Using the Academy Awards music nominees in your classroom

The Academy Awards nominations were announced recently and it’s another great way for you to be topical with your music education topics, introduce new careers in music, and help students experience the music around them that they interact with on a consistent basis.

Best original score

Given for the best underscoring of a motion picture, movie scores are the closest thing we have to full-fledged orchestral music in the national consciousness. The first 4:30 of this video explains how music can shape a scene of music (though I wouldn’t use it with elementary kids):

Here are the nominees in 2016:

Bridge of Spies – Thomas Newman
(Listen on Spotify)
Carol – Carter Burwell
(Listen on Spotify)
The Hateful Eight – Ennio Morricone
(Listen on Spotify)
Sicario – Johann Johannsson
(Listen on Spotify)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams
(Listen on Spotify)

Note 1: Williams has been nominated for more Oscars than any living person. This is his 50th nomination and he has won five times.

Note 2: The Revenant had a widely-praised score but was left off the list since three different composers contributed to it. (It was my favorite score of the year.) Listen to it on Spotify and hear the isolation the main character experiences.

Best original song

The Best Original Song category is for songs that were written specifically for a movie. These songs sometimes play vital roles in the film themselves but often are written for the credits and not used in the film at all. Past winners have included “Lose Yourself,” “My Heart Will Go On,” and a host of famous Disney songs beginning with “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from Mary Poppins.

Here are the nominees in 2016:

“Earned It” by The Weeknd from Fifty Shades Of Grey
(Listen on Spotify)
“Manta Ray” by J. Ralph from Racing Extinction
(Listen on Spotify)
“Simple Song #3” by David Lang from Youth
(Listen on Spotify)
“Til It Happens to You” by Lady Gaga (and Diane Warren) from The Hunting Ground
(Listen on Spotify)
“Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith from SPECTRE
(Listen on Spotify)