Welcome to this ongoing soundtrack series where I analyze the musical score of the greatest
movies, tv shows and video games.
It is here where I discuss how a soundtrack compliments it’s corresponding title, along
with how it came to be.
In this episode, I’ll be going over the western sci-fi score of Jonathan Nolan and
Lisa Joy’s HBO series “Westworld”, composed by Ramin Djawadi.
Within the episode I’ll go over the technical details of the soundtrack, the show’s player
piano, and how Djawadi composed his piano covers.
I have thought how I would approach Westworld in this series and through speculation on
season 2’s Shogun world, I can only imagine the show’s music will expand and adapt to
the new elements and setting.
With this said, I can only imagine I’ll be making a separate video for that season
and any other with a distinguished score.
Strictly speaking, this episode will examine season 1’s soundtrack.
Before we start, if you’re new to the channel, consider subscribing to find more soundtrack
analysis on other titles in the future.
You’ll find a new analysis video every week.
With all that said, let’s begin.
The overall theme of Westworld is deftly placed within the score, especially in the show’s
opening arrangement.
What makes the main sequence extremely clever is how it develops a curving ark musically
and visually.
The sequence forms a story illustrated from scratch.
The song starts with a strong cello which conveys the sensible human passion in a collection
of notes.
Immediately after the cello’s opening notes, the piano replicates those same notes, but
in a reserve order.
At this time we have 2 players, a teacher and a student: One following the other and
in proper sequence creating a duo that carry a comparable quality.
The pianist is the student as well as this story’s focal point.
He is learning to make his own arrangement with the assistance of the cello.
With an established theme between the 2 instruments, an introduction of the stringed section surface
to strengthen the melody, which signifies the duo’s creation is in motion and accelerating
quickly.
The piano then overtakes the rhythmic string section to harmonize a more convoluted basket
of notes than it originally began with.
Much like the piano’s jump, the strings enact a frenzied chorus that keeps building
up to push back the piano.
This is the student/piano enforcing his own principles in this arrangement and in turn
becoming hungry with their newly acquired resources.
The cello is leading the string section to handle operations and ease the piano.
Now there are 2 opposing teams.
After the furious chorus the melody enters its conclusion with both sides bombarding
each other.
Before the strings are able to complete the melody, they are halted by the abnormal and
cascading piano line that concludes the song.
The desperate piano is in a fury and unruly to where it’s overlapping its tempo in the
conclusion with the cello resolving in a broken and shapeless tone.
The main opening sequence focuses on a story of deception and since this main theme represents
Westworld’s central motif, the song is highlighting the show’s identity.
So I don’t spoil anything, I’ll let you figure out who these instruments represent.
Ramin Djawadi’s intention for the show’s theme was to depict a distorted amusement
park through familiar theme park tones blended with a dark personality.
What makes the show’s personality distinctive is the dominant players within the orchestra.
Leading instruments like the piano are made to express certain aspects of the show.
The old upright piano, or the tack piano, would emphasize the scripted fabrication of
the theme park.
The lead stringed instruments, much like a leading cello, underlines human poignancy
and emotions.
For example, the flashback scenes revolving around an android who recalls a past dramatic
experience, much like Maeve’s recollection of her daughter, holds the theme of heartache
which is indicated by the cello.
Electronic instruments laced with digital effects would accentuate the world in its
current state and the shrouded secrets held by leading character roles.
Overall, the score of Westworld is profoundly technical as well as mechanical, to explain
more clearly, it’s music is much like a line of code.
Perhaps one of the greatest players that exhibits the central theme of Westworld’s park is
the player piano.
That sole instrument is equivalent to the nucleus of an atom, it’s a system that executes
the androids programmed duties as well as their starting positions.
The tack piano repeats the theme, “Sweetwater”, to restore the scripted dialogue of the robotic
host’s narrative.
Much like reseting a computer to it’s default setting, these hosts are reset to a clean
slate.
