Contagion - Beautiful Fusion

If you haven't seen this movie yet, I suggest it highly. Here is the trailer.

"Soon after her return from a business trip to Hong Kong, Beth Emhoff dies from what is a flu or some other type of infection. Her young son dies later the same day. Her husband Mitch however seems immune. Thus begins the spread of a deadly infection. For doctors and administrators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, several days pass before anyone realizes the extent or gravity of this new infection. They must first identify the type of virus in question and then find a means of combating it, a process that will likely take several months. As the contagion spreads to millions of people worldwide, societal order begins to break down as people panic." - IMDb


This is a beautiful fusion of music and picture in its simplest form. The music isn't forcing you to feel any emotion or react in a certain way, it is merely setting an atmosphere for the pictures we are seeing. Despite this sounding like a lacking claim, the music is a moving giant (just like the virus) that doesn't draw too much attention to itself. 


The style is much like a cross of techno/dance and orchestral scoring, also introducing India Tabla drums at certain points, this is most likely demonstrating the virus' global capacity. It relies on heavy repetition and addition and subtraction of textures (that is, adding or taking away of sounds/instruments) This links heavily to the idea of the virus that spreads, gradually getting larger and larger. The score builds slowly, often in a grim fashion, then suddenly drifting into the background and returning again just as suddenly. 


"The film's electronic score was composed by Cliff Martinez. Soderbergh wanted to use the music to keep the pace of the film moving quickly. Martinez's other "mission was to magnify the fear factor", Soderbergh told Martinez from the start, "This is a horror movie".^[26] Martinez got direction for the score when Soderbergh sent him rough cuts of the film with temp scores from The French Connection, Marathon Man, andTangerine Dream in it. Combined with Soderbergh's guidance and older material Martinez wrote during the eras of The French Connection and Tangerine Dream the score for Contagion came together." - Wikipedia

The score often deals with dissonance and electronically generated clusters. There is a piano theme of 8notes that is played often but many times it is underneath another track that is playing, this creates more dissonance. The film is primarily grim and disturbing due to its realism which I believe many films seem to pass by or never try and achieve. Many scientists have praised the film for its accuracy.

Here is a track from the OST of Contagion

Check it out!