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The film's score was recorded before and during the film's production. Initially three musicians recorded the score at Los Angeles, before recruiting an 87-piece orchestra which performed the score at the Abbey Road Studios in London. Orchestrated by J. A. C. Redford and conducted by Thomas Newman, the sessions held for nine weeks. Thomas considered it as his most challenging score, in terms of vocabulary, execution, and production.
"The movie is in present tense and because of that, music cannot comment because that puts you a couple of seconds behind present tense. Music is there to help, but the way in which it helps must be fundamental and visceral as opposed to intellectual and reflective.
The film is composed and scored by Mendes' regular collaborator Thomas Newman, with whom he had discussed the musical ideas before scoring the film, and had understood the tense journey of the film needed to come around a sense of human redemption in the end. Describing the experience of time, it felt that "exploring musical time works in lockstep with or in counterpoint to film time". Since the film takes in present tense, he felt that "the more the music commented on any particular action, the less exciting it was likely to be".[4]
In April 2019, before Mendes began filming for the film, Thomas described his musical ideas to Mendes without seeing the final edit.[5] Given that the one-shot concept he would experiment on the pacing and rhythm of the film's music, where in a sequence, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) walking out of General Erinmore's (Colin Firth) dugout and onto the front line, Thomas intended that the music had to create excitement but could not get in the "way of the story".[6] Hence he learnt a lot about pacing, though it was not related to "being outspoken or colorful" but had a sense of neutral pace to understand the "tick-tocking aspect of the film".[3][6]
Thomas did not begin scoring with an orchestra, but instead with three musicians in Los Angeles that he regularly worked with. Since it was a war film, he felt important to use snare drums and instruments associated with it to produce a "military sound" but not "too military" as the director did not want the music to fit into a particular type, but needed it to drive the film forward.[6] Ultimately, through his discussions, Thomas brought lap dulcimers and processed field cadences as the sound for the film. The 87-piece orchestra included strings, solo cello, brass, wind instruments, drums and percussions, which was laid with electronic, modeled sounds as a base for the score as it "hides the intent more and allows for an orchestra to grow out of something, as opposed to being there to begin with".[6]
Thomas considered the film as his most challenging film's he worked on both in terms of vocabulary, execution and composition.[6] He worked for many months in Los Angeles and moved to London in September to record the orchestral portions at the Abbey Road Studios for nine weeks. He called it "physically exhausting" as he worked without a day off. He felt that there was a "certain sense of satisfaction having made in one piece".[6] The climatic six-minute musical piece was recorded in a single take.[5]
In a negative review, James Southall of Movie Wave rated two stars summarising: "This lengthy album is a very difficult one to summarise. A very large part of it is really not at all satisfying away from the film, but then every now and again something comes along which is just outrageously good – and part of the reason it’s so good is the contrast with what’s around it. In this case, when you do you get a few minutes of the best music Thomas Newman has written in years, but even so it’s a very hard slog to get there."[7]Filmtracks.com wrote "[Thomas] Newman's work for 1917 is as psychologically exhausting as the film itself and cannot be sustained alone for its whole length. The variance in the score is just too extreme, no consistent demeanor developed for the whole and the moments of catharsis forced cheaply into an otherwise bleak soundscape. That said, the highlights of this score are among the best of Newman's career, especially "The Night Window," and no collector of his work should be without these moments of impressive, symphonic triumph."[8]Zanobard Reviews gave 5/10 to the album calling it as "decidingly unremarkable" and wrote "it's a bit of a shame really, as there are elements of Newman’s score that are good but sadly none that last long enough to capture interest".[9]
In a positive review, music critic Jonathan Broxton wrote "the score is nevertheless one well worth exploring. The highlights, like “The Night Window,” are among the best thing Newman has written this decade, the Hans Zimmer temp-track homages are still worthwhile if you can ignore how they came into being, and as for the rest of the score... well, it needs context for it to be appreciated fully, but the film is so good that appreciating it in context will likely be one of the most satisfying cinematic experiences of the year."[10] Thomas Tunsall of Irish Film Critic commented that the score "exhibits another magnificent effort by the gifted Newman".[11] Anton Smit of Soundtrack World wrote: "The music worked very well in the film. It was in the background for most of the time, was allowed to shine when it was needed, and most of these moments are the highlights of the album."[12]Little Dabler commented "Newman’s use of brass nods to the military, and the soundtrack replicates the parallel opening and closing camera shots, bringing the listener full circle."[13]
From 1995–1998, the Best Original Score award was split into Original Dramatic Score and Original Musical or Comedy Score. He received a nomination for Unstrung Heroes (1996) in the latter category.[14]
