{"id":45294,"date":"2017-05-16T17:27:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T21:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=45294"},"modified":"2017-05-16T17:27:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T21:27:46","slug":"interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/05\/16\/interview\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | How Two Toronto Composers Took Netflix\u2019s Green Gables Adaptation Into The 21C"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Toronto-based
Toronto-based composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner chat about composing the score to Netflix\u2019s Anne with an E series. (Photo: Scott Murdoch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 12th marked the international premiere date for Netflix\u2019s Anne with an E<\/em> series, based on the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables<\/em> by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Mostly in Canada, the book has been adapted as films, made-for-television movies, and animated and live-action television series. This retelling breaks new ground as the whole world will now discover the story of Anne of Green Gables<\/em>. Even though CBC\/Netflix made this adaptation for an international audience, one aspect that the show is keeping Canadian is the score by Toronto-based composers Amin Bhatia<\/a> & Ari Posner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You probably have heard Bhatia & Posners\u2019 work on shows such as CTV\u2019s police drama Flashpoint<\/em>, for which they won a Canadian Screen Award & were nominated for a Gemini Award along with the CBC\u2019s spy thriller X Company <\/em>to name a few. We decided to speak with them about what makes a successful collaboration and putting a fresh take, musically, on a story that has been around for over 100 years.<\/p>\n

You all scored\u00a0Anne with an E<\/em>\u00a0together but some projects you choose to work on individually. How do you choose what you are going\u00a0to collaborate on?<\/h3>\n

It usually comes down to the type of project and the workload. If there are many different styles of music needed and the project has a\u00a0very fast turnaround, then we love to team up. That usually seems to happen on tv series. However, on other projects, where there\u2019s more time and not so much jumping around in styles, we each like to pursue our own\u00a0individual sound and score. That seems to happen more on features. Interestingly, we’ve noticed that in our solo work we might learn a new style or sound that can then be added to our palette when we team up again. It\u2019s\u00a0really about two artists supporting and encouraging each other with their careers. It\u2019s not a formal business arrangement. We just\u00a0complement each other well, and that seems to be leading us to a growing body of work.<\/p>\n

When you first began\u00a0Anne with an E<\/em>\u00a0did you feel any extra pressure than you normally do when beginning a project because so many\u00a0Canadians are familiar with the\u00a0Anne<\/em>\u00a0story and seen many adaptations?<\/h3>\n

Really it was more about seeing the rough cut and how it resonated with us as well as talking to the showrunner Moira Walley Beckett and producer Mirdanda DePencier about the kind of score they wanted. \u00a0Right from day one the series truly inspired us. \u00a0If there was pressure, it mostly came from the hectic schedule and tight turnarounds.<\/p>\n

Did you go back and watch any of the old Anne<\/em> programs? Either to get inspiration for the new show and\/or to consciously do\u00a0something different?<\/h3>\n

We had both seen the original series long ago so we were familiar with that sound. But Moira and Miranda wanted a very authentic Celtic feel\u00a0as well as a dramatic 19th century sound. This new take on Anne<\/em> was incredibly intimate and emotional, dealing with some very serious and timeless universal issues. We didn\u2019t make a point of revisiting the old series since we were asked to depart on a very different musical journey.<\/p>\n

\"Composers
Composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner (Photo: Scott Murdoch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you initially know that the show was going to be on Netflix too, not just CBC? Would it have affected your scoring technique and\u00a0sound knowing it was just going to be shown in Canada?<\/h3>\n

For us, playing on multiple networks only affects the logistics of show deadlines and possible repackaging of episodes for different formats.\u00a0Stylistically it’s all about the story no matter what the network is or the country it\u2019s playing in.<\/p>\n

You all received an Emmy nomination for the theme music to\u00a0Get Ed.\u00a0What did that feel like when you heard the news?<\/h3>\n

We were truly surprised and thrilled. We loved working on that show and were very proud of the score. But we had no idea it was getting the kind of\u00a0attention that would garner an Emmy nomination! It was fun doing the junket with all the Hollywood glamour and press that goes along with\u00a0it. It was also nice meeting composers that we had admired for years, like Alf Clausen and Stu Phillips.<\/p>\n

Do each of you have different strengths musically? If so, what are those?<\/h3>\n

AMIN: I\u2019m more classically based but I also experiment a lot with sound, especially electronics.<\/p>\n

ARI: Though my original introduction to music was through classical piano, I consider my writing roots to come more from the pop and jazz world.<\/p>\n

Where we overlap though is our love for orchestral music and melody. We\u2019re constantly challenging each other with new themes and progressions that can be passed back and forth for development and variation.<\/p>\n

Describe your process musically for a show like\u00a0Anne with an E<\/em>. What was one of the first things you did when beginning work?<\/h3>\n

We start by setting up the palette of instruments and finding the signature sounds that resonate with specific characters or settings. It’s this early process that takes the\u00a0most amount of time, whether that means finding new sounds in our studio libraries or working with other musicians. For\u00a0Anne with an E<\/em>, we used Celtic\u00a0period instruments alongside a more standard orchestral palate. Sometimes we were accompanying the stunning visual landscape of PEI and\u00a0other times we were emphasizing very raw feelings or emotions. A large part of the sound of this show came from our very talented “Anne Band” consisting of Drew Jurecka on violin\/viola\/baritone violin, Kirk Starkey on cello, Sara Traficante on both traditional and Celtic flutes, and Joel\u00a0Schwartz on acoustic and electric guitars as well as mandolin.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a>\u00a0or <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a> for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner discuss putting their own musical stamp on the famous \u201cAnne of Green Gables\u201d tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":45296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,18,23,29,63],"tags":[9563,9562,9564],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/amin_ari.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bMy","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45294"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45302,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45294\/revisions\/45302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45294"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}