It Chapter Two

Development

Wallfisch's early discussions with Muschetti focused on blending new themes with original ones from the first film, aiming for more scale and ambition to match the film's scope. For Chapter Two, he employed a 100-piece orchestra from the Hollywood Studio Symphony and a 40-member vocal choir, and re-recorded earlier themes with more complex and ambitious arrangements to reflect the characters' development over 27 years. Wallfisch noted that more music was required, allowing original themes to evolve based on the emotional complexity of the Losers Club grappling with past trauma and painful memories. With the Losers Club returning as adults, Wallfisch gave them more emotional potency, as they are adults dealing with trauma and reforming lost memories.

The score became more complex due to the visual scale and storytelling depth. Wallfisch experimented with close-miked solo strings for more visceral sequences, finding that approach added more drama than a large ensemble. He used post-processing of acoustic instruments to create electronic textures from orchestral sounds.

The full orchestra was recorded in a single day to capture unusual sounds for experimental parts. A two-week recording session took place at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage and Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, while the choir was recorded with RSVP Voices in London, featuring professional choirs. He also reprised the children's choir from the first film, using the original recordings without re-recording.

Reception

Zanobard Reviews described Wallfisch's score as very good, noting it captures the atmosphere of It and embraces its horrific nature. The review highlighted how the composer picks elements from children's nursery rhymes and distorts them into something petrifying, though the album's ninety-minute length was considered long for a horror score. Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote that Wallfisch created two of the best horror movie scores in years, praising the creative collisions of sounds, extended performance techniques, and allusions to challenging 20th century modernism. Broxton noted that Wallfisch weaves half a dozen identifiable recurring themes through the score, allowing moments of emotional catharsis, and singled out the Oranges & Lemons chant for demented toddlers as a spine-chilling motif.

He warned that many listeners may find the onslaught of noise difficult to tolerate. Filmtracks.com called the music a noteworthy achievement and an improvement on the prior score, stating that the album release is long at 103 minutes, with over twenty minutes of top-notch lyrical suspense material. The review noted that Wallfisch's albums tend to go out of print on CD within a year or two. Film Music Central wrote that Wallfisch clearly put much work into the score, finding it scary on its own and suggesting it would be even more so with the film.