Music Composed by: Murray Gold
Formats: CD and Digital Download
Number of Discs: 2 (74 tracks, approx. 2 hours 14 minutes)
Label: Silva America
Overview:
Long awaited by the fans, Series 7 has been uniquely made up of 13 self-contained stories and this 2 CD set offers a feast of new Murray Gold signature themes with music from each and every story.
Murray Gold’s phenomenal output as a composer began close to twenty years ago and he has stacked up five BAFTA nominations (two for Doctor Who) plus three Royal Television Society nominations and a win for Queer As Folk. In 2013, Murray Gold celebrated one his greatest musical accomplishments with a third Doctor Who Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.
About the Composer:
Murray Gold was born in Portsmouth in 1969. He has worked primarily in the theatre, film and television. He has been round the world three times and now lives in London.
He is one of the most inspired and uncompromising composers in his field. From his ground-breaking, BAFTA-nominated score to Vanity Fair, to the