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Poker Night (Scott Glasgow)

Poker Night (Scott Glasgow)

Digital: iTUNES | AMAZON | eMUSIC | SPOTIFY

[itunes id=”1067027795″]

 

MovieScore Media presents its latest collaboration with composer Scott Glasgow (Hack!, Chasing Ghosts, Lo, Secrets of a Psychopath, Toxic) who provides a stylistically varied thriller score for an investigation unraveled in flashbacks. Written and directed by Greg Francis, Poker Night is a uniquely structured dark crime thriller centered around a rookie cop being captured by a serial killer and held in a dungeon – all the while he is trying to remember the stories from the titular poker night where veteran cops all discussed their most difficult cases. These were meant to be lessons if the rookie cop ever got into trouble, but can the shared wisdom help out this time? Poker Night stars Beau Mirchoff, Ron Perlman and Giancarlo Esposito with each flashback coming with a score fitted for that particular character’s background.

Scott Glasgow, who previously impressed with his technically brilliant scores for Chasing Ghosts and Lo, ambitiously approached the score for the film using a mixing techniques from the baroque and 20th century eras, effectively packaged with a blend of orchestral and electronic instrumentaions. READ MORE IN THE COMPOSER’S NOTE BELOW!

Composer Scott Glasgow graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in composition and earned his ­Bachelors of Music degree from Cal State Northridge in composition as well. Following his breakout work on the revitalized anime classic Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006), Glasgow’s scores released by MovieScore Media include the urban thriller Chasing Ghosts (2005), the brilliant homage-laden score for the horror comedy Hack! (2007), the neo noirish thriller Toxic (2009) and Lo (2009), a macabre ensemble piece about love which was nominated ‘Best Score for a Comedy’ by the International Film Music Critics Association. His most recent release with the label was Secrets of a Psychopath (2014), the latest offering of cult filmmaker Bert I. Gordon.

MMS15017 • POKER NIGHT (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by SCOTT GLASGOW
Release date (digital): December 18, 2015

TRACK LISTING

1 Wisdom & Hindsight 1:13
2 Four Deuces 3:26
3 Davis 5:04
4 Maxwell 2:33
5 Cunningham 2:07
6 Jeter 3:46
7 Burial Warning 2:17
8 Monsters 2:06
9 Amy 2:48
10 The Wall / Sheeple 3:07
11 Follow My Voice 2:39
12 Parenticide 4:08
13 Super Glued 5:17
14 The Call 4:44
15 The Kiss Story 2:10
16 Reunited 4:07
17 Decoy 3:00
18 Ship Yard Discovery 4:38
19 Calabrese 5:13
20 Reversal 2:05
21 Answers 3:14
22 Escape the Dungeon 2:30
23 Incarceration 2:15
24 Lessons 3:29

COMPOSER’S NOTE

The score to “Poker Night” was a bit of a challenge. The producers of the film wanted an electronica / orchestral score blend. Something new for me but also a fun challenge musically. However after watching the film I realized it was much more of a dark thriller serial killer cop drama which needed something else score wise which included dark orchestral textures too. I set out to create a score with electronic elements blended with some 20th century composer techniques & architectural musical structures.

First I have a “chaconne” (20th c. style) where a set of  chords are repeated in variations. I also decided that I wanted to bring in a “Corelli clash cadence” (a cadence with minor 2nds in the upper voices developed in the 17th c by Arcangelo Corelli) into my chaconne. I also worked in a repeated bass line with variations called a “Passacaglia” (developed in the 17th c.) on the pitches Eb-C-B-D | C-D#-E-C#. Finally I worked in a “tone row” a series of 12 pitches that do not repeat until all the others are used (developed by Arnold Schoenberg in the earth 20th c.) which is heard clearly the upper piano figure throughout the score. However my tone row became a 7-tone row “heptachord” instead. All three of these musical forms used are not developed with traditional variations but as building blocks throughout the score. The “tone row” was presented it a unique way as “growing” from cue to cue starting with only 3 notes in the opening scene, slowly adding one note to the set on subsequent scene, growing to the full presentation of the 7-notes by the final scene even presented as one big chord of all the notes together. Most of these structures are really for the composer to know it is there and for musical balance. Very rarely would a listener or movie audience recognize these however they do add to the cohesion of the musical score even if it is subconsciously to the listener. 

The film is very unique dark crime drama centered around a rookie cop being captured by a serial killer and held in a dungeon— all the while his is trying to remember the stories from the night before’s Poker Night with the veteran cops who all told stories of difficult cases which were to be lessons if the rookie cop ever got into trouble. In the score, I worked in a way to give each of the characters a unique tone to their scenes. The film is based on small vignette stories by each veteran detective— and each had their own musical feel. “Davis” had a percussive element with synths that ran through his scenes; “Bernard” scene were all flashbacks to the 70s with some groove vibes; “Maxwell” was primarily characterized by traditional orchestra minimalism music; “Cunningham” was more electronica and “Calabrese” was more brooding low orch brass elements since he was more in the modern timeline and less about flashbacks. All these techniques and music considerations hopefully blended into one score. 

I hope you enjoy this unique score of modern electronica of loops with aggressive synths blended with 20th century composer techniques of a tone row, a chaconne and a passacaglia.

Scott Glasgow, November 2015

    Poker Night (Scott Glasgow)