Dario Marianelli 'Atonement' - short analysis

For this blog entry, I would like to share with you my brief analysis of Dario Marianelli's score for the 2007 film 'Atonement', for which he won the OSCAR for Best Original Soundtrack that year.
The score is quite remarkable in my opinion, not only because it has won the OSCAR or because it is wonderfully composed around, and an integral part of, the film but rather because of the efficiency of the musical material.

The score consists of 3 basic themes, which I will call BRIONY, ROBBIE AND CECILIA and WAR. There is only one music cue in the whole film that doesn't use any of the three themes (this being a short rendition of 'Claire de Lune' by Claude Debussy), as can be seen at the cue sheet I created:

Out of the three themes it is quite notable that BRIONY is used the most with making up more than 50% of the overall score. This is, however, not surprising as she is the lead character of the film and whose point of view we follow. ROBBIE AND CECILIA is essentially representing the love between these two characters, followed by WAR, which is depicting the hopelessness and horrors of the Second World War.

Fig. 1 BRIONY

There are several characteristics of BRIONY (Fig. 1): the inventive use of a typewriter as a percussive instrument (appropriate as the character is a writer herself), also the cascading broken chords in the accompaniment (possibly to emphasise her youthful naivety) and finally, the melody itself. At this point I would like to redirect anyone reading this to Brian Morrell's fantastic analysis of said motive in his free online book: How Film and TV Music Communicate Vol.1 . The theme appears whenever Briony is seen on screen, pretty much like a classic leitmotif.

Fig.2, ROBBIE AND CECILIA

The melody of ROBBIE AND CECILIA (Fig.2) is often played by a solo instrument (clarinet, oboe, harmonica), possibly to signify their loneliness in being apart from each other. And indeed, the solo harmonica accompanies Robbie whenever we see him in the war, it is sometimes even played without any accompaniment at all. The only time we hear the theme fully fleshed out is when Robbie and Cecilia say goodbye to each in London, this is the only time both characters are on screen during the theme and therefore it is unsurprising, that it appears at its strongest orchestrally.

Fig. 3 WAR

WAR (Fig. 3) is a chord progression that, in my opinion, manages to capture the horrors but also desperation of war. It is usually played during scenes of death and hopeless situations. It also appears at the end when the story of Robbie and Cecilia is revealed. Its B minor tonality and slow tempo contribute to the sad feeling as well as the orchestration for strings with solos for cello and violin.

These three themes are basically what the whole score consist of. I find it fascinating that a 2 hour film can be scored with as little as three contrasting musical ideas, given that they work and are also masterfully implemented. I hope that you found this entry informative, thank you for reading.

-PW