Composer Carter Burwell Taps Into Darkly Human Sound With Oscar-Shortlisted Score For ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’ – Hear An Exclusive Track
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Deadline has the first exclusive track from Carter Burwell’s Oscar-shortlisted score for The Tragedy of Macbeth, which is set for release tomorrow via Milan Records, as the film from director Joel Coen premieres globally on Apple TV+.Coen’s take on William Shakespeare’s classic 17th century play Macbeth watches as Denzel Washington’s Scottish lord is convinced by a trio of witches that he will become the next King of Scotland, subsequently conspiring to seize power with the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand).It’s the latest project to emerge from a career-spanning partnership between Burwell and Coen, dating back to 1984, which has seen the former score almost all of the latter’s films including Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men and True Grit.Burwell’s score for The Tragedy of Macbeth juxtaposes string-heavy instrumentation with onscreen dialogue performed throughout the film, with vocal contributions by Washington, McDormand and more featuring on nearly half of the album’s 13 tracks.Heading into the Shakespeare adaptation, Burwell was wary of making the obvious choices—making sure not to “let the witches run the show,” make Lady Macbeth “a bully” or cast Macbeth as “a blood-thirsty madman.“The way Joel Coen adapted the play, and the way the actors played it, the Macbeths are human and supportive of each other.
Loving even. And culpable,” says the composer. “But the music also plays the film as a thriller. A murder sets a mechanism in motion that will unwind with greater pace and greater stakes until the end.”Of the utmost importance in crafting his score was making sure to support Shakespeare’s dialogue, rather than trampling over it. “In any adaptation of
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