Rachel Portman
Awards and Honours[edit]
Portman received the Anthony Asquith Award from the British Film Institute for her score for The Storyteller.[11]
In 1996, she became the first female composer to win an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Emma.[5] She was also the first female composer to win a Primetime Emmy Award, which she received for the film, Bessie (2015). She has received two further Academy Nominations for The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000), which also earned her a Golden Globe Nomination.
Her film scores embrace a variety of styles, although she is best known for composing clear, string-dominated textures, often shaded with lyrical woodwind lines. She orchestrates much of her own music, but also works closely with orchestrator Jeff Atmajian. Although Portman gained renown as a composer for romantic comedies, her versatility is reflected in the many genres she has explored, which range from serious drama to psychological thriller, such as The Cider House Rules, for which she also received an Academy Award nomination in 2000.[5]
On 19 May 2010, she was given the Richard Kirk Award at the BMI Film & TV Awards for her contributions to film and television music. Portman is the first woman to receive the honour.[12]
Portman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.[13] She also is an honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal College of Music.
In 2015, Portman received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special for her work on Bessie. In 2022, she was honoured with the Career Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival.
Portman's original score for CNN biopic, Julia, won the Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition at "Documentary Night" of the 44th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
Collaborations[edit]
Portman collaborated Lasse Hallstörm on The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Her scores for director Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998) and Manchurian Candidate (2004) are especially striking; both scores depart from her more familiar orchestral sound. In particular, Beloved features solo voice, chorus, and African instruments instead of full orchestra.[5]
She has collaborated on several projects with the BBC.[5][10][7]
Writing process[edit]
Portman describes her process for composing a film score as follows: "I step in when all of the elements of the film are close to completion. I start to extract from those elements the world in which the music should live. It's very important for me to spend a long time just soaking myself in the film. Because the music has to fit the scenes, I watch each scene again and again, to look at the pace of the film, and to see how long each scene is. For me, composing is completely intuitive. The thing that gets me going is emotion".[14]
For Portman, melodies are the most important element in any music score. In her soundtracks, she structures her compositions around one main melodic idea: "Whenever I’m starting a film, if it’s gonna need a melody, I’ve got to crack that melody. And that becomes the thing on which to hang the whole score, from which you take everything else. All other branches come off it. So that was the first thing I wrote … To start and end with it, and to touch on it as you go through the film. It’s like the musical voice of the film, the main musical voice". Portman’s scores are based on one main motif, which is then extrapolated into subsidiary themes.[15]
Portman also states that "the purpose of a film score is to illuminate the story", and for this reason she consciously uses the timbrical palette in her orchestrations: "‘Instruments have colour. For instance, I like using the clarinet because it can be happy and sad, although not as sad as an oboe, and not as romantic as a flute".[15] Regarding the relation between the music and the scene, Portman explains: "I think brilliant composing can stand on its own. If you take the film away, buy the CD, and bring it home and listen to it, it has to work. Originality is important as well - something that's fresh, unexpected. When I watch and listen to a movie, i want to be surprised and dazzled".[14]