In Tenzing, audiences are transported to Mount Everest through the film’s original music, which features elements of its Nepali setting.
At Deadline’s Sound & Screen Film, the film’s composer Rebekka Karijord presented original music from the Jennifer Peedom-helmed biographical drama about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s historic 1953 ascent of the Himalayan summit, explaining how Everest served as “the main character” for her music.
“I had the privilege of getting on really early with this film, and I really prefer that because then I can read the script and see the imagery before it’s interpreted,” she explained. “And what happened then is I felt very early on that the main character in the music is the mountain, because if we nail that beauty and danger and magnetism, then we understand why these people are drawn to climbing it.”
Karijord added, “And for me, that’s not about some sort of colonial, macho conquering. It’s a spiritual journey in this film and a deep understanding of the Sherpa people, the indigenous people of nature and the interaction with it. So, that was my entrance.”
In addition to using Nepali instruments and a local choir, Karijord explained how she included the sounds of their surroundings in the music.
“I had an incredible collaboration with Jennifer Peedom, the director,” she said. “She’s really good with music, and early on, I got in contact with the sound recordist. I got to work with people on set to collect sounds from Tenzing’s world: yak bells, prayer wheels, flags, streams, footsteps, breath.”
Using those sounds to create a sonic palette, Karijord then wrote a melody to go on top that. “Then I got to know that Dawa [Sonam], that plays his wife, is a Tibetan opera singer,” she recounted.
“So, she’s singing. You heard her a bit. She’s singing throughout the score. We picked out one line, and I wrote a melody for that, that became kind of a siren of the summit, what calls him,” noted Karijord. “And then there’s also a nun called Ani Choying Drolma, who’s a legendary singer, who contributed. At the very end, she came in, and that kind of was the musical blessing and the cultural blessing for me.”
Check out the panel conversation in the video above.
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