RANDY NEWMAN
| ‘The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)’
Newman hadn’t scored a flesh-andblood human film in nine years. The Oscar-winning composer — and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — once brought Americana melancholy to weighty dramas such as “The Natural” and “Avalon,” but then got pigeonholed as the composer of Pixar (scoring the “Toy Story” films, among others).
Along came Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),” a dramedy about a dysfunctional Jewish family starring Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller.
“Early on, in the script stage, I really felt like it should have a musical accompaniment that would be another voice in the movie,” said Baumbach, who admitted crying whenever he hears the score for “The Natural.” “And he was who I thought of.”
Newman underscored Hoffman’s crotchety pedant with a wry, grumpy theme and generally added levity but also a wistful, nostalgic hue in more tender moments — all on solo piano, which he performed.
“I looked at the picture, and I actually thought of something away from the piano,” said Newman. “I went to the piano and recorded it and sent it to him — I’ve never done that in my life — and he liked it. When we talked about adding anything, he didn’t really want to, and that was fine with me.”
The score, in a way, is more of a personal expression, just Newman tickling the keys, which he recorded at his house. His personality, both cheeky and softhearted, hovers in the background of Baumbach’s slice-of-life film.
“Something Dustin [Hoffman] said about it, actually,” the director noted, “is that there’s a loneliness about it that I think just always felt right. It’s loneliness, but also a sense of humor in a way, because you feel the player there.”
“It’s absolutely true,” said Newman. “It’s a very lonely kind of thing, that sound and in the context it is. They’re all in a family, but on their own.”
At the end of the film, we finally hear an orchestra, introducing Newman’s 1972 song “Old Man” (which contains lyrics fittingly in sync with the picture).
“I really can’t imagine the movie without it,” Baumbach said of Newman’s score. “I think of the music almost like another performer.”