Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood to Play ‘There Will Be Blood’ Score Live
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood will perform his score for the 2007 oil-baron beat-down flick There Will Be Blood for the first time this summer at a screening of the movie in London. The London Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Hugh Brunt, will accompany Greenwood, as he plays the eerie-sounding, early 20th century amplified keyboard called an ondes Martenot. Performances are planned for August 6th and 7th at the city’s Roundhouse.
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There Will Be Blood won two out of the eight Academy Awards it was nominated for in 2008, including one for actor Daniel Day-Lewis, but Greenwood’s score was not one of them. Because Greenwood’s score included preexisting music, it was deemed unoriginal and therefor ineligible, Associated Press reported in 2008. “The Oscar is given for the best original score – ‘original’ meaning written for the picture – and the majority of the music in There Will Be Blood was not eligible because it was not written for the picture,” Charles Bernstein, the Academy’s chairman for the music branch, said at the time.
Greenwood used elements of pieces written by composers Johannes Brahms and Arvo Pärt, as well as bits of his own “Popcorn Superhet Receiver” and “Bodysong” in the score. Were Greenwood’s score eligible that year, There Will Be Blood would have been the most nominated film of 2008.
The London Contemporary Orchestra has been performing Greenwood’s scores since 2008 and recorded the Radiohead guitarist’s score for The Master, which was helmed by Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson, in 2012. The performance of There Will Be Blood will feature over 50 musicians.
Currently, Greenwood is working on the score for Anderson’s next film, Inherent Vice. The film is based on author Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 crime novel, which was set in Sixties Los Angeles. Joaquin Phoenix, who starred opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, will play a major role alongside Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benecio Del Toro and Maya Rudolph.