Harriet (soundtrack)

Harriet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Terence Blanchard
Released	November 1, 2019
Recorded	2019
Studio	The Village, Los Angeles Reservoir Studios, New York City Whole Team Winnin' Studios, New York City Ocean Way Recording Studios, Nashville
Genre	Film score
Length	67:12
Label	Back Lot Music
Producer	Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard chronology
BlacKkKlansman (2018) Harriet (2019) Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Singles from Harriet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
"Stand Up" Released: October 25, 2019

Harriet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2019 film Harriet directed by Kasi Lemmons starring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn and Janelle Monáe. The film score is composed by Terence Blanchard and released through Back Lot Music on November 1, 2019. The song "Stand Up", performed by Erivo, was released as a single a week prior, and received Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe nominations.

Terence Blanchard composed the film score in his fourth collaboration with Lemmons after Eve's Bayou (1997), The Caveman's Valentine (2001) and Talk to Me (2007).^[1][2] He considered the project he had to work on as Harriet Tubman "was a heroine, and this is one of the few times where we're seeing an action hero female that's not fiction. This is a real person" which led to being attracted towards the film. During their early discussion with Lemmons, Blanchard wanted an orchestra for the "big, sweeping moments" and denied finding instruments that are historically appropriate.^[3]

While writing the themes, he wanted the melody to ascend at the beginning as it was supposed to be uplifting, and Blanchard wanted to find harmony which had powerful vocals and did multiple variations as it sounded masculine at a major key, and being dark while trying at a minor key, which Blanchard denied as "it needs to pick people's spirits up, because that's what this woman did".^[3] Blanchard wrote themes at piano, playing melodies and harmonies, while also created rhythmic palettes which was not used in a film as it was inappropriate. One of the themes had him use his voice to create a rhythmic voice but denied as it was a male voice and did not work.^[4]

Blanchard used a full orchestra while also playing African percussion in the chase sequences and created drum loops by layering 6–7 drum parts. He collaborated with The E-Collective's jazz pianist Fabian Almazan, who played piano with effects for Harriet's visions, suggested by Lemmons who wanted a musical element over sound design, which worked well in the film.^[1] The tuning of piano with effects in Almazan's computer gave an electronic feel for the score. Blanchard used several percussions ranging from djembes, doumbeks, congas, toms and other ethnic percussion. Much of the instruments were arranged through the vocals, where much of the sounds came from the brass and strings. In order to avoid overpowering, Blanchard doubled the lower brass with lower strings and utilized French horns to create a haunting effect as it had a distant sound, while bringing trumpets for dramatic portions.^[3]

For the scenes that build tensions, Blanchard considered it as the superhero part using the themes they decided for Harriet, as they were "not heavy action music, but music with motion". Blanchard noted the shootout scene which progress towards the action music, and until that sequence, a lot of melodic themes followed. The score accompanied numerous emotional colors, ranging from tragedy and melancholy to beauty and hope, with several aspects ranging from harmony, rhythm, sound and color stemmed during the initial discussions with Lemmons, noted "it's a balancing act between the orchestrations, and the articulations that you write for them, and the dynamics that you write for them".^[3]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote "the score of "Harriet," written by the jazz composer Terence Blanchard, has a surprisingly standard Jerry Goldsmith-meets-Aaron-Copland blandness that keeps getting in the way of what we're watching."^[5] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Terence Blanchard's lush score swells into soaring uplift mode over a rain-soaked field, aggressively signaling emotional cues before we've encountered a single character."^[6] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post called it "a characteristically gorgeous musical score".^[7]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a "celestial score".^[8] Charlotte O'Sullivan of London Evening Standard wrote "Terence Blanchard's score, too, is painfully unsubtle."^[9] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph called it an "ever-swelling score".^[10] Mark Jenkins of NPR considered Blanchard's score "as earnest and conventional as the movie".^[11] Eric Kohn of IndieWire described it as a "euphoric score".^[12]

Allan Hunter of Screen International wrote "Terence Blanchard's heavy-handed score doesn't do the film many favours as it constantly pushes scenes towards emotional uplift or emphatically underlines impending danger."^[13] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent wrote "Terence Blanchard's score feels like it was ripped from this era, too. It often intrudes on the drama, announcing every single one of Tubman's heroic acts with the swell of an orchestra."^[14] Monica Castillo of TheWrap for "Terence Blanchard's score often hijacks scenes' emotions by wringing every possible note of sentimentality."^[15]

Credits adapted from liner notes:^[16]