“Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)” is the New “Lux Aeterna (Winter)”

2010 November 29
tags: , , ,
by CajoleJuice

A couple of coincidences first:

- Obviously, both “Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)” and “Lux Aeterna (Winter)” have parenthesis in their titles.

- The trailer for Sunshine used the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer remix of “Lux Aeterna” — which is the overused version.

Since I’m pretty sure I’ve never posted the song on here before, I might as well do it now:

It’s a terrific song, and one that fit the ultimate sacrifice which it scored in the film. It was a death that happened in possibly the most epic way possible — incineration by the sun. A very similar arrangement of the song was also used by John Murphy himself in Kick-Ass, albeit somewhat effectively during a slow-motion rescue scene. Tonight on The Walking Dead, it was used during an RV and station wagon road trip montage. Not exactly the same type of impact there.

The song was also used in a recent trailer that I needed to look up on Wikipedia to remember — The Adjustment Bureau. And apparently an arrangement was also used in the last scene of the season finale of V.  I guess the people behind the music for these trailers and TV shows have figured they’ve drained one well and it’s time to make everyone sick of another song. I just hope they never start using “Death is the Road to Awe“, which I prefer to both.

Related posts:

  1. “Sunshine” Trailer: Stunning
  2. Your Song of the Week Returns – 4/12/11
  3. Infinity Ward Has Made Me Care About Gaming Again

from → Movies, Music

  • http://www.nakedsushi.net/ nakedsushi

    When I saw the post title, I thought it was going to be about Adagio for strings, which I hear *everywhere* but always just makes me think of the William Defoe scene in Platoon. Adagio in Dm sounds familiar, but luckily I can’t pair any movie scene or trailer for it, so maybe I just don’t watch enough TV these days. I really liked Lux Aeterna in Requiem and thought it matched the movie really well but I’m with you in the overuse in trailers. When I hear it, I just keep thinking the trailer’s some parody now.

    • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

      Have you seen Sunshine? If you haven’t, then I’d understand not having heard it or not making particular note of it, especially since I think we’re only at the beginning of its overuse in trailers and TV shows.

      • http://www.nakedsushi.net/ nakedsushi

        GD-it. I watched Sunshine based on this awesome song and it f-ed me up. I thought it was going to be some sci-fi action movie and instead it turned out into a slasher/monster movie. But that wasn’t the scary part. The single frames of CRAZY FACE flashing during quiet times are freaky!

      • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

        Perhaps I should have warned you about that awful tone shift. I’ve definitely mentioned it somewhere on this blog, but it really cannot be stated enough. The final act is so immensely disappointing. And yes, once those single frames started flashing, I had a feeling I was in for some freaky (and terrible, based on other impressions) stuff.

  • Justin

    Bought the entire album off itunes because this song was album only

    fuck you itunes

    • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

      It’s an OK soundtrack, but this is easily the standout. It’s not The Fountain or TRON: Legacy soundtrack.

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  • opalexian

    I never quite got into the TRON soundtrack, but The Fountain? I had to buy a CD for my car because it was so amazing (and maybe I was a weee bit lazy too >_> )

  • opalexian

    Would love to see an update on this post since ‘Adagio’ has become, along with various pieces from Inception, one of the biggest go-to pieces of trailer music in the last decade. o_O