Michael Giacchino understands how to use music to manipulate your emotions.
If you’ve ever been creeped out watching the TV series Lost, there’s a good chance that Michael Giacchino had something to do with it. If you’ve ever been so completely immersed playing Call of Duty that you forgot what day it was, there’s a good chance that Michael Giacchino had something to do with it. And if you’ve ever cried during a Pixar movie, there’s a good chance that Michael Giacchino had something to do with it.
Giacchino has scored several Pixar classics, including his Oscar-winning score for 2010’s Up, a movie whose opening montage is enough to make me sob and snort like a pig with a sinus infection.
If everything goes according to plan at this week’s Academy Awards, Inside Out should win for Best Animated Feature. Which is cool, but I’m disappointed on two counts: first, why not best film, period? Nothing against the films that were nominated, but why should the fact that it’s animated disqualify it from the Academy’s biggest prize? It tells an engaging story, and it gives us a clearer glimpse into the mind of a child than any non-animated film I can think of.
Second, it’s too bad that Giacchino’s score wasn’t nominated for best original score. If a song from Fifty Shades of Grey can earn a nomination, I don’t see why this gorgeous little track should have been left off the list.
But I’m not a member of the academy, so there’s nothing I can do about their nominations. I can, however, tell you what it is about Giacchino’s music that makes it so effective.
Oh, and I can also promise that no Fifty Shades-related songs will ever be featured in this space.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The time is flexible.
2. The orchestration is big, but not overdone.
3. The melody often hangs on the seventh of the scale, giving it a dreamy and unresolved feeling. The melody in Up did the same thing. This is the perfect complement to the plot of the film, which is largely happy, but doesn’t shy away from the importance of sadness, or the unpredictability of life.
Recommended listening activity:
Making a list of people you’d like to thank.