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They say it takes a village to raise a child. But what soap fans may not realize is just how many people are involved in making the big, dramatic moments they live for possible. As far as we’re concerned, members of Sinn Nation — aka those who feel their hearts beating a little bit faster every time Bold & Beautiful’s Steffy and Finn lock eyes — owe a very special thanks to John Nordstrom.

“Who?” you might be asking, at which point we’re going to suggest you play the video below.

“I really brought out everything I had for that moment,” says Nordstrom, whom you may have guessed by now is Emmy-winning composer responsible for the soap’s musical score.

“Before that, we had several episodes in which Finn was trying to find Steffy,” he recalls, “and she was trying to come to terms with him being gone, but still holding out hope that maybe a miracle might happen. So there was a lot of what you might call ‘searching music.’”

It was all a prelude to the moment which had fans on the edge of their seats. “I wanted the strings to be moving and emotional, but we were still building, keeping the audience on its toes.”

A major burst of inspiration came from the footage shot on location. “When Steffy went into the church,” he explains, “that’s when I started really thinking about the bells and the chimes, which gave it kind of a magical feel.”

Finally, when the two rushed into one another’s arms, “we gave it the full orchestral treatment” for the swoon-worthy moment.

Of course, not every piece of music is specifically crafted to match a particular scene. “A lot of what we do I call ‘conversational themes.’ It’s when people are talking and you might be leading the audience to think that something is happening, but it’s not actually happening yet. But you can’t hit viewers over the head with where it’s going.”

It’s a skill that Nordstrom perfected while working on another soap, this one of the primetime variety. “I think one of the reasons [executive producer] Brad Bell approached me back in 2013 is that he liked the work I was doing on One Tree Hill. He liked the subtelty of how I approached a lot of scenes, and that if you need a big moment of theme, I can deliver that, too.”

Scheduling-wise, Nordstrom says he “sometimes will wind up writing eight themes in a week, and others it’ll be several weeks between themes. I’ll tell you this: They have more music than they could ever possibly use. I like to make sure every scenario is covered!”

For fans — be they of a particular pairing or the show’s music in general — the show has just released a second volume of Nordstrom’s work, which includes an extended version of the music featured during Steffy and Finn’s reunion, not to mention themes built around Eric’s legacy and the moment Hope gave in to passion!

Like viewers, Nordstrom watches the show every day to see what works, what doesn’t and how Dylan Struff, the Music Supervisor, is using what’s being created. He does not, however, read advance scripts. Instead, he’s told by Bell in advance if something special is coming up.

“If there’s something taking place in a particular part of the world, away from our usual environment, I start to research it. When the show went to Dubai, I got to research and incorporate a lot of Arabic instruments.”

The best part of the job? “When you see people react to what’s on screen and know that the music worked the way you hoped it would!”