A long-time friend and collaborator of Wes Craven, Beltrami scored seven of the director's films including all four films in the Scream franchise (1996–2011). He has also worked closely with directors such as James Mangold, Guillermo del Toro, Tommy Lee Jones, Alex Proyas, Len Wiseman, John Moore, Jonathan Levine, and John Krasinski.
Beltrami has been nominated for two Academy Awards for 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and The Hurt Locker (2008), and a Golden Globe Award for A Quiet Place (2018). He won a Satellite Award for Soul Surfer (2011).
Beltrami was born on Long Island, New York, of Italian and Greek descent. He attended Ward Melville High School, and afterwards, graduated from Brown University and studied at the Yale School of Music, and then moved west to the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where he studied under composer Jerry Goldsmith.
A few classical commissions and USC student films aside, Beltrami scored his first feature in 1994, the thriller Death Match for director Joe Coppolletta, and reached a higher level of public acclaim in 1996 when he wrote the score for Wes Craven's smash hit shocker Scream. Since then, Beltrami has become firmly entrenched as a composer of choice for the horror/thriller and action genre, with the Scream sequels and hit films such as Mimic (1997), The Faculty (1998), Angel Eyes (2001), Joy Ride (2001), Resident Evil (2002), which he co-composed with Marilyn Manson, Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), I, Robot (2004) and Red Eye (2005) featuring prominently in his resume. Apart from horror/thriller and action, he also scores certain independent films such as The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and Tommy Lee Jones' The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his score for the film David and Lisa in 1998, indicating a desire to spread his musical wings beyond the bounds of his genre pigeonholing.
He has composed the recent entries in the Die Hard saga, Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard, taking over from Michael Kamen from whom Beltrami used some of the original themes from the previous three films due to Kamen's death in 2003. Beltrami earned an Academy Award nomination for his work on James Mangold's acclaimed 2007 western remake, 3:10 to Yuma. Despite having met a mixed critical response, he was also nominated, alongside Buck Sanders, for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Original Score for his score to The Hurt Locker. In 2011, he was met with critical praise and won a Satellite Award for Best Original Score for his score to the drama film Soul Surfer. Beltrami composed the soundtrack for Pierce Brosnan's 2014 spy film November Man. He co-composed the score for the 2015 Fantastic Four film with Philip Glass.
Beltrami's signature style is based around highly percussive texture. He often employs both traditional percussive instruments such as bass drums, as well as violins and brass instruments, forming layers of hits and stabs.
La Terre Tremblante
Marco Beltrami Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Piégeurs, voleurs des âmes
Les attrapes sont mises pour les innocents
Gambleurs, éviteurs des blâmes Descends
Allons
Descends
Dans l′eau saumâtre
Reviens
Reviens
A la terre tremblante
Les voleurs, ça met leurs appâts sur la ligne
La bouteille, la fierté et l′argent
Ça voit pas qu'ils sont piégés pour toujours
Dedans un fil étranglant
Descends
Allons
Descends
Dans l'eau saumâtre
Reviens
C′est rien
Reviens
A la terre tremblante
The lyrics of Marco Beltrami's "La Terre Tremblante" present a metaphorical depiction of the treacherous waters of life, in which people can become like mere puppets or victims caught in the snares of others. The song speaks of fishermen and thieves that cast their lines like spiders in a web, trapping innocent souls or those who seek to escape blame. The lyrics suggest that there are traps and lures that are set for people, whether they are conscious of them or not, and that these can lead to entrapment and even death.
The repetitive refrain of "Descends, allons, descends, dans l'eau saumâtre, reviens, c'est rien, reviens, à la terre tremblante" (Descend, let's go, descend, into the brackish water, come back, it's nothing, come back, to the trembling land) serves as the anchoring theme of the piece, underscoring the cyclical nature of life, where people can easily become stuck in their struggles but must learn to return to the earth to find stability. The final lines of the song reflect a sense of resignation or acceptance of one's fate, that the earth will keep shaking no matter what comes.
Overall, Marco Beltrami's "La Terre Tremblante" encourages listeners to be aware of the lures and traps that surround them, to avoid putting themselves in danger's way, and to recognize that ultimately, they must find a way to return to the solid ground of the earth to find stability.
Line by Line Meaning
Les pêcheurs mettent leurs lignes comme des araignées
Fishermen cast their lines like spider webs
Piégeurs, voleurs des âmes
Trappers, thieves of souls
Les attrapes sont mises pour les innocents
Traps are set for the innocent
Gambleurs, éviteurs des blâmes
Gamblers, avoiders of blame
Descends
Descend
Allons
Let's go
Descends
Descend
Dans l′eau saumâtre
Into the brackish water
Reviens
Come back
C'est rien
It's nothing
Reviens
Come back
A la terre tremblante
To the trembling land
Les voleurs, ça met leurs appâts sur la ligne
Thieves put their bait on the line
La bouteille, la fierté et l′argent
The bottle, pride, and money
Ça voit pas qu'ils sont piégés pour toujours
They don't see that they're trapped forever
Dedans un fil étranglant
In a strangling line
Writer(s): Marco Beltrami, Dirk Powell
Contributed by Lila N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.