The Mummy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2017 film "The Mummy" directed by Alex Kurtzman, which is the reboot of the "Mummy" franchise, starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, and Russell Crowe. The original score is composed by Brian Tyler and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Choir. It was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios for around two-and-a-half years.
The soundtrack consisted of 21 tracks which runs for 74 minutes and released through Back Lot Music on June 9, 2017, concurrent with the film's release. An accompanying deluxe edition, which included an additional 15 tracks that extended its runtime for around two hours, released a week later.
Development.
The musical score is composed by Brian Tyler who worked with Alex Kurtzman on several projects. Tyler found it challenging to work on the score, as the film combines adventure and horror, something he never tried. He started working on the film's music even before the production began. It took him nearly a year-and-half to complete the score, ultimately recording over two hours of the film's music, which, given the duration of the film (110 minutes), resulted in a soundtrack that was longer than the film itself. Tyler added that "there was more music than they could actually put in the theatrical version". Hence, he composed extra themes for the mythology and backstory of the ancient Egypt and had composed different melodic themes which were traditional so that it could clarify the narrative.
The score was also linked to the classic scores from "The Mummy" franchise which had provided a vague sense of ancient Egypt and utilized choir to invoke a sense of mystery and evil. He also instructed the choir to sing Egyptian words and phrases so that would relate to the history, referencing Hans J. Salter's work for "The Mummy's Hand" (1940). The "plodding, quarter-note cyclical theme" was a nod to James Dietrich, the composer of the 1932 original film, and the middle Eastern combination of wordless choir was also a nod to Franz Reizenstein's score for the 1959 British remake. He also used a reference of Jerry Goldsmith's score for the 1999 film in a sequence when Jenny (Annabelle Wallis) uses the Book of the Dead as a weapon in a brief scene in the film, as a throwaway, although a key plot element in the 1999 film.
Tyler utilized several ancient Middle Eastern musical instruments such as ney, mizmar, sistrum and qanun. He also played Egyptian percussion, something which he tried for the television series "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune". He also emphasized on orchestral music to provide all elements of a classic film and a classic kind of style score. Recorded at the Abbey Road Studios, London, Tyler conducted the score performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra which featured 84 musicians playing the orchestral pieces. Allan Wilson conducted the 32-member choir performed by London Philharmonic Choir. Tyler performed the score at the film-music concert held at Royal Festival Hall in May 2016, which further saw the attendance of Cruise and Boutella.
Reception.
Jonathan Broxton of "Movie Music UK" called "Brian Tyler has set the bar high with his score for this film [...] It's got themes, it's got blazing action, it's got a full orchestra and choir, and it overflows with creativity. Really, what more could you want?" James Southall of "Movie Wave" wrote "The Mummy is a tremendous piece of entertainment. The pair of main themes gives it a melodically memorable core, a quality which can't be understated in 2017." "Filmtracks" wrote "This score isn't Tyler's best, but it resides in that higher echelon for him, and the suites at the very least make for some of the most entertaining fantasy music to come from the composer in years." Robert Abele of "TheWrap" called it as a "charging, insisting score like the rote groans from a factory."
Personnel.
Credits adapted from liner notes: