Composer Inspired by Family Connection

Post date: Jan 7, 2011 3:49:31 PM

This entry is written by Justin Reinert, a 2010 graduate of Fleetwood Area High School who is composing the score for the film:

In order to really understand why I'm so moved by this story, I think a personal backdrop is necessary. There is a line I'd like to quote from Frank that he states in the film as well as in the trailer. "I am not a Catholic, I am not a Protestant, I am not a Jew." While in a completely different context, I can try to relate to what he is saying. I am half Jewish. My ancestors, some of which I've never had the opportunity of meeting because of the Holocaust, fled from the European countries of Poland and Czechoslovakia to avoid the grip of Hitler and the Nazi party in the mid to late 1930s. According to Jewish law, I have Jewish blood because of my mother, and therefore I am technically a Jew by birthright. However, I have been raised in a Christian household and consider myself to be a Christian. Not until recently have I been interested in the genealogy of my family, but events have led me to try and track things down and really discover who I am in a lineage sense, where my family comes from on both sides, and the sacrifices my ancestors made so that I can live and be where I am today.

Around the time Mr. Gaston and Mrs. Goss contacted me to join the project, my Great Aunt Dorothy was just returning to her normal self from a long series of health issues. These two things seem unrelated, but a key point to remember is that my Great Aunt Dorothy was Jewish, the oldest living member of my family on my mom's side, the keeper of all the family history and stories about our past including the Holocaust, and was one of the last remaining first generation immigrants to this country along with my grandmother. Put all that information aside for the time being, I promise it wasn't off topic rambling.

I have always been interested in history, and World War II and the Holocaust have always been both extremely interesting and humbling for me. My father's side of the family served the U.S. Military during the war, and my great-grandfather was in one of the first patrols to "discover" Auschwitz. Obviously I have ties to the Holocaust through my family, so it's pretty clear why I would want to study those topics.

I was sitting at my desk while at school in Philadelphia when I got an email from Mrs. Goss, who contacted me through a recommendation to see if I'd be interested in writing the music for a project on the Holocaust that the school was producing. I am a former student of Mrs. Goss's at Fleetwood High School. She put me in touch with Mr. Gaston, who I knew as the TV/Media teacher where I went to high school, but our paths never crossed except for a few rare occasions. Mr. Gaston went on in an email to describe the project to me: Frank's story, the need for music, and asking if I'd be willing to write the score for the film. I remember being very honored, and I was grateful that people had faith in my musical ability to lead such a project.

But then I started thinking about the logistics. I have been writing my own songs and recording them at a studio in my basement for a few years, but those were relatively simple compared to composing for an ensemble; I only used guitars, piano, some effects, and vocals in my music. I also thought about time restraints. I'm a pharmacy student at Temple University, not a music major. I have a strong background in music, a developed ear for things that sound good, and according to my music teachers, natural ability, but I had never done anything this large or this important. But, even with all that in mind, I felt there was something pulling me towards this project, and I joined the team in September.

Over the next few weeks, Mr. Gaston and I went back and forth via email and a face to face meeting about all sorts of things. The type of music, the feel of the music, instrumentation, all those sorts of topics. An important anecdote to include is the discussion he and I had about fugue's. By simple definition, a fugue is a piece of music that builds upon itself with layers, and then gradually returns to the original melody. Visually, picture a diamond on its side: very narrow to start, then expanding with the most intense moments at the peak, and then returning to its roots at the end. Eventually the idea of the fugue became a large part of the mindset for the film, and the name for the film was coined based upon our thinking and ideas.

Let's fast-forward in time a few months to early December. My Great Aunt Dorothy fell ill unexpectedly and was in a hospital near Philadelphia. Thursday morning after my class, I got a phone call from my dad saying that Dorothy had made a turn for the worse and that he along with the rest of my family was on their way to say goodbye. I got a train ticket from Philadelphia to Doylestown and made my way to the hospital. I stayed for about six hours with the rest of my family, both Jewish and Christian, and we recalled many things about her life and about the lives of my family that had already come to pass. To make a long story short, Dorothy left this world about twenty-four hours later. In addition to losing a dear member of the family, we had never taken the time to sit down with her and get our family story. All of that history, all of those memories, everything she knew, was gone forever. This gave me grief, but also strength. I then wrote one of the songs for this film in the few days after her death, which I've simply named "Movement" for the way it makes me feel, and in memorial for her. Even though Dorothy wasn't a Holocaust survivor, she knew the story of her parents' flight to escape the concentration camps as well the histories of all the family that didn't get out of Europe in time and that were never heard from again. Although I've never personally met Frank, I feel that every story of every person is important to preserve. The fact that he shares common ground with my ancestors makes it even more significant to me that I am a part of this project, and I am so happy to be able to offer what I have to record his story.

I wrote all of the songs in this film as fugue-esque pieces. They aren't traditional like Beethoven, but if you listen, you can hear the building process. I tried to layer the instruments and harmonies in such a way that it moves, both literally in an aural sense but also in an emotional way. The songs represent all the emotions I gathered from reading the script, from hearing Frank's story, and from recalling my own family history. It's incredibly hard to gather everything a person feels about the Holocaust with instruments in a few minutes time, and I put hours of writing and re-writing, deleting and starting over into these songs. I wanted to make sure that this music tears at the heart, softens the soul, and provides relief and comfort at the right times. I've tried my best to write music that exemplifies all the traits and emotions that can be found in the film. While remaining modest, I feel that I've done so with the songs that are found in Misa's Fugue.