So over the past couple of weeks I finally saw Ron Moore's new show, Outlander. There was a point early on that I was tempted to stop watching because I really hated all of the obvious "romance" aspects (obvious "stud" shows up with multiple injury excuses to be shirtless and cared-for, some predictable plot points, and absolutely maddening obvious narration at times when it was complete unnecessary). I'm glad I didn't stop watching though, because by the end of the first 8 episodes there had actually been some cool history and plenty of pretty gripping drama. I don't think I like it as much as my wife does... but I'm still really excited to see more.
What cannot be disputed is that every element of the production is FANTASTIC. I mean, great period costumes (for both periods), great cinematography, great direction with imaginative choices like having 40s songs play over scenes set in the 1700s (because they're in the main character's head). But the greatest thing of all may be Bear McCreary's music.
I started out as quite the skeptic with him, honestly. I really disliked a lot of his music for Battlestar Galactica. The drumming for the action scenes was pretty cool and effective in the show, but MAN I could not stand the over-the-top bagpipe theme for father and son Adama, among other things. (I've got nothing against bagpipes -- I love how he uses the three different types of pipes in Outlander -- it just didn't work for me in Battlestar.) Towards the end of the show I did feel his scoring got a lot better as music and less distracting as underscore. Then a little later his music for The Cape and Human Target really made me a fan of his. Recently I've been enjoying his very different work for Black Sails and based on his amazing title theme I'm super interested to see DaVinci's Demons too...but I honestly think that Outlander may be his best work so far.
I'm basically writing this post to beg MV (or anyone who's able -- perhaps Bear on his own label) for an expanded release for this show. LLL put out Human Target with an extra disc of music as compared with the digital version so I thought it might be within the realm of possibility that it could be done for Outlander as well.
The existing digital "Vol. 1" album is quite nice as a listening experience, it completely misses the breadth of interesting music written for the show. For example, the gorgeous pastoral English theme for Claire's (1945) husband, Frank (which dominates the first half of the first episode) is almost nowhere to be heard -- it pops up briefly in the long final track. Connected to this is a dark, minor key version of the theme (mentioned in the first blog post) for when Claire meets his distant ancestor, Black Jack Randall, in the past.
Also, NONE of his exciting Highland-pipe-heavy action music is featured on the existing album. I get that that produces a nice peaceful flow for the countless housewives who must be buying it, but as a score fan I'm left wanting!
One of the cool things about the show (and many "premium channel shows" these days) is that the finale and end credits of every episode has a unique composition for it. Only a SINGLE ONE of the eight was included on the digital album. Here are the clean versions of all of them so you can hear how good they are -- I especially want a complete clean version of the one for the end of Episode 4, when they are departing from the castle on horseback:
(Thanks to the kind score fan who took the trouble to rip the clean music from the end of each episode and upload it to YouTube!)
There are honestly just so many great cues left off and I can't fathom why a digital album had to be limited to only 51 minutes from 8 hours of show. This allows for practically NO development of the wonderful and varied thematic material in the show, aside from possibly the mystical "stones" theme (which gets a lovely vocal version from Raya Yarbrough early on).
This is the best TV scoring in quite some time (well, right up there with Korzeniowski's work on Penny Dreadful) so I thought I would inquire if it was at least possible. Even just a two disc set (filling the CDs) would still allow for three times as much music as has been released, and I think that would allow the story and the architecture to come out in the music rather than us just having the "easy listening" album we've got...
I can certainly attest to the market for such a release, as my wife would crawl over my cold, dead body to get to it (and/or to Jamie, which is a whole different issue).
Since the existing CD came out not on McCreary's own "Sparks and Shadows" label but on the Sony-owned Madison Gate (the show is a production of Sony Pictures Television), I have to assume they chose to retain the soundtrack rights. Obviously, anything's negotiable, but I get the feeling that's why we got the album we got.
I figured that too, but I thought it might be possible that MV or Bear could work out a deal for a limited edition physical version with more music, as has been done in the past. LLL has worked with Sony before numerous times, obviously.
I've never seen this show, but unlike you I'm a huge fan of McCreary's "Galactica" work. I found this CD a little dull, but based on what you say, I'd love to hear an expanded version.
I liked this series and score, and this was the first time -- ever! -- that I finally liked the way a Bear McCreary soundtrack was presented. A PROPER album arranged for listening, at some 50 minutes. Not the 734-minute mammoth releases he usually does, which basically ruins all that is good about the music (the DA VINCI'S DEMONS albums, for example). So feel free to crave and release an expanded release if you wish -- I'm just relieved someone finally talked some sense into Bear (providing he was, indeed, the producer of this album)!
Damn. And here I was being positive about the 'less is more' ideology....
It's not the length that bothers me -- I'm typically with you on that. I just didn't find enough variety in the music to justify the 50 minutes. But it sounds like there's more variety in the score, just not on the album.
FYI This release only covers the music from the first 8 episodes of the series..... There already is a 2nd Vol in the works for that will cover the new episodes that will I'm told come out later this year.
Having watched all the episodes so far I am of course aware this album is only taken from them. But even people who haven't seen the show can see from the 8 Youtube End Credit clips and especially the four blogs I linked to, that there is a lot more music in the show. I'm glad that a Vol. 2 is coming out, but I feel there is a great deal of music that still needs to be released from the first 8. As noted the album is rather lacking in variety and development.
FYI This release only covers the music from the first 8 episodes of the series..... There already is a 2nd Vol in the works for that will cover the new episodes that will I'm told come out later this year.
Having watched all the episodes so far I am of course aware this album is only taken from them. But even people who haven't seen the show can see from the 8 Youtube End Credit clips and especially the four blogs I linked to, that there is a lot more music in the show. I'm glad that a Vol. 2 is coming out, but I feel there is a great deal of music that still needs to be released from the first 8. As noted the album is rather lacking in variety and development.
Yavar
Yeah I totally agree with you. I've also finished seeing the first 8 episodes last week and agree there is some sweet music missing. I would support more music for the show 100%. We've been lucky with the scores for the tv shows being composed lately. Penny Dreadful, Outlander and the amazing Isabel.
I wonder if Starz would let Bear do isolated score tracks for DVD/Blu-ray releases perhaps? It'd be a very worthy feature for such well planned out underscoring.
Yavar - having seen the first 8 episodes, I totally agree with you. When I heard the release I felt something I rarely do when listening to Bear's CDs; being underwhelmed. All the music that I had mentally catalogued whilst watching the series was missing. A strange choice of tracks for an album that should be promoting both Bear and the TV show.
Have never seen the show but this music makes me want to.
Been a big fan of McCreary and his Battlestar music along with a lot of his music after that with the likes of Caprica, DaVinci, Human Target, The Cape
Some of his more recent stuff like Defiant & Evey had me wondering if it was about time I jumped ship as they really are just not enjoyable for me.
And then he does Outlander.
Stunning music with hints of his Battlestar roots, but again showing off his love of different instruments. Wonderful melodies, great rhythms really evoking the Scottish Highlands.
As I said, I've not seen the series so don't know how much is missing but the album is a perfect listening experience from beginning to end and I look forward to many more volumes of music from Outlander and McCreary.
