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'A Kind Of Passing The Baton': Rachel Portman And Jon Ehrlich Open Up About Composing Title Theme Of We Were The Lucky Ones
Rachel Portman and Jon Ehrlich collaborated across continents to compose hopeful music for Hulu's We Were the Lucky Ones. Read to know what they had to say!
Rachel Portman and Jon Ehrlich worked together to create music Hopeful for Hulu's show called We Were the Lucky Ones. Even though they only met once in person, they collaborated from different parts of the world.
Rachel Portman and Jon Ehrlich candidly discuss composing title theme for We Were the Lucky Ones
In a recent interview with Variety, the co-composers shared that they both liked working this way. Ehrlich described the making of music saying, “She would work on something, and then I would wake up in the morning and go to the studio and unwrap a gift. Then by the end of my day, I was handing it off to her, and she could kind of pick up where I left off. It was a kind of passing the baton back and forth.”
Portman and Ehrlich wanted their music to bring hope and excitement to the show, especially by using certain instruments like the piano and cello.
The show is based on a book about a family surviving the Holocaust. It stars Joey King and Logan Lerman. Portman and Ehrlich wanted their music to reflect the story's emotions – like longing, loss, and hope.
They used a mix of instruments like strings and harps. Portman described the other instrument to Variety in the theme of a cello. She said it is “a rich, deep and beautiful mellow voice. It goes very well with the piano. We used a lot of strings and non-live elements and harp, there’s a real mixture. We kept the orchestral palette quite tight.” Ehrlich also used sounds inspired by real things, like to show the cruelty people faced.
The music also reflects the main character, Addy, who is separated from his family. He doesn't know what happened to them, and he's desperate for news.
Rachel Portman aims to tell the audience the story through music
Portman explained that the music had to feel modern, not just something from the past. They wanted the audience to feel like they were experiencing the story as it happened. She told the outlet, “In the main theme there is this sort of building feeling of anticipation, I wanted to write something that could encompass the whole of the story, and it had to be compelling and moving.”
She continued, “When I write, I tend to not really know what I’m doing and ideas sort of just begin to happen, and then I ascribe themes for characters. This main theme, this is really for everybody.”
Portman and Ehrlich worked with a group of musicians in Berlin to record the music. They felt a big responsibility to make the music match the importance of the story.
The first three episodes of the show are already out on Hulu, and new ones come out every Thursday.
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