Composer’s blog: Themes and Atmospheres… Monday, 18 May 2009

Next I had to decide which themes I’d like to bring back or develop from the previous episodes. Michael had done a brilliant job of including elements from my score with his own twist, as well as introducing new musical ideas. Thus, it was only natural to take elements of his – whether it was melodic traits from his credits music or the grace note figures that featured in the score as Watson sniffed for clues under the table. Of course, now that there have been three episodes with three composers referencing each other it’s a bit hard to keep a track of who wrote what! (Especially when new themes keep growing out of each other.)

However, as well as referencing old themes, I wanted to create a new musical motif for Otto and Beryl now that they were becoming more prominent in the storyline. I would use the motif to represent the characters on screen and also include aspects of it when they were nearby or being talked about. I decided to use a musical figure that relied on a succession of notes rather than a fixed melody with its own rhythm (see figure 1). This allowed me to use the motif at least 4 times throughout the episode in both explicit and less obvious guises (see figures 2 – 5, click on the image to see a bigger version.) The chromatic step between C# and D, that happens each time the phrase repeats itself, helps to bring out the sinister nature of Beryl and Otto and also acts as the leading note of D minor which roots the music in a minor key. This helps to build a sense of impending doom in the episode!