''A Beautiful Mind'' is the original

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

, on the Decca Records label, of the 2001 film '' A Beautiful Mind'' starring

Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...

Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film ''Once Upon a Time in America''. After having worked as a model for several year ...

(who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as "Alicia Nash"),

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

and

Paul Bettany Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries ''WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominated fo ...

. The original score and

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

s were composed and conducted by

James Horner James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music. Horner's first film score was i ...

. The album garnered nominations for the

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications o ...

and the

Academy Award for Best Original Score The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by t ...

. Music critics felt that the musical score fit the film well, but believed it to be similar to several of Horner's previous films.

Development

Composer

was a frequent collaborator with

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

, the director of ''A Beautiful Mind''. Horner desired to feature vocals reminiscent of being midway between a girl and woman, and wrote the score specifically for 15-year-old

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

singer

Charlotte Church Charlotte Maria Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed, 21 February 1986) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress, television presenter and political activist from Cardiff. Church rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching i ...

. To convey "the beauty of mathematics", Horner decided to use the idea of a

kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

, as its "patterns are always changing, and things move very quickly, but in moving so quickly, they create other patterns that move very slowly underneath". He added that these changing patterns were conveyed with the piano and Church's voice.

Release and reception

Writing for ''Empire'' magazine, Danny Graydon gave the soundtrack four out of five stars. He thought the score contained elements of Horner's previous films ''

Sneakers Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...

'' (1992) and ''

Bicentennial Man ''The Bicentennial Man'' is a Novella, novelette in the Robot series (Asimov), ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other ...

'' (1999), but said "if you can forgive that, this is a clever, masterful and romantic score that captures a brilliant mind in conflict". In the tracks "Creating Government Dynamics" and "Cracking The Russian Codes", Graydon opined that Church's "poignant vocals mix well with the frenetic piano and strings to represent Nash’s brilliance" and wished that her voice had been used more in the film. Dan Goldwasser of

Soundtrack.net Soundtrack.Net (originally SoundtrackNet) is a website dedicated to film and television music. History Created in 1997 by Amélie E. Koran and Dan Goldwasser at Carnegie Mellon University, Soundtrack.Net has grown over the past decade to become ...

also found similarities to the score in ''Bicentennial Man'', but thought Horner's work fit the film regardless, explaining "it effectively underscores the drama and romance, and even provides a few bits of tension for the action scene". Goldwasser concluded that "while it all works well in the film, there is enough about this score that just seemed to 'familiar' to make it stand out". Contributing to

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, Andy Trudeau believed Church's particular voice adds a "human element. It's the sound that, I think, gives a sense of--the center of this character, if you will. I think it's the soul. And it's trying to be normal in a way, and underneath it it's trying to be crazy". Horner's score garnered nominations for the

and the

. It lost the Golden Globe to the film ''

Moulin Rouge! ''Moulin Rouge!'' (, ) is a 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It follows a young English poet, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and cour ...

'' and the Oscar to '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring''.

Track listing

Adapted from:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beautiful Mind, A 2000s film soundtrack albums James Horner albums 2001 soundtrack albums Decca Records soundtracks Universities and colleges in art