Quentin Tarantino’s music collaborators take part in his films in different ways. A score may be written for a new screenplay; an earlier recording may take on a different role when it is placed in a scene. Music supervision works to find and manage the chosen material. Identifying these contributions makes it possible to recognize both the composer and the people who help turn a musical idea into part of the film.
Selection does not end when a title is chosen either. A song can be performed in different ways, and each recording has a specific tempo, voice, and instrumentation. Work on that version continues when it is tested with the actors or adjusted to the edited material. That is why the history of a soundtrack brings together artistic collaborations and preparation work.
The accounts from Karyn Rachtman, Mary Ramos, and RZA offer examples of these processes. The relationship with Ennio Morricone also makes it possible to see how the use of preexisting music and a commissioned score can coexist. The credits for each work specify the scope of each contribution.
The question of who makes the music for a film requires attention to the specific piece. It is possible to bring together works by different composers, already recorded performances, and material created for filming. Collaboration changes depending on what the scene needs and what material is available to solve it.
Composing a score and working with earlier music
In his January 2016 interview with Double J, Tarantino explained that he wanted an original theme for The Hateful Eight. In that context, he described his meeting with Ennio Morricone, who had received an Italian translation of the screenplay. The commission began with a film that still needed to find its music. The composer could propose a sonic identity born from reading the story, while the director evaluated how to weave it into the film.
RZA had already contributed to the music of Kill Bill. In an Associated Press interview reprinted by the Wu-Tang Corp. website in April 2004, he spoke about the importance of matching music to the movement of the action. RZA’s collaboration with Tarantino makes it possible to recognize composition within a film that brings together material from different sources. His contribution does not make all the songs or fragments heard alongside it into his own compositions.
The Warner Music discography for Kill Bill Vol. 1 identifies, for example, Bernard Herrmann with Twisted Nerve, Nancy Sinatra with Bang Bang, and RZA alongside Charles Bernstein on Crane / White Lightning. The names correspond to different pieces and different contributions. The whole requires preserving those attributions even when the editing makes all the material seem to belong to the same world.
Fred Raskin recalled in Slant in January 2013 the inclusion of Nicaragua in Django Unchained, music by Jerry Goldsmith for Under Fire. He explained that they made small visual adjustments to make it fit. The reuse of scores, within the music in Tarantino’s films, can involve new work on the scene without changing the authorship of the composition. The meeting between film and piece is built during editing.
Karyn Rachtman and Mary Ramos: making the choice possible
Karyn Rachtman told Cuepoint in September 2014 that Tarantino had chosen Urge Overkill’s version of Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon for Pulp Fiction and that her job was to close the deal to use it. Karyn Rachtman’s account distinguishes the director’s preference from the supervisor’s intervention. It allows each person’s role to be assigned in a decision that needed to become a real production possibility.
In July 2019, Mary Ramos explained to GQ that they prepared a track so Leonardo DiCaprio could rehearse Rick Dalton’s musical performance in Hullabaloo. The chosen song ended up being The Green Door. Mary Ramos’s work in music supervision therefore included a filming need: giving the performer material with which to prepare an action. The music had to work for the character singing in front of a camera within the fiction itself.
These examples show different needs within the same profession. A recording may be chosen from the writing stage and require later negotiation. In another case, material has to be prepared so the actor can practice before filming. Supervision connects those needs with the film’s schedule and keeps the exchange going with those who have to work on the music.
Editing and record release add other kinds of work
Trying a piece against images makes it possible to assess where it enters, how long it lasts, and what can be heard around it. That work connects music supervision with the editing and sound team. The version used in an early test may require later adjustments; the scene needs the music to establish a specific relationship with the voices and the other sounds. An artistic choice thus passes through several hands before it reaches the viewer.
Third Man Records announced its vinyl edition of the soundtrack to The Hateful Eight on December 18, 2015. The label founded by Jack White presented a double LP with printed material from the film. Jack White and Third Man’s relationship to this edition corresponds to the record release. The label puts a recording into circulation and prepares its physical presentation; that work keeps Morricone’s composition distinct.
Orchestras are also part of these collaborations. The Czech National Symphony Orchestra documents its work on The Hateful Eight and a special session at Abbey Road in a statement from December 18, 2015. Morricone conducted the ensemble there in a recording of music from the film made directly for vinyl. Tarantino, Kurt Russell, and Walton Goggins attended the event.
The session was presented as an activity tied to the release. That distinction makes it possible to separate a performance recorded for a specific occasion from the full recording history of a soundtrack. Sharing a composer and repertoire does not automatically make two sessions the same event.
The case brings musicians into a conversation that often stops at the score writer. They are the ones who perform the notes and respond to conducting directions during the take. The result preserves performance choices as well as the musical writing: a work can be recognized in different versions and, at the same time, acquire its own nuances in each performance.