Development
In September 2017, it was reported that Dominic Lewis would compose music for Peter Rabbit. [1] Will Gluck wanted the score "to be big and British" and zeroed in on Lewis as the perfect fit. [2] Since Gluck's previous ventures had not utilized composers, as mainly licensed music had been prominent with film, Lewis approached it with a song base, with drums, bass, guitar, piano, and a huge orchestra to bring an "epic and movie-like" structure. This allowed him to balance the film's traditional and more modern aspects. The British sounds mainly curated from Lewis' inspirations of the British bands such as The Beatles, The Who, The Smiths, The Jam, The Rolling Stones, Fitz and the Tantrums, Vampire Weekend for the jazz, pop and rock influences and Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten's works for the classical portions in the opening. [2] [3] Lewis used an harpischord, honky-tonk piano and Rickenbacker guitars, which were used by the Beatles, that provided him "a fusion of classic rock ‘n’ roll English pop with classical English music". [3] He described the sonic palette as a blend of his orchestral ambitions with Gluck's musical ideas. [3]
Lewis did not write any song except for the main theme of Peter Rabbit which is featured in the opening credits, which had vocals provided by himself and a huge orchestral arrangement. He cited the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road" as an inspiration to the theme. For the rest of the score, Lewis approached themes like the songs; He considered it as a traditional approach in terms of thematic materials, but a song-like approach in terms of instrumentation and the sonic pattern. [3]
The orchestra performed for Peter Rabbit, was the biggest which Lewis had worked with. It accompanied fifty strings, double woods, six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba and then a harp, timpani, snare-drum, harpsichord, pianos, guitar, bass, drums which were an overdub. He summarized that "a lot of the leitmotivs are stylistically baroque-like, even Bach-ian" but wanted it to be lush in terms of orchestration. For the emotional undertones, he approached the Vaughan Williams aspects, while also being inspired from Maurice Ravel's orchestration aspects. The score was recorded at the Trackdown Studios, Sydney from December 10–19, 2017, and the final mixing happened on December 23. [3]
Release
In February 2018, it was reported that Ezra Koenig of the Vampire Weekend had co-wrote a song "I Promise You" with Gluck and Theodore Shapiro, which was produced by Lewis himself. [4] The song itself featured three different versions; one performed by James Corden who voiced the titular Peter Rabbit, another version by Shana Halligan, Katharine Hoye, Fletcher Sheridan and Chris Mannas and a demo of the song performed by Koenig himself. [4] Columbia Records released a single on February 9, which included Corden's version of the song with the theme suite composed by Lewis. [5] Koenig's demo of "I Promise You" released on February 16. [6] [7] The score album was released by Madison Gate Records on April 13, two months after the film. [8]
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