Development

When approached to score Oppenheimer, Göransson was initially intimidated by the scope and magnitude of the project.^[8] In the film's early stages of production, Nolan shared the script with his visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson as he needed to convey phenomena such as quantum mechanics and nuclear reactions onscreen.^[9][10] The visual effects team began creating experimental footage of particles, waves, and chain reactions. Nolan then showed this footage to Göransson, who used it to draw inspiration for his score.^[11][12]

Scoring Oppenheimer proved to be a unique challenge for Göransson as he had never composed a soundtrack that only represented one character's inner workings and point of view.^[8][11] He later explained, "The movie is about [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s perspective; the audience is meant to feel what he’s feeling, to see what he’s seeing, to be inside of him. That’s what the music needed to do — it needed to get the audience to feel all of his feelings as you see on screen."^[13]

Nolan did not give specific direction on how he wanted the score to sound; the only suggestion he gave Göransson was to represent Oppenheimer's character and the film's main theme with the violin.^[8][11] Nolan explained, "There's a tension to the sound in a way that I think fits the highly-strung intellect and emotion of Robert Oppenheimer very well."^[14] Using the violin as a starting point, Göransson and his wife Serena, a violinist, began experimenting with vibratos and microtonal glissandos;^[15][16] they aimed to convey the anxiety of Oppenheimer through the violin's ability to instantly switch from a romantic and sentimental sound to something "neurotic" and "horrifying."^[14][17]

For the "Can You Hear the Music" sequence, Nolan wanted a piece that would emulate Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, which he called "one of the best pieces of music ever written." Early in production, Nolan and Göransson attended a performance of The Rite of Spring by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.^[18]

Composition

Göransson's score comprises three overarching movements: Oppenheimer's background in physics, the Manhattan Project, and the Atomic Energy Commission hearing. The score begins with lush melodies by strings, harps, and piano as Oppenheimer explores theory and begins his career as a physicist.^[15][17] The core of Oppenheimer's theme is a hexatonic scale that can be heard as a leitmotif throughout the film, beginning in the piece "Can You Hear the Music".^[19] As the score transitions into the second movement, the tone shifts as the atomic bomb is being built, with the increased stakes being amplified by thumping bass and metallic ticking sounds.^[16][20] Göransson was careful not to veer his score toward sounding "booming," especially in the film's second act, as he believed that if the score was too explosive, the detonations in the film wouldn't have as much of an impact on the audience.^[21]

Before [the second act], it's just theories, it's just scribble-downs, it's just ideas. But then when there's an actual physical bomb, you take a crazy big tonal shift and just channel that with those synths, with the impending doom. You have that thumping bass and then there's this metallic ticking sound, and that ode is up until the bomb goes off, and then you have these moments of silence, which I think is very effective.

— Ludwig Göransson^[22]

While the film is a period piece and Göransson did use instrumentation that fit with the times, he also wanted the score to feel "timeless," choosing to infuse the traditional orchestra with synthesizers and mono-production.^[20] He and Nolan also chose not to include drums in the score at the risk of it feeling militaristic, instead incorporating percussive elements such as foot stomping, ticking, and Geiger counter static.^[12][15] During the nuclear reactor sequence, Göransson had the cellists play col legno, striking the strings with the stick of their bow to create a percussive sound.^[23]

In addition to its instrumentation, Göransson conveyed the energy of the film through the score's tempo. In the piece "Can You Hear the Music", he employed 21 tempo changes—a large feat for a live orchestra.^[15] Originally, Göransson called it "unplayable" and planned to record the song bar-by-bar, but his wife encouraged him to record the song in one take.^[17] After much experimentation, the music team achieved this by playing a click into the musicians' headphones before every tempo change.^[22][23] This piece alone took three days to record.^[15][24]

In the end, we recorded music that surpassed what I believed to be humanly possible. The perplexing visuals of spinning atoms drove forty violins into a breathtaking frenzy, while courtroom scenes were scored with the intensity of a battlefield. The music’s extreme dynamic shifts, travelling from the depths of an intimately personal journey to the brink of utter destruction, are drastic, disorientating, and jarring.

— Ludwig Göransson^[8]

Recording

Unlike most cases when scoring begins in post-production, Göransson began attending weekly meetings three months before filming began, writing 10 minutes of music a week for Nolan.^[12][24] Göransson described the process as very "collaborative and open."^[8] Nolan was then able to begin filming with two to three hours of music that he could reference. Additionally, when editing began in post-production, Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame were able to use Göransson's preliminary work for the first cut of the film without the need for a temp score.^[12][15] Every Friday during the editing process, Göransson would screen the film with Nolan and Lame, and then tweak his score accordingly.^[18][25] The score took Göransson approximately nine months to complete.^[26]

The final score was performed by the Hollywood Studio Orchestra and recorded over five days at the scoring stage at Warner Bros. Studios. At its peak, the orchestra included 40 string players, eight horns, three trombones, three trumpets, one tuba, and one harp.^[23]

Promotion

To promote the soundtrack ahead of the 2024 awards season, Universal and Syncopy Inc. presented Oppenheimer: Live in Concert, a live-to-film concert experience featuring a 55-piece orchestra under the direction of Göransson, and conducted by Anthony Parnther. The concert was held at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall on January 10, 2024, and included an introduction by Nolan and Cillian Murphy. The concert was attended by 1,000 people.^[28][30]