Do you ever wonder how the tracks found on soundtracks got their names?
The art of assigning track names in a soundtrack recording is a unique and sometimes challenging task. There seem to be at least three different existing ways of naming individual tracks on a soundtrack recording.
1. The John Williams method. (Let me first say that John Williams is my hero! This method does not intend to be derogatory to the Maestro in any way. But back to the methods…) The JW method of naming tracks is rather obvious. It assigns names to each track in such a way that you can determine the plot of the whole movie by just reading the back of the CD. For example, from ‘Return of the Jedi‘ like: ‘The Death of Yoda, The Emperor’s Death, and Darth Vader’s Death all seem to oh-so-subtly hint to a certain ending. (A lot of people must die. 
)There are other less obvious and more effective ways of implementing this method but over all, it remains the least creative of the methods.
2. The Howard Shore method. Similar to method 1, it also names each track related to it’s place in the movie. However, this method has much more finesse and subtlety. Rather than spoil the plot by a simple flip of a CD case, it disguises the story line by making an abstract reference to the movie, naming the track after a certain character, or even using the actual chapter titles from its corresponding book as tracks names. Take ‘The Two Towers‘ : ‘Foundations Of Stone‘, ‘The Rider’s of Rohan‘, and ‘The White Rider‘, for example. Unless you have a very good memory, you likely would have a more difficult time deriving the actual plot from this method of track naming. Overall, it’s a bit more creative than method 1.
Perhaps an example of why this is important could be illustrated in a case of the opposite. Hans Zimmer’s/James Newton Howard’s Batman Begins soundtrack was very difficult to assimilate because the name of each track didn’t correspond with material from the film– but after a different species of bat (…wait for it…) in Latin. ["So, what's your favorite track in Batman Begins?" "um..." Exactly]
And finally:
3. The Michael Giacchino method. This method, my personal favorite, is hugely satirical and punny in nature and more often than not carries a double meaning. One is able to be a music nerd and get away with it because most people will not notice the jokes or better yet, they enjoy them. Giacchino’s scores for the Lost TV series had some very creative names from the onset: ‘The Eyeland‘ ‘Departing Sun‘ & ‘Thinking Clairely‘.
Even his more recent score for Star Trek had some very interesting track titles. Particularly track 3′s ‘Labor of Love‘ & 4′s ‘Hella Bar Talk‘, which bears striking resemblance to 20th century composer, Bela Bartok. A close second would be track 3 from John Debney’s Cutthroat Island, ‘Purcell Snatcher‘, where a main character nabs a purse during a baroque-esque dance.
(And you thought composers didn’t have a sense of humor…)
Did I miss a method or two? Sound out another method of track naming (both serious or funny) in the comments…
that is pretty funny… I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard that the Hans Zimmer/Klaus Badelt album for the first Pirates of the Caribbean was done before the plot was finalized, so the names for the tracks were picked almost at random and have no correlation with the actual movie scenes
Interesting theory. Actually Alan Silvestri was originally hired to do the score but was let go late in the process. The studio turned to Remote Control to do a quick fix. Zimmer ended up writing the themes and handing them to Badelt to finish off in less than a months time. A remarkable feat to say the least. And risky. In this case however, it became a classic over night. So, no, the music was not written before the scenes were shot.
It is also popular to name tracks based upon the form they are in. For instance in POTC, Moonlight Serenade seems to be in the form of a serenade dance. Maybe there should be a 4th Zimmer method…