All About It

Dinner with the Alchemist is an indie film based on rich legends of voodoo and alchemy in turn of the century New Orleans. Gruesome Magazine covered it.

The score is based on minimalism, with inspirations from Debussy to Philip Glass. In the sample cues on this page, you can hear a main motif based on a common of 2-note minimalist ostinato. The overlaying chords, however, are the interesting part.

I drew inspiration from an innovative interpretation and performance of a Bach Chorale, where the performance is elongated and only one note is changed at a time. This leads to all sorts of revealing textures and transitions. I created a similar idea, in this case choosing a 3-note texture (chorales are generally 4 parts), where only 1 note changes at a time. This is the basis of the opening cue “The Alchemist”.

This same progression is the basis of “Storming the Shop”, with a different 4-note modal ostinato as its basis. The same 4-note shape eventually becomes both the severe melody in “An Incurable Addiction”, and the sweet melody in “Your First Wedding”, which plays near the end of the film.