It’s presumably controlled within the command center in the real world to keep a leash around
the herd of robotic bodies.
Not only does the piano carry out motor functions to recall to an earlier time, but it’s a
jukebox for people visiting the park.
Although the process isn’t shown on screen, a guest would submit a request for a given
song that the player piano has preprogrammed in it’s database.
This feigned music box plays tunes like, Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”,
Radiohead's "No Surprises”,
and The Cure’s “A Forest”.
As unusual as it sounds, these piano covers fit perfectly in a produced world set in the
Wild West, it reveals to the audience the unnatural impression of this reality.
The viewer’s immersion into the western reality is crippled and brings us back to
the concept of a scripted narrative.
To further reveal the park’s fabrication, Djawadi composed an orchestra arrangement
of The Rolling Stone’s song “Paint it Black”, to overlay a scripted action sequence.
The score keeps bringing us back to apprehend that something is truly misguiding rather
than let us become absorbed in a false storyline that concludes the same everytime.
After receiving high appraise for his recognizable sound on Game Of Thrones, Ramin reestablished
his sound for Westworld on a new level.
This resilient skill allows the composer to sculpt his music in a contrasting avenue for
each project rather than being adequate with an accent that has proven successful previously.
Ramin was strikingly interested in the Westworld project with Nolan, as he was driven to compose
music for film when he was fascinated with the score of the 1970 version of “The Magnificent
Seven” when he watched it as a kid.
Since he appreciated western speggeti films he was prepared when he heard Nolan and his
wife were to construct a remake of the original 1973 “Westworld” movie.
So when Djawadi approached Westworld during production - an unusual time for Ramin to
start working, since he arrives on set during post-production - he started writing solely
based on his interactions with Jonathan.
Most of the work composed for the show was created without any visuals, but when it came
to working on scenes, like the “Paint it Black” sequence, he arranged the orchestra
to calmly highlight the dialog to allow the amplified moments of the song to be more conspicuous.
It’s these covers that persuades the viewers to heed to the score and allow us to see just
how technical these compositions really are.
When it came to adapting the various elements of these modernized tracks into an orchestra
or for the bulk, on the player piano, Ramin had to combine the harmony and melody with
all it’s instruments and vocals, into an instrumental piece.
In the case for the player piano, a single instrument.
Since these tracks are exclusively different than their original versions, it’s important
to maintain the elements of the show within the songs without breaking boundaries.
Before I give my final thoughts on Westworld, don’t forget to hit the red button below
to stalk my videos.
If you don’t, you’ll never ever find these types of videos again, I’ll make sure of
it.
I wasn’t able to explain everything I wanted to about the show in this single episode,
such as the sci-fi portion of the score, but I might move those thoughts into the season
2 Score UnCovered episode.
Let me know if you want more episodes covering this series.
Based on your interest for Westworld, you might like to know that I made an episode
on Game Of Thrones on this series.
Find the Score UnCovered playlist in the end card of my outro or in the description.
If you want to request a movie, tv show or video game for Score UnCovered, let me know
here on YouTube or on my Twitter page.
The music of Westworld is incredibly clever.
We hardly come across a score that renders an eminent role in a story’s development
process.
Not only is the soundtrack of the show representing a motif, but we see how the music isolates
the raw piano player’s programmed tunes to signify repetition and the world’s reality.
The score is interactive and allows a fluid transition between the existing world and
the scripted one.
Djawadi’s representation carefully draws the audience into our modern Spaghetti western
with it’s combination between antiquated and contemporary orchestral tones.
Westworld’s soundtrack is the mimic of the show’s theme park, extraordinary and mystifying.
I want to thank you for watching this episode of “Score UnCovered”.
I try my best to keep out the spoilers the best I can for the people who haven’t had
a chance to see these titles.
I’d rather uncover the score than the plot.
So thank you for sticking with me.
Ending the episode here, once more, thank you greatly.