The music of 'The Hunger Games'

Today's release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 closes the book on one of the most successful YA series-to-film franchises in history. One of the most overlooked backbones of the films' success is the score by longtime composer James Newton Howard, who you may also know as the partner of Hans Zimmer for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as well as too-many-to-mention additional scoring credits. He's been in the driver's seat since day one; creating cohesion among the various elements of folk, classicism, science fiction, and grandstanding totalitarianism.

Throughout his career Howard has been an especially eloquent composer, in part for his agility with sparsity. He's brilliant with big compositions, but is most impressive for his ability to pull back achieve an effect of genuineness by not cluttering the sonic space with too much noise. He's unified the entire series in a world of sound that stays true to its universe by not reinventing each sound bed; having established an impressive foundation with the first film, Howard rearticulates and develops key themes that suit each film's narrative presence without feeling like his work is merely duplication.

Here's a film-by-film guide to the music of The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games (2012)

As the production company logos are displayed at the beginning of the film, Howard wastes no time defining not only key themes for the entire franchise, but key components to the franchise's sound. First being the folk instrumentation, featuring a plucky guitar and a deep string section. Some of the richest qualities of each film's score stem from its core in folk music and the organic sound of instruments able to be played without amplification. This feeds the home-grown uprising theme that is so key to the narrative, while also grounding the sensibilities in a realism that provides weight for what's at stake in what could have easily been overblown science fiction aesthetics.

This key articulation is followed by the other component: the human voice. If this series is about anything it is the power of the human voice to unify and redefine how we see the world around us. With the introduction to Katniss we shift from her sister screaming out of a dream, to Katniss comforting her with song, to the score bringing the human voice as the primary element of the piece of music, showcasing her travel through District 12.

Once the narrative shifts to the characters in travel to their destination at the Capital, we start to hear the swells of a full orchestra bring rise to the fascistic, totalitarian control of the government that eventually becomes the theme of The Hunger Games and, by default, the theme of the Capital, "Horn of Plenty," which in this first film was developed in collaboration with Arcade Fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFAUzAtSz0w

In the worlds framed by the Capital the compositional arrangements are dramatically different. Big brass and percussion articulate the themes of government and control. Even the more personal moments are tinged with the ever-imposing governmental eye and violence bestowed upon participants. The folk quality of District 12 is given very little room in the musical space once the Games are underway.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

The second film in the series features a development of ideas that brought many who were not interested — or were not that impressed — with the first film in for a second viewing. More time is given for performances to shine, and the weight of the narrative is brought about more strongly in the shift from the first film's in-the-moment, cinema verite style, to the tightly controlled embrace of the science fiction wrap around its folk foundation.

Like with the first film, James Newton Howard musically originates the film in District 12, with sparse instrumentation. However, where in the first film the musical perspective was a sense of longing and anger towards a situation not fully understood by participants, the second film is anger drenched in remorse for the things forced upon. Howard tinges every string arrangement and horn section in regret and twitchiness. The composition for "The Tour" segment — still one of the finest works of Howard's career — manages to transport you from one spectrum of the series' narrative to the other and articulates completely what this entry in the series (and the series at large) is about. (Warning: this sequence features some violent material.)

One new element of this series that is the classical sectionals presented when Katniss and Peeta visit the President's mansion. It speaks to how different the Capital is from the rest of the world and highlights much of the motivation behind Howard's segmentation of musical ideas based on location. Even though the orchestrations become fuller once characters are in the Capital, it's with the mansion that we see the presentation of class distinction event within the Capital itself by the use of music to articulate the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI2moNrZC8g&list=PL6bnCAKfEJbgDh-ZQu5FXsPAF8idr18Kh&index=7

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 (2014)

Whereas Catching Fire featured much of the folk instrumentation connection in its early section, this film's palette turned to a brash science fiction sound, shifting the narrative into broader dimensions of revolt and technological interference. With the film's narrative predominantly out of the capital and in the deluge of District 13, though, elements of folk music and the human voice were brought back ten-fold. No scene more clearly exemplifies the film's sonic motivations than in the transformation of Katniss singing "The Hanging Tree" along the river to the song being turned into a promo for revolt and then sung by a crew destroying a dam. (Warning: this sequence features some violent material.)

This sequence takes the narrative back to the first film's opening moments and shows how a composer can establish a foundation to build upon and then actually fulfill on the promise. James Newton Howard has not tried to rewrite the book with each film's score. Rather, he was smart in the beginning to establish clear ideas with enough flexibility to take the narrative all the way through.

"The Hanging Tree" became a surprise pop hit, with Jennifer Lawrence — singing Howard's melody — hitting #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The film's closing credits featured a song by Lorde, who also curated a "soundtrack" to the film that featured her song "Yellow Flicker Beat" along with "The Hanging Tree" and a dozen more songs inspired by the film, though only those two actually are heard in the movie. The soundtrack's success prompted some pundits to speculate that it heralded the return of the soundtrack as a relevant force in pop music.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2

Prior to the film's release, not much was heard of Howard's work for the final part of the film series, and with the record not officially coming out until after the film hits theaters it highlights a new trend of experiencing the music in the film prior to experiencing it as a record. One would assume that the film's sound will follow suit with the rest of the series, though if trailers speak to anything, it is that this is the concussive finality fans have been waiting for.

Despite the success of Lorde's Part 1 soundtrack, there's no comparable compilation planned for release with Part 2; a soundtrack album containing Howard's score is being released on Dec. 4.

Over the closing credits of Part 2, Lawrence sings again: "Deep in the Meadow (Lullaby)," a song with music by T-Bone Burnett and lyrics by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, sung by Katniss to Rue in the first film of the series. Of course, there also had to be a Sting version...just because.

Garrett Tiedemann is a writer, filmmaker and composer who owns the multimedia lab CyNar Pictures and its record label American Residue Records.

Gallery

Fullscreen SlidePrevious Slide

1 of 1

Next Slide