The sound of a circus, the sound of mania, the sound of the wealthy and the corrupt. There seems to be a hundred different ways people have described Nicholas Britell’s intro music for HBO’s dark comedy drama Succession, but while all of them are true, none of them pinpoint its sound exactly. Nevertheless, despite its elusiveness to be defined, it has gained a beloved following and praise, further being pronounced by it winning an Emmy for Best Musical Score for a Drama Series. Nicholas Britell has already earned fame and recognition for his beautiful composition for Oscar winning movies such as Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. But, his scoring of Succession has led to many now seeking and wanting to know his creative process because of how addicting the music is. Every Sunday it seems social media explodes with people anticipating a new episode of Succession but also excitement over Nicholas Britell’s introduction starting it. And what I find so fascinating when diving into Britell’s creative process is that music is incredibly difficult to pinpoint and understand why a musical score fits a theme so perfectly. Even Britell laughs at the question saying after someone asks him to describe the Succession score: “Gosh, I don’t really know. What’s that famous quote? “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture?” Something like that...” It truly is a medium that is elusive but when you hear something that fits a theme or scene so perfectly it feels like an “aha!” moment. And that’s exactly what Nicholas Britell did.
Nicholas Britell’s upbringing and training as a composer come out to shine in the Succession score. For those of you who do not know the plot of Succession, it is an HBO drama series that has moments of dark humor. It is about a billionaire family who runs a media company equal to our Fox News. The series revolves around the competition of the three children regarding who will take over the company once the father retires. It has the drama and intensity of King Lear, but the comedy and critique of the wealthy that contemporary comedies like Arrested Development have. It is an incredibly difficult television show to gauge sometimes with many times while watching it feels wrong for you to laugh, or other times has you questioning if an absurd statement was meant to make you laugh. Britell understood how fine of a line there was in composing music for this show leading to him combing two unconventional genres: classical and hip hop. While many know Nicholas Britell as being classically focused due to his scores of Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, Britell also has a love and commitment to hip hop as well that he brings out in his score for Succession. He adamantly states that hip hop is one of the most important creations in the past fifty years and was in a hip-hop group during his college years while he was rigidly taking classical composition classes at Harvard. Critics have described the classical as being piano focused with the sound of late-1700's “dark court” sound. But beneath and woven into the classical is an 808 beat machine, bass, and even sleigh bells.
The aspect of this score that I consider so creative is reading Nicholas Britell’s thought process and ideas behind it. His creativity and carefulness made me consider aspects of music that I was not even thinking of. An example of his carefulness in the creative process was understanding the audience. Britell wanted to comment on the humor and absurdity of the show, but he understood that humorous music ruins any drama the show would want to focus and empathasize. Rather, he states that he creates the comedy and absurdity in his music by pushing the darker aspects of the music. He pushes the darkness and seriousness to an edge that is comical, just like there is comedy in a person taking themselves too seriously. It is a paradox that he perfectly crafts. Another is his empathasis on “textures” and humanness in his sound. Britell states that there is multiple layers of music in the introduction song of Succession. So many he admits that there might be things that we don’t even consciously hear, but he still considered
I have not seen this show, but I am definitely impressed by the creative process that Britell uses to create the score for it. You pointed out how insight plays a role in his process...sometimes he stumbles upon the right sound without expecting to do so. His work has a lot of hidden complexity that seems to require both his technical skills/knowledge of the domain and his natural gifts.
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