SaarHendelman

[saarhendelman]

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1816 All Stars. Going, going... one curse at a time. @thekillingplace #terrancezdunich #saarhendelman #americanmurdersong #murderballad #followthemark @aureliovoltaire #chibi @dead_juliet @alissawhitegluz @curtis_rx @morgueofficial @bigbadvoodoodaddyofficial @toledofilmnoirsoul @ulorin_vex #sepia #daguerreotype #music #musicvideo #americana

[saarhendelman]

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And the Curses roll on. Oh, someone's gonna get theirs. @aureliovoltaire #followthemark #americanmurdersong #terrancezdunich #saarhendelman #voltaire #creaturefeature #curtisrx #morgueofficial #morgue #murderballads #murder #folk #americana #devilscarnival #tdc #sepia #daguerreotype #music #musicvideo

[saarhendelman]

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You don't mess with @alissawhitegluz. She brings the badass to the party. Get thee to the official site for some widescreen action. #americanmurdersong #followthemark #alissawhitegluz #aureliovoltaire #morgueofficial #curtisrx #toledoshow #bigbadvoodoodaddy #scottymorris #ulorinvex #terrancezdunich #devilscarnival #folk #murder

[saarhendelman]

More original Carnival score music! Episode 1 style. This one from the big top as Ticket Keeper discusses the night's performance.

Putting the score together for the first movie was such a down and dirty adventure. With the songs themselves, I had spent weeks working out the music arrangements and getting the right sound so that every tuba explosion was happening at the perfect moment. But when it came to the score, I had two and a half weeks to write and record the entire movie.

This was one of the first things I wrote and it set the tone for the lighter end of the Carnival musical spectrum. And what better way to do that than break out the chattering percussion, metal anvils wonky piano? None.

[saarhendelman]

@ulorin_vex is Mother Columbia. America has never been safer, or in more danger. #americanmurdersong #followthemark #terrancezdunich #saarhendelman #ulorinvex #murderballads #murder #video #america #flag #blood #gothic #red #white #blue

[saarhendelman]

I was rummaging through the first Devil's Carnival score (stored in the proverbial hard drive attic) and stumbled across this, which brought back some fond memories.

The cue played in the background when The Scorpion (played by Marc Senter) was seducing Tamara (played by Jessica Lowndes). So I'd call it circus romantic.

I had just moved to a new place and was not quite set up. So I pulled out my accordion and plopped a mic in the living room that night and wrote and recorded this (well, ultimately this, before that: lesser versions, over and over).

I'm sure the neighbors were loving it.

[saarhendelman]

Making plots and troubles for @steampunkworldsfair. #followthemark #americanmurdersong #steampunk #show

[saarhendelman]

Where is the parson? #followthemark #americanmurdersong #daguerreotype #sepia #murderballads #murder #1800 #music #dawn #noir #blackandwhite

[saarhendelman]

Just a couple of guys hanging around. Oh, yes... and The Hunter. #followthemark #americanmurdersong #america #murder #music #album #1800 #dark #daguerreotype #dawn

[saarhendelman]

Johnny may have not been a very good boy. American Murder Song.

[saarhendelman]

Introducing American Murder Songs. The new project from Terrance Zdunich and myself. Trailer directed by the amazing Harry Chaskin.

www.americanmurdersong.com​

[saarhendelman]

This was such a wonderful ride. Thank you all behind the scenes, in front of it, in front of the screens (beautiful fans) and anywhere and everywhere in between. Hope we get to make more.

For my last peek behind the curtain I've saved the moment when Lucifer's plans coalesce. He opens up a bit, ready to share what he's been dreaming up with the Ticket Keeper.

This is What We've Built: bones, plucks, and a strange combination of art and trash (in the best sense of the word).

Thank you for being a part of it.

Join us on the next leg of our journey: American Murder Song.

Can you smell what the Terrance Zdunich and I (I could be formal, but I won't refer to myself in the third person) are cooking? Please dive in and find out.

Lots of love and thanks.

[saarhendelman]

The first of the last two thoughts on the score for The Devil's Carnival. I've been friends with Terrance Zdunich for a very long time, and worked together with him over the last four years on Carnival and our upcoming American Murder Song. The man's got a very specific sense of humor, so when I see it on screen, it tends to crack me up. So when it came to scoring Lucifer's tirade against Heaven, I felt like I should get in on the joke and give something back. This is the finest ham and cheese sandwich I got for the man with the horns. Hopefully I gave as good as he had.

[saarhendelman]

A few more posts on Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival's score. This one is about Emilie Autumn's June's journey in Hell before becoming Painted Doll. What I wanted to do with this scene was twofold and centered on the idea to create the sense of foreignness that June would feel falling down from Heaven (her perceived home) to Hell (a budding circus). On the one hand, from June's perspective, she is in a new and strange world. On the other hand, from the Carnival's perspective, June's a candidate for a "game". I used sounds that are more European (slight differences between American stringed instruments and our brethren abroad). I also gravitated towards sadness, hopefully further alienating June from her newfound home in Hell (that's the interesting thing about score vs. songs - in songs you want to address a situation head on, in score you want to evoke a certain set of circumstances that reflect on what you're actually doing in order to create a "mirror"). And on top of it all, I've included a music box version of Beautiful Stranger.

[saarhendelman]

And as for the second to callback to the original The Devil's Carnival film, this was definitely cool to play with. Brianna Evigan's Merrywood is sent back up to Heaven and is interrogated by Jimmy Urine and Chantal Claret's Translators. There were two elements to this piece that I wanted to weave together. Beautiful Stranger for Merrywood, and the crazy fun energy that the Translators brought to their scenes. I brought in the harmonic strings from my arrangement for Beautiful Stranger in episode 1 and layered it over itself in different pitches as the music progressed. Then, I added a jittery version of the Translators' score theme later on so that they establish themselves here (I can't tell you enough how much Jimmy and Chantal's energy informed this). Always nice to have an old friend meet the new ones.

[saarhendelman]

First of two score cues that are out and out callbacks to the original The Devil's Carnival film. This piece takes us through the first scene at the Carnival (after Lucifer's train and God's office). With fireballs blowing up in the sky outside the tent, Ticket Keeper walks up and makes his way towards the Carnies' end-of-night-I'm-so-hungover-I'm-kinda-dancing-celebration, or as I called it: The After After After Party. But before that, there needs to be rules. So I deconstructed 666 for the late, late night, complete with a "classy" tuba and the air raid siren that was featured in the actual song in episode one. Recycling is for the greater good.

[saarhendelman]

Up Town vs. Uptown: Uptown

My last post about the score for Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival, was about Up Town, the scene where June and The Agent paint the town red (with the town being Heaven). In it, I drew a conceptual (if not musical) connection to After The Fall. But in this scene, Uptown, just a bit later on, the conceptual and the musical meet.

Later in the evening, Emilie Autumn's June rushes to Adam Pascal's Agent's office to seal a/the deal/or something. I wanted her to feel like she's keeping the night going, like she and The Agent never left the club. So I romanticized the music, but kept the energy of the previous track, and snuck (damn it, spell check, I think it would like me to say sneaked) in the verse melody from After The Fall half way through and then again at the end. And to echo Up Town, I ended the track with a sparse moment of only drums and bass, though this time time the sparseness means it won't end well for her.

All in all, there are two moments at which June hears the melody for After The Fall. First, here in this scene, when she reaches up and tries to become part of Heaven's elite, and, second, when she reaches down and embraces who she is in Hell and finally becomes Painted Doll.