One week on... The Shape of Water

How can music translate the idea of a natural element such as water? One Claude Debussy already tackled the subject, but Alexandre Desplat chose a different esthetics from the one of his elder—even if, just like with Debussy, the timbers are at the heart of Desplat’s idea. For this fantastic tale from Guillermo Del Toro, which tells the love story between a young mute girl, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), and an amphibian creature (Doug Jones), Desplat incorporated no less than twelve flutes to the legendary London Symphony Orchestra—alto flutes, bass flutes, transverse flutes. The partition integrates very few brass instruments, and it is the string and wood instruments that suggest the undulation and water’s fluidity. To this is added the delicacy of instruments such as the piano, the harp and the vibraphone, which reinforce this idea.

From this uncommon orchestral canvas, Alexandre Desplat joins different themes and moods. Therefore, the title sequence is a solo whistling (performed by the composer himself), which represents the young heroine’s “voice”. As for the bandoneon (which symbolizes the creature), it accentuates the oneiric aspect of the pictures thanks to its sensuality and softness. Those two instruments graciously evolve together, just like the two movie protagonists, atypical heroes who dream of being the stars of a Hollywood musical. Because beyond this incongruous script premise, The Shape of Water most of all pays homage to cinema—mostly to classic American movies. Throughout the soundtrack, you will continuously find this feeling of nostalgia, especially in the choice to highlight the South-American percussion (bongos, congas…), evoking so many movies from the 1950s and 1960s (remember Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Welles and composed by Henry Mancini).

For the end credits, and just like the movie’s subject, Alexandre Desplat plays the crossover card by calling upon soprano Renée Fleming to perform a brand new arrangement of the jazz classic from the 1940s You’ll Never Know. Finally, let’s note that with The Shape of Water , Alexandre Desplat won his second Academy Award, three years after his first one for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Listen to The Shape Of Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) By Alexandre Desplat

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