How To Train Your Dragon 3 Music
Mireille Kreines
How to Train Your Dragon: Music from the Motion Picture is a soundtrack album composed by John Powell for the film of the same name and released by Varse Sarabande on March 23, 2010. The score earned Powell his first Academy Award nomination and his third BAFTA nomination, which he lost to The Social Network and The King's Speech, respectively. The score also won the International Film Music Critics Association 2011 Awards for Best Original Score for an Animated Feature and Film Score of the Year, and was nominated twice for Film Music Composition of the Year for the tracks "Forbidden Friendship" and "Test Drive".[1][2] The soundtrack received wide acclaim from professional music critics.
How to Train Your Dragon was composer John Powell's sixth collaboration with DreamWorks Animation.[4] Powell had scored many of DreamWorks' previous films, but this was the first of DreamWorks' films where Powell helmed the score on his own (on his previous efforts with DreamWorks, he had collaborated with other composers such as Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer). Zimmer had long praised Powell's abilities, and on many occasions, asserted that he was the superior composer between them, thus firmly supporting Powell's solo animation effort.[5]
Icelandic singer Jnsi was brought on to write and record the song "Sticks & Stones", which plays during the end credits of the film. Director Dean DeBlois had previously worked with Jnsi before, directing a concert film for his band Sigur Rs entitled Heima, and a companion film for his album Go entitled Go Quiet.
"I was certainly trying to get a bit more epic. I just felt the animation and the visuals were giving me a broader palette to play with. As a kid I remember watching The Vikings with Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas, and I always liked that score.
[The directors] were really very specific a lot of the time. They did want size and depth and emotion. They wanted a feeling of the Nordic musical past. You could say the symphonic musical past was Nielsen, the Danish symphonist. Sibelius. Grieg to a certain extent, although I think he was a little bit more Germanic than he was Nordic.
We looked at all the folk music from the Nordic areas. And I'm part Scottish and grew up with a lot of Scottish folk music, so that came into it a lot. And Celtic music was something that Jeffrey [Katzenberg] felt had this very attractive quality to it, and a sweetness, that he thought would be wonderful for the film."[6]
The instrumentation of the score includes 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 12 French horns, 4 trumpets, 6 trombones, tuba, timpani, 8 percussionists, 2 harps, piano doubling celeste, SATB choir, and a string section of 30 violins, 12 violas, 10 celli and 8 double basses. Woodwind players also double on piccolo, english horn, bass and contrabass clarinets, and contrabassoon.[8] Other instruments used include the sopilka and Irish flute, hammered dulcimer, gadulka, esraj, yaylı tambur, hurdy-gurdy, accordion, harmonium, Hardanger fiddle, acoustic and electric guitar, and the aforementioned fiddle, bagpipes, uilleann pipes, warpipes and pennywhistle.[8]
The score calls for over 30 percussion instruments. Drums include 5 snare drums of various types, 4 bass drums, 2 goblet drums, 2 surdos, a "small low drum", repinique, a dhol, various brekete, and concert tom-toms; pitched instruments include a glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes, crotales, marimba, bass marimba, 3 slate marimbas, and 2 glass marimbas. Other percussion used include various cymbals, 4 gongs, an anvil, 2 sleigh bells, tambourine, mark tree, triangle, 2 shakers, garbage cans, and a pot.[8]
Powell states that he "presents almost all his themes within the first five minutes of the film".[4] "Hiccup's Theme" is introduced immediately in the film version of "This is Berk", played by brass; this theme is often accompanied by an eighth note ostinato (Toothless' Theme), for example shortly into "Test Drive".[9] "The Vikings Theme" is introduced shortly thereafter, played by a solo bassoon, after which a second interpretation of Hiccup's theme is played by wind instruments.[10]
About one minute into the original opening version of "This is Berk", the music modulates via fast triplet arpeggios into the "warring Vikings" theme, which has Scottish influences.[11] At about 3:15, the "fun Vikings" theme is first introduced on solo clarinet backed by pizzicato strings.[10] Warpipes introduce the "dragon tune" around 4:15, which is played by low brass.[10]
The score was exceptionally well-received, earning universal praise from professional film score critics and fans alike. Powell earned a BAFTA nomination for his work as well as his first Oscar nomination, losing both nominations to Alexandre Desplat for his score for The King's Speech[12] and to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for their score for The Social Network, respectively.[13] The music also won an Annie Award for the Best Music in a Feature Production from the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood.[14]
Christian Clemmensen, founder of Filmtracks.com and member of the IFMCA, praised the score, saying that "Powell has finally managed to create a well rounded and more easily digestible variation on his typical mannerisms for How to Train Your Dragon." He however criticized the use of Scottish and Irish tones in a score meant for Vikings, as well as the Jnsi song "Sticks & Stones", which he felt "[drained] all the enthusiasm out of the environment created by Powell." However, Clemmensen still awarded the score the highest rating of five stars,[5] and later listed the score as one of the Top Five of the year.[15]
British dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin prominently used music from the soundtrack for her Grand Prix Freestyle performances with her gelding Valegro. They also set the Freestyle World Record using the music at the Olympia London International Horse Show 2014.[20]
One of the many reasons why children and adults love the How to Train Your Dragon films is the music. John Powell composed the music for all three films, maintaining thematic consistency while writing new themes for each film. This book serves as a score guide for the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Every note has been examined to thoroughly discuss the music for Hiccup, Toothless and the other dragons, Vikings, and the enemies and friends that they encounter. It features interviews with the composer and nearly 100 musical excerpts.
