When it came to scoring the explosive montage surrounding the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” composer Laura Karpman came up with the inspired idea to adapt Sonia Sanchez’s powerful “Catch the Fire” poem as an orchestral requiem, which was central to her Emmy-nominated score with Grammy-winning composer and record producer Raphael Saadiq.
This searing, operatic piece underscored the hate-filled violence, fiery destruction, and magical strength to fight back and provide a hopeful future of Black empowerment.“[Showrunner] Misha Green licensed the Sonia Sanchez poem [to be used earlier in the episode], and it’s this beautiful, almost calm rendering, and then ours takes that and explodes it,” said Karpman (“What…If?”).
“So we adapted the poem, cut it down, and synthesized the message, which is a call to action, a protest, rage.”The music accompanies the juxtaposition of two sequences: Leti (Jurnee Smollett) imperviously walking through the burning of Tulsa with the magical Book
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