A look at what “temp music” is, and why it is so important that Severance refused to use it.
In several interviews, Theodore Shapiro (the music composer for Severance) has mentioned that he wrote a huge library of music for the show prior to the editing process to prevent the need for “temp music”. But what is so special about that, and why does it even matter?
The point at which a composer begins writing music for a project varies. Most often, they will only start work once the film or TV show has already been written, filmed, and edited together. The composer and the director will then sit down for a “spotting” session where they decide what scenes need music, what kind of music would work, and what emotions to pick up on.
If the editors do not have music specifically written for the project at the point they are editing, then they will use something called “temp music” or “temporary music”. For example, if they have a fight scene, they may find a music cue from something like James Bond and edit that into their own scene so that the right energy is present. This can be helpful for composers and directors to get an idea of the kinds of music that they think would work best in the project.
As the name suggests, this pre-existing music is intended to only be used temporarily, until the composer joins the process and provides original music. Unfortunately, it is often not that simple.
For example, the film 2001: A Space Odyssey used classical music by composers like Richard Strauss as their temp music. The director, Stanley Kubrick, loved the temp music so much that he wanted to keep it, but the studio wanted everything to be new to appeal to audiences more.
Eventually, he reluctantly hired Alex North to compose an original score for the film. Because of the much-loved temp music, North had none of the creative freedoms he wanted and felt enormous pressure to write pieces similar to the very famous pre-existing tracks that were already used. But in the end, despite North writing lots of brilliant original music for the film, Kubrick decided he preferred the temp music and North only found out that none of his work was used as he watched the premiere (you can watch an archival interview with North here).
Situations like that are fairly rare, but it is a well-known fact for TV and Film composers that if there is temp music used by the time they arrive on the project, then they will either have to write something very similar to it but different enough to avoid copyright, or they will have to come up with something completely different that the director loves enough to be willing to go in another direction. It puts a huge constraint on a composer’s creativity and explains why so many scores of films and TV shows end up sounding so similar in the end. They are often based off of each other.
The video below shows a few examples of how music from different films can all begin to sound the same. Some of these are due to the original being used as temp music and influencing the creative teams:
Chances are that if you watch one of your favourite scenes from a film and then change the music behind it, it’s going to feel weird to you. Whether you notice it at the time or not, music is a vital component of a scene’s emotion and meaning. Once a director, an editor, or a composer is used to hearing a piece of music (even if intended to be temporary) paired with a scene, it can be a challenge to fit different music to it without that feeling of “weirdness” creeping in.
This is why it is better to go in from the beginning with the original score and avoid temp music altogether. This allows for more creative control from the offset, and combats the risks of creatives being subconsciously influenced by what has come before, even when they try not to be.
The freedom to be creative is very important to the team behind Severance, which is why they put in the extra effort to make the show the best it can be.
Theodore Shapiro had the opportunity to join Severance early enough in the process that he could suggest the idea of not using temp music. He explained to Song Exploder that “I had pitched to [Ben Stiller] from the beginning that I would create a library of music, and that there would be a rule, which was: you can only temp in music that’s original for the show”.
Due to the COVID outbreak and production of the show being put on hold, Shapiro had plenty of time to write a large library of original music that could be used by editors instead of having to resort to temp music. He was given the scripts, so was able write the music with the characters and emotional arcs in mind.
The director of Severance, Ben Stiller, and Theodore Shapiro discussed the sound that they wanted the show to have and some inspirations, and then the composer was free to write without having to follow the template of music that scenes had already been edited to.
Shapiro told Screen Rant: “It’s really worth it to do the extra work… for the benefit of not having any music from other films or TV shows cut into the show… I think that it really helps whatever it is that you’re working on have a unique identity… It’s just too easy, when you have temp music from other shows, to be subtly influenced…”
To Song Exploder, he continued, “Even when you desperately don’t want to be thinking that way, it just enters your creative process in a way that closes off doors for what you might do. And so, I always relish the idea of starting as early as possible on a project.”
An example of the original music being used in the editing process can be found in the tracks “Visitation Suite” and “Three’s a Crowd”. Shapiro described to Screen Rant how that piece was just a variation on the main theme that ended up becoming the theme for Dylan and Gretchen because it fitted their scenes so well in the editing suite. It was not written particularly for any one part of the story, but it developed its own meaning by association.
Other themes, like the Mark/Hellyna theme, were most likely written explicitly for the characters with their emotions and arcs in mind.
Not all of the original music we hear in the show was taken from the library that Shapiro wrote before the editing process though.
In Season 2, “Woe’s Hollow” was such an unusual episode that it needed special attention to create its own sound. Shapiro did write music specially for the episode, but it eventually became clear that it was not quite right. Ben Stiller wanted something more ethereal for the episode, so Shapiro wrote some improvised music with no click track so that the music could speed up and slow down freely.
The music to Severance may remind you of other tracks you have heard before. With so much music out there, it is inevitable that some tunes will sound similar to each other, even sometimes when the composer has never heard the track it sounds like. As Shapiro said, the most important thing about not using temp music is that “it really helps whatever it is that you’re working on have a unique identity”.
The unique quality of Severance is a very important one, given the confusing time periods, detailed set and costume design, and the very nature of the show itself. The music to the show is often almost subliminal in some scenes, but the very fact that it was not made to imitate temp music means that it holds its own identity and helps the show to feel even more special.
Image courtesy of Apple+
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