Songs and original music in Rocketman (Dexter Fletcher, 2019): a musical continuum for an emotional immersion into the psyche of Elton John

Abstract

Focusing on the life of Elton John in his early career, the biographical musical film Rocketman is regularly punctuated by the singer-songwriter’s songs performed in diegetic, parenthetic, contrapuntal and supradiegetic modes in arrangements by Giles Martin. The narrative device also includes a large score composed by Matthew Margeson within which the songs are born, frozen or resorbed. Forgoing the traditional approach of composing original musical themes for specific characters or situations, the composer has taken his compositional material directly from the songs. Like Elton John who immerses into his memories during psychoanalysis sessions, splitting himself in two to observe his youthful «self», the music finds itself at the heart of a distancing process. In this perspective, the music proposes three types of distancing: distancing from the original voice –Taron Egerton’s complete reinterpretation of the songs–, distancing from the original versions –Giles Martin’s sometimes considerable rearrangements–, and distancing through the original music, which privileges a contemplative approach contrasting with the songs.