the musical motifs of project hail mary
been nerding out about the project hail mary score real hard, so here are some notes on the various motifs the appear throughout the score! this is just based on my own observations from listening to the score on repeat for the last two weeks, noticing patterns, then going back to the film to see the exact moments they correspond to. this score is so so gorgeous but also so so SMART, the more i listen to it, the more i hear.
(note: this post contains SO MANY SPOILERS)
there are two motifs that appear most often/prominently throughout the film, but I think of this one as the main theme. while it's not the first music we hear in the movie, it's added on to the beginning of the first track on the score album, almost like an intro to set the tone, and it's prominent in the last song we hear as well, bookending the score.
it shows up over and over again in the score, usually at moments of connection, collaboration, and trust. it's often heard as choral vocals, in the rhythm written above (often repeated a second time with the last note up a fifth) but there are many many variations on it as well.
its big debut is when grace takes off his helmet in the tunnel, trusting rocky and allowing connection between them (Connection)
however a variation of it appears earlier, when grace first puts the hail mary into centrifuge mode (Centrifuge). the melody starts with this sequence of notes, and a variation of it can also be heard as a small ornamentation right as he pulls down the lever. the score here is dreamy and optimistic—a celebration of humanity's innovation and success in coming together to design the hail mary.
after rocky tells grace he will give him enough astrophage to go home (Grace Go Home)
when grace is observing the taumoeba under the microscope and realizing that he and rocky succeeded (Tau Amoeba)
in Amaze Amaze Amaze, the upbeat song which plays as grace shows rocky the breeder tanks and as they celebrate their success, then again during the final scene of grace and rocky on erid. not only is the main form of the theme present as vocals (in Fist My Bump) and strings (in Life on Erid), but the repeated syncopated melody that forms the backbone of the song is actually a variation using the same pitch sequence
this is the second of the two most prominent motifs. it's often repeated a second time down a half step (which puts the second instance in a minor key). another common variation is for the final note to go up instead of down (up to a G and then resolve to an A). like the main theme, it is very often choral vocals, but it appears in many variations.
(as a side note, one thing i love about the choral vocals in this score—in addition to the celestial/holy sound and the organic/human aspect—is that while they're wordless, there's a bit of vowel distinction and consonant articulation. not enough to be recognizable as words, but enough that your brain interprets it as language and strains to understand it, recreating rocky and grace's experience in a way)
anyway. i call this one the astrophage theme, but it's broader than that. it underscores moments of profound emotion. both have a celestial, almost holy/spiritual sound, but where the main theme is hopeful, the astrophage theme is haunting, present for moments of wonder, uncertainty, grief, awe. it's the feeling of looking up at the stars and feeling very, very small.
the very first time it's heard is (briefly, but very clearly) at the moment grace realizes he has bred astrophage (Box in a Box)
it's there as a small ornamentation in Secret Clearance on the score album, though interestingly I don't hear that part in that scene in the movie
during the burial scene, beginning right when grace nearly breaks down giving their eulogies, and then building as he sends their bodies off (You Were Loved)
when grace and rocky talk about their crewmates dying (Learning to Communicate). leads into "grace rocky save stars", followed by the dies irae theme (more on that below)
during grace and stratt's conversation on deck, right when he asks if she believes in god (God Willing)
during grace's moment in the petrova line!!!! here it's slow and grandiose, with a huge swelling orchestral sound (A Moment)
in the background as rocky and grace realize that astrophage has a natural predator on adrian (Life Is Reason)
after grace sets up the taumoeba breeder tanks and there's nothing left to do but wait for rocky to wake up (Tau Amoeba)
as rocky and grace say goodbye (Goodbye My Friend)
the moment grace makes his choice to save rocky instead of returning to earth (Xenonite Contamination)
ascending 6th intervals, often repeating in a descending sequence. i can't even catalogue everywhere this motif is used because it's so omnipresent in the score. it's often played on cristal baschet, which gives the score that unearthly, shimmery vibrato. but it shows up in some other really cool variations as well!
ok this one is really, really cool. this is a variation on the dies irae, a theme from a 13th-century gregorian chant about the judgment day that was used in funeral masses, which in the last century or so has been widely quoted in music from symphonies to film scores. here's a video from a composer talking about how the dies irae theme has become synonymous with death and apocalypse in popular consciousness, and project hail mary's more hopeful-sounding variation on it.
