The Leftovers Wouldn't Work So Well Without Such Evocative Music
by • Friday at 6:56 pm
Damon Lindelof’s moody psychological thriller/apocalyptic drama The Leftovers is nearing its end—the season finale airs on HBO this Sunday—and I’m just as intrigued about what music they’ll be using as I am about what will happen in it.
The show’s elegant, evocative classical music score is by German-born UK-based composer Max Richter, the main Leftovers theme a powerful piece of urgently ascending strings that was used in the first season’s opening credits, while a more condensed chamber version pops up in appropriate moments throughout the next few seasons. Richter’s other classical works seem to carry just as much weight and tend to elicit heavy feelings ranging from deep dread to hopelessness, but his fine emotive hand is most notable in the dour, soul-crushing melancholy of the “Departure” piano theme; it plays in general reference to the tragedy that is the premise of the show—the disappearance of 2 percent of the world’s population (they’re called the Departed and the event is referred to as the Departure)—and also seems to pipe in when anything truly significant is happening.
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