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When Aronofsky approached him about the film, Mansell had just seen a production of the
ballet in London. “I was knocked out by it as a live, visceral experience, and I thought, ‘this is going to
be cool,’” he recalls.
In creating the score, Mansell was faced with an intriguing challenge with how to be true to
Tchaikovsky’s timeless legacy while creating a distinctive sonic environment for Nina’s dark, modern
journey. “It was a tremendous privilege to work with Tchaikovsky’s fantastic piece of music. I had the
deepest respect for it, but I also felt I had to have no boundaries, that I had to really go for it,” the
composer says. “I really hope that in the end, people won’t think ‘oh that part is Tchaikovsky and that
other part isn’t.’ I hope it’s a journey of the two woven together to become a new take on ‘Swan
Lake.’”
Mansell’s idea was that Tchaikovsky’s lyrical masterpiece would, in a sense, haunt Nina,
following her, altering and shifting into something stranger and stormier, as she becomes more and
more overtaken by her role as the Swan Queen.
“The music is always referencing Tchaikovsky or echoing it in some way,” Mansell explains.
“Tchaikovsky was always the foundation, but then I started experimenting.”
The process grew more personal as it intensified. “Tchaikovsky’s score is so wonderfully
complex and there’s so much going on in it, it tells the story in every note,” Mansell observes. “But
modern film scores are more subdued, more minimalist if you will, so I had to almost deconstruct the
ballet. I broke it down into certain rhythms, progressions and melodies, and then rebuilt those into the
score for the film. As I continued writing, the score took in more of the way I hear music with more
atonal and discordant elements that bring out the suspense and turmoil.”
Mansell also worked with the music’s organic elements to mirror Nina’s subconscious and her
passage into corridors of paranoia, overwhelming desire and fear. “It wasn’t hard to dial in that element
of terror,” he notes, “because Tchaikovsky’s music is already so powerful and expressive. Ballets back
then were like films today, they were written to take people on an imaginative trip.”
Before production even began, Mansell wrote portions of the score so that the film’s ballet
sequences could be shot to the music then later, he began writing to picture as dailies started coming in,
providing fresh inspiration. At last, he traveled to London for the final recording sessions, where he
heard the score performed for the first time by a 77-piece orchestra. “When the music takes on a life of
its own in the hands of great musicians, that’s breathtaking,” says Mansell.
Aronofsky was exhilarated by what Mansell created. “This is some of the most extraordinary
work I’ve heard from Clint,” says the director. “You feel Tchaikovsky everywhere but it also feels
new. It’s eerie, mesmerizing and beautiful.”
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