Music of The Nines
Alex Wurman, the composer for The Nines (as well as many other great scores, including March of the Penguins and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) has posted five tracks from the movie on his website.
Of them, “Cold Turkey” is probably the most interesting without a visual to go with it. The “Knowing Theme” is notable because of a unique logistical problem: it plays on-camera, so Alex had to write this primary melody for the movie months before we started shooting.
Will there be a soundtrack album? Quite possibly. In addition to Alex’s score, the songs are pretty great. Julianne Jordan was our music supervisor. (She also did the soundtrack to Go.)
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February 1st, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I’m listening to the music as I type this, it’s very beautiful. I haven’t read much of the script you posted yet but the music really creates an interesting atmosphere. Sort of a sad happyness if there is such a thing.
The feeling reminds me a bit of Thomas Newman’s American Beauty soundtrack.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Happyness^^^
Do you see what rich homeless people are doing to the way we talk?
The music is great.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:06 am
The Opening track reminds me of Blood Simple and Donnie Darko.
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:07 am
Jacob, English is not my native language. I was actually unsure of the spelling yesterday, so I googled “happyness” and found “The Pursuit of Happyness” and figured that it was the correct spelling.
I guess my perfect plan of using google as a spell-checker doesn’t work as well when clever writers misspell titles on purpose! =)
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 am
Great music – movie music is always fascinating.
The Go soundtrack was really good – I look forward to checking out the soundtrack for The Nines.
By the way, the links to the songs don’t quite work – that is, it doesn’t take people directly to the songs.
These should work… Cold Turkey: http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/pages/thenines5.html Knowing Theme: http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/pages/thenines3.html
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:48 am
Weirdly, “sad happy” was one of the terms I used to describe what I was looking for from the music.
And if you listen carefully, you’ll recognize the Knowing theme quoted in the opening.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:05 pm
John, the word you are looking for is Diegetic. This means the music is coming from a source on camera.
Diegetic. It’s a $5 word.
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:07 am
The track “In the House” reminded me distinctly of the soundtrack from “Waking Life”. It has an airy, almost mischievous quality about it. I very much like the choice of a simple piano based soundtrack.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Adam (#7): I know diagetic. I rewrote the “diagetic” entry in the wiki.
But diagetic doesn’t accurately describe the situation here. A song could be diagetic without having to be specifically composed in advance. (e.g. An actor could whistle an improvised melody.)
This required a lot of advance planning, because because not only does the song appear on camera, but Ryan Reynolds had to learn to play piano. He’s seen composing the song in the movie.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:33 am
What is The song in the the nine min clip shown at ifilm?
August 17th, 2007 at 10:31 am
What’s the song played in the trailer… around 1:18?
that part is incredible!
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
i second what Alaska asked. who is the band playing in the trailer around the 1:18 mark?
August 28th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Yea can anyone tell me what the name of the song in the trailer around 1:18 is called?
October 10th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Hi, I am a student at USC and I saw “The Nines” in the Film Symposium class you came to talk to. Are there any updates on whether or not a soundtrack will be available? If not, are the songs available on iTunes and if so, where can we find the song titles?
January 19th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
hello, just wanted to add my congrads, as t’was an awesome film, truely. The music ‘knowing’ particularly caught my attention and after some search i was wondering if any sheet music will be avaliable in any form?? thank you, god bless
January 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Who is singing close to the end of the film? When he is about to say good-bye to his realm. “I won’t run to far….I can always be found…..If you need me….I can always be found”. I love the movie. This one’s at my top 10. Thanx
January 26th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
The tracks that don’t work on Alex Wurman’s website are downloadable, ehm listable through:
http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/pages/the_nines1.html
http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/media/19thenines/2tothe_house.mp3
http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/media/19thenines/4hesnotcoming_back.mp3
http://www.alexwurman.com/Music%20Clips/media/19thenines/5coldturkey.mp3
the source html page code doesn’t always seem to load properly. Enjoy. What’s very weird though is that those very beautiful tracks don’t appear on the original soundtrack CD. To me it seems obvious that they determine the ‘feel’ of the movie more than some hip tracks that are featured now on the CD.
cheers, Tj.
February 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I loved the movie and its music!! I truly hope that you will release the soundtrack with ALL songs in the movie. Meanwhile, could you share the list of music? Thanks, MD
February 5th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hey, are there going to be any sheet music available from the movie? The music was fantastic and fit the well crafted story perfectly.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:44 am
The Nines is probably one of the best movies I’ve ever seen! Thank you for making this movie! Seriously! :D Anyway, I was wondering if there’s any way I could get hold of the sheet music for “Opening” by Alex Wurman! I would love to play that on my piano! :D Thanks for the great movie once again. :)
March 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
on ur website you should make the nines song downloadable to itunes because they dont have any song on itunes and ive been lookin all over to get it or make it downloadable on myspace
March 24th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
TJ (17), maybe I’m just technologically illiterate, but I can’t figure out how to download the tracks on Alex’s website. I’m a dancer, and would love to use some of the score for a dance piece, so I would like to have it downloaded. Any tips?
March 25th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hi, does anyone know the name of the haunting piano tune after snow patrol during the finat credits?
April 11th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
John August, you’re a genius. It has been quite some time since a movie has puzzled me the way yours has, thank you.
Enough of the fan boy jammer and onto the music;
I especially like the ‘Knowing theme’, it’s just so… Nostalgic and wondrous. I don’t however agree with the “sad happiness” comment, I think the most powerful voice in this piece is the deja-vu aspect; it’s unpredictable, yet in a way expected and very, very beautiful.
It’s a shame Alex Wurmen isn’t more of a household name, sadly until this film I hadn’t known he’d even existed. Perhaps it’s ignorant of me to say such a thing, though now I see he’s a wonderful, wonderful composer. Will he be producing single sheets or perhaps a book in the future? Rest assured I’d be the first to order it. The ‘Knowing theme’ is just so brilliantly organized, such an odd progression and even more strange key changes in it – it just captures the essence of the film so well. The call and answer in the opening theme is brilliant, well done.
Also. +10 for having Ryan Reynolds, he’s a brilliant actor and definitely my favourtie (had to throw in the Canadian patriotism, do forgive). He’s given such a wonderful performance in this one, a far branch off from his previous works – I think this film also gave him an amazing opportunity to prove that he’s a good actor, and like I hoped, he answered it beautifully. Watching it over and over, I can’t imagine any other actor in the film. Well done. :)
April 16th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Awe-inspiring, beautiful music!
Watched the film and was captivated visually, mentally and auditory!
I’m over-whelmed now just thinking about it!
Well done!!