Featurette For THE ODYSSEY Dives Into Composer Ludwig Göransson's Search For Ancient Greek Instruments For the Score
This summer’s epic The Odyssey marks the third collaboration between director Christopher Nolan and composer Ludwig Göransson.
The Academy Award winners previously worked together on Tenet and Oppenheimer, but this time around, the task was more unique than ever before. Universal released a new featurette for the film, which you can check out below, that dives into the making of the score for the film.
In the video, Göransson talks about how he created a Homeric score with a lyre, an aulos, and instruments made of bronze since the setting was the Bronze Age.
“Chris had mentioned early that he was interested in aulos,” Göransson says in the short film of an instrument that looks a bit like twin clarinets. “He was interested in lyre. The aulos was an ancient Greek instrument. It was the most popular rock star instrument for a thousand years.”
“This is a replica of an aulos,” musician Callum Armstrong says. “The original dates from between the sixth century and the fifth century B.C. We don’t have any surviving reeds.
“So I worked with two other people, and we spent a while trying to work out and figure out how this bit worked at the top. We had to read lots of ancient source material and try and work out how they did it.”
Another musician, Rosa Fragorapti, also demonstrates how to play a lyre, which they had to figure out from looking at old urns and other materials.
The Odyssey is Nolan’s nearly three-hour adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, in which the hero, Odysseus, journeys home from the Trojan wars, facing mythical creatures like cyclops, sirens, and the mystical Calypso.
The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, and the rest of the cast includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Elliot Page, among many others.
Check out the featurette below, and watch The Odyssey when it hits theatres on July 17th.