![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Doctor Who OST - A Christmas Carol
I’ve just finished listening to Murray Gold’s soundtrack to A Christmas Carol and have a few thoughts to share.
It’s good… but I can’t help feeling as though the album was thrown together a little hastily. Murray’s music is as good as ever, but as with much of the S5 soundtrack album, there are lots of short tracks and the whole thing feels a bit … “bitty” as a result. That said though, it hangs together quite well musically - but part of me wishes he’d had the time to put some of the numbers together as a longer “suite” along the lines of the one he did for the music from VotD on the S4 soundtrack, because you’re just getting into listening to a piece – and it ends. The longest track comes in at under five minutes - Abigail’s song, which was obviously designed to be a longer piece.
There are flashes of the by now very familiar I am the Doctor theme threaded through some of the tracks, but the overall feel is quite different; there’s a very Danny Elfman-esque quality to some of the music which seems to happen these days whenever there’s a scene with snow falling! There’s something about that beautiful theme from Edward Scissorhands, isn’t there? It seems composers can’t resist tinkly celestas and choirs whenever there’s a hint of snow ;-)
But back to Murray – and Ben Foster of course, who deserves a lot of the credit as well for his orchestrations and his work on the actual recordings.
I enjoyed listening to the album, but there wasn’t anything on it that I found to be especially memorable and that’s stuck in my mind the way many of his other pieces for the show have done. I realize he can’t write a Vale Decem every series (and it’s probably just as well for me that he doesn’t!) but I think it’s fair to say that there has been at least one piece of music per soundtrack that’s stood out from the rest - Doomsday, All the Strange, Strange Creatures, Songs of Captivity and Freedom, I am the Doctor to name but a few… but there isn’t a stand-out track on this one.
Still, it’s all music taken from just one episode rather than a whole series, so I suppose there’s less to choose from.
And here’s where I’m going to come clean. I own all the other DW soundtrack albums… but I borrowed this one, because I didn’t remember being especially struck by the music in ACC, so I wanted to try before I buy. And I think I’m not going to buy – or at least not yet. Maybe if it’s issued as part of a set at some point or something like that I might, but I don’t feel like I absolutely have to own this one like I did with all the others.
So, worth a listen and enjoyable… but not a must have, IMO.
It’s good… but I can’t help feeling as though the album was thrown together a little hastily. Murray’s music is as good as ever, but as with much of the S5 soundtrack album, there are lots of short tracks and the whole thing feels a bit … “bitty” as a result. That said though, it hangs together quite well musically - but part of me wishes he’d had the time to put some of the numbers together as a longer “suite” along the lines of the one he did for the music from VotD on the S4 soundtrack, because you’re just getting into listening to a piece – and it ends. The longest track comes in at under five minutes - Abigail’s song, which was obviously designed to be a longer piece.
There are flashes of the by now very familiar I am the Doctor theme threaded through some of the tracks, but the overall feel is quite different; there’s a very Danny Elfman-esque quality to some of the music which seems to happen these days whenever there’s a scene with snow falling! There’s something about that beautiful theme from Edward Scissorhands, isn’t there? It seems composers can’t resist tinkly celestas and choirs whenever there’s a hint of snow ;-)
But back to Murray – and Ben Foster of course, who deserves a lot of the credit as well for his orchestrations and his work on the actual recordings.
I enjoyed listening to the album, but there wasn’t anything on it that I found to be especially memorable and that’s stuck in my mind the way many of his other pieces for the show have done. I realize he can’t write a Vale Decem every series (and it’s probably just as well for me that he doesn’t!) but I think it’s fair to say that there has been at least one piece of music per soundtrack that’s stood out from the rest - Doomsday, All the Strange, Strange Creatures, Songs of Captivity and Freedom, I am the Doctor to name but a few… but there isn’t a stand-out track on this one.
Still, it’s all music taken from just one episode rather than a whole series, so I suppose there’s less to choose from.
And here’s where I’m going to come clean. I own all the other DW soundtrack albums… but I borrowed this one, because I didn’t remember being especially struck by the music in ACC, so I wanted to try before I buy. And I think I’m not going to buy – or at least not yet. Maybe if it’s issued as part of a set at some point or something like that I might, but I don’t feel like I absolutely have to own this one like I did with all the others.
So, worth a listen and enjoyable… but not a must have, IMO.