Deva Anderson served as one of the music supervisors of Netflix’s The Piano Lesson, based on the August Wilson play of the same name. The Piano Lesson proved a dream project for Anderson for several reasons. It incorporates music with which she holds a deep connection, and she also had a wonderful collaboration with its director, Malcolm Washington. Through her research, she discovered many surprising details that created an even deeper connection to the material for her personally and hopefully for the audience as well.
The Contending: You and your music partner Rachel Lautzenheiser have worked together on several projects, and I’m curious what your dynamic is working together and if there was something about this project that was different for you guys?
Deva Anderson: Rachel has worked with me for almost 10 years now and we are an unusual duo, where for me it feels like we both have very different creative and tactile strengths, so it creates a really unique team that really benefits the project. In addition, we are two different people so we have a wide range of musical tastes and diverse voices coming into a project. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to be here today because she’s out sick, but I hope I can speak on behalf of both of us.
The Contending: I read this was a dream project for the two of you. What was it about the project that made it such a dream for you?
Deva Anderson: This is based on an original Broadway play by August Wilson, and it is such a prized piece of literature that has been so revered. August Wilson as a writer is looked at almost like, as Malcolm Washington would say, the black Shakespeare. I have done a tremendous amount of research as well as doing a thesis on the history of black music from the slave era through rap and hip hop. I have always had an interest in the history of music and how it changes through the ages and generations, especially in the specific genre. The theme of this film is about what is left behind by one’s ancestors and what it means to different members of the current generation. That mirrors what music is and what it has become.
The Contending: One of the things I noticed while watching the film is, while the movie has a lot of scenes where the music is just in the background helping to create the mood, there are several sequences where the music would become overwhelming. Where there was no dialogue and we were just focused on the image and that music. How is that creative decision decided?
Deva Anderson: Malcolm was very specific on the musical vision he had for this film. He collaborated very closely with the film’s composer Alexandre Desplat to shape the musical score. I can also speak to how we tag teamed with them, putting in the songs and also when to incorporate the live playing of the piano (which itself was almost a main character in the film), in what it sounded like and how the characters would interact with it. Malcolm had a very specific idea about where the music would be placed throughout the shooting and editorial process. So his vision really spoke for how it brilliantly came together in the final cut.
The Contending: One of the most intense scenes in the film musically and in general is the exorcism they are attempting to do. There is pounding on the piano, wind going through the house, and this battle going on upstairs. What went into making the music be at the center of all that chaos?
Deva Anderson: That was a scene that took a particularly delicate process. It was an example of what we needed from the onset, filming as music supervisors to create different versions before the final cut. During the filming we had one recording done live so that the actors and actresses could do a lot of improvisation. Then when we got into editing, Malcolm really wanted to shape it in a different way to mirror where the rest of the music had been going. So we did a different recording of the piano part with a family friend of Malcolm who was a pianist. She really refined it, and that’s where it was crafted to what it became in the film. I also think that scene and the rest of the songs in the film fit so well with the composed score by Desplat that it almost becomes this tapestry. Often in music supervision and in filmmaking the music becomes different than you expected while filming it, and then it unfolds in many different versions when you get to the final cut.
The Contending: Speaking of some of the other music in the film, you took a lot of contemporary music with some of the plays’ original songs. How did you come to that decision and decide on which contemporary songs to place in the film?
Deva Anderson: That was absolutely Malcolm’s vision from the beginning. He was listening to a lot of different music when he was writing the screenplay and also while he was filming. Malcolm was very determined and skilled in knowing what music works filmically. Rachel and I were very excited about that because of the film’s theme of music being timeless, and taking different shapes through the generations. He had some very specific contemporary music he had in mind, like Fela Kuti and the gospel songs. But there were other scenes too. We just had a wonderful time collaborating with him and exchanging ideas into post production. Oftentimes in these situations we are changing out songs right before the final mix, even the end credit song. It was one of the most joyful collaborations with the director we have had because of that impactful music taste, and we enjoyed exchanging playlists and just talking about songs.
The Contending: I read you featured a Mary Lou Williams song and then later found out a portrait of her inspired August Wilson’s play. Sounds like you’ve done a lot of research into music in general, so is that how you discovered that? What did you think when you discovered it?
Deva Anderson: I discovered it much later, and thank you for bringing that up. The film itself has a spiritual message to it, and what touches us in so many different ways. I feel like the Mary Lou Williams song was one of the spiritual moments for us as music supervisors. I was doing research on a different piece that I was writing when I discovered that it was that portrait that inspired the play for August Wilson. This is something that happens with music supervisors. We have these huge playlists with songs from many different films we’ve worked on, and she was one of those amazing artists who did not get the credit she was due from all the work she did with many jazz greats. So this song was in circulation for one of our other projects but it never landed, and then it just sort of organically came up for this film and it worked so well. Then to find out this connection later, I really felt like it was the spirit of The Piano Lesson speaking through to us.
The Contending: Was there anything in particular in the music supervision that stood out for you that maybe someone like me as a layman wouldn’t notice?
Deva Anderson: There are definitely a few favorite scenes, I will say. One of them was the visual vocals of the gentleman at the dining table singing “Berta, Berta.” In the movie theater people are often clapping after that scene because it’s so emotional. That was one of the songs that was in the original play, but when we started to prep it and look at it for the film we realized there were all these different copyrights involved for that one song. It had different lyrics that were mashed together, including a portion that was written by August Wilson himself. The hours we spent piecing together the different lyrics and figuring out who had the rights was one of my favorite deep dives that you only get to discover when you get into the process. Then it turned out to be one of the more impactful scenes that audiences loved.
The Contending: Final thoughts?
Deva Anderson: This was a wonderful project that we had so much fun on. It is always fun to talk about our craft, because a lot of people don’t know what music supervisors do and how we get involved. So we always like to chat about it.
The Piano Lesson streams exclusively on Netflix.
