15 Heart-Achingly Beautiful Movie Scores

By Jack Moulton /

2. Up

Your heart is aching already upon mention of those two letters. Up€™s famous/infamous opening, almost a short film on its own, entitled €˜Married Life€™ always tops lists on most tear-jerking scenes. While the content is incredibly sad, it€™s the music that brings out the tears. The score is gentle, expectedly breezy for a film of this subject. It ebbs and flows with the emotion, featuring simple piano and string lead melodies. The title sequence has a cool jazz influence, but mostly it has a waltz-inspired style, though when they visit the jungle it introduces tribal rhythms. It€™s all as if it comes from the 30s, mirroring the period from which the film€™s grumpy protagonist hails from. With its old time feel, it€™s quite like an ode to classic Disney. Composer Michael Giacchino, who also wrote the score for Lost and Ratatouille, won an Oscar for his work here.