Christopher Willis is an Emmy-nominated, multi-talented composer working in the mediums of film, television, and games. Christopher is known for his work on HBO's hit comedy series, Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He currently scores The Lion Guard and the multiple Emmy Award-winning Disney Mickey Mouse shorts. One of his most recent project was for the feature film, THE DEATH OF STALIN.
The Death of Stalin is a 2017 political satire film directed by Armando Iannucci. It chronicles the Soviet power struggles set off by the death of dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953. The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name.
The film was released by eOne Films in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2017 and is set to be released in the United States by IFC Films on March 9, 2018. The film was also screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim.
Christopher Willis’ score for The Death of Stalin has garnered much praise and a nomination for Best Music at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards and in this episode, he talks about writing a score in the great Soviet tradition of music composition. He shares about how he made the jump into this segment of the classical world of music; Willis describes his road to discovery of the powerful and pompous Soviet scores as he prepared to write his own for the satire.
ANNOTATED TRACKS
01:55 - Track - Moscow 1953
04:35 - Track - Beria's Plan
06:16 - Track - Special Delivery
06:49 - Track - Removal Men
08:41 - Track - Pall-Bearers
10;52 - Track - He Looks So Small
11:42 - Track - Back from the Gulags
13:02 - Track - Let the People Come
15:44 - Track - Setting the Trap
17:35 - Track - Staging a Coup
20:14 - Track - Flowers
21:16 - Track - A Comedy of Terrors
SOUNDTRACK
The original score by Christopher Willis was released on December 1, 2017 and can be found on
Amazon.com, iTunes and streaming on Spotify.
MORE ABOUT THE COMPOSER
You can hear more music from Christopher Willis at his official site. Or follow him on Twitter @mrchriswillis
ABOUT THE ANNOTATOR
Produced by Christopher Coleman (@ccoleman) and you can
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