Dune: Part Two

The steady turn from summer blockbuster trailers to holiday release window fare continues with Warner Bros’ drop for the first trailer for Dune: Part Two this past week. With 2021’s first foray earning well over twice its budget, it’s certain to be a winner in the studio’s roster this year; moreover, unlike its predecessor, Part Two will enjoy an exclusivity window in theatres before presumably making its way to Warner’s streaming offering, to be rebranded as MAX.

The franchise, starring Timothée Chalamet, also has Hans Zimmer back at the helm for composition duties, continuing the blend of orchestral, choral, and synth-backed mystery and power that permeated the first film. Indeed, director Denis Villeneuve and Zimmer noted how the music would need to borrow from and lean heavily on the stylings of sacred instrumental music, in addition to the spiritual choral music. In particular, featuring female voices is in line with the strong female characters in the story, including mother Jessica and partner Chani. The last primary component in this heady arrangement is the inclusion of hybrid, new instrumental sounds of Zimmer’s conception, to lend to and emphasize the otherworldliness of Dune.

Given this artistically and commercially successful musical formula for Dune’s first part, then, we’re left with few surprises for its sequel’s trailer. In the first twenty seconds we’re treated to a variety of chimes, harp, woodwinds, and others, generally leaving the impression of the Phrygian mode (think of playing from E to E on the white keys of the piano). Believed to have originated in the area now part of Turkey, the mode lends a general sense of mystery and intrigue owing to its lowered second scale degree—a melodic quality absent in most day- to-day music. At 0:25 we hear an emphasis on the aforementioned female spiritual vocal, and at 0:32 we hear a strong entry for some kind of folk percussion instrument. Notice how at 0:44 this percussion gets pushed to the front of the mix just as we see a weapon firing on screen—not an exact synch point, but a semblance or suggestion of one. This happens again at 0:51, only with the vocal—clearly the character on screen isn’t the diegetic source of the vocal, but it’s also clearly more than a coincidence.

This montage segment is abruptly ended with the diegetic sound and image of a woman gasping, in a close-up shot, which then leads to the title card of the director and what sounds like sand. The emphasis on diegetic sounds continues for the next scene, with the soundtrack eventually creeping back around 1:18 to subtly emphasize the action. We then get a not-so- subtle build-up and climax in the soundtrack, sounding like a steadily more chaotic tempest of sound, culminating seamlessly in the diegetic sound of howling wind.

The orchestra swells on a single chord at 1:35, swelling with intensity in tandem with the next action sequence. At 1:41, all of these strands come together as the aforementioned female vocals strike out on a searing melody, with the orchestra supporting and epic percussion really driving home a sense of momentum.

We cannot sign off without mentioning one troubling aspect of the soundtrack: the cliché of the female orientalist chant that vocalizes in an unknown language. Perhaps Villeneuve wants to draw parallels between Dune and the Middle East, yet this musical cliché has been appropriated too often in film to signify terrorism that its sounding here leaves us feeling uneasy.

Dune: Part Two arrives in theatres November 3rd.

— Curtis Perry