Downton Abbey: A New Era: (John Lunn) The British
television series "Downton Abbey" of the 2010's is the kind of
historical drama concept that appeals to distinctly older crowds but is
credited as being among the best and most awarded shows to ever emerge
from that country. After six seasons of ratings triumphs that eventually
spanned the globe, "Downton Abbey" inspired countless spin-off
cookbooks, wedding imitations, animated spoofs, and even pornographic
parodies... but sadly no video game as of yet. If not executed so well,
the plotline would seem stuffy and obnoxious, the Yorkshire country
estate of Downton Abbey (essentially a castle) established as the
dwelling of the sprawling, aristocratic Crawley family and run by
multitudes of domestic servants. The two groups of characters produce
separate but ultimately hopelessly entangled storylines that, to the
show's credit, often include authentic influences from socio-political
events of the 1910's and 1920's. After concluding on small screens in
2015, the show jumped to cinemas in 2019 for a direct continuation of
the last season's plotline in
Downton Abbey. A 2022 sequel,
Downton Abbey: A New Era turns an important page with the passing
of a generation, and it contains more outrageous and exotic elements to
its story. Set in 1928, a Hollywood production shoots a silent film at
the estate while the family learns that it has inherited a French villa,
to which some its members travel. As the movie being shot transitions
into a talkie, the servants of the house have to step in to help save
the project. Meanwhile, Maggie Smith's Violet Crawley character is
provided the emotional send-off anticipated since the prior film. While
that 2019 movie was an immense success at the box office,
Downton
Abbey: A New Era struggled against a higher budget despite receiving
equally positive reviews. Along for the entire "Downton Abbey" run has
been Scottish composer John Lunn, whose career includes an extensive BBC
scoring background but who also diverges from television music to write
an occasional opera and film score. He is no doubt best known for being
the sole composer for "Downton Abbey," winning multiple Emmy Awards for
his work on the concept. With enthusiasm (and more than a touch of
territorial affection), Lunn has continued providing the music for the
subsequent films, and he is particularly proud of the 2022 film's
score.
Lunn has described his approach to the concept's music as
"Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughn Williams meet Philip Glass," the more
contemporary rhythmic elements of the latter meshing with the romantic
period tones of the former. The result is a memorably propulsive and
energetic main theme surrounding by flightier dramatic material, with
frequent interjections from waltzes or jazz of the era applied as
source. When approaching the music for the 2019 movie,
Downton
Abbey, Lunn was instructed by the filmmakers to keep the style,
tone, and themes of the score as similar to the final season of the show
as possible. The size of the orchestral ensemble was increased from 40
to 70 for that project, however, to supply the necessary depth to the
cinematic experience. For 2022's
Downton Abbey: A New Era, Lunn
was given more latitude to expand his palette, which is a logical choice
given the new French location and American movie business elements at
play. He boosted the orchestrations once again, notably adding celeste,
harp, flute, oboe, accordion, and choir to the ensemble. The inclusion
of a broader woodwind section is a welcome and overdue change for the
concept's music. Lunn employs the celeste at its lower ranges, giving it
the casual sound of a vibraphone at times. Listeners allergic to
accordions will rejoice in the relatively minor role of that instrument.
The composer's use of a small female chorus for the closing moments of
the score is outstanding. String, brass, and solo piano remain the heart
of this franchise's music, though Lunn strays further away from the
aggressive piano and string performances of the main theme that
persisted in the first film. While that entry had played it safe with
the existing themes,
Downton Abbey: A New Era diminishes (but
certainly does not abandon) the established themes in favor of
engagingly effective new ideas. The composer states that the score
contains roughly 50% reworked music from the prior concept scores and
50% all-new material, though the 53-minute album presentation strongly
favors the latter. One of the best benefits of the two movie scores is
that Lunn could record his main theme (and suite of associated secondary
motifs) with a larger ensemble for fans. While the first film's score
adapted these ideas into new arrangements, the second film's soundtrack
re-records the famous seven-minute suite originally supplied to the
television show for a beefier presence here.
With Lunn maintaining the general demeanor of his prior
work for these stories in
Downton Abbey: A New Era, the majority
of interest falls on his application of existing and new themes. All of
the main theme's components return, as does an optimistic subtheme for
the servants, and the composer took care to reprise themes that had
already been established for the relationships between Violet Crawley
and Lady Mary Talbot, Lord and Lady Grantham, and the Tom Branson and
Lucy Smith marriage at the start of this story as a direct continuation
of the prior film score's closing music. The primary attraction for some
listeners is the main theme of "Downton Abbey," which has always
represented the house itself and, to some degree, the Crawley family
overall. The theme has four distinct parts, and two of them are often
intertwined in the most major performances. For novices of this music,
this review will place each in the "Downton Abbey - The Suite" as
reference even though that track isn't new. An underlying piano motif is
propulsive for the energy of original train seen at the opening of the
first season, and this material begins the suite. Over this piano motif
are undulating string figures that eventually rise, and this melody is
technically the main theme itself; it is heard at 0:07 into "Downton
Abbey - The Suite." A playful and flighty descending motif speaks to the
busy nature of the estate at 1:51 into "Downton Abbey - The Suite."
Finally, an anthem of prestige for brass affords class to the Crawleys,
and this sequence is conveyed at 2:12 into "Downton Abbey - The Suite."
