Wikipedia

The Banshees of Inisherin (soundtrack)

The Banshees of Inisherin (Original Score) is the score album consisting of the original score composed by Carter Burwell for the 2022 film of the same name directed by Martin McDonagh. It was released on 21 October 2022 by Hollywood Records.[1] The album was announced with a three-track sampler debuted on the Deadline Hollywood magazine.[2] Burwell experimented the score with approaching Colin Farrell's character through "the child-like" and "Disney character"-based music as well as fiddle-themed compositions for Brendan Gleeson's character, and non-Irish music, despite the setting in 20th century Ireland. The score received a nomination for Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score in a Feature Film, as well as Satellite Award and Golden Globe Award nomination in the "Best Original Score" category.

The Banshees of Inisherin (Original Score)
Film score by
Carter Burwell
Released21 October 2022 (2022-10-21)
GenreFilm score
Length33:33
LabelHollywood
ProducerCarter Burwell
Carter Burwell chronology
Catherine Called Birdy
(2022) 		The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022)

Development

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"The music often refuses to get emotional and for some reason, that makes it even more emotional. That has something to do with the whole film. It is very contained. No one ever shouts in the film. It’s very quiet and yet so intense and so sad and so funny."

— Carter Burwell[3]

McDonagh's regular collaborator Carter Burwell composed the score.[4] Burwell recalled McDonagh did not want any Irish film music, despite mentioning that "Everything else is very Irish — the accents, the clothes, the situation, the pub. He wasn’t clear with me what he wanted to do, but it’s clear that what he didn’t want it to do was for the music to leave you in Ireland. He wanted it to take you someplace else."[5] While focusing on Farrell's character, Pádraic, he wrote a slow-walking music consisted of celesta, harp, marimba and glockenspiel, that seemed to work "in terms of basically painting him like a man-child" and "almost like a Disney character", as those instruments are found in elementary school.[6] He used celesta for the twinkling effect to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood theme, and John Williams' Harry Potter music.[7]

During the same time, he had read Grimms' fairy tales to his 11-year old daughter, in which while reading the Grimms' version of Cinderella, where the stepsisters mutilate their feet in order to fit in the glass slipper, Burwell felt the cutting of the limbs, almost not similar to the threat that Colm (Gleeson) makes, saying "I ended up going farther down that road of making the whole story a little bit more fairytale-like".[8] All of the scores, mesh tonal lightness and darkness, making it easier to foreshadow the impending violence, which Burwell adds "Eight octaves down from that, there are these big heavy, low bell tones that have these strange harmonics that are a little foreboding. I don’t think you read it necessarily at the very beginning of the movie, but pretty soon it starts to express itself more and more."[8][7]

Before scoring for the film, McDonagh used a piece of Indonesian gamelan music as a temp track for the film. Hence, Burwell layered gamelan gongs underneath the music, as "It made it not quite so cheery. There’s something there that doesn’t quite fit, and you can’t really put your finger on what it is. There’s some mystery at the bottom of the tune." Burwell liked this process as "they’re never going to get sentimental. There’s no such thing as a sad marimba line. So it kind of inoculates you, using those instruments, from worrying about the music getting actually sad itself."[6]

Track listing

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No.TitleLength
1."Walking Home Alone"1:18
2."Night Falls on Inisherin"0:45
3."Marking the Calendar"1:09
4."The Island Comes to Church"1:10
5."Doesn't Time Be Flying"1:00
6."Standing Prayer"1:30
7."Delivering Milk But No News"1:03
8."Colm Takes the Reins"2:10
9."Padraic Wakes – Driving Into the Rain"1:10
10."The First Finger"1:14
11."Padraic and Jenny"0:48
12."Padraic Keeps Quiet"2:15
13."Colm Throws the Balance"1:50
14."Jenny and the Fourth"1:53
15."Dark Padraic"1:30
16."Siobhan Leaves"1:46
17."The Slow Passing of Time"1:46
18."Padraic Leaves the Church"1:02
19."My Life Is on Inisherin"3:47
20."A Smoldering New Day"1:56
21."The Mystery of Inisherin"2:31
Total length:33:33

Reception

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Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily wrote: "Along with the fiddle music, Carter Burwell's knowing, mock-folksy score is matched with classical passages from Orff, Brahms et al, plus those Bulgarian choral voices that are as balefully banshee-like as you could wish for."[9] Writing for The Guardian, Mark Kermode wrote: "Composer Carter Burwell emphasises the film's fable-like qualities with refrains that sound like off-kilter nursery rhymes played on cracked shellac records."[10] Writing for WhatCulture, Jack Pooley praised Burwell's score complimenting that it "lurches from pithily optimistic to drearily ominous as necessary, its folksy style proving perfectly suited to the movie's visuals and overall tone, and mutated however necessary to match the vibe of a given scene [...] isn't particularly intrusive yet still imbues the picture with a canny, slightly off-kilter atmosphere which befits its at times Shakespearean influences".[11] Hanna Ines Flint of IGN wrote: "The folksy element of Carter Burwell's plucky score has its own sense of humor."[12]

