La La Land – the music
While Rio was throbbing with Carnival (and our Beatles Choir was experimenting with singing Bach like the Swingle Singers!) lovers of cinema were lapping up all the pre-Oscar releases. A rich time for movies, and among them was one which reminds us of gentler times…
The film
La La Land was released in December 2016 in the USA, and in Brazil a bit later. It quickly gathered critical acclaim, culminating in March 2017 in 14 Oscar nominations, and 6 awards – best actress Emma Stone, best director Damien Chazelle, best original score Justin Hurwitz, best original song City of Stars, best cinematography, and best production design. Not bad for a “Musical” – a form of cinema which turns many people off just by the name. They don’t like those artificial stories where the actors suddenly sing in the most unlikely situations!
Is this the peak of the career of an experienced director? Well one hopes not, because director Damien Chazelle is just 32, and previously had one big film success to his name – Whiplash, a story of a young drummer aspiring to the college jazz band, being driven to higher and higher achievement by an implacable music director. This is almost autobiographical, because Damien went through this experience himself – and is quoted today as saying you don’t know what you’re capable of until someone really makes demands on you…
The composer of the score for La La Land is Justin Hurwitz, a contemporary of Chazelle’s at Harvard, where they played together in a band and collaborated in a film which became Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. So this is their third film together.
Without going into details, the film tells the story of an aspiring actress and a young pianist who wants to have his own jazz club: they are drawn to one another, but also want to succeed in their individual careers. A modern dilemma, set in the glitzy, sometimes cruel showbizzy Los Angeles (the LA of the title).
I was absolutely charmed by it – but then I like good songs and jazz, so it was right up my street!
The music
If you listen just to the soundtrack, it quickly becomes clear this is a mix of high-class performances in different musical genres, with some very interesting tunes.
The opening sequence is Another Day of Sun – an up-tempo number, with a tremendous rhythmic drive, moving from solos to chorus and back again…set in the middle of a huge traffic jam, while the choreography is quite something. The second song Someone in the crowd – while the four girls get ready to go partying – is more in the conventional musical style, fast brilliant dancing, building to a big climax.
A piano alone is sufficient to introduce Mia and Sebastien’s theme. A little rising and falling phrase, repeated slightly differently, then an answering one… then repeated higher up, when the answering phrase becomes more elaborate. When it returns lower, the tempo picks up, the dissonances come in with increasing frustration, until it finally explodes with runs up and down the piano. Actor Ryan Gosling honed his piano skills for 3 months and then could be filmed really playing it – quite an achievement.
A Lovely Night for Emma Stone and Ryan is set on a roadside overlooking Los Angeles, with distinctly non-romantic words “We’ve stumbled on a view, that’s tailor-made for two, what a shame those two are you and me….” And while amid expressions of disinterest they begin to dance together, the music picks up pace, has very interesting orchestration and develops into an up-tempo tap dance (some time since we’ve seen that!)
Interspersed between the next songs is some very fine small-group jazz – pieces called Summer Montage and Herman’s Habit.
The duet City of Stars starts with a rocking figure in the left hand, and the melody rises and falls over it like a boat riding the waves “City of stars, there’s some much that I can’t see… yes, all we’re looking for is love, from someone else… then the pulse changes to a steady rock “A look in somebody’s eyes, to light up the skies, to open the world and send it reeling, A voice that says I’ll be here and you’ll be all right…” and the music then fades showing the uncertainty of ever finding that – “..are you shining just for me?”.
In the film, Sebastian is the first to take a step forward in his career, playing with a jazz-rock group led by the real John Legend (though that is probably not the best description of his sort of music). Start a Fire is a terrific swingy number, very well sung and played.
And when Mia finally gets a real audition, she sings The Fools who Dream, which is a lovely song – my favourite. “Here’s to the ones who dream” has big jumps up on the and dream which is repeated through several phrases, and then contrasted with a middle section in a narrow range. It sounds so natural and attractive you wonder why no-one had written it before!
The Epilogue shows great skills in orchestration from Justin Hurwitz, enhanced by an outstanding trumpet player.
So does this film and its music merit such attention? My bet is that songs from this film are going straight to the repertoire which everyone loves, with multiple covers by different artists, and that the story will have follow-up stage productions. The combination of a contemporary theme, a romantic story and great music makes it very attractive.
How Chazelle and Hurwitz are going to follow that with another success is something we shall have to wait and see…
If you haven’t done so, hurry to go and see the film, and Good Listening!