Lakeshore Records will release The Boy - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on January 22 and on CD February 19, 2016. The album features the film's original score by Bear McCreary with the original song "In My Dream," written and produced by Brendan McCreary and performed by Fyfe Monroe.
"The film's success comes from the audience following Greta on her journey of discovery. She begins skeptical that Brahms [the boy] is alive, as any sensible person would be," said McCreary. "This was the character arc I wanted to highlight with the score: Greta's growing relationship with Brahms, and her transformation from skeptic to believer. I knew that if this character arc works, the film works."
cCreary began by creating musical themes for each of these characters. Greta's theme, melodic, introspective and brooding, sets the mood in the film's opening. "The solo piano and large orchestral strings create a gothic mood, evoking the old English countryside home that serves as the film's setting," he described. "And yet, the simple waltz melody also suggests that Greta has an inner vulnerability, perhaps even a secret. The whole sequence is beautifully shot and edited, and the score helps draw the audience into the world of the film, before even a line of dialog is uttered."
The theme McCreary created for Brahms was inspired by Johannes Brahms' Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht—popularly known as Brahms' Lullaby. "This melody makes a couple brief cameos in the film itself, with Greta tinkering on the harpsichord," he said. He also incorporated the melody into Brahms' theme. McCreary believed that finding the right sound for Brahms' theme was critical. "I sampled an antique music box, a gift from an old friend, for a frail, plunky sound. I then layered in detuned pianos, autoharps, dulcimers, ethnic bells, celeste, glockenspiel and harp, panning them around the mix. The creaky, off-kilter music box sound was the result of hours of tinkering with live instruments and samples, ironically the most time-consuming aspect of the score."
The Boy will be released in theatres on January 22, 2015.