Moana

An invocation song laid briefly over the grandmother's telling of the legend at the very start of the film, it opens the door to the film's music as a whole.

• The low chant of the introduction borrows the traditional Pacific idiom of calling on the gods, announcing from the outset that the world this film treats lies within mythic time.
• The title itself is a call to Tagaloa, the god of the sky, setting up a framework of faith outside the story through music before anything else.
• The melody used here returns later in the score cue Voyager Tagaloa, where it functions like a leitmotif that points not to a character but to the tradition itself.

A song showing a day in the village of Motunui, it portrays at once how the community lives together and the subtle misalignment Moana feels within it.

• A structure in which one person leads and many answer upholds the whole song, showing the bond of the community through singing.
• The father's resolute melody and Moana's wavering one subtly pull apart within the same song, revealing her inner heart.
• Toward the second half, several voices pile up in layers, translating into sound the story that each villager's role gathers together into a single community.

A piece that plays as it is revealed that the ancestors were in fact outstanding navigators, it becomes the background music for Moana's resolve to set out to sea.

• A song that carries into music the Polynesian art of navigating by reading stars and waves without a compass; the ostinato technique, laying a foundation by repeating a short percussion rhythm to the end of the piece, lets the body feel the motion of rowing.
• Pacific-language lyrics by Foa'i and English lyrics by Miranda alternate, and the two ways of writing meet within one song.
• The Pacific-language chant idiom of the same composer, Foa'i, as in the prologue's invocation song continues here too, supporting in sound the story that the ancestors' song is passed on to their descendants.

A self-praising song the demigod Maui sings the moment he appears, it etches the character of this swaggering helper in a single stroke.

• The actor Dwayne Johnson's first singing role, in which his unpolished voice was judged to lend the braggart character all the more credibility.
• Miranda's trademark rapid rhymes and rhythmic switches stand out, and the wordplay tradition of musicals overlaps with Pacific percussion rhythms.
• The end credits include another version sung by Jordan Fisher with Miranda joining on rap, so the two interpretations can be heard side by side.

A song of display sung by Tamatoa, the giant crab who hoards treasure, it is the film's most incongruous yet delightful departure in genre.

• A piece that draws on 1970s glam rock, in particular the exaggerated vocals and glittering synth timbres in the manner of David Bowie, and it deliberately sounds different from the color of the film as a whole.
• Jemaine Clement's deadpan low vocal conveys the humor and the menace of the whole piece at once.
• Beneath the flashy exterior, the lyrics speak of vanity and lack together, and there is pleasure in reading the bitterness lying under the bright tune.

A song the vision of the grandmother sings together with Moana, who doubts herself after repeated failures, it is the decisive turning point toward the film's late climax.

• Built as a duet exchanged between Rachel House as the grandmother and Auli'i Cravalho as Moana, it shows in sound a comfort handed down across generations.
• The earlier 'I want' melody is layered over the ancestors' melody, and the passage where the same tune is heard again with an entirely different meaning is the emotional center of this piece.
• Rather than an impassioned full-orchestra setting, it opts for a comparatively restrained arrangement, deliberately set against the glitter of “Shiny” just before it.

The voyaging song flows once more after the story has wrapped up, and it reaches the listener with a different weight than it did on first hearing.

• The same melody returns in a larger, fuller choral setting than in the film's opening, a fine example of how repetition changes the weight of emotion.
• Pacific percussion and chorus continue throughout the end credits, leaving the impression that the song goes on even after the story has ended.
• A track sung together by Miranda and Foa'i and released separately on the album, so it can be heard as a complete song in its own right, apart from its use in the film.