in a similar way to the character of Tony Stark.[22] In January 2010, Marvel announced that AC/DC's music would be featured heavily in Iron Man 2 in a collaboration with Columbia Records, who released a soundtrack album for the film featuring 15 classic AC/DC songs.[23]

Avengers Assemble[edit]

Singles[edit]

Title U.S. release date Length Artist(s) Label
"Live to Rise" April 17, 2012 (2012-04-17) 4:40 Soundgarden Hollywood Records
Marvel Music

Live to Rise[edit]

Reception[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Larson, Randall (July 22, 2010). "Of Superheroes and Predators: John Debney Returns to Sci-Fi". Cinefantastique. Archived from the original on May 1, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Ramin Djawadi: Compositore di Iron Man". Comicus. April 6, 2008. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Weedon, Paul (October 17, 2013). "Ramin Djawadi on Game Of Thrones, Iron Man, Pacific Rim". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  4. ^ "RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE Guitarist Faces 'Iron Man'". Blabbermouth.net. May 6, 2008. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  5. ^ Boston, Rick. "Iron Man Theme by John O'Brien and Rick Boston". Rick Boston Artist Musician. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Koppl, Rudy (July 9, 2008). "Director Louis Leterrier – Opening the Mind's Eye". Music from the Movies. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved July 9, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Koppl, Rudy (July 9, 2008). "The Incredible Hulk – Dr. Bruce Banner's Hidden Secrets". Music from the Movies. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved July 9, 2008.
  8. ^ Marnell, Blair (February 8, 2010). "'Iron Man 2' Score Being Recorded in London, Reports Jon Favreau". MTV. Archived from the original on May 7, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c Shaw, Zach (March 18, 2010). "Iron Man 2 Composer John Debney Talks Film Scoring, Working With Tom Morello". Metal Insider. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  10. ^ a b "ScoreKeeper Chats With Composer John Debney About PREDATORS, IRON MAN 2, MACHETE and More!!!". Ain't It Cool News. September 10, 2010. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Schweiger, Daniel (May 3, 2011). "Interview With Composer Patrick Doyle". Film Music Magazine. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  12. ^ Chitwood, Adam (February 28, 2011). "Composer Alan Silvestri Tapped to Score CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER". Collider. Archived from the original on August 27, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  13. ^ "Henry Jackman on scoring for Captain America: The Winter Soldier". CBC Music. March 17, 2014. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  14. ^ a b Schweiger, Daniel (July 14, 2011). "Interview With Composer Alan Silvestri". Film Music Magazine. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  15. ^ a b c Patches, Matt. "'Avengers' Composer Alan Silvestri: Bringing Heroes Together with Music — EXCLUSIVE". Hollywood.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  16. ^ a b Strom, Marc (November 16, 2011). "Alan Silvestri to Score Marvel's The Avengers". Marvel.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2011. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  17. ^ Weintraub, Steve (April 5, 2012). "Joss Whedon Talks The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers, His Writing Process, Comic-Con, Collecting and More". Collider. Archived from the original on April 8, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  18. ^ a b c Schweiger, Daniel (June 3, 2012). "Interview: THE AVENGERS composer Alan Silvestri makes the Avengers assemble". Assignment X. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  19. ^ "The Avengers – Original Score". Soundtrack.net. Archived from the original on July 5, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  20. ^ a b Strom, Marc (August 2, 2011). "Marvel One-Shots: Expanding the Cinematic Universe". Marvel.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  21. ^ Larson, Randall (July 13, 2014). "Soundtrax: Episode 2014-4". BuySoundtrax. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  22. ^ Boucher, Geoff (April 19, 2010). "'Iron Man 2' shoots to thrill with AC/DC". Hero Complex. Archived from the original on September 16, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  23. ^ "AC/DC Powers Up Iron Man 2 Soundtrack". Marvel.com. January 26, 2010. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
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