Possibly entirely pointless musical observation

[selenak]

So, the series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack which I acquired two months ago informs me that track 23, aka the theme you'll recall from the Gallifrey flashback in Sound of Drums, is called This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home. Upon rewatching the last three episodes of s3, I took note of when else it's used, and this is what I got:

1) When Yana and the Doctor first meet and start running to Yana's lab, holding hands.

2) When the Doctor has his "boost reversal circuit" inspiration after Yana said "but at least it's hope" (to which the Doctor replies "quite right, too", which is exactly what he says to Rose in Doomsday, btw).

3) During their entire "Professor, you're brilliant"/"some admiration would have been nice"/"well, you've got it now" conversation.

4) When Yana overhears the word "regeneration" while the Doctor is talking to Jack and starts to hear past Master voices on a massive scale.

5) As mentioned, during the whole "some will be inspired, some will run away, some will go mad" sequence, starting after Jack's "how come the ancient society of Time Lords produced a psychopath?" question and ending when Martha asks "what about you?" and the Doctor replies "oh, I ran, and I never stopped".

6) Starting with the Master's "will it stop, Doctor?" through the funeral pyre scene.

Now, New Who already has a different musical theme for the whole Time Lord mythical aspect (first heard, I think, when Jabe uses the term "Time Lord" towards Nine in The End of the World or Nine makes his "I can feel the earth spinning" speech to Rose; btw, in the easter egg audio commentary to The Five Doctors Phil Collinson and David Tennant joke they've nicknamed that one "Chancellor Flavia's theme" and hum it every time Flavia shows up in The Five Doctors). OTOH, while track 23 is indeed used for Gallifrey as well, they mainly use it as a musical cue for the most emotional moments of the Doctor/Master relationship.

Comments

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

"Flavia's Song"'s first appearance is the scene in "Rose" where Clive tells her that death is the Doctor's constant companion. It sort of became the Doctor/Rose theme, much like how Martha's Theme was also used for the Sparkly Tinkerbell Jesus Doctor.

I know Murray Gold gets a lot of criticism for his music, but I think the actual score for DW is really good -- it's just the volume that's too high, and that's RTD's work.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Murray Gold gets a lot of shit, which is hilarious because he's actually amazing. Everyone who can do a mock-early!Beatles song and make it that good can talk smack, but those who can't need to go to the back of the bus.

The only show with a comparable soundtrack is Battlestar Galactica and in both cases I find myself wondering how they justify the budget for a full-time composer to be remixing their lietmotifs every other episode to soulless corporate controllers. (Especially in an era when most TV shows aren't even afforded a theme song.)

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I think Bear McCreary is a lot better than Gold, but only because he's more subtle. I like Gold's music, but his lyrics make me weep a lot of the time -- especially "Song for Ten".

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It's a tough cage-match for me. Because I love "Song for Ten"... the one that aired in the episode, before they shoved extra lyrics in about their eternal true love blah blah blah. It's a really good ape of songs of the period for me, and most of those lyrics happen to also be inane. I'd wholeheartedly agree otherwise; none of the other songs are immediately special to me, except for mild approval at attempting such a thing on a yearly basis now.

Meanwhile, I get the feeling that, much like the show itself, BSG would win on technical merits alone if only you could reproduce the experiment at home on your acoustic guitar. And of course, you can't, because McCreary is obviously using some vintage leather-topped drum made from the hide of a rhino custom smuggled out of darkest!Africa. Meanwhile, the one you could play -- the father son bonding theme, with the bagpipes and the sea-shanty sound -- has always sounded at odds with the previously established middle-eastern/tribal drumbeat of the show.

It also features the Worst Cover of All Along The Watchtower. Seriously.

To summarize: I feel like a good leitmotif strives to be as hummable in a few bars as the James Bond Theme, or Jaws, or the Imperial Death March. I think that while being the obviously less skilled composer, Gold's hitting a lot closer to that mark.

And to be completely contradictory to the summation: the theme for Six, Head!Baltar and the visions continues to delight. "Six of One" is great. Good job on that.

[versaphile.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that that particular theme is simply lovely.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It's gorgeous, and I adore it. In the leaflet, Gold kindly informs us that "this melody was intended to portray that yearning, the loss and the anger", which it does, so thank you, Murray!

[versaphile.livejournal.com]

Oh, it does indeed. *listens again*

[hence-the-name.livejournal.com]

I got the S3 soundtrack a few months back and listened to it compulsively for awhile. That theme is still my favorite of everything that's on there, with the music for Human Nature/Family of Blood running a close second. RTD may turn the volume a little too high, but the music is brilliant.

They also play it right after the Doctor's phone conversation with the Master in the Sound of Drums, from when he tells the Doctor to run to when it gets cut off by the teletubbies music.

I've really enjoyed reading your posts and episode reviews--mind if I friend you?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Friend away! And thank you.

It's my favourite as well, with Martha's theme (in the wandering-the-Earth form) and Human Nature/Family of blood tying for second. And oh, you're right about the end of the phone conversation!

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I must confess that I seldom notice the music except as a constant impediment to actually hearing the dialogue. But the next time I rewatch those eps, I'll try to listen for it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I usually don't notice cues during dialogue immediately, only upon rewatching, but this one stood out for me during the Gallifrey flashback, and once I had heard the entire sequence on the soundtrack, I noticed it being used in those other scenes as well, just quieter and in shorter excerpts.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Murray Gold's hallmark seems to be to lay a very romantic melody over an insistant bass track (see the Doomsday theme) - and in the Gallifrey theme there's a fantastic mounting tension as nostalgia hardens into the kind of anger that could change the universe. It's far and away my favourite DW track, though there are others I love.

Another example is "All the Strange Strange Creatures". It's so filled with the Doctor's driving restlesness.