Ridley Scott, Blade Runner · 1982 · music by Vangelis · a feature on the score
Most film scores sit under the picture. The score for Blade Runner sits inside it. Vangelis, who had just won an Oscar for Chariots of Fire, built it almost single-handedly from synthesizers, a few acoustic touches and a great deal of reverb. This piece is about how it was made, why it sounds the way it does, and how to hear more of it at home. It contains no spoilers.
According to MusicTech's account of the sessions, Vangelis worked at his own Nemo Studios in Marylebone, London, with one engineer. He had videotapes of the scenes with only the dialogue on them, and he put screens around the room so he could play to the picture. Wikipedia dates the recording from December 1981 to April 1982.
He improvised. MusicTech reports that he often recorded while watching a scene, with little rehearsal, few overdubs and a preference for first takes even when they contained mistakes. KEF's write-up of the soundtrack makes the same point from the listener's side: the music reacts to first impressions of the images, and it shows.
The lead voice is the Yamaha CS-80, a huge analogue polyphonic synthesizer from the late 1970s. MusicTech singles out two things about it: a ribbon controller for bending pitch, and polyphonic aftertouch, which lets the player press harder on individual notes to change their power and depth. That is why a single held chord can swell, sigh and bend like a wind instrument. MusicRadar's synth-sound series ranks the Main Titles first and calls the brass a simple patch whose character comes largely from the performance and generous reverb.
Around it sit other machines: a Fender Rhodes for the more conventional pieces, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 for low drones and slow builds, a Yamaha GS-1 for rhythmic sounds, and a Lexicon 224 digital reverb to put distance between the listener and every instrument. A few human voices and players come in as guests: Dick Morrissey on saxophone in the Love Theme, the English Chamber Choir on Dr Tyrell's Death, and Demis Roussos singing on Tales of the Future.
The panel below is a rough toy, made with simple oscillators in your browser. It is not Vangelis's patch and it does not play any of his music. It only shows how three ingredients, a swelling brass-like pad, a low drone and a few high chimes, change character when you add reverb. Press play, switch layers on and off, and slide the reverb from dry to drowned. Turn your volume down first.
The Lexicon 224 is the quiet star of the sound. KEF's analysis points out that nearly everything in the score is soaked in reverb, and that dialogue gets a similar treatment, so the boundary between music and sound design is hard to find. Synthesised beeps and chimes from unseen sources blend into the same space. KEF also notes that the replicant characters are often accompanied by chimes that suggest an ethereal quality, and that in Memories of Green small handheld game-like blips sit behind piano notes that seem reflected and warped, as if heard underwater.
That is the useful way to think about this score: it is less a tune you hum than a place you are put in. Slide the reverb in the panel to zero and the pad is just a pad. Push it up and it becomes weather.
For years you could not buy Vangelis's music from the film at all. Wikipedia's release history says the first official release, in 1982, was an orchestral reinterpretation by the New American Orchestra, which Vangelis and Ridley Scott both disowned. Fans circulated bootlegs instead. Vangelis's own album came out in June 1994, around twelve years after the film, on East West in the UK and Atlantic in the US. It runs to twelve tracks, leaves out much of what is heard in the film, and includes music that was not used. MusicRadar and KEF both describe it as incomplete. Later editions, including a 2007 three-disc set for the 25th anniversary, added unreleased material.
The score was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, according to MusicRadar.
If you want to hear what the reverb and the layers are doing, headphones are the cheapest way in. Closed-back headphones give you the low drones without the neighbours; noise-cancelling pairs shut out a train or a flat, which helps with a score that lives in its quiet moments. Start with Tales of the Future: KEF says the full-length version reveals vocal consonants and breaths that are easy to miss in the film. Then play Memories of Green loud enough to catch the blips behind the piano.
Try this order: Main Titles, Love Theme, Memories of Green, Tales of the Future, Tears in Rain. Those are all on the 1994 album.