Gone Girl marks the third soundtrack collaboration between Reznor and Ross with Fincher, a synthesis of cinema and sound that’s starting to prove as fruitful as those of Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, or Akira Kurosawa and Toru Takemitsu. While The Social Network‘s Oscar-winning score teems and throbs like overstimulated thought and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (which won a Grammy) pulses with icy drones befitting its heroine, Gone Girl again fits its story’s mood to perfection. Only this time, the plot focuses on married couple Nick and Amy Elliott-Dunne and their seemingly placid life in the suburbs of Missouri.

As Fincher recently told The Wall Street Journal, he found himself getting his back adjusted at a spa and had a revelation: “I was listening to that calming, placating music and thought, ‘We need to tap into this.’ The movie is about the facade of the good neighbor, the good Christian, the good wife.” So the Reznor/Ross score skates across that placid surface with its gorgeous opening theme. For the early part of the soundtrack, gentle, New Age-esque themes like “Sugar Storm” seem to drift past unperturbed. But no matter how relaxing these motifs might sound, there’s always a shadow just beneath the bright surface. What can start off sounding like a picnic in the park quickly reveals a black sky. With the carefully crafted tones of Reznor and Ross, sparse and quiet themes soon deteriorate, turning barren and desolate in “Background Noise.”

Ambient beauties like “Appearances” materialize along the way, while the piano-led “Just Like You” might be Reznor’s most beautiful and fragile melody to date. But when the piano becomes submerged in electronic noise — as in “Secrets,” “Still Gone” and the thunderous “Consummation” — the duo’s motives become more evident. Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Von Trapp, whose family escaped Nazi Germany, died on Tuesday of natural causes, her brother Johannes von Trapp said, according to the New York Daily News.

“She was a lovely woman who was one of the few truly good people,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “There wasn’t a mean or miserable bone in her body. I think everyone who knew her would agree with that.”

The Associated Press writes:

“Maria von Trapp was the third child and second-oldest daughter of Austrian Naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. Their seven children were the basis for the singing family in the musical and film.

“The Sound of Music was based loosely on a 1949 book by von Trapp’s second wife, also Maria von Trapp, who died in 1987. It tells the story of an Austrian woman who married a widower with seven children and teaches them music.

“In 1938, the family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria and performed concert tours throughout Europe and then a three-month tour in America. The family settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe.

“Von Trapp played accordion and taught Austrian dance with sister Rosmarie at the lodge.”

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Now, Candaele has turned his obsession with Beethoven’s Ninth into a documentary film: Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony. He follows the Ninth around the world, to Chile and China, where it became an empowering anthem of solidarity, and to Japan, where performances of daiku — the Great Nine — are a cherished annual tradition.

“The Japanese identified with Beethoven,” Candaele says. “You know, the quintessential romantic figure of Beethoven as this man who is tortured and struggles and overcomes and finally reaches this pinnacle of artistic creation with the Ninth Symphony — his final symphony — three years before he dies. “It became this yearly event where sometimes 5,000 people, sometimes 10,000 people, who have practiced singing in German for six months, stand together in December and sing the ‘Ode to Joy.'”

Candaele, who also co-wrote a book on the topic with Greg Mitchell, recently spoke with NPR’s Melissa Block about the winding journey of Beethoven’s Ninth. Candaele recounts the Ninth’s history — from its use by Tiananmen Square protesters to drown out government broadcasts to its appropriation by the Third Reich as a triumphalist German anthem — as well as his own thoughts on Beethoven’s intentions for the music. Hear more of their conversation at the audio link.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.