Music Composed and Produced by: Bear McCreary
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Format: Digital Download
Number of Discs: n/a (26 tracks, approx. 1.5 hours)
Label: Sparks & Shadows
Overview:
Sparks & Shadows, a new boutique record label founded by composer Bear McCreary, announces the release of the Da Vinci’s Demons Original Television Soundtrack. The album, containing 26 tracks, over 90 minutes of original music from the first season of the hit Starz Original series produced with Adjacent Productions, will be available through all digital providers on May 28th. A 2-CD collector’s edition will be released later this year.
McCreary’s sweeping orchestral score was meticulously researched to accurately represent the time period, without being bound to it. His score combines full orchestra, Renaissance instrumentation, choir and ethnic soloists with the renowned Calder Quartet and surging contemporary synthesis.
“For Da Vinci’s Demons, I looked to the real-life Leonardo for inspiration. He famously wrote backwards and forwards, so I decided to do (try) the same thing with his theme!” said McCreary. “It was a nice idea at the time, but proved rather difficult to produce anything with emotional meaning. It took a while, but ultimately, I think the end result works beautifully. It’s emotional, and fits Leonardo’s character beautifully. Yet, at the same time, it feels like a palindrome.”
Writer/director David S. Goyer’s historical adventure series Da Vinci’s Demons, premiered on STARZ on April 12th, and was renewed by the network for a second season before the second episode aired. The secret history of Leonardo Da Vinci’s tantalizing life reveals a portrait of a young man tortured by a gift of superhuman genius. He finds himself in a conflict between truth and lies, religion and reason, past and future. His aspirations are used against him by the opposing forces of the time—luring him into a game of seduction where those who despise his intellect need him most.
“Da Vinci’s Demons is my first historical drama, and as such, needed a slightly different approach,” said McCreary. He researched instruments of the period, including the viola da gamba, violone, crumhorn, shawm, lutes, natural trumpet and hurdy gurdy. “You may have never seen or even heard these instruments before, but when they play historically accurate arrangements, with proper intervals and chord voicings, the sound is unmistakably Renaissance. Music history buffs will probably freak out when they catch all the little Easter eggs I’ve hidden in the score, but everyone else will at least recognize an old-world authenticity that helps them feel like they’re watching a story that takes place in the fifteenth century.”
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The overview above alludes to an intangible bonus gift that comes along with the beautiful soundtrack for Da Vinci’s Demons, one that I’d like to call out specifically. The gift of Bear McCreary music is a generous one, and if you are a sci-fi fan you almost certainly already know and love composer Bear McCreary‘s work from Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, Defiance, and Eureka, to name just a few.
This soundtrack also of course includes the gift that comes with all soundtracks: the gift of reliving moments from a great production. Take a look at the track titles below and fans of the show will likely recognize nearly every scene. You’ll hear the theme – which I LOVE – woven throughout many of the tracks, but you’ll also remember visuals like the beautiful columbina flying through the air, and the exceptional creepiness of Vlad the Third.
But the bonus gift of this soundtrack for Bear McCreary fans is the Renaissance flavored tracks. Many of we members of The Geeky Horde love that whole scene but haven’t heard it before from this wonderful composer. But bless him, he has done a pitch perfect job of composing some beautiful Renaissance-style tracks, both instrumentals and sacred vocals, and they are an absolute treat, as is his sprinkling of the employment of historical instruments throughout the soundtrack. One of my favorite tracks is “Easter Mass” because it starts with a gorgeous mix of Gregorian chant-style vocals and a synthesized driving percussive beat. Cathedral-meets-rising-tension perfection.
Here is the track list:
1. Da Vinci’s Demons Main Title Theme (1:08)
2. Assassination in Milan (1:46)
3. The Glider (2:27)
4. Starlings (1:59)
5. The Sons of Mithras (3:47)
6. Flight of the Columbina (3:40)
7. Lucrezia Donati (4:53)
8. The Secret Archives (2:42)
9. Ben Venga Maggio (1:23)
10. The Hidden Map (2:34)
11. Prayer to Saint Michael (feat. Raya Yarbrough) (3:06)
12. The Story of the Shield (1:54)
13. A Cheval Toutes Homes a Cheval (1:38)
14. Jacopo (1:32)
15. Vlad the Third (5:51)
16. Miserius Omnium (1:35)
17. Visions of Lucrezia (feat. Laura Haddock) (1:41)
18. Treasures of the Vatican (8:01)
19. The Lullaby (4:40)
20. Red in the River (4:03)
21. The Future of the Sons of Mithras (2:50)
22. Visions and Demons (2:35)
23. The Astrolabe (3:44)
24. The Lovers (6:41)
25. Easter Mass (13:18)
26. Da Vinci’s Demons End Credits (1:04)
If you’ve never seen Da Vinci’s Demons (you really should, you know, it’s quite wonderful and does have a supernatural element) and/or if Renaissance fairs are really not your scene, however, you should still give this soundtrack a listen. Bear McCreary‘s work is exceptional, always. It is neither bombastic nor atonal nor saccharine, and stands alone beautifully without the visuals it is written to accompany.
But especially if you have even a brief passing appreciation for a touch of Renaissance-style music, you will likely love this soundtrack as much as I do. It is my favorite Bear McCreary work to date, and that, my friends, is saying something.
I give Da Vinci’s Demons Original Television Soundtrack Five Out of Five Stars.
Da Vinci’s Demons Original Television Soundtrack is available for download from Amazon now; here’s the link:
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00D2KPECE]
