This
soundtrack album contains music from four of Big Finish's audio
dramas: Phantasmagoria, The Fearmonger, The
Marian Conspiracy and The Spectre of Lanyon Moor.
The section of music from each story is preceded by a medley
of dialogue culled from trailers to the relevant adventures.
Not
surprisingly, the two historically based stories, Phantasmagoria
and The Marian Conspiracy, both make use of period
instruments to evoke their respective settings. Somewhat reminiscent
of Michael Nyman's music for the Peter Greenaway movie The
Draughtsman's Contract, Phantasmagoria employs
the versatile harpsicord, also adding a flute to build up
a sense of danger. Recorders and hand drums are used for The
Marian Conspiracy, during which a strident "majesty of
England" theme is mingled with more threatening undertones
to suggest the less pleasant realities of political turmoil.
The
modern setting of The Fearmonger calls for an up-to-the-minute,
self-consciously synthesised score. A "skittering" signature
implies unpleasant creepy-crawlies and, by association, a
wider suggestion of an invisible menace. There is also a hint
of the percussive style of Mark Ayres' music for the Sylvester
McCoy era, which this story seeks to emulate.
Finally,
Hammer Horror movies and the '70s Who style of melodrama
are evoked in the music to The Spectre of Lanyon Moor.
An ethereal choir can be used to suggest an extra-terrestrial
mystery (as in 2001: A Space Odyssey) or a supernatural
threat (as in The Omen, to name but one example), and
on this occasion it does both.
It
would have been nice to have rounded off the CD with the Doctor
Who theme, in order to lend a sense of completion, but
never mind. And as the adventures from which this music is
taken can be played on your CD player anyway, this collection
doesn't seem quite as useful as a soundtrack to, for instance,
a TV programme or movie, but it's good music nonetheless.
Richard
McGinlay
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