The 2016 film “La La Land” helped to rekindle the world’s affinity for jazz music through its storyline as well as its spellbinding soundtrack, which won the Academy Awards for Best Original Score. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, it tells the story of a struggling pianist and an aspiring actress who fall in love while chasing their dreams in Los Angeles.
The soundtrack revolves around a signature melody called “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme,” which reappears throughout the movie. It serves as a central musical identity for the film, driving home the tender and heartwarming connection that the two lovers share.
“La La Land” composer Justin Hurwitz hit upon the melody after long writing sessions at the piano with writer and director Damien Chazelle.
“That was me spending a lot of time at the piano, demo after demo,” Hurwitz told Wisconsin Public Radio. “This was really important because it was so emotionally integral to the story. As soon as I came up with that melody, it was clear that it was the one. It was like an ‘A-ha!’ moment for Damien and I.”
The lilting waltz recurs throughout the film and evolves in meaning as the story progresses. First, we hear it as Gosling’s character, Sebastian, plays it during a gig at a restaurant. He should be playing simple background music, but he decides to play the music that’s in his heart. Hurwitz explains it as representing his yearning for romance and professional fulfillment.
“I think of it as Sebastian baring his soul when you first hear it,” Hurwitz adds. “Then it represents Mia and Sebastian’s relationship since it’s the song that made Mia fall in love with him. It has a lot of yearning, pain and joy in it. There’s a sweetness. I love to hear how it affects people.”
On the original soundtrack, “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme” begins with solo piano. It adds strings before a rubato piano fill that culminates in a full orchestration. However, the piano sits squarely as the focal point of the song and the film.
Leiki Ueda decided to follow that idea with a solo piano arrangement of “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme,” although he gave the song his own twist. Ueda arranged the song to have more classical flair. As one YouTube commenter wrote, it is as “if Liszt wrote ‘Mia and Sebastian’s Theme.'”
His version keeps the melody intact while expanding on the accompaniment in the left hand. Namely, he adds more movement and arpeggios to flesh out the full arrangement. Ueda also employs more classical phrasing to draw a different emotion out of each line.
No matter the arrangement, the music of “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme” touches on something that is central to “La La Land” and, more deeply, our relationships and lives.
“It’s a movie about how we grow and we improve ourselves,” Hurwitz concludes. “We’re on these journeys, but not everything works out. It’s finding the beauty and pain in life. That’s what the movie’s about.”
