Mr. Turner (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The first Oscar-nominated score by English theater composer (and frequent Mike Leigh film collaborator) Gary Yershon features quartets of strings and saxes to portray the challenging emotional landscape of its title subject, English painter J.M.W. Turner. Yershon explains he “exploited the capacity for glissando—sliding from note to note—shared by strings, saxes, and clarinets. We used timpani for grandeur at the Royal Academy and in the storm, flute for contrasting coolness, and harp mainly—and unusually!—as a rhythm section.” The album also includes Yershon’s bright, Latin jazz–inflected soundtrack for Running Jump, a short film commissioned by the London 2012 festival.