Pictures: Netflix / IMDb
Wednesday composer Chris Bacon has an ear for the dramatic. Bacon writes a score that even Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) herself would approve of – full of operatic lushness and macabre elegance. It’s a gothic feast of orchestral music and melody.
For season two of the Tim Burton-produced series, Bacon expands musically along with the widening scope of character and story. As Wednesday Addams’ world grows, so does the score. “The new characters like Isaac/Slurp, Agnes, Grandmama, and Tyler’s mother, Francoise,” Bacon said, “all presented opportunities for new dramatic colors, both musically and instrumentally.”
As Bacon recently told What’s on Netflix, Wednesday offers him a “broad, dramatic palette.”
Since the scope expanded in season two, how else did you want to go operatic?
Some of the situations are bigger – sets, characters – so it’s more of a matter of trying to match the music in terms of scale, scope, and quality. In terms of melodic writing, how dense the orchestration is, and what the pace is, it’s to match what we see and are experiencing with the characters.
It’s always a pursuit of matching and supporting the story, which seems like a cliché, but that’s really what the job is. In episode eight, it just became: here’s a big moment, here’s another big moment, here’s another big moment. And so, this needs to be supported.
When they go bigger, sometimes it’s effective to go small and intimate musically. But in general, especially with this show, it likes to be supported cinematically.
What big scenes this season did you want to contrast with a more intimate sound?
There’s a huge buildup with Tyler – the Hyde – facing Wednesday down in the hallway, and then it goes silent, and then she gets thrown out the window. Since it’s slow motion, it’s a hyper-reality look at it, with this high-string thing happening. Same as she lands on the ground, it’s kind of a solo violin.
Wednesday. Emma Myers as Wednesday Addams in episode 206 of Wednesday. Cr. Bernard Walsh/Netflix © 2025
How’d you want to deepen Wednesday’s relationships in the show through music?
There’s so much character interaction, especially her and Enid, who have always been a pair. In episode six, we put Enid’s theme through a Wednesday filter and Wednesday’s theme through an Enid filter as they’re inhabiting each other’s lives in a way where they know it and we know it, but nobody else knows it. So, there are some places where we’re trying to follow the sense of what the story is here and adapt and evolve the music as appropriate.
You love melody, which is in full force on Wednesday. What melodies does Wednesday Addams inspire you to write?
One, we have established themes right before we go in. We know Wednesday’s theme – the main title that Danny Elfman wrote. But there are also moments in interaction, like the drama and the story dictated by Morticia and Wednesday in a moment.
There are thematic elements that they share, and I don’t want to make it seem like, “Okay, Wednesday and Morticia are talking, let’s push the Wednesday-Morticia button.” But there are certainly inspirations, and it’s appropriate to play their music that has been written for them, because that’s how these threads get tied together thematically and musically – especially when you’re talking about 16 hours of a story.
As far as melodies that come to me, I write most melodies away from the picture. It’s more of a musical exercise then and less of a logistical exercise. Sometimes in strictly writing to picture, there’s a structure there, and so it’s like: I’ve got to get from point A to point E, stop at the door slam, stop at the monster scream, and stop at the moment of shock and sadness here before you get to the end. That structure can do a lot to dictate what the music does.
Wednesday. (L to R) Evie Templeton as Agnes, Emma Myers as Enid in episode 207 of Wednesday. Cr. Helen Sloan/Netflix © 2025
Many composers find writing away from picture freeing. What other creative freedoms does it allow?
I find that writing thematically away from the picture becomes a purer musical idea that can then be adapted, translated, and evolved according to what’s happening in the picture. It’s easier to take a melody that has a pre-designed structure and shape to it, and then if we’ve got to adapt for all those points along the way, I can extend a note here, shorten a phrase there, or change keys. Those become the more dramatic structural devices that are better employed for me with a melody that already exists.
How’d you approach Morticia and Hester’s relationship without picture, without maybe even knowing their arc?
Sometimes I am a little in the dark because I don’t necessarily know a character’s arc when I’m starting. Sometimes, especially with Hester, you’d see it sort of quietly, slowly unfurl: here’s a minute here, here’s two minutes there.
