Chords for Jeff Beal Explains The House of Cards Theme

So when I when I did these sketches for David Fincher on House of Cards
one of the first few themes I wrote is I called the puppet master theme because I always thought of Kevin Spacey as sort of
this puppet master who's able to manipulate people.
It was very simple two-handed piano thing with this [Cm] arpeggiation. _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ That was the left hand and then a right [Cm] hand did this sort of hemiola. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] You might recognize that from the House of Cards theme because what happened was when I got to
orchestrate the other sketch which became the main theme
I took this other sketch which I had started for the very simple bass line and _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] David said, you know, we need like a call to arms.
So I was thinking about this
I was thinking about something grand, felt a little bit anthemic, but also was a little dark, you know and
twisted in a way.
So I [Ab] just started with this gritty sort of electronic [C] bass line. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And that's my favorite part probably because that's the part where you have A major in the [A] right hand [C]
and
A minor in the left hand and it's wrong
but it felt right to me because it felt like
this to me as simple as it is this is like the [N] stubbornness of Frank.
He's not gonna change.
He's just gonna keep plowing through everybody.
So that was pretty much the basic bones of the tune right there.
But what I did was in writing the whole arrangement of the theme over the intro I [Am] just went _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] All _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ very simple ideas, but a lot of film music works that way, you know
you want to say a lot [Bb] with a very [G] simple [A] gesture.
Sometimes that's what the ear can take.
[Ab] So we went from that and then right into the [Am] theme.
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Then I [G] brought the hemiola back over that and they just sort of you know, all intersect with each other.
There was one other one other little piece I wrote in this series of sketches
I did for David [C] which became very useful.
It sort of [N] became the Frank and Claire love theme.
So I started playing around with a very simple sketch.
_ Just these two harmonies that sort of shift back and forth between A minor _ and F sharp major with the [Eb] third in the bass.
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Gb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [Cm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ It's really it and then it was just the idea that
_ unlike the other themes that are very rhythmic and very metronomic this one was rubato _ [Em] and it had this almost sort of _ elongated and
there was an angst to it, which I really liked it was kind of sexy, but it was also _
_ _ _ _ You know sort of dark and
_ _ _ Strange in another way. _ _ _ _ _ _ _