As part of Variety’s “Behind the Song,” “Shōgun” composer Leopold Ross broke down the show’s dramatic main title theme. What started as a simple email from a friend he’d worked with together in the past, asking Ross if he wanted help work on the score for “Shōgun,” turned into a nearly two-year-long collaboration with composer Nick Chuba, brother and composer Atticus Ross and arranger/composer Taro Ishida. A historical drama series set in the early 1600s, based on James Clavell’s novel of the same name, the series follows the journey of John Blackthorne, an English navigator who becomes shipwrecked in Japan and finds himself embroiled in the complex political and cultural landscape of the country.
As he navigates this foreign world, Blackthorne becomes entangled in the power struggles between feudal lords, particularly the ambitious daimyo, Lord Toranaga. The cast includes Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga, Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne, and Anna Sawai as Lady Mariko. One of the earliest ideas for the theme included Chuba playing the nose flute, as Justin Marks (co-creator and showrunner) felt that particular instrument was evocative of the world.
Once that central tenet had been introduced, the next step was to build it from there. “It became a case of building from here and turning this into a theme that encapsulated the world of ‘Shōgun’ and matched the kind of epic scale of the visuals,” Ross said. After introducing the nose flute, Ross suggested including a bamboo flute called the shakuhachi, known for its rich lower register.
But it was with the introduction of the third instrument, the hichiriki, that the composers were able to elevate the meaning of and metaphorize their scores. “The hichiriki is a very small, raspy reed instrument that really became one of the signature sounds of the show because of the way that it reacted with our processing. It’s put into this indescribable world where it’s not ancient, and it’s not modern, and it’s not Eastern, and it’s not Western; it’s just existing between the lines,” he explained.
With all the instruments beginning to swell, forming a cacophonous sound, Ross needed a way to ground it all back and bridge with a gentler and softer tone. That’s where Buddhist monks came in. Ross and crew were permitted to record monks while performing at a festival at their temple, and they were able to use one of the phrases in the recording to “transition from the beauty to the brutality.
” Upon seeing his completed work, Ross says he remembered feeling “immensely proud” of the series and his role in it. “I felt immensely proud watching the series back and connected on such a wide level. We thought it would be like a niche art piece, you know what I mean? We weren’t expecting it to turn into this monster,” he says.
“It’s just an honor to be involved in a project where the level of craftsmanship across the whole production is at such a high bar, and it pushed us because we wanted to be at that bar. It’s just a humbling and amazing feeling.” Watch the entire conversation above.
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