Ariel Marx (‘A Small Light’ composer): For episode 7, ‘I taught myself how to maintain tension over 30 minutes relentlessly’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“We wanted to make the score feel contemporary, but we didn’t want to make it feel anachronistic so we wanted me to feel like you want to be able to see yourself in her and everyone in the story,” reveals composer Ariel Marx about about composing for the most tension-filled scenes in the emotional true-story limited series “A Small Light.” For our recent webchat she adds, “the tension was very much rooted in lots of extended techniques on the strings, lots of uglier, twisted sounds. There’s a lot of the use of electronics, but pretty organic-sounding electronics and really sporadic percussion.” We talked with Marx as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&A event with 2023 Emmy Awards nominees. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
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In “A Small Light,” Dutch typist Miep Gies (Bel Powley) helps her Jewish employer Otto Frank (Emmy nominee Liev Schreiber), his family and other Jewish refugees go into hiding during World War II during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. The biographical miniseries was created by Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, based on a true story of the heroic and inspiring Gies and her efforts to hide and protect the iconic Anne Frank and the Frank family against all odds.
Marx is Emmy nominated for the first time in her career to date, for the pivotal “What Can Be Saved” episode of the National Geographic drama, which she says was submitted intentionally. “The series for the most part, up until episode seven, which is the one that I submitted, lives in the world of really towing the line between humor and gravitas. It’s a very historical, important story, but they didn’t shy away from showing the minutiae of everyday life and a lot of that was imperfect and funny and charming and loving and just people dealing with the worst of times and in such brave ways. So, episode seven is when it all comes tumbling down, and when the Nazis storm the annex and they take everyone away and what is so astonishing about this episode is it’s done all in real time,” Marx says. “It’s basically wall-to-wall score and I submitted it because it was the most challenging episode for me. It’s probably the most music-forward episode and it was like a masterclass. I taught myself how to maintain tension over 30 minutes relentlessly.”
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