Award winners Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone phenomenally portrayed two impassioned characters in the critically-acclaimed musical film La La Land, but the talent behind the scenes goes to the composer, Justin Hurwitz. For La La Land’s brilliant music, Hurwitz received the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Score.

The soundtrack features fifteen songs, but only a few have vocal accompaniment. Three of the fifteen are all renditions of “City of Stars” which won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

The first rendition includes a longer introduction on the piano followed by a short whistle solo from Gosling before he begins singing. His voice is beautifully sonorous at every other point, but calling for a lower voice register Gosling wavers on the lowest note. This shows as a reminder that Gosling is first and foremost a professional actor not a singer.

The second “City of Stars” is that which Gosling starts singing on the wharf in the film and is joined by Stone in their apartment. Gosling and Stone form a perfect melody when their voices finally come together half way through the song. With lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the words and tune forms a heartwarming tone.

Accompanied by a guitar instead of the traditional piano that the others start off with, the third rendition features Stone humming the tune to “City of Stars”. Her scat in the middle of the song provokes a more light hearted feeling.

Alongside “City of Stars”, “Audition (Fools Who Dream)” was also nominated for Best Original Score. Although “Audition”  starts with a simple piano tune and silly lyrics, the instrumental becomes more complex as the lyrical meaning becomes deeper. The passion in Stone’s voice matches the orchestra in a meaningful way as it becomes more confident as other instruments come in. Going out with a squeak, the song could have had a stronger ending.

Even though it does not have the most creative name, “Epilogue” compiles the major melodies from the rest of the soundtrack into an exquisite medley. Hurwitz blended it in such a way, that the music transitions from one tune to the other shortly after the listener picks up on which song it is paying homage to.

Music takes talent with everyone involved from the composer to the singers to each individual musician. Seven of the fifteen songs from the soundtrack did not even include vocal accompaniment as each instrument developed its own voice throughout the score. Most people would not think of Gosling or Stone as being musically adept, but “here’s to fools who dream”.