Westworld Composer on Giving the Opening Title Music an “Edgy” Cover For Season 4, Episode 6: Exclusive
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The post Westworld Composer on Giving the Opening Title Music an “Edgy” Cover For Season 4, Episode 6: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 6, “Fidelity.” To read about the music of Episode 5, click here.]
Unlike past weeks, where Westworld composer Ramin Djawadi has surprised us with covers of Frank Ocean and Nine Inch Nails, Episode 6 of Season 4 contained no such surprises on the musical front. Except, of course, for the fact that he ended up covering… himself.
First, though, “Fidelity” did contain some big surprises on a narrative level, though, including the end of the line for freedom fighter Jay (Daniel Wu) — the human version, at least. And we also got to see the full extent of Hale (Tessa Thompson)’s manipulation of Caleb (Aaron Paul), as he not only confronts his new reality as a host, but the fact that he has been copied dozens of times as part of Hale’s schemes.
It turns out that Caleb has two separate themes, according to Djawadi, an emotional one as well as a more action-driven theme, both of which get used a great deal in this episode. “For example, it plays when there’s the flashback with Frankie,” he says. “And [at the end of the episode], when he doesn’t give up and then he walks outside and then it turns out he’s in the city still.”
Also, if there was any doubt in your mind at this point as to whether or not the character of C (Aurora Perrineau) was the grown-up version of Frankie, Caleb’s daughter, this episode should hopefully have put that question to rest — which meant that Djawadi was able to use some music that he’d previously been very wary of using: a quieter theme first introduced in the Season 4 premiere as young Frankie plays in a field.
“Obviously we didn’t want to spoil C when you see her as an adult, so we had to be very careful — because as we discussed before, the music can definitely give clues. So in this case, we really made sure to stay away from it,” he says. “It really just plays when we see her as a child, and even then sometimes we don’t get the opportunity, because it’s a tension scene or something and it didn’t feel right. So that’s why it’s used rather sparsely, but then, here is the big payoff of that.”
The big payoff is the theme’s return, as one of many versions of Caleb — having successfully made his escape from Hale’s fake prison — sends C/Frankie the message she’s been waiting to receive from her father for years. “In this very emotional moment, it becomes rather sweeping,” he says.
Westworld (HBO)
It’s a moment of triumph for Caleb, even if it’s as short-lived as this particular duplicate’s lifespan. And to underscore the dark ending of the episode comes the aforementioned cover of his own music, as Djawadi uses the show’s actual theme song for the final minutes, as Hale burns up her experiment. “It kind of starts out not with the actual theme, but then when it goes to the end credits, the piece continues and we hear a different arrangement,” he says.
But the sound is totally different, as he notes. “In the original, there are more orchestra elements; we have the violin and the piano and strings. Whereas this one is very much like what a band would play — there’s a drum kit and there’s electric guitars and there’s no orchestra at all.”
It was a choice he felt fit the sequence because, he says, “I just wanted it to be a bit more a bit darker. In Seasons 3 and 4, as we have gone much more down the synth route, I felt it just didn’t feel right to do the more string version, that we keep for the more emotional scenes. Before it goes to the credits, it does break down to just the piano, to give Hale an emotional moment there. But with the place burning and everything, I thought it just needed to be a bit more edgy.”
Djawadi doesn’t take the choice to reuse the opening titles lightly. “Generally sometimes towards the end of the season, it’s nice to start using it as things start to climax. But in this season, this might be the first time that I’m actually using it. It really always just depends on where the story’s taking you,” he says.
Where the story takes us next remains to be seen, but we’ll be back with Djawadi’s thoughts on Episode 7 soon enough.
Westworld Season 4 airs Sundays at 9:00 P.M. on HBO. For more, read what the cast has to say about the show’s exploration of issues like data privacy.
Westworld Composer on Giving the Opening Title Music an “Edgy” Cover For Season 4, Episode 6: Exclusive
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