Requiem for a Dream is the soundtrack album from the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream. It was composed by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet. The music for the film is noted for its minimalist qualities in which it uses constant harmonies, a steady pulse, and often variation of musical phrases to drive a point. The album is best known for the track "Lux Aeterna".
Background
With the success of the film also came a successful soundtrack. Composer of the soundtrack Clint Mansell has worked very closely with Darren Aronofsky throughout his movie career. Mansell also has worked on Aronofsky's first film π. Both Pi and Requiem for a Dream are noted for their off notes and range of tenebrous emotions. In the opening credits before the title of the movie appears, the quartet can be heard tuning their instruments, before a conductor is heard tapping on the music stand to ready the quartet for a performance. Aronofsky and Mansell both grew up listening to Hip hop which they based a lot of their decision making on that type of music. Mansell took a classic hiphop record and reworked it with the score.[1] Aronofsky saw Requiem as a "monster movie, only when something goes bad you hear the music."[2]
The Kronos Quartet is the string quartet that performed the soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream. The quartet was founded in 1973 by David Harrington in Seattle. The members were David Harrington and John Sherba, violins; Hank Dutt, viola; and Joan Jeanrenaud, cello. The group was chosen for its minimalist approach.
Reviews have generally been very favorable. Allmusic gave the album four stars, saying that the score "manages to be appropriately dark and disturbing, as well as compulsively listenable";[11]Salon praised the "terrific musical score";[12] and The Observer of the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College called the score "heart-stopping".[13]Filmcritic.com, in a negative review of the score, spoke of "the driving, thumping, angry, brutal violin score which drums like a hammer and chain beating you into submission."[14]
Inspirations
The novel Requiem for a Dream was written by Hubert Selby Jr. who was inspired to write it when he lived in LA. He wanted to write about something in the real world rather than something from the fantasy genre. One of the main influences of his work was his life experiences. Hubert's life was very unfortunate; at the age of 18, he was a merchant seaman during World War II. During that time he was hospitalized for three years for treatment of tuberculosis and other illnesses or injuries he acquired.
Six months before Hubert wrote Requiem for a Dream, he was sick with pneumonia, going in and out of comas. His wife was worried about his health but he refused to go to a hospital. One night, his wife woke up from a dream about two spirits that had opened the door in their room; she says that she could tell that they were male and female. The two spirits told her that if Hubert did not get medical attention, he might die. She eventually called a friend, who happened to be a respiratory therapist. She told him about all the things that have been happening with Hubert and he scolded him about his health and told her to take him to the hospital.[15]
Composer
Clint Mansell, the composer of this soundtrack, is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself (1996). Aronofsky, the director of the film, hired him to score his film Pi. He scored Requiem for a Dream in 2000, and all of Aronofsky's films since.
