Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (soundtrack)

In September 2011, Nico Muhly was brought to score music for the film, after working with Daldry as a co-ordinator to Philip Glass, who composed for The Hours (2002), and also scored The Reader (2008).^[1] Due to creative differences, Muhly left the project and was replaced by Alexandre Desplat, the following month.^[2] Since Desplat had numerous commitments completing and The Ides of March and Carnage, and wanted to commit for Stephen Frears' Lay the Favorite (2012), he had a gap in his schedule. But when the offer came, he agreed to score for the film as he felt Daldry was a director he want to work with, leaving the commitments for Lay the Favorite to James Seymour Brett.^[3]

Desplat committed that the "story is about sorrow and loss – a child loses his father. It's a contemporary tragedy much like a Greek one that you can transpose into any period, a universal story",^[4] he felt the subject was "demanding" and had to "find emotion and sentiment in the music".^[5] Hence, he used an extremely fast piano, and also used two pianos on top of each other to heighten the emotions of the film. Desplat scored over an hour of music within three weeks.^[4]

Brent Simon of Screen International complimented that the score from Desplat "delights in unexpectedly allusive ways".^[6] Matt Goldberg of Collider and Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called the score as "moving" and "multi-flavored".^[7][8] Richard Props of The Independent Critic called it as "soaringly annoying".^[9] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club commented "director Stephen Daldry slathers on Alexandre Desplat's prodding score—he did the same with Philip Glass in The Hours—and makes a motif out of a body falling from one of the Twin Towers. It's all very tasteful, he presumes."^[10] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com called the score as "minimalistic".^[11] Justin Craig of Fox News called the score as "delicate".^[12]

Credits adapted from CD liner notes.^[13]