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16
Montecito JOURNAL
ew things have been more terrifying in the world of streaming fictional TV than House of Cards and the inexorable march of Francis Underwood toward the American presidency without regard for any person, place, or thing in his path – except perhaps later in the same series when his wife Claire ascended to the office. The dangerous soullessness at the heart of that Netflix drama was only heightened by the musical soundtrack, which may be even more subtly forceful and foreboding than the characters’ scheming. Composer Jeff Beal wrote every musical cue heard on the series, including the From Jaws to Gypsy, Jeff Beal is known for his main theme underpinned by a pulsing iconic compositions two-note bass line that evokes a similarly ominous opening to John Williams’ Barbara Symphony will perform the theme for Jaws, which also features a sin- five-movement piece (“Earth, Air, Fire, gle-minded beast. Water, and (Re)birth”), accompanied by “I don’t think about verbal terms when projected photographs of the burn, the I’m writing, but now in hindsight, it’s heroism of first responders, and new really apt, because that baseline that never photographs of the foothill rebirth from changes and just plows through is like the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s phocharacter of Frank Underwood,” said Beal, tographic research collection, updated who actually composed the theme before from Beal’s own slide show curated from shooting began based on a few scripts and pictures and videos from the Ventura a creative meeting with director David Star that screened with the New West Fincher. “He’s going to steamroll his way, Symphony’s commissioned premiere. no matter what kind of human suffering “I wanted to explore what the land or misery has to happen for him to get does as it goes through these wrenching what he wants… It was a chance to use my cataclysmic events and how all of these art as a way to channel emotions including elements come together to fuel these huge the darkest recesses of human behavior.” fires,” said Beal, whose home wasn’t threatHouse of Cards – Beal also played all ened by Thomas but who endured several of the trumpet, piano, and guitar parts evacuations before and since, including himself and recorded the 17-piece string being forced to leave when the Woolsey ensemble in the living room of his Agoura Fire raged as he was winding up work on Hills home – was a career changer for the The Great Circle. “They [the elements] composer who’d played jazz as a young are like characters and I’m composing to man before finding favor in film scores. those forces to personify them in a way, His soundtrack works include comedic almost like method acting to bring about opuses for the detective series Monk, plus the emotions that can start as wonderment Pollock, Rome, Gypsy, Carnivale, Blackfish, and turn into something much more priUgly Betty, and many more along with mal… Nature is beautiful and magical, myriad documentaries including The but can also be incredibly terrifying and Biggest Little Farm, a more personal piece destructive as if the planet is trying to grab as the farm in question also lies in us and tell us to wake up. We have to learn Ventura County. The five-time Emmy- how to navigate the cycles of nature and winner has also created a large number of live in harmony with the earth.” classical and concert works ranging from Beal will be in town this weekend chamber music to symphonic opuses. for the Symphony’s two “Beethoven in Beal’s interest in nature and the orches- Bloom” concerts presented in partnertra come together in his 2019 work The ship with Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Great Circle, inspired by the devastation which also feature the ensemble’s princiwhen the Thomas Fire raged from Los pal harpist Michelle Temple in Jennifer Angeles to Montecito 18 months earlier Higdon’s Grammy-award winning Harp and the landscape’s rebirth, depicting Concerto and conclude with Beethoven’s in music nature’s primal elements and enduring power to survive. The Santa Appeal Page 194 194
“Boy, those French: They have a different word for everything!” – Steve Martin
17 – 24 February 2022
