Season 1
Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli composed the musical score for the series' first season. They did not reference Sapkowski's book series and inspired by the story itself which allowed them endless creative possibilities. [1] [2] They were involved even before the start of the production, thus providing a roadmap to structure the thematic material and also writing musical numbers which he cited as one of the reasons for their earliest involvement. They collaborated with writers Jenny Klein, Declan De Barra, and Haily Hall, for which they performed all the vocals to cover Jaskier's parts. The team wrote around 5–7 versions for each songs ranging from medieval to contemporary to find the right approach and almost wrote over an hour of music before they began scoring to picture. Afterwards, they closely collaborated with Joey Batey, who played Jaskier in the show and vocal coached him. After the editor assembled the cut, they started scoring to picture where hours of new music had to be written and dance performances were more concise in order to follow the pace and editing. The songs that were approved at the demo had to be recorded and finalized, which considered at an elaborative process that required their involvement for most of the year. [3] [4]
The duo wrote and recorded the score at the same time, beginning with a hurdy-gurdy on the first day of recording. As being a "soloistic and virtuosic" score, they could not mock-up the recording, which led to their simultaneous working on the score. Throughout a year, they wrote several songs, folk tunes, dance numbers and score over 8 hours and collaborated with several soloists and artists for the recording. For the score, they had used over 60 new instruments, including some hand-crafted specifically for the score. Due to the vast and diverse universe of The Witcher, they needed a proper representation in terms of music. [3] [4]
The original song "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher", composed by Belousova and Ostinelli and sung by Batey in the second episode, became a viral hit shortly after the series's release. [5] [6] Users have created mods to patch the song into the video game adaptions of The Witcher. [7]
Instrumentation
The list of instruments, they used on the soundtrack were: hurdy-gurdy, violin, oboe, duduk, lute, renaissance mandolin, baroque guitars, theorbo, psaltery, dulcimers, harmoniums, harp, ethnic woodwinds—cane flutes, penny whistles, recorders, Native American flutes, bansuri—shruti box, tagelharpa, erhu, toy pianos, jaw harp, rainstick, berimbau, contrabass, a wide range of drums and orchestral and ethnic percussions—gongs, frame drums, bodhrans, djembe, talking drums, orchestral toms, snare. They also used a metallic trash can for the score as well. Many of them created specifically for the series, and developed all over the world, including a custom-made berimbau, a hurdy-gurdy which were predominant throughout the score. For the ball sequence, they created an ensemble featuring hurdy-gurdy, shawm, recorders, lute, baroque guitar, mandolin, theorbo, psaltery and medieval percussions and drums. They also went through a contemporary approach in the third episode, where the hurdy-gurdy has been mocked up with effects and distortions for the battle and transformation sequence. [3] [4]
Soloists
The duo also worked with violin virtuoso Lindsay Deutsch performing the violin and fiddle solos, [8] Declan de Barra who performed three songs—"The Song of The White Wolf" (season finale), "The Last Rose of Cintra" (episode five) and "The End’s Beginning" (episode one)—and additional vocals, Rodion Belousov performing oboe and duduk solos, Arngeir Hauksson who played the lute, renaissance mandolin, 4-course guitar, 5-course guitar, theorbo and other medieval plucked strings instruments, flautist Burak Besir performing virtuosic flute and whistle solos, as well as Joey Batey performing—"Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" and "You Think You’re Safe" (episode two), "Her Sweet Kiss" (episode six), "The Fishmonger's Daughter" (episode four). [4] [9]
Recording times
Belousova and Ostinelli recorded eight hours of music, one hour per episode. While the recording of the first two episodes took them 3–4 weeks, the later episodes had them recording approximately two weeks of time, and despite their tight schedule, they also performed an hour of live recording of the score per episode. The first two episodes that them wrote, record, mix and produce an hour thematic music, as well as arranging, producing, recording, mixing and mastering seven songs. [3]
Season 2
In October 2021, it was confirmed that Joseph Trapanese would be scoring the soundtrack for the second season. Trapanese, having previously collaborated with Netflix as the composer for Shadow & Bone , replaced Belousova and Ostinelli. [10] Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich also revealed that new songs performed by Batey would be featured on the soundtrack. [11] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, recording a real orchestra for the series being a challenge. Instead of creating mock-ups, effects and samples through Spitfire Audio and Orchestral Tools, Trapanese sticked to the use of human elements, as the notes connect in a way which cannot be replicated through technologies. He then worked with the Sofia Symphony Orchestra at in Sofia, Bulgaria, and conducted the score remotely. [12]
Trapanese used brass, strings and orchestra along with electronics. To make the score sound clear and do justice to the epic setting, Trapanese bought new speakers from the JBL—the same company, which he bought the JBL 6332 model a decade ago. The new speakers accompanied to the small screen setup but also have clarity in the audio quality. [12]