Accolades

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Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient Result Ref.
Hollywood Music in Media Awards 16 November 2022 Best Original Score in a Feature Film Carter Burwell Nominated [13]
Chicago Film Critics Association 14 December 2022 Best Original Score Nominated [14]
St. Louis Film Critics Association 18 December 2022 Best Score Runner-up[a] [15]
Indiana Film Journalists Association 19 December 2022 Best Musical Score Nominated [16]
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle 9 January 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [17]
Austin Film Critics Association 10 January 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [18]
Golden Globe Awards 10 January 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [19]
Iowa Film Critics Association 12 January 2023 Best Original Score Runner-up[b] [20]
Online Film Critics Society 23 January 2023 Best Original Score Won [21]
Society of Composers & Lyricists 15 February 2023 Outstanding Score for a Studio Film Nominated [22]
Houston Film Critics Society 18 February 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [23]
British Academy Film Awards 19 February 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [24]
Hollywood Critics Association 24 February 2023 Best Score Nominated [25]
Satellite Awards 3 March 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [26]
Academy Awards 12 March 2023 Best Original Score Nominated [27]

Notes

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  1. ^ Tied with Michael Giacchino for The Batman and John Williams for The Fabelmans
  2. ^ Tied with Hildur Guðnadóttir for Women Talking

References

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  1. ^ Shutt, Mike (November 2, 2022). "Why The Banshees Of Inisherin Has Such An Unconventional Soundtrack". /Film. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  2. ^ Grobar, Matt (October 20, 2022). "'The Banshees Of Inisherin' Composer Carter Burwell Takes Viewers Down A "Dark Road" With "Light Sounds" In Martin McDonagh's Latest – Hear An Exclusive 3-Track Sampler". Deadline. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  3. ^ Licuria, Rob (November 28, 2022). "Carter Burwell ('The Banshees of Inisherin' composer) on crafting 'a deeper, dramatic, cinematic and emotional experience' [Exclusive Video Interview]". GoldDerby. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  4. ^ Massoto, Erick (October 24, 2022). "'The Banshees of Inisherin's Composer on the Making of the Soundtrack [Exclusive]". Collider. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  5. ^ "Why the Banshees of Inisherin Score Isn't Very Irish". The Wrap. December 12, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Grieving, Tim (November 17, 2022). "Film scores cover a spectrum of sounds and musical colors. Here are a few of note". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Tangcay, Jazz (November 1, 2022). "Why 'The Banshees of Inisherin' Director Wanted Anything But a Traditional Irish Music Soundtrack". Variety. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Zuckerman, Esther (October 21, 2022). "For 'The Banshees of Inisherin,' Carter Burwell Left the Fiddling to Brendan Gleeson". IndieWire. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  9. ^ Romney, Jonathan (September 5, 2022). "'The Banshees of Inisherin': Venice Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  10. ^ Kermode, Mark (October 22, 2022). "The Banshees of Inisherin review – flawless tragicomedy of male friendship gone sour". The Guardian. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  11. ^ Pooley, Jack (October 22, 2022). "The Banshees of Inisherin Review: 9 Ups & 1 Down". WhatCulture. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  12. ^ Flint, Hanna Ines (October 10, 2022). "The Banshees of Inisherin Review". IGN. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  13. ^ Grein, Paul (November 17, 2022). "Rihanna's 'Wakanda Forever' song, Terence Blanchard Win at 2022 Hollywood Music in Media Awards: Full List". Billboard. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  14. ^ Tallerico, Brian (December 12, 2022). "'Everything Everywhere All at Once' leads Chicago Film Critics Nominations". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  15. ^ Anderson, Erik (December 18, 2022). "2022 St. Louis Film Critics Association winners: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', 'Women Talking', 'Elvis'". AwardsWatch. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  16. ^ Rogers, Nick (December 13, 2022). "Nominations Announced for the 2022 Indiana Film Journalists Association Awards". Midwest Film Journal. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  17. ^ "SFBAFCC 2022 Awards". San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  18. ^ Anderson, Erik (January 3, 2023). "2022 Austin Film Critics Association nominations". AwardsWatch. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  19. ^ "Banshees of Inisherin, The". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  20. ^ Anderson, Erik (January 12, 2023). "2022 Iowa Film Critics Association (IFCA) winners". AwardsWatch. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  21. ^ Anderson, Erik (January 18, 2023). "2022 Online Film Critics Association (OFCS) nominations". AwardsWatch. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  22. ^ Haring, Bruce (February 15, 2023). "Michael Abels, Diane Warren, Alexandre Desplat, Guillermo del Toro among Winners at Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  23. ^ "'Banshees' and 'Everything' lead Houston Film Critics nominations". Houston Film Critics Society. January 10, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  24. ^ "Film | Original Score in 2023". BAFTA. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  25. ^ Doster, Tyler (February 24, 2023). "6th Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) Awards: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' emerges victorious". AwardsWatch. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  26. ^ "2022 Awardees". International Press Academy. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  27. ^ Lewis, Hilary; Nordyke, Kimberly (January 24, 2023). "Oscars: Full List of Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
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