la la land soundtrack another day of sun

John Williams’s score for Star Wars marks an excellent example of cinematic leitmotif, where he attaches musical themes to specific characters and moments in the film, themes that are repeated and repurposed throughout the series. Introduced by German composer Richard Wagner in his epic music dramas of the late 1800s, leitmotif took off in opera and quickly spread to the nascent world of film. Zooming out, the two arcs of La La Land’s plot - love and ambition - are given their own musical interplay in “City of Stars” through a technique called leitmotif, in which certain dramatic themes are given a kind of sonic signature. “City of Stars” unites La La Land’s central themes through the use of leitmotif Lyrically, it’s an optimistic sentiment to end on, but Hurwitz, Pasek, and Paul use a clever structural feint to undercut the song’s hopeful ending, truncating the section before its natural resolution - a musical foreshadowing of what awaits Mia and Sebastian’s relationship. The final A section returns to the uncertain, minor-key piano accompaniment and then surprises with an abrupt ending, halfway through the expected 16 bars, on the line, “City of stars / You never shined so brightly.” This neat asymmetrical form, where each section of a song is exactly the same length, dominated musicals of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, scaffolding scores of songs from “Over the Rainbow” to “Singing in the Rain.” This central question - of whether head-over-heels romance can be reconciled with the individualistic drive needed to succeed in Hollywood - runs through the lyrics of “City of Stars.”Ĭomposed by Justin Hurwitz, with words by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, “City of Stars” employs a standby form from the golden age of movie musicals: the 32-bar, or AABA, song form. La La Land’s narrative hinges on whether its lovestruck Angelenos will choose each other over their respective ambitions. Sung as a duet by the film’s leads, jazz pianist Sebastian ( Ryan Gosling) and aspiring actress Mia ( Emma Stone), “City of Stars” appears about halfway through the film and serves to establish the bond between the film’s protagonists. “City of Stars” reflects La La Land’s narrative through a classic lyrical arc This carefully constructed musical number collapses La La Land’s entire plot into a two-and-a-half-minute duet by using techniques borrowed equally from old Hollywood and Romantic opera. But “City of Stars” has become La La Land’s de facto theme song because it’s the song most central to the film’s overarching ideas it’s the movie in microcosm.

“City of Stars” may not be La La Land’s catchiest or most exuberant number, and the other La La Land song nominated for an Oscar, “Audition (Fools Who Dream), ” is arguably more emotionally moving. La La Land, which lost Best Picture in a surprise upset, is surprisingly contentious for a frothy musical

La la land soundtrack another day of sun