House Theme
Start with the theme itself, then compare what changes in the two treatments that follow.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:14
Original Music for a Play
The Inheritance
Parts One & Two
Unicorn Theatre · Kansas City · 2022
- Role
- Composer · Jon Robertson
- Score
- Violin · Cello · Bass
- Listen
- 9 excerpts · Parts One & Two
I composed the original score for both parts of Matthew López’s The Inheritance. The challenge was its scale: a story told across two full-length parts, with music needed for the turn of a scene as well as the return of an idea hours later.
The house theme is one thread through that larger structure. Start with its three treatments below, then listen to music written for openings, transitions, a monologue, and an elegy.
Listen.
Three Treatments of the House Theme
The same theme, three string treatments. Listen for what carries the identity of the theme, and what changes when its character and playing technique change.
On these recordings: Jonathan Schriock, violin · Ezgi Karakus, cello · Brian Padavic, bass. All nine excerpts below are from my original score for the 2022 production.
House Theme — Ghostly
Listen for what remains recognizable when the house theme takes on a ghostly character.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:18House Theme — Wispy, sul ponticello
Sul ponticello means bowing near the bridge. Compare this string color with the simple theme.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:17Across the Play
Six further selections: openings, transitions, underscoring, and an elegy.
Top of Show
A rising phrase at the top of the show: a thirteen-second opening gesture.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:13Transitional Chords
Here the material is chordal rather than thematic. Compare its role as a transition with the returning house theme.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:14End of Act One — Part One
An eleven-second cue at the end of the first act: a brief musical punctuation at a major break.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:11Top of Act Three — Part Two
An act opening in Part Two. At thirty-six seconds, it gives the music more time than the brief opening gesture in Part One.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:36Underscoring a Monologue
The chords accompany a monologue. Listen with the spoken voice in mind: the music has to leave room for language.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:37Brief Elegy
A brief elegy from the score, presented here without dialogue.
Original score by Jon Robertson · 2022 · 0:20Writing Across Two Parts
A Theme That Returns
The house theme appears at key points across the production. Near the end of Part One, a distant fragment gives way to the full theme as the house appears, then grows into the final musical statement.
Part Two recalls the theme again. Those returns give the music a connection across the play’s many scenes.
Music Within the Dialogue
In Walter’s account of the AIDS crisis, the score moves through oscillating chords, scattered pizzicato, harmonics, and an elegy. Changes are attached closely to the spoken text.
Elsewhere, brief plucked chords and melodic fragments carry transitions between scenes. A transition might last only a few seconds; an underscore has to stay with an actor through a longer passage. Both belong to the same score.
The Musicians
Original score performed by:
- Violin
- Jonathan Schriock
- Cello
- Ezgi Karakus
- Bass
- Brian Padavic
- Composer
- Jon Robertson
The Production
- Playwright
- Matthew López
- Director · Part One
- Jeff Church
- Director · Part Two
- Ian R. Crawford
- Company
- Unicorn Theatre · Kansas City, Missouri
- Production
- May–June 2022
- Original Music
- Jon Robertson