Allegro in C Minor Year
Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, and the SUCCESSION of it all.
I subscribe to one free and one paid. Someone like me needs both.
Back in January, I was tasked with presenting a beloved song for a German class. As I had no desire to translate lyrics, it took me the better part of two minutes to settle on Nicholas Britell’s opening theme to Succession, one of the best TV themes we’ve had in recent years. Thought-provoking, invigorating, compact. I assembled some slides, played only half the title sequence for the class (at the teacher’s behest; I would have shown it in its entirety for the visuals alone), talked about the collaboration between classical and hip-hop influences, and briefly interpreted the character(s) of the Roy family through the mood of the piece.
Nobody in the class knew the show, and indeed few I encounter in Germany seem to know it, including fellow Americans, and still fewer know the composer’s name. I wonder if the HBO-power-saga line is drawn between those who watched Succession and those who watched Game of Thrones, and never the twain shall meet. For what it’s worth, Succession is marginally less incestuous.
I spent the week before the presentation weighing up the variations in the opening theme across four seasons. It wasn’t long until I was considering the distinct musical personality of each season, the melodic threads developed by each and echoed by the others. The personal and corporate identity repetitions of season 1, the intimate and grand concerti of season 2, the Italian/German Classical and Romantic inspirations of season 3, the vivace appassionato of season 4. Four children, each with peculiar strengths and weaknesses, bound together in a hauntingly dysfunctional family dynamic.
All at once the practice was rooted. I didn’t stop cultivating it until mid-November, which left a statistical imprint. Being in the top 0.1% of Britell’s Spotify listeners, I received a thank-you video from him (on Apple Music he ranked second only to the Who, my #1 for two consecutive years, and forget a thank-you video, I should get to MEET them). The season 4 soundtrack topped my Spotify and Apple album lists. And individual pieces were top tracks on each platform (“Pianos + 808 + Beat” from season 4 and “Allegro in C Minor” from season 1, respectively).
Here are some of the moments that added up:
Preparing for the presentation
Reflecting on what a good job I did on the presentation
Walking or commuting through the Berlin winter chill
Jogging up a wide main thoroughfare (obviously I feel most like Kendall with headphones and sunglasses on in public)
Recreating some of its chordal ambience in a valedictory Pianocenter session
Applying to jobs with intensifying determination (sometimes open-eyed, sometimes very much blind)
Gliding over the escalators of the Hauptbahnhof
Expressing myself through dance alone in my bedroom
Picking up the hard-won new residence permit (as I quoted Logan at the time: “I. Fucking. Win.”)
Riding the regional train to a new corporate job in a sprawling corporate office wearing a corporate ID badge
Pre-election, rewatching the scene with Jeryd Mencken’s chilling victory speech
Post-election, unable to stomach most music with words
Drowsing on the above-ground U-Bahn from one end of the line to the other in blue afternoon light
Finally deciding that this winter in Stuttgart need not be like last winter in Berlin and I could break the cycle and I love this music but God I’ve had enough
Scores are good for when words say too much or too little. This one, this year, was for me a brutal cocktail of the feeling of power and the recognition of powerlessness. May 2025 bring you a score that sees you, or shakes you, or changes you.
Meanwhile, can somebody check on Duo?
Bonus: this gem of an edit featuring the one family even BETTER suited to such an intro