How ‘Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans’ Main Title Composer Thomas Newman Crafted the Show’s Opening
variety.comSelena Kuznikov When composer Thomas Newman was approached by Ryan Murphy Productions to work on “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” he was told he would work on the main title – while his daughter Julia would write the music for the eight hours worth of TV. “So I got to watch as she did her thing and she watched as I did mine,” Newman shared of his daughter in Variety‘s Artisans Behind the Song, presented by HBO.
He said in the case of the second installment in Murphy’s Feud anthology, he wanted to focus on the notion of swans having a gossipy chatter on the Upper East Side of New York City.
The series, based on Laurence Leamer’s novel “Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era” following acclaimed writer Truman Capote, follows the true story of Capote and the elite women of high society in New York that he dubbed “the swans.” The group included Barbara “Babe” Paley (Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (Diane Lane), C.Z.
Guest (Chloë Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart), who Capote betrayed by writing a thinly veiled fictionalized version of their lives.
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