Day Eight: Score, 1956

Music break, featuring the nominees for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedic Picture:

Day Eight: Best Original Song, 1961

Let's not dilly-dally. The songs, after the jump.

Day Three: Best Scores, 1961

A double dose of Oscar fun today, as we look at the nominees for Best Dramatic/Comedy Score and Best Musical Score. The former is what we would now know as Original Score; the latter, an unused category that has gone through many permutations, from Adapted Score to Song Score to Original Musical Score. This year was an especially odd one - a non-musical is nominated for its original score in the Musical category, while a film not in the Musical category lifted its score entirely from another medium. The very next year, the categories were distinguished between Substantially Original Score and Adaptation Or Treatment Score. You'll see why.

We start with the nominees for Musical Score - after the jump...

Here We Go: Best Original Song Score and Adaptation, 1971

Over the next three weeks, we'll be taking a look at the films of 1971 -- as usual, seen through the prism of the Academy Award Nominees from that year. Not as usual, we will also take a look at the corresponding nominees of this year's Oscars. How does J.K. Simmons stack up alongside Ben Johnson? What is the parallel between Alexandre Desplat and Jerry Fielding? Can we trace an evolution, or possible plateau, in the 43 years that have passed between The French Connection and Selma? These are the types of questions we will try to ponder.

Later, though. For now, let us concentrate on one of my favorite categories to have gone the way of the dodo -- the Adapted Song Score (aka...well, see post title).

I'm still not entirely sure why they discontinued the category (is it because no one could top Prince?), especially since the minimum required was only three. Easy enough, I should think. This year alone could have seen nominations for Annie, Begin Again and Into the Woods, all of which use both songs and music derived from those songs to create a complete score. Previous years would have been able to honor Frozen, True Grit, Black Swan, Ray, Walk the Line -- plenty of options!

In 1971, there were a full five to choose from:

Food of Love, Indeed: Original Score, 1964

The wrong music can kill a film (Aaron Zigman's The Proposal). Luckily, '64 had it mostly right. Two Best Picture nominees appear here, of course, but there's also Mancini's most famous work, a make-up to De Vol for the Baby Jane snub two years earlier, and legendary composer Tiomkin's thirteenth nomination in the category! Let us begin!

Laurence Rosenthal for Becket
***

Appropriately righteous in flavor and, as befits the church, subdued. The holy chants echo throughout the film, and the big brass is only used when needed. The strings in this particular piece, like a gathering storm, are particularly effective.

Dimitri Tiomkin for The Fall of the Roman Empire
**

I love these old historical epics, with the big orchestra proudly proclaiming its importance. Tiomkin certainly succeeds in bombast, even if he falls a little short of memorable.

Frank De Vol for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte
***

The titular theme is frequently revisited, but we also get those horror trappings of eerie violins, chimes and harpsichords. Gothic grand guignol at its best!

Robert and Richard Sherman for Mary Poppins

****

One can just refer to my write-up in Adapted Score, as that's what's really being nominated here. The score is fantastic, of course, though I still think it's strange that there are two separate categories for the same work. Eh, bask in the beauty and ignore all else.

Henry Mancini for The Pink Panther

*****

Iconic. We all know the "Pink Panther" theme, and this is where it all began. Not that it rests on those laurels alone, though, with some slinky lounge music to set the mood for those Claudia Cardinale scenes, the sexy "It Had Better Be Tonight", and comical Sennett-esque music for the chase scenes.

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Hard to argue with the Oscar bestowed on the Sherman Brothers for their iconic work in Mary Poppins. But I will. The Oscar goes to....

HENRY MANCINI

for

THE PINK PANTHER

if it's gonna win an Oscar, it had better be tonight