How To Train Your Dragon is probably my favorite animated film franchise of all time. It is a trilogy I grew up with and I associate many fond memories with all the films. The characters and story definitely hold a special place in my memories but so does the soundtrack.
The scene begins with Hiccup and Night Fury in the sky, where Hiccup has just extended the substitute tail wing he made himself, that Night Fury had lost due to an injury. He has a cheat sheet in front of him and is obsessed with making sure he gets all the flying positions correct. The music builds lightly here but is still in the background of the soundscape.
The music fades a bit to the background as Hiccup accidentally flies them into a couple of rocks. Then, high up in the sky, Hiccup unhooks from the saddle, and both dragon and dragon flyer free fall, plummeting to the Earth. The music is frightening here, the hopeful violins from a few seconds ago absent. However, as soon as Hiccup manages to get back on to Toothless, the theme returns, this time with layered, fast-paced violins, emphasizing the relief that the characters are okay. Hiccup still tries to consult his cheat sheet as they approach a labyrinth of towering stone boulders, but is overcome by the intensity of the moment, he lets go of the paper and lets his instincts take over. The five-note theme comes back in full crescendo, backed by a larger orchestra than before. The dialogue is absent here, and all you hear is the whoosh of the wind and the score before the scene ends.
I completely forgot that this movie existed, but I will absolutely be watching these movies this weekend. They are not only beautifully animated but I remember the soundtrack being so great! I really like music that has Scottish and Celtic influences it is such a great vibe. I think that Brave has a great soundtrack too. I also really like how you wrote about movie soundtracks because it is just such a cool form of art that enhances film so much. Great post!
On the occasion of How To Train Your Dragon, John Powell goes a step further and shows us indeed how a flawless score sounds like! Until this score and despite his previous total of eleven animated films, the composer had not been able to reach such a high level of combined freshness, energy, inspiration and musical maturity. With an arsenal of themes, an orchestra performing exceptionally and a choir that colors the music in the right places, the seventy-plus minute score of the film rolls magnificently! When one track gives way to the next and the listener does not get tired of the music, then you realize that the essence of this score does not lay on a few interesting tracks, but it is spread throughout. With such a great narrative skill, something rare nowadays, we can speak of a musical treasure, not only in the filmography of John Powell, but also for the film genre in general.
Another example is found in the track Romantic Flight (#15), where Hiccup along with a girl named Astrid, enjoy a wonderful flight on the back of the dragon Toothless. One new theme is presented in this piece of music in its most charming and rich version since it is about a flight scene: the theme of Astrid, who will become the girlfriend of Hiccup before the end credits come. A more tender and sensitive performance of the same theme is heard in The Cove (#17), as Astrid and Hiccup talk about whether or not his father should learn the truth about the dragon. Before Astrid enjoy the calm and majestic flight along with Hiccup on Toothless, she was startled for good when the dragon wanted to scare her making sudden movements while flying. Terror overwhelms Astrid. And the music of this scene overwhelms the listener with a new full of energy adventurous theme heard in Astrid Goes For a Spin (#14), which often occurs during the film when the illustrated adventure calls for.
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