I Heart #10... P. T. Anderson's PERCUSSION ATTACK!

Paul T. Anderson is not only a genius at writing tight, intelligent scripts that don’t waste a word, but also at directing huge dramatic set pieces that build and build without letting up. At the point in Magnolia (1999) (score by Jon Brion) when all the intersecting characters gradually reach a boiling point of chaos, a cue with strong, sympathetic cellos and pad which lasts for over 17 minutes and simmers underneath the drama and other sounds, creates huge emotional tension.

However, in Punch Drunk Love (2002) and There Will Be Blood (2008), Anderson wanted to use percussion to create different forms of chaos. In the scene below, Barry (Sandler) in Punch Drunk has pressure mounting on him from everywhere, so Jon Brion wrote the scene for different percussive sounds: plastic tubes, rope, muted clock chimes, electronic beeps etc, all panned to different areas of the stereo mix. As the character’s tension builds, Brion adds another sound to the pallet. I love the moment the military snare enters as Barry’s officious sister comes marching into frame (8:04).

Chaos is represented differently in Blood. As the oil derrick gushes and bursts into flame and panic ensues among the workmen, Daniel Plainview’s (Day-Lewis) oil-lust slowly quells the chaos of stopping the fire, even seeing to his son who was injured in the blast. Jonny Greenwood writes a quick two-four cue containing two ordinary simple quavers, repeated over and over again. During the initial chaos of spewing oil, running, and shouting, all instruments mount in one-by-one playing the simple rhythm in their own way, creating a cacophony of percussion and strings. However, as the scene develops and Plainview’s greed at discovering the “ocean of oil” suffocates all other emotions, the instruments gradually come together until they’re all playing simultaneously, and the ordinary simple quavers become so powerful they become horrific.

A few months ago, I did an experiment similar to Greenwood's cue for Blood, but with percussion instruments and lines of a chord sequence both starting in their own times and gradually coming together over the course of the piece. It turned out to be a brilliant piece and extremely hypnotic! Here it is: