A Thousand Blows’ Opening Title (Federico Jusid)

What kind of music would you expect for a drama series about illegal bare-knuckle fighting in London’s East End in the 1880s? Whatever you just imagined, Federico Jusid is probably very capable of doing just that. However, going on the main title alone, he may have gone and done something completely different! A Thousand Blows‘ Opening Titles consist of staccato piano arpeggio, somewhat unusual cello sounds and a child-like non-lexical ‘la-la-la’ melody for a small collection of either women or children, or maybe both. A few fragments of the melody remind me of ‘Row row row your boat’. It’s playful, juanty, cheeky; it’s nowhere near as serious as the synopsis might suggest. Where is this going, musically? I’m already curious to hear the rest of the score.