Emma

Emma. (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2020 film Emma, directed by Autumn de Wilde, based on Jane Austen's 1815 novel of the same name. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role, alongside Johnny Flynn, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, and Bill Nighy. The soundtrack, accompanying the film, consists of acappella recordings of folk and classical songs, performed by Maddy Prior, June Tabor, The Watersons, The Carnival Band and The Cambridge Singers. The cast members Johnny Flynn and Amber Anderson, also performed few numbers in the album. The former, also wrote an original song for the film, in addition to the incorporated classical songs. The rest of the album, consists of the original score composed by Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer. The 35-track album was released by Back Lot Music digitally on February 14, 2020 and in physical formats on February 21. A vinyl edition of the soundtrack was published and released by Mondo on May 15, 2020. Background The director Autumn de Wilde, who previously worked as a photographer and directed music videos, felt on the importance of folk music in the film. Having previously worked with musicians Beck, Jenny Lewis and the band Death Cab for Cutie, de Wilde had learned about the history of folk music in America, English and other countries. She roped in Isobel Waller-Bridge for scoring the film, after appreciating her composition for Fleabag, as she felt that she had a "sense of humor in music". She wanted the music to be like "a misbehaving orchestra, like the conductor is overwhelmed and the oboes are escaping", and wanted the score to emulate Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, where each character had a theme that personified them. Emma. marked Waller-Bridge's second stint on writing diegetic music, after previously doing the same for Fleabag, as while comparing both the films, "it was really important to be able to show a humanity behind those protagonists. And it felt like vocal music in those cases was going to really help us do that." She denied comparisons of her score, with Rachel Portman's Academy Award-winning score for Emma (1996), and felt it as a unique album because of de Wilde's direction. She co-composed the score with David Schweitzer, and was conducted by Alastair King along with the Chamber Orchestra of London.