Off the Beaten Path: Composers Delve Into Unusual, Even Wacky, Instruments and Techniques for Awards-Worthy Scores

The race for an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Score category is showcasing a year marked by highly unconventional creative approaches. Composers are crafting unique sonic landscapes through techniques as varied as collaborative vocal exercises, the use of enormous resonant metal, and scoring films long before shooting even begins.

For the period piece "Hedda," Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir employed a deeply immersive method. Drawing from her theatrical roots, she conducted a recording session with the entire film crew, guiding them through collective breathing and vocalizations to generate organic sound layers. These were later combined with percussion work from artists like Joey Baron. Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed the critically acclaimed "Candyman" reboot, sought a score that was dynamically "engaging," a goal met through this physical, human-centered sound design that connects to avant-garde traditions.

Daniel Blumberg, the current Oscar holder for "The Brutalist," tackled the historical subject of "The Testament of Ann Lee" by mirroring the Shaker sect's radicalism in sound. His innovative instrumentation centered on thirty large brass bell plates, which produce a foundational drone. He augmented this with a viol quartet, various bells, and the gritty sound of an unplugged electric guitar—inspired by a replica from a Shaker historical village. This fusion avoids simple period pastiche, instead evoking the sect's disruptive essence. The Shakers, formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, were a 18th-century religious group famous for ecstatic worship, communal living, and a distinctive musical repertoire of lively hymns and dances, making Blumberg's experimental approach a fitting tribute to their innovative spirit.

Max Richter's goal for "Hamnet," a story set in Shakespearean times, was to evoke the era's feeling without historical cliché. He recorded period-accurate instruments like the viol and nyckelharpa but then digitally processed them into abstract textures. Richter, whose seminal sleep composition "From Sleep" has been streamed billions of times, notes that "a big part of the film is about the beyond," leading him to compose impressionistic choral pieces for women's voices to underscore themes of maternal grief. Much of this score was written in pre-production, allowing its blend of acoustic, vocal, and electronic elements to fundamentally influence the film's atmospheric development from the very start.

Perhaps the most abstract assignment went to Jerskin Fendrix for Yorgos Lanthimos's "Bugonia." Provided only three cryptic keywords—bees, basement, spaceship—and no script, Fendrix embarked on months of esoteric research. Lanthimos's instruction to write for a large orchestra granted immense freedom, leading to a collaboration with the 90-piece London Contemporary Orchestra. The resulting score traverses from delicate intimacy to overwhelming grandeur, highlighting a trend where composers are now essential conceptual partners from a project's most formative, undefined phase.

Even within major studio tentpoles, inventive scoring is finding a welcome. For Marvel's "Fantastic Four: First Steps," veteran composer Michael Giacchino took a creative risk. After composing the heroic main theme for the film's announcement, he later conducted a 101-piece orchestra and 100-voice choir in London. In a spontaneous moment, he directed the choir to sing the words "Fantastic Four," a playful homage to 1960s cartoon title sequences. "I was terrified to show Marvel," Giacchino admits, but the studio enthusiastically embraced the idea. The full score also features Latin chants for the cosmic entity Galactus and an invented alien language for the Silver Surfer. This demonstrates a growing appetite within blockbuster filmmaking for distinctive, character-driven musical identities, suggesting that compositional innovation is no longer confined to independent cinema. As one industry insider noted, "A memorable theme can now be as vital to a franchise's identity as its visual effects, creating an auditory hook that resonates with audiences for decades."