Frida is the original soundtrack album, on the Universal label, of the 2002 Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning film Frida starring Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Mía Maestro and Ashley Judd. The original score was composed by Elliot Goldenthal. The soundtrack features songs by various artists.

The score

The album won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. At the World Soundtrack Awards it won two awards: "Best Original Soundtrack of the Year" and "Soundtrack Composer of the Year". In Frida, the approach I took scoring the music is that of melodic intimacy (scoring with melodies or tunes as opposed to motific fragments). To achieve additional intimacy I choose a small ensemble of acoustic instruments: the small Mexican guitar (Vihuela), standard classical guitar, Mexican bass guitar (guitarron), accordion, Mexican harp, marimba, and glass armonica (a Benjamin Franklin invention). I found that the guitars provided the full range of lyricism and percussion I needed. Mexican music cannot be generalized, it varies greatly from one region to the next, but in its folkloric music there is a certain harmonic fingerprint, the use of consecutive thirds and a proud avoidance of over-complex harmonies. I found that if I adhered to this essential harmonic signature, and stayed very honest with my melodies, the movie invited me in.

• Elliot Goldenthal

Track listing

Crew/Credit

Certifications and sales