Manipulated Memory Music

February 18, 2022

Theodore Shapiro’s Soundtrack for SEVERANCE TV Series Released Today

Endeavor Content  has released the digital soundtrack to SEVERANCE, the Apple TV+ series featuring music by Theodore Shapiro (YELLOWJACKETS, THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE).  The multi-faceted score features vivid piano, electronics, and orchestra that enhance both whimsical moments as well as the darkly sinister side of the mysterious workplace thriller.  The series directed by Ben Stiller and created by Dan Erickson and starring Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette premieres on Apple TV+ February 18.

Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.

The series is written and created by Dan Erickson. Mark Friedman, Chris Black, John Cameron and Andrew Colville are executive producers alongside Erickson. Ben Stiller, Nicky Weinstock and Jackie Cohn executive produce through Red Hour Productions, and both Patricia Arquette and Adam Scott serve as producers. Endeavor Content serves as the studio.

Says Shapiro: “Although SEVERANCE can be classified as science-fiction, at its heart it’s a mystery.  The music of the score, built around four repeating chords, is a gigantic question mark.  As the mystery unfolds, so do variations on our theme.”

About Theodore Shapiro: “The thing that I love to do is solve puzzles,” Theodore Shapiro says. “And to me, every score is like a puzzle that you crack.” For two decades, Shapiro has been solving cinematic puzzles both light and dark. He’s scored some of Hollywood’s classic comedies – including OLD SCHOOL, TROPIC THUNDER, DODGEBALL, and BLADES OF GLORY – as well as Paul Feig’s hilarious, female-powered films (SPY, GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL). He’s also cracked the code of political dramas (BOMBSHELL, the Emmy nominated GAME CHANGE, TRUMBO), animated adventures (SPIES IN DISGUISE and CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE, both of which earned him Annie nominations), and unconventional adventures (THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY) and mysteries (A SIMPLE FAVOR). He pulled a jazzy score with Gene Hackman in HEIST, accentuated the tyranny of Meryl Streep in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, made the tears flow in MARLEY & ME, and found the humanity in an incorrigible Bill Murray in ST. VINCENT; and his dark, jagged score for DESTROYER, starring Nicole Kidman – was described by The A.V. Club as “knife-on-bone.”

The SEVERANCE soundtrack is available from these links.

Watch the series’ trailer:

Book One
Book 1 Cover

This website was created partly to promote the book series, Musique Fantastique [Second Edition] 100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music by Randall D. Larson, but more importantly is intended to be a resource for news, views, & interviews about music for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films. As an extension of the books, it provides additional material and links to further resources about this unique genre of film and television scoring. For news on the book series, scroll down toward the bottom of the home page.

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Frontispiece artwork by Allen Koszowski from Musique Fantastique 1st Edition, Scarecrow Press, 1985.