Campion recruited
Jonny Greenwood to compose the score for
The Power of the Dog. Speaking to the Variety, she said "He thought a lot about instruments and creating a palette for the instruments in the way that designers often do". While writing the score, Greenwood rendered the 1920s
music of Montana as uncanny, foreboding rhythms which feel essential to the film's mix of oddity and dread in the concluding moments, that culminates "a disquieting cascade of disparate notes". Greenwood said "I’m a big fan of these musical scales that are called modes of limited transposition. As well as major and minor scales, you have modes. And some modes are more interesting than others. The one used there has four different tonal centers, so it’s like having four keys at once—which means that you never really resolve harmonically to the home chord." Greenwood used a computer-controlled mechanical piano, and for scoring it he bought a piano tuning wrench, as he could detune the strings while playing. He made use of the programming software:
Max/MSP to modify the sound and pitch. The instrument suited for the character, Rose, as "not only is her story wrapped up in the instrument, but it was also a good texture for her gradual mental unraveling". For creating themes for Phil, Greenwood used horns and dark strings seemed a good direction to go in. He did not use violins for scoring, and instead stuck to the lower sounds of cellos and violas. Calling about this approach, Greenwood said that "This film has such an unusual tone: Me playing pastiche American folk music would never suit all the repressed conflict or Phil’s dark, angry intelligence". == Release ==