Young Woman and the Sea (Original Score) is the soundtrack album to the 2024 film Young Woman and the Sea directed by Joachim Rønning for Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Based on the eponymous 2009 novel by Glenn Stout, the film stars Daisy Ridley as Gertrude Ederle, an American competitive swimmer who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. The original score was composed by Amelia Warner and released by Walt Disney Records on May 31, 2024.
Contents
Background
In January 2023, it was announced that Amelia Warner would compose the musical score for Young Woman and the Sea. Warner re-watched some of her favorite sports films, including Chariots of Fire (1981), A League of Their Own (1992), Rudy (1993), and Remember the Titans (2000) to find influences for composing the score.
Warner was tasked to provide a main theme for Trudy to represent her personality and to sound "both sorrowful and also triumphant". She had to showcase numerous facets of Trudy, while also needed to feel intimate and heroic, which felt it more challenging. One of the important aspects on composing the score was to find a particular theme which would work either on a piano, cello or an orchestra, which connects Trudy's relationship with her family, which should be personal and emotional. Another theme, "Free Spirit", was created to represent Trudy's playful, eccentric and unconventional side, as Trudy was different from the other girls, and the theme was composed in that manner, which represented her childlike nature. Warner composed the sports theme "The Race" which used for her swimming sections, and would represent her athletic side, resulting in a "bombastic, bold" theme; while the particular cue emphasized on percussions, Warner made use of the electric cello and percussion instruments when scoring the swimming scenes in order to cut through the white noise from splashing.
Despite the 1920s setting, Warner decided to use more modern and electronic elements, so that it should represent her power and strength. The utilization of electric cello was to provide an "electronic pulse that made things feel a bit more exciting". Warner further emphasized on using synthesizers as it was an important part in the score, and layering those instruments had been a big part while composing. Warner admitted that the use of modern elements in the score increased the particular energy viscerally in those racing sequences and montages. The film's epilogue, featuring archive footage of Trudy, features a slowed-down theme with piano and choir.
The score was recorded over eight days at AIR Studios, London; Warner preferred as her first choice to record the score, as its atmosphere had preferred her to record an orchestral and contemporary musical. She made use of the studio's adjustable canopy to decrease the hall reverb when desired. Lorne Balfe further produced the score with Warner.
Release
The score was released under the Walt Disney Records label on May 31, 2024, the same day as the film.
Reception
Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "A soaring, string-heavy score composed by Amelia Warner assumes the role of emotional supervisor early on, calibrating our mood to triumph and tragedy."
Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood described the score as "sweeping", whereas Derek Smith of Slant Magazine called it as "syrupy, relentlessly rousing". Calling it as a "triumphal score", Katie Walsh of Los Angeles Times added that there is a hint of "Pirates of the Caribbean-style jauntiness to the powerful orchestration that adds to the sense of melodrama at play". Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant wrote "The score by Amelia Warner is also fantastic, underscoring every heartbreak and triumph in Trudy's life." William Bibbiani of TheWrap described the score as "glorious sweep".
Accolades
The score was shortlisted as one among the 15 contenders for the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 97th Academy Awards, but was not selected in the final nominations. It was nominated for the Public Choice award at the World Soundtrack Awards 2024.
Personnel
Music composer: Amelia Warner
Music producers: Amelia Warner, Lorne Balfe
Arranger, score co-producer: Sam Thompson
Music co-ordination: Hilary Skewes
Recorded at: AIR Lyndhurst Hall, London
Mixed at: Air-Edel Studios, London
Studio manager: Alison Burton
Recording and mix engineer: Nick Taylor
Assistant engineers: Rebecca Hordern, Jedidiah Rimell
Supervising music editor: Timeri Duplat
Music editor: Al Green
Temp music editors: Yann McCullough, Allegra DeSouza
Pro-tools recordist: Jack Mills
Pro-tools operator: Olly Thompson
Technical assistants: Alastair McNamara, Cora Miron, Anna Stokes
Orchestrator: Anthony Weeden
Assistant orchestrators: Sam Jones, Jonathan Weeden, Stuart Macrae, Jon Sims
Conductor: Robert Ziegler
Copyist: Colin Rae
Additional orchestra contractor: Sophie Procter