A Behind The Scenes Look at the Breaking Dawn Score

Carter Burwell has posted some interesting notes on his homepage about some of his thoughts as he wrote the score for Breaking Dawn.   There is quite a bit of information on his website for people interested in all the details.  Here is a sample:  

I started writing music for Breaking Dawn Part 2 more than two years before it was released. The director, Bill Condon, suggested that, just as Edward had played “Bella’s Lullaby” for Bella in the first Twilight film, he should now create a lullaby for his daughter Renesmee. This meant that I had to write it before they shot the film, which was happening at the same time as Breaking Dawn Part 1. And, as Rob Pattinson wanted to play it on screen, I had to write something that Rob could play and give him time to learn it.

Only a few weeks before Bill made this suggestion, I learned that I was about to have a baby girl myself. Inevitably I wrote the piece thinking as much about my daughter as about Edward and Bella’s. In its way this echoed the story of how “Bella’s Lullaby” had been written originally for my wife. For some reason there is a running parallel between my life and Edward’s.

“Renesmee’s Lullaby” was hinted at during Bella’s pregnancy in Breaking Dawn Part 1, but only really came into its own in Part 2. As Bill saw it, Edward would play it on the piano, as though he were making it up on the spot. Renesmee, who grows very quickly and has unknown but prodigious powers, would sit at the piano with her father, appearing to be five years old. She joins in and they develop the piece for four hands. As they do so, the scene shifts to Volterra, Italy.

Visit Carter Burwell’s website for more details. Thank to Joshua Roberts for the heads up!