Florence Foster Jenkins

Desplat's main theme opens the film and sums up the heroine's world in a single phrase.

• The short melody of the opening returns throughout the film like a leitmotif pointing to Florence herself.
• The light exchange between strings and woodwinds shows how artificial, and how lovable, a stage her world really is.
• Its near-waltz motion points to the elegance of the 1940s New York society in which she lives.
• A harmony or two that is not entirely bright slips in, hinting early at the bitterness hidden behind the story.

Desplat's short piano theme attached to the accompanist Cosmé McMoon.

• A brief melody for solo piano, it is a leitmotif that transcribes his cautious, courteous nature exactly.
• The choice of piano as the central instrument signals his position as an accompanist stepping into Florence's world.
• The way the melody fails to close cleanly, trailing off as if hesitating, suggests he cannot settle comfortably into the situation.

Taken from Johann Strauss II's operetta, it is used at a small recital Florence gives for invited guests of the Verdi Club.

• In the original, it is a comic song sung by the maid Adele in the operetta Die Fledermaus, notable for passages that imitate laughter.
• Meryl Streep knows the correct pitches and sings them deliberately off, a restrained piece of acting far harder than simply singing badly.
• A highlight is the way Simon Helberg's accompanist, through his expressions and his piano playing, follows each mistimed beat and catches the laughter.
• Only by knowing how difficult the original's dazzling coloratura (ornamental runs that rise and fall rapidly) is can one fully grasp the drop in this scene.

Early in the film the formal operatic version rings out first from Lily Pons's stage, and Florence's version follows at her first lesson with McMoon.

• The most famous passage of Léo Delibes's opera Lakmé, it is a proving ground for coloratura sopranos, marked by bell-like high ornaments.
• Hear the version sung by a trained singer alongside the one Streep and Helberg create in the lesson scene, and the distance between the two voices becomes the story itself.
• The contrast of the same melody flowing flawlessly on one side and wobbling precariously on the other is the film's entire score in miniature.

The most difficult Mozart aria, which she attempts on the Carnegie Hall stage.

• The most famous passage in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, it is counted as the summit of the coloratura soprano repertoire, demanding an extremely high range and rapid ornamentation.
• Why she chose this piece, of all pieces, explains at once the character's confidence and her innocence.
• The passage in which the voice onstage and the orchestral accompaniment drift apart, yet she presses on to the very end, is the most precarious moment in the film.
• Even on real opera stages it ranks among the most difficult pieces in the repertoire, so to grasp the drop in this scene it is worth first knowing the original's notoriety.

Desplat's orchestral cue, underpinning the concert's climax.

• The theme heard earlier expands across the full orchestra, lending weight to the evening's performance.
• So that the unrest in the audience and the conviction of the figure onstage can unfold at once, the music takes neither side and holds both.
• The passage where brass and strings swell together is one of the rare moments in the film that calls on a large ensemble.

Desplat's closing piece, gathering the story together.

• The melody, flowing in a calm tone that is neither mockery nor pity, is the film's very attitude toward its heroine.
• Her theme from earlier returns transformed, its harmony grown noticeably calmer, so that the same melody takes on a different meaning.
• Scoring that once again brings the piano forward turns the focus back to her bond with McMoon, and to a pure love of music itself.