And so, as with many of the Addams family – especially with Wednesday, Morticia, and Hester – there’s an ambiguity to them where, yes, we believe that they’re “good guys,” as it were, but there’s almost always some agenda there that’s serving a purpose, that they’re keeping to themselves.
Grandmama certainly has that, and we’re not sure what that agenda is other than she seems to be relishing driving a wedge between Morticia and Wednesday to draw Wednesday to herself.
I discover as we go along, and I like that because that’s the experience that the audience has as well. Sometimes it’s a matter of just playing into the mystery of “there’s more than meets the eye here.” What is the depth? There’s more depth to this character, to this story. And so, I try to leave room for that.
Sometimes there’s also a technical side of it: thinking about, if I’m writing a melody or a theme or just music for a character, where can this go? What are ways that this could be expanded? What are ways that this could be turned darker or be lightened? What are ways that this could be more comedic? Any number of stops along the way.
Morticia is revealed as a secret romance novelist. Given her and Gomez’s penchant for romance, which instruments best support their passion?
Morticia and Gomez have a particularly colorful romance based on lots of flirtation and physical innuendo, so sometimes we play tango there with solo strings with maybe some percussion.
Morticia is this epitome of grace. She walks in, her wardrobe, her look, the way that she speaks – it’s always sort of gooey in this elegant way where everything is connected, everything just flows and feels effortless. Whether it’s a solo violin played passionately, a darker cello, or just a colorful string pad, those things work. Lyricism and lushness work for her as a character, because that’s what she projects to me.
Wednesday. (L to R) Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in episode 207 of Wednesday. Cr. Bernard Walsh/Netflix © 2025
What did Isadora (Billie Piper), the music teacher, project to you?
When she shows up for the first time, she’s got an ambiguity. Is she a friend of Wednesday’s? She walks into the music room for the first time, circles her slowly – almost like she’s sizing her up a little.
As with all these character introductions: where can this go? With her theme, I used a cimbalom and solo piano to just be a different color. She also has this chromatic, ascending line that feels a little bit more Wednesday’s.
The theme for Wednesday is so effective. It’s very simple. It’s essentially a minor ascending scale, and Billie Piper’s character is like that, but it’s a little more chromatic, a little more dissonant, with more leaps to it.
Hopefully that creates some tonal ambiguity of, we’re not making this person an enemy, but maybe she’s not forthcoming with everything that she is either.
Wednesday. Billie Piper as Isadora Capri in episode 207 of Wednesday. Cr. Helen Sloan/Netflix © 2025
There are many new colors, as you said, brought to this scene. For example, when Rosaline Rotwood (Lady Gaga) first appears, the synth almost blends into sound design. How did that sound evolve?
For Rotwood, here’s another character where we’re not sure how friendly she is – there is a malevolence there. I was trying to leave room for a lot of things. Also, there’s a play with time and inversion she brings about, the literal body-swapping of characters inhabiting each other.
I actually used a dulcimer, trying to play with gesture more than melody, and to be a texture associated with her, and then put this through reverse filters, adding a lot of delay and echo to have it feel nebulous in terms of reflecting her character and what she brings about. It plays with time and place.
Maybe I was overthinking it, but I was also trying to not have it be something that felt overwrought – different and odd, but something that would fit with her character and the way she performs it.
When Wednesday plays cello, what conversations do you have with the cellist about her style and what it communicates about where she’s at in her storyline?
Wednesday seems to have a supernatural ability to do superhuman things. She’s never afraid of anything. She can get thrown out of a window from a fourth story after being lacerated by a Hyde and survive. So, if she’s playing the cello, she’s going to be the same way that, all of a sudden, she speaks perfect German or she’s a master swordsman. Anything she does, she excels at.
When she’s playing the cello, there’s a virtuosity-level expectation that she has for herself. Then there’s a certain aggression to it, too. I think she uses music to express some of that – maybe work some things out in her head. There’s intensity to the way that she plays that we try to capture, as well, in the way that we ask Ölveti [Mátyás] to perform it.
These cello parts aren’t necessarily accessible to every cellist because there are parts that are very, very difficult to play. But intensity is appropriate for almost anything to do with Wednesday.
Rating: TV-14
