caz963 | 30 Days of Nu-Who - Day Twenty-Nine (Reply)

To say I’ve been looking forward to this one is an understatement! But it’s also impossible to choose just one favourite piece of music from Nu-Who. Murray Gold has done a fantastic job from Day One, and has, IMO just got better and better as the years have passed. I think the most impressive thing he’s done is re-vamp the original theme – it feels and sounds right (well, it did) but retains the feel of the original as well.

My favourite version though is the Series 4 one, that was used from VotD onwards. It’s not a lot different to the S1-3 theme, but it’s got added “oomph!” – especially in the drums and the ‘cellos and basses. Compared to the revamp for S5, the S4 theme has a grandeur that’s now sadly lacking :-(

I've had to resize a lot of the pictures, so if they don't look quite right, just refresh the page!

My favourite piece that was used in the actual show varies from day to day – but for the last few months, it’s been Vale Decem, despite the sad associations. It’s a beautiful piece of music through and through, and Mark Chambers’ voice is just incredible. And when heard in context – the idea of flights of ~~angels~~ Ood singing our hero to his rest just about kills me. I still cry, listening to it almost a year later.

Vale is a beautifully haunting melody – also performed by Mark Chambers – which was first heard in The Waters of Mars Farewell. I suppose it’s fitting. I like the extended version with the full chorus – those chord progressions are very Bach-like.

Some of the other pieces I find myself listening to fairly frequently are (in Series order rather than order of preference)

Westminster Bridge

Madame de Pompadour

Doomsday

All the Strange, Strange Creatures

The Carrionites Swarm

Mr Smith and Joan

Gallifrey, our childhood, our home

Martha’s Quest - in particular, the melody that’s introduced by the oboe at around 2:25. It’s heard a lot through the final three episodes of S3, and it’s just lovely. I wish there was a more “complete” version of it available, as it ends rather abruptly.

The Doctor’s Theme (S4 version)

A Noble Girl About Town a cheeky reworking of Donna’s theme from The Runaway Bride which, with it’s new, punchy brass punctuations sounds like it belongs in a Bond film!

Songs of Captivity and Freedom - once more featuring the fabulous Mark Chambers. His voice is so unusual - even for a countertenor, that it really conveys alien-ness!

Not used in the actual show (I could kill Julie Gardiner!) is Gold’s reworked Song for Ten which I think was originally to have played in the scene where Ten goes back to the Powell Estate in 2005. But JG wanted Rose’s theme instead. Grrrrr…

The New Doctor

It’s VERY clever – the underlying rhythm is the one that we hear throughout S5 in I am the Doctor and one of the key features is the passages of running scales in the strings. Short – but sweet, provided I can get the images of Matt leaping around in David’s suit out of my head!