within the score, the dies irae still represents high-stakes moments and moments of existential fear—where failure would mean death for the characters and their entire species and planets. but it's transposed from the original into a major key (i think from dorian to lydian? don't quote me tho), and at times the second part of the phrase is changed to move upward instead of downward, giving it a swelling, hopeful feeling.
it's first heard when grace looks at astrophage under the microscope for the first time, in the lab on earth. (interestingly, this doesn't appear at this point on the score album, and i think it might actually be Life Is Reason, which comes way later?? the music at the moment he puts the petri dish under the scope is the exact same as when he's putting the petri dish with the sample from tau ceti's petrova line under the scope!)
it appears again when stratt and co are explaining the hail mary mission to grace—and it comes in specifically when they say they need grace to breed the astrophage, aka the moment that the stakes become personal for him (Secret Clearance)
as noted above, it comes in after rocky and grace talk about losing their crews and rocky's determined "grace rocky save stars". the score has been more curious and upbeat in the few minutes prior as they begin to communicate; now the dies irae theme interweaves with that optimism as they are reminded of the stakes (Learning to Communicate)
it's heard as grace and rocky study their petrova line sample and they begin to prepare to collect samples from adrian's atmosphere (Life Is Reason). this is where you can really hear the more hopeful upward-climbing variation, particularly as grace looks at the sample under the microscope and the music builds towards rocky's realization of the significance of life on adrian.
and of course it's a huge part of the masterful building of tension as they're retrieving the samples from adrian's atmosphere (Time Go Fishing)
what i didn't realize until i was halfway through writing this post, though, is that the main theme is ALSO a variation on this one! the four notes of the main theme are the first four notes of the dies irae. there are some moments, like the choral vocals when grace is first looking closely at rocky (Connection), where i truly wasn't sure whether which motif to put it under. so not only does the score inject a more hopeful sound into the dies irae, it also remakes it entirely, into something nearly unrecognizable—transforming death and fear into connection and trust.
this one shows up for moments of curiosity and investigation!
it first appears in the score in Water Based. i can't actually find this one in the film, so if anyone knows where it is, let me know! but my best guess is that this was planned as the score for when grace is first in the lab studying astrophage, but it was replaced with a version of Life Is Reason. it's very wet-sounding, which is fun. the lower staff pitches are approximated with percussion, sort of like a proto-version of the motif that then develops further.
it shows up as grace is deciphering the contents of rocky's canister (The Message)
and when grace starts building his translator and they start to be able to talk (Learning to Communicate)
the synocpated motif in the lower staff is heard as grace demonstrates the astrophage's power for the astronauts
and when rocky wakes up while grace is sleeping, it's what plays as the lights come on and rocky comes into frame in his ball (Wake Up Buddy)
the four note sequence from the top staff is heard when rocky and grace are in the tunnel, after their mirrored motions, when they come closer and look at each other through the xenonite (Connection)
and! the same sequence appears diegetically in the same scene—rocky vocalizes it as he taps on the xenonite!
box in a box (aka doin' science together)
this one just makes me laugh a lot. this motif appears in Box in a Box, when grace and carl are putting a sealed box (containing the three astrophage) inside the sealed lab. and a variation of it appears later in Rocky Moves In.... aka a sealed container (rocky's ball) inside a bigger sealed container (the hail mary)
they're also both moments of working together, where grace is letting someone else in to his work!
this motif scores the first moments of the film and the climax. it has a few similar variations, so i just picked one to transcribe, but they all use the same main pitches, just rearranged a bit and with different grace notes. i'm not sure of the exact instrument it's usually played on, but whatever it is has a very bright, resonant tone. i think of this one as the theme for life triumphing over the odds.
it's the first music we hear in the film, as grace is waking up on the hail mary (Ryland Grace Cognition Assessment)
we hear a similar version of it after yao tells grace "you just have to find someone to be brave for"
it's heard as rocky is waking up after saving grace. the score swells into the last few notes just as grace hugs rocky's ball (Wake Up Buddy)
after grace goes back for rocky, the score shifts from a darker sound to this motif right as rocky appears in the tunnel, and that same triumphant swell happens right as they touch hands through the xenonite (Believe in the Hail Mary). the same song continues through the shots of the probes reaching earth and stratt watching grace's video
this post got so much longer than i meant it to! i hope someone else finds this all as interesting as i did. it's such a brilliant score, and it really rewards a close listen—there are so many moments where these motifs are woven together in very clever ways. please feel free to add on with any moments i missed, other observations, or just your favorite moments from the score!
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