Mary Queen of Scots (soundtrack)

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Mary Queen of Scots (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Mary Queen of Scots soundtrack.jpg
Soundtrack album by
Max Richter
Released7 December 2018
Recorded2018
Studio AIR Studios, London
Genre Film score
Length58:38
Label Deutsche Grammophon
Producer Max Richter
Max Richter chronology
Never Look Away
(2018)		Mary Queen of Scots
(2018)		 My Brilliant Friend
(2018)

Mary Queen of Scots (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2018 film Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke starring Saoirse Ronan as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Margot Robbie as her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Featuring original score by Max Richter, consisting of period and contemporary modern music, the album was recorded at the Air Studios in London, with an 100-piece orchestra and 12-member female choir performing the score. Deutsche Grammophon released the film's score on 7 December 2018.

Contents

Background and development

"I'm very involved with Renaissance music. Some of my favorite listening music comes from that time, so that was quite exciting, to think about trying to develop a musical language, which could be dramatic and contemporary, but at the same time had a shared DNA with the music of that period. That technical challenge was exciting. There was something quite inviting about that."

— Max Richter [1]

Mary Queen of Scots, being a period film set in the 16th century, Richter provided a fairly modern score that chimed in with his own musical interests, after his involvement with renaissance music. Early-music expert William Lyons called in to handle the historical material, which led Richter free to handle the dramatic score. He claimed that the director Josie Rourke gave him free reins to imagine a musical universe for the story, which consisting historical and modern music as well, and beyond that she was open to bring his vision into the story. [2]

Richter wanted the film to have women's voice as the center of the film's score to provide a psychological context, as the film was a "female-driven piece of storytelling. It’s kind of a love story; it’s multiple love stories, really. It’s the two of them navigating their relationship, and they also have love relationships with other people, and it’s about how that plays out against the historical backdrop." The world of men, according to Richter, generally associated with brutality of various kinds, and preceded with heavy drones, and orchestral music, with low-register instruments, bass instruments pulsating the score, and war drums used to propel the combatants in these various battles and skirmishes, but also propelling Mary to her execution. [3]

The French instrument cor anglais is used for Mary's voice to play huge themes. Richter also wanted the use of instrument as an easter egg, as Mary was born in France and came to Britain, which her liked to have the instrument of a French name that play her melody and served perfect for the story. He further used a classical harp and Gaelic harp to provide the domestic storytelling color. The score consisted of numerous choral music, which consisted of wordless female drones and written-out choral music that uses the language of 16th century Elizabethian polyphonic choral music. A lot of the orchestral music built around repeating bass phrases, which was called a "ground bass" played as a loop, where most of the music built around that. He further experimented with a viol processing the sound into "electronic cloud of viols for some of the more coloristic sequences with the voices [...] The instrumental music is based on a kind of geometry and a set of gestures which come from Renaissance music. So it’s a kind of wandering border between the contemporary and period authenticity." [1]

A string infused 110-piece orchestra and 12-member female choir from London Voices being played throughout the score, but despite being set in Scotland and Richter's study in Edinburgh, he did not use bagpipes, instead employed Gaelic harps as to evoking those sort of colors without resorting to the touristy. The score was recorded in sections where he had to build the layers, sample them and remove those layers in the end. The choir was recorded separately in different sections, which were built up from the strings, and did separate sections for strings, brass, woodwinds and percussions and later assemble them into the score. [1]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."The Shores of Scotland"1:51
2."Elizabeth's Portrait"3:40
3."A Claim to the Throne"3:05
4."If Ye Love Me"2:10
5."My Crown"2:51
6."The Poem"2:23
7."Darnley's Visit"2:05
8."The Wedding"2:44
9."Knox"3:14
10."The Hilltop"1:55
11."Rizzio's Plea"1:48
12."The Ambush"2:06
13."Pray for Me"5:50
14."A New Generation"2:48
15."Darnley's Dismissal"3:43
16."Outmaneuvered"5:27
17."The Assassination"2:29
18."Finale"8:23
Total length:58:38

Reception

Music critic Jonathan Broxton wrote "this is Max Richter’s career high film music composition to date, which will surely appeal to anyone whose taste in scores includes richly rendered but staunchly minimalist orchestral writing, enlivened with a dash of period romance." [4] Gissane Sophia of Marvelous Geeks Media wrote "The entirety of the soundtrack is something special without question, but the few above are utterly mesmerizing. On some rare occasions, you love an original score even more than you love the film, and that’s certainly the case with this one. The soundtrack hits different, and it beautifully captures a plethora of emotions." [5] Sean Wilson of Mfiles wrote "Richter provides highly effective accompaniment using a minimal yet well-crafted and expertly deployed set of musical tools". [6] James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "There’s half an hour of real brilliance here – Richter is such a good composer – just a pity the whole thing is not quite as good as the sum of its parts." [7]

Chart performance

Chart (2019)Peak
position
UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC) [8] 25

Accolades

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
Hollywood Music in Media Awards 14 November 2018 Best Original Score – Feature Film Max Richter Won [9]
International Film Music Critics Association 7 February 2019 Best Original Score for a Drama Film Won [10]
[11]
Film Music Composition of the Year Max Richter – ("Finale")Nominated

Album credits

Credits adapted from liner notes: [12]

Performers
Management

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Grobar, Matt (5 December 2018). "Cors Anglais: Composer Max Richter Finds An Instrumental Voice For 'Mary Queen Of Scots'". Deadline. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  2. ↑ Burlingame, Jon (29 November 2018). "Composer Max Richter Juggles Period Details and Modern Techniques for 'Mary Queen of Scots' Score". Variety. Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  3. ↑ Parisi, Paula (13 December 2018). "Composer Max Richter On Musically Time-Traveling from 'Mary Queen of Scots' to Brad Pitt's Futuristic 'Ad Astra'". Billboard. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  4. ↑ "MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS – Max Richter". MOVIE MUSIC UK. 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Sophia, Gissane (21 March 2022). "Music Monday: 'Mary Queen of Scots' (Original Soundtrack) by Max Richter". Marvelous Geeks Media. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  6. ↑ "Max Richter: Mary Queen of Scots - film score soundtrack review". www.mfiles.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  7. ↑ Southall, James (18 December 2018). "Mary Queen of Scots soundtrack review". Movie Wave. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Official Soundtrack Albums Chart Top 50 - 25 to 31 January". Official Charts Company . 25 January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  9. ↑ "2018 HMMA Winners". Hollywood Music in Media Awards. 14 November 2018. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  10. ↑ IFMCA (2019). "2018 IFMCA Awards". IFMCA. IFMCA. Archived from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  11. ↑ Flores, Marshall (7 February 2019). "15th Annual IFMCA Awards Nominations". AwardsDaily. Stone, Sasha. Archived from the original on 15 March 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Soundtrack / M. Richter". Deutsche Grammophon. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
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