FX’s acclaimed “Shōgun” miniseries, now approaching its mid-tier, features a very different classification of Maurice Jarre’s music for the original 1980 adaptation. By using genuine Japanese instruments, the music adopts a very modern strategy that applies the current technology and advanced sound manipulation in ways that were not possible four years ago.
Oscar winner Atticus Ross (“The Social Network,” “Soul”), his brother Leopold Ross (“Eli’s Guide”) and their collaborator Nick Chuba (“Dr. Dying”) worked for more than two years on the day 10. Episode miniseries, a couple of English castaways trying to survive in the era of feudal warfare in 17th century Japan.
The producers initially asked for something “epic” and assumed that would automatically mean “orchestra,” but the Ross brothers had a less standard strategy in mind. “We could do something a little more unique and adjust the size without necessarily having to use a big orchestra,” said Atticus Ross. Selection.
“We wanted it to be less about space and range and more about scale and psychology,” adds Leopold. “Not just the psychology of the characters, but also the psychology of the audience. We felt that if you went the normal Japanese route, viewers would feel very comfortable. When Erasmus arrived on the shores of Japan, we wanted viewers to feel that incredible kind of surprise and discomfort that the crew feels.
They did months of analysis of mainstream Japanese music and sounds, notably Gagaku—the imperial court music of the time—and recruited California-born, Japan-based arranger-producer Taro Ishida to visit several sites across the country and record Gagaku music (and, in at least one case, the vocal sounds of monks singing).
“We had a sense of the sound palette and an idea of how we could bring that into our world in an interesting way,” says Leopold. The trio wrote several themes and musical ideas, sent them to Ishida to record, but also sent atmospheric pieces for the Japanese ensembles to improvise.
The resulting musical phrases could be used “as a jumping off point,” Chuba said, “processing them digitally and then building our own playable devices” to leverage the material in modern ways.
“Texturally, we’re in the right place in terms of timing and instrumentation, but we’re also threading the needle on being free enough to make something that’s completely original,” adds Atticus. “Recognize your time and place, but not be restricted by it, and also not be a kind of pastiche” that could be condemned as cultural appropriation.
The “Shōgun” rating sees brothers Ross and Chuba using traditional Japanese materials in a modern way, processing the sounds and incorporating them into an overall electronically created soundscape – utilizing a mix of analog and digital devices – that meets the dramatic needs of the history.
Almost every main character has his own theme: the abandoned sailor Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), the powerful Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), the translator Mariko (Anna Sawai), the scheming Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano), Toranaga’s rival Ishido (Takehiro). Hira), the late ruler’s widow, Girl Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido), as well as secondary themes for the Blackthorne-Mariko relationship and historical Japan, respectively.
Chuba cited a captivating musical connection between the character Toranaga and the halftime music. Original creator James Clavell based Toranaga on the real-life shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who lived during the late 16th and early 17th centuries and who was responsible for reviving the Gagaku musical traditions that largely disappeared during the civil wars that preceded his rise to energy.
Some of the conventional devices that can rarely be heard in the classification are the zither-shaped koto; the shakuhachi, ryuteki and hichiriki flutes; the stringed shamisen, biwa and kokyu; and the large conventional taiko drums.
“It was executed more like a 10-hour movie than episodic television,” Atticus explains, “so the rating structure, in terms of when character themes start to emerge, can be delineated pretty tightly. There was no pressure in that kind of revolving door TV process where the next episode is coming up and you’re rushing to try and finish it. In that, there was a long period (of writing) and then all the pieces were mixed together at the end.”
There are at least four hours of original music in “Shōgun,” produced over a year of sketches, analysis and recording in Japan, plus another year of writing and scoring the individual episodes. Leopold calls it “a year of pretty intense collaboration with (showrunner) Justin Marks,” especially on issues like how to approach the action scenes.
“The last thing we needed to do was place ‘fighting drums’ underneath a moving scene,” says Atticus. “Mostly we treated it more like horror, punctuating moments but allowing the visuals (often graphic) to drive (the scenes),” adds Leopold.