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Review of Downton Abbey: A New Era (John Lunn)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have always appreciated John Lunn's airy and lovely music for the concept and seek his continued maturation of those familiar tones into loftier cinematic reaches.

Avoid it... if even Lunn's increasingly broader orchestral ensembles cannot tempt you to explore whimsically fluffy British historical drama music with a touch of jazz and French romance.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 53:11

• 1. A New Era (5:23) • 2. Kinema (1:55) • 3. Côte D'Azur (3:15) • 4. Guy (1:48) • 5. All Aboard (1:41) • 6. The Handsome Mr. Barber (1:57) • 7. Crazy Rhythm* (2:13) • 8. The Gambler (2:05) • 9. Le Chapeau de Carson (2:01) • 10. That I Do Remember (2:34)

• 11. First Draft (1:15) • 12. Am I Blue* (3:18) • 13. Then You're in Luck (3:09) • 14. Violet Mon Adorée (3:26) • 15. Good News, Bad News (2:07) • 16. The Last Farewell (3:27) • 17. Cortege (3:25) • 18. Next Generation (1:14) • 19. Downton Abbey - The Suite (7:06)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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