Greenwood’s Score in There Will Be Blood

Greenwood’s Score in There Will Be Blood

            Jonny Greenwood uses music in a brilliant way in There Will Be Blood to convey emotions and instill mood. From the very first seconds of the movie, the music is powerful and sets the scene.  A black screen with an increasing shrill of an orchestra playing, is the first thing the audience sees. As the shrill turns to an even more unpleasant siren sounding noise, bare and foreboding mountains fade into the picture.  Immediately, this sound relays to the viewers that something just isn’t right.  This truly horrific sound is heard shortly after when Daniel signs the lease for his first land.  The musical notes that this sound is attributed to is an orchestra sliding into each note of a chromatic scale at a different rate, and eventually every player is playing the same note. The chromatic sliding scale followed by one note is foreshadowing of how Plainview is climbing his way to the top, but eventually is reduced to one single obsession, his material possessions.  This motif is evident when Daniel is signing the lease to earn the rights to his first property. It is the beginning of his ruthless quest for wealth, which will eventually turn him into a heartless monster of a human being.  This was just one of many motifs that Greenwood employed in the remarkable score of There Will Be Blood.