'Succession' Composer Breaks Down His Scoring Process in 'Moonlight,' 'The King' & More

Composer and pianist Nicholas Britell takes us through his scoring process using examples from 'Moonlight,' Battle of the Sexes' and 'The King.' He explains the different kinds of chords, their complexities, and the importance of a film's context in the process of composing a score.


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'Succession' Composer Breaks Down His Scoring Process in 'Moonlight,' 'The King' & More

[YouFightLikeACow]

Side note: His music for Beale Street was magic.

[FreakieFan]

This taught me more than Hans Zimmer's entire masterclass did, and this is free on YouTube

[NickPPiano]

Appreciate his persistence in dispelling the Major=Happy/Minor=Sad myth. It really is an oversimplified way of looking at it and I’ve always felt that even someone who doesn’t study music could and should be able to understand that it’s way more about the relationships between chords that create a much larger variety of emotions.

[haje]

he should have two oscars by now for moonlight and beale street. ESPECIALLY beale street.

[Sicaoisdead]

Imagine having this much knowledge on any subject area. True talent.

[andr]

succession's theme has been in my head for 2 months now. He truly deserves that emmy

[TheSponge]

Should have won Best Score for If Beale Street Could Talk. Absolutely beautiful!

[Kruuzx]

This guy, whom I have never before heard of, just sat down with a piano and made me want watch three great movies. And I think that I find these movies great more so because of the music.

[agneserinkim]

i like that he is generous in sharing the thought and education behind (his) music (and also very eloquent at breaking it all down). artists can often be so stingy about their art, but i think generosity serves us all best so we can learn to create more humane beauty! bravo nicholas!

[weskick]

If Beale Street Could Talk had a beautiful score too! Britell is incredibly talented and inspiring!

[nembutsu]

he looks so passionate about composing music, I'd love to see more of him teaching us

[hunyotiago]

The composer makes the movie scene remarkable. Salute to all composers and musicians.

[littlebitchontheprairie]

literally one of my all time favorite movie scores of all time especially the haunting violin solo during Middle of the World. amazing work :)

[bluntbreak]

I feel like a musical genius after listening to him, he passed his knowledge to me

[alicehargest]

I've not seen this film, but his music makes me want to 💕

[godandthegays]

The amount of magic this score holds is crazy. it's like an ethereal dance over two homosexual greek gods.

[Leto]

For years I have been putting off getting piano lessons... While watching this I signed up for them.

[fineblanket]

part of why i loved moonlight was the one motif that played throughout and repeated itself in every one of the other individual scores.

[mattstartsomething]

that last bit of music was the only mention of Beale Street in the whole video 😭 the score paired with the camerawork in the beginning of that film go so perfectly with each other. made me tear up out of pure beauty!

[josephmorales]

I wish this person was my music teacher