Aimee Mann and Jon Brion (Magnolia) Magnolia
The music of Magnolia is divided between Aimee Mann's songs and Jon Brion's orchestral score, but the division is misleading -- Anderson wrote the screenplay as an adaptation of Mann's songs, and Brion scored around them. The result is a film whose music is structural rather than decorative: Mann's lyrics become character dialogue, and Brion's score provides the emotional undertow.
Anderson wrote the screenplay while listening to Mann's music on repeat
Anderson was friends with Mann and had access to unreleased demos while writing the script. He described the relationship between her songs and his screenplay in unusually direct terms.
"The music in this movie, it's so hand in hand with the creation of it, you know. They're linked. There's -- it's not an afterthought." — Paul Thomas Anderson, Fresh Air (2000)
Anderson drew a specific historical comparison to explain the depth of the integration.
"Simon and Garfunkel is to The Graduate as Aimee Mann is to Magnolia." — Paul Thomas Anderson, Wikipedia (1999)
Mann's song "Deathly" directly inspired the character of Claudia Wilson Gator. The lyric "Now that I've met you / Would you object to / Never seeing each other again" became Claudia's dialogue. "Wise Up," originally written for Jerry Maguire but cut from that film, became the centerpiece of the sing-along montage. (wikipedia)
Mann wrote two original songs for the film
Mann contributed "You Do" (based on an excised character) and "Save Me" (the closing song that plays over Claudia's smile). "Save Me" earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe, and the Grammy Award. The Magnolia soundtrack album (December 1999, Reprise Records) was certified gold in 2001. Mann's record label had initially resisted releasing her music on an album; the soundtrack changed that. (wikipedia)
Brion scored the film by improvising to the screen with Anderson watching
Jon Brion had scored Anderson's first film, Hard Eight, and agreed to work on Magnolia because Anderson was a friend. Brion was otherwise reluctant to pursue soundtrack work.
"If it wasn't for somebody like Paul, who's a friend and a compatriot, I would not have started to do it." — Jon Brion, Soundtrack! (CNMS Archive) (interview)
Brion's process was physical and improvisatory -- he played to the screen while watching Anderson's body language for confirmation.
"I'd improvise to the screen, with him sitting there. I'd find the right rhythm. I'd watch his physiology. His shoulders would scrunch up." — Jon Brion, Soundtrack! (CNMS Archive) (interview)
"When you hit on it, it's right, and it's very, very contagious. I wrote until he jumped up and down going yes yes yes!" — Jon Brion, Soundtrack! (CNMS Archive) (interview)
Brion recognized Mann's songs as inseparable from the film's structure
"I love that this movie has so much of Aimee Mann in it. Like Simon & Garfunkel in THE GRADUATE." — Jon Brion, Soundtrack! (CNMS Archive) (interview)
"The fact that Paul developed characters and used lines from the songs as dialogue. It's interwoven. It's not there as a marketing ploy." — Jon Brion, Soundtrack! (CNMS Archive) (interview)
The distinction matters: in most films, songs are applied after the fact; in Magnolia, the songs preceded the screenplay and shaped its characters. Brion's orchestral score then fills the spaces between Mann's songs, providing continuity and emotional modulation. A full score album was released in March 2000. (wikipedia)