In
Downton Abbey: A New Era, these parts of the main theme flow
as expected in the opening "A New Era" cue but then mostly take a back
seat to the new material until the emotional cues at the story's end.
The piano motif starts "A New Era" slowly like the previous film's score
but never reaches a thunderous performance in this opening, though. The
main undulating string theme weaves in and out. The playful descending
motif returns at 0:43, receiving extensive time over the remainder of
the cue. The prestige motif is brief at 1:11 and closes the cue at 4:53.
Finally, the low piano motif returns at 4:34, with the accompanying
string theme at 4:39. The cue represents a solid arrangement of the main
theme's parts, but listeners may find the relative diminishment of the
rolling piano motif disappointing, especially compared with the idea's
robust treatment at the start of the previous film's score.
Lunn provides the most interesting development for the
main theme in the final fifteen minutes of the new score material for
Downton Abbey: A New Era. The undulating string figures of the
main theme at 2:30 into "Violet Mon Adorée" are morbidly
restrained. That melody is accelerated at 0:52 into "Good News, Bad
News," the main piano motif transferred to frightened strings at 1:23.
That main piano motif is badly fragmented early in "The Last Farewell,"
the prestige motif providing respect at 0:50. The piano motif shifts to
strings with lament at 2:53 into "The Last Farewell." Meanwhile, the
optimistic servant material heard in the previous score at the end of "A
Royal Command" and start of "Honour Restored" consists of repeated
rising three-note figures of a cheery mood, and its use is inflated here
for increasing, obvious impacts. Heard at 0:24 into "A New Era" on solo
violin, the theme receives fuller treatment later in the cue. It recurs
lightly at 0:36 into "Guy," opens "First Draft" and builds momentum and
depth, and closes out the score at 0:54 into "Next Generation" with a
reprise of the female choir from the prior scene. Lunn's handling of the
music for Violet in the emotional finale is of particular note, as it
exudes an extra layer of deadly serious melodrama not present frequently
in the concept's music. He approaches this sequence with extreme
sensitivity in the middle of "Violet Mon Adorée." The tone is
quietly respectful throughout "The Last Farewell," building in outward
emotion at the end as it mingles with the prestige motif and fragmented
aspects of the piano motif from the main theme. The most tear-jerking
moment for Violet's material comes during the entirety of "Cortege,"
joined by a small female choir for an almost mystical, John Barry-like
presence. While Lunn had employed female vocalists to provide sung
adaptations of his main theme during the run of the show, this kind of
wordless choral use is new, and the ethereal results are extraordinarily
poignant. Some of the holdovers of themes from the concept's past aren't
particularly obvious, but the composer makes a point of inserting these
moments of comparatively unique melodic passages throughout this score.
Among the more interesting are the last half of "Guy," the whimsy at
0:41 into "The Handsome Mr. Barber," and various ideas that open "The
Gambler," "Good News, Bad News," and "Next Generation." The instrumental
tone at the start of "Good News, Bad News" will remind some listeners of
vintage Rachel Portman romance.
The all-new themes of
Downton Abbey: A New Era
are led by several motifs comprising the Hollywood production and,
conversely, the mostly condensed theme for the French villa component.
The Hollywood impact is notably entertaining in all its facets, its
material consisting of a bustling movie set motif, a clubby noir-like
interlude, and a bloated vintage theme for starry-eyed romance. The
bustling movie theme is a delight, built upon swinging jazz and opening
"Kinema" with a burst of life. The clubby noir interlude, complete with
lazy progressions at times, is followed by a return to the bustling
movie theme on plucky strings and celeste, the latter definitely
sounding like a vibraphone at times. This theme is slowed considerably
for the swooning early in "Guy" but explodes in full form again at the
outset of "All Aboard" and proceeds to the romantic interlude quickly.
(That interlude returns at 1:05.) There's a quick hint at 0:31 into "The
Gambler," fuller at 1:31 with the celeste returning, and the romantic
interlude isn't far behind. The theme dominates "Then You're in Luck" in
lighter plucking, again with its romantic interlude. Interspersed with
this theme is Lunn's Golden Age movie theme, the loving touch of Max
Steiner melodrama in its harmonies debuting at 0:43 into "Kinema." The
idea returns at 0:11 into "The Handsome Mr. Barber" and the middle of
"The Gambler" before being modernized generally in the middle of "Then
You're in Luck," after which the swooning theme returns to original form
at 2:48. On the flip side is Lunn's French romance theme, which utilizes
a dancing waltz formation and emulates Philippe Rombi's mode of
operation perhaps better than Rombi himself. This theme opens
"Côte D'Azur" and offers descending three-note phrases in an
interlude at 0:20; this idea is explored in various guises throughout
the whole cue. It is further developed with broad whimsy at 0:24 and
1:23 into "All Aboard," starts "Le Chapeau de Carson" with accordion and
celeste, and is reduced to solemn piano in the latter half of "That I Do
Remember." These new themes are all adorable in their compartmentalized
duties, though Lunn makes little attempt to overlap any of them. In
fact, some listeners may find the score fairly redundant in its
repetition of these ideas without an abundance of intermingled
development of each. Not unexpectedly, the affable soundtrack uses vocal
arrangements of 1930's jazz pieces that fit nicely with the score.
Overall,
Downton Abbey: A New Era represents a continued
maturation of the concept's airy and lovely music with a larger ensemble
and more diverse themes, extending its familiar and comforting tones to
loftier cinematic reaches.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
