The Folk-Heavy Emma Film Soundtrack Has A Major Fleabag Connection

Autumn De Wilde's Jane Austen adaptation is not only delectable to look at, the soundtrack of the 2020 film Emma. is a joy to listen to as well. The use of folk music in Emma. brings Jane Austen's Hartfield to life in a way that's bubbly, charming, and country in the best possible way. Give it a listen and it'll give you a smile.

The score was co-composed by Isobel Waller-Bridge (yes, that Waller-Bridge) who also recently wrote the music for her sister's masterpiece Fleabag. In Season 2, Waller-Bridge's Fleabag score used choral voices that'll give you wartime flashbacks to your Hot Priest thirst. The Emma. score is peppered with vocalists as well, which complicates my usually snobby definition of a film score as "instrumental only."

However, Emma.'s album also includes a few pieces performed by characters in the film, an original song, and folk tunes from various artists that I will define as strictly "soundtrack" for our purposes ahead.

There's nothing about this soundtrack that doesn't make me want to cuddle up in a coffee shop on a rainy day with a chai latte the size of my head. (Not that folk music can't slap, it absolutely can and does, but I digress.) Here's all the music old, new, borrowed, and blue that can be found in Emma.