The Australia score is a patchwork quilt of David Hirschfelder's orchestral underscore, spiced with such indigenous Australian instruments as the digeridoo, wobbleboard and clapsticks; the folk music of the Northern Territories, from bush ballads to Aboriginal chants; music of the period, from “Over the Rainbow" to big-band numbers; and new tunes written by such luminaries as Elton John and more obscure artists like Angela Little, which are woven throughout the composition.
“The idea of taking disparate elements but layering them together to make a singular whole, musically, is also the dramatic idea of the movie," the helmer adds. “The philosophy of the story is also alive in the philosophy of the music."
Luhrmann -- whose previous film, the musical Moulin Rouge, won Oscars for its art direction and costume design but failed to receive any music nominations -- likens Hirschfelder to the master chef in a restaurant.
“He employed many sauciers: people who do desserts, people who are fabulous with meats. ... In this vast kitchen, there were musical creatives as different as scholars and singers from Arnhem Land (and) folk composers like John Butler and Felix Meagher."
Hirschfelder -- with whom Luhrmann worked on “Strictly Ballroom" -- was happy to head the musical team, even though it meant that he would sometimes be working with other composers' melodies.
“Baz wanted an Australian composer to help him plumb the depths of folk music and imbue the resonances of that into the score," he says. “The movie is broad visually and it needed a very broad range of music to mirror its eclecticism and of Australia as a culture and a country."
Hirschfelder estimates that he wrote “95 or 100 minutes of orchestral music," with anywhere from 20 to 100 musicians and a 40-voice choir (plus smaller children's choirs). More than 75%, he says, was his own.
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