CD REVIEW - THE TUDORS


The Tudors
Music by Trevor Morris
Varese Sarabande VSD 6867 (EU)
25 Tracks 46:31 mins

I quite enjoyed the recent interpretation, brought to us by the BBC, of the early years of Henry VIII's reign, even if it maybe played a little fast and loose at times. Jonathan Rhys Meyers made a charismatic Henry and was well supported by the likes of Natalie Dormer, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill.
The music for the series was provided by Canadian-born Trevor Morris, mostly known for his work with Hans Zimmer and associates, and for a number of recent game scores. The style of his Tudors music, rather like the tone of the series, is largely conventional, though his catchy "Main Title Theme" does develop something of a rock beat. His subsequent score is suitably dramatic when it has to be, like "Jousting, "Buckingham Plots For Murder" and "The Sweating Sickness Arrives," and more delicate and even dreamy for the romantic moments, as in "Henry Meets Anne Boleyn and "The Passion of King Henry," whilst the religious conflicts at the heart of the story elicit suitable liturgical choral sounds, as in "Pathetic Fallacy." "An Historical Love" is one of my favourite tracks, moving to Celtic-styled violin and drums, and being very similar to a theme from Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman's Last of the Mohicans. It is further reprised and developed in the concluding "Wolsey Commits Suicide/Finale," bringing the disc to a satisfying close.