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Bear McCreary's The Boy
25-Jan-2016 -

Lakeshore Records has released The Boy - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on January 22nd and it will be released on CD February 19, 2016. The album features the film’s original score by Bear McCreary (THE WALKING DEAD, OUTLANDER) with the original song “In My Dream,” written and produced by Brendan McCreary (DEFIANCE, the band Young Beautiful In A Hurry), and performed by Fyfe Monroe.

THE BOY is a new psychological thriller from Lakeshore and STX Entertainment, directed by William Brent Bell, starring Lauren Cohan. Greta (Cohan) is a young American woman who takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village, only to discover that the family's 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that the parents care for just like a real boy, as a way to cope with the death of their actual son 20 years prior. After violating a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring Greta's worst nightmare to life, leading her to believe that the doll is actually alive.



“The film’s success comes from the audience following Greta on her journey of discovery. She begins skeptical that Brahms [the boy] is alive, as any sensible person would be,” said McCreary. “This was the character arc I wanted to highlight with the score: Greta’s growing relationship with Brahms, and her transformation from skeptic to believer. I knew that if this character arc works, the film works.”

McCreary began by creating musical themes for each of these characters. Greta’s theme, melodic, introspective and brooding, sets the mood in the film’s opening. “The solo piano and large orchestral strings create a gothic mood, evoking the old English countryside home that serves as the film’s setting,” he described. “And yet, the simple waltz melody also suggests that Greta has an inner vulnerability, perhaps even a secret. The whole sequence is beautifully shot and edited, and the score helps draw the audience into the world of the film, before even a line of dialog is uttered.”

The theme McCreary created for Brahms was inspired by Johannes Brahms’ Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht – popularly known as Brahms’ Lullaby. “This melody makes a couple brief cameos in the film itself, with Greta tinkering on the harpsichord,” he said. He also incorporated the melody into Brahms’ theme. McCreary believed that finding the right sound for Brahms’ theme was critical.
“I sampled an antique music box, a gift from an old friend, for a frail, plunky sound. I then layered in detuned pianos, autoharps, dulcimers, ethnic bells, celeste, glockenspiel and harp, panning them around the mix. The creaky, off-kilter music box sound was the result of hours of tinkering with live instruments and samples, ironically the most time-consuming aspect of the score.”

The download and the CD are available from Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon France and Amazon Germany.

 

 



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