Composer Brian Tyler set the scores for both “Yellowstone” and “1923,” a sound that he believes at its core is “the music of immigrants.”
“The music of the old West is really the music of immigrants,” Tyler tells Variety. “It’s like gypsy musicians and accordions; more humble beginnings. The theme has a tragic lullaby feel.”
Working on varying “Yellowstone” projects, Tyler had to create a recognizable sound that would “connect to the main idea of ‘Yellowstone.’” For that he turned to different instruments including a cello which “spoke the most like a human voice” to the charango which is traditionally made out of armadillo shells.
In order to encapsulate the storyline of the Duttons across each series, Tyler crossed over melodies to evoke “how these inevitable, fatalistic storylines crashed into each other.”
“There’s a signature atmospheric sound to the Duttons themselves as their storyline traversed through history,” says Tyler. “I wanted to do a melody for ‘1883’ and ‘1923’ that would cross over, so there’s this crossover with the two melodies that connects the two stories.”
Tyler’s compositions soundtrack the plot line of the series so much that showrunner Taylor Sheridan would play the music for the actors while on set to evoke the mood of the series.
“As the story progresses, it’s really cool how Taylor Sheridan has been writing this epic, sprawling, tone poem,” says Tyler. “Usually, the music is reacting to the picture. In this way, I write music and send that to him, and then he plays that for the actors. The actors take that in, and they’re influenced by the music, and then they start editing the picture, and it has music in it that I already wrote. So unlike most movies or shows or anything, it’s not a reactive process: Taylor wants it woven into the fabric of everything.”
Watch the full conversation above. Variety’s Artisans is presented by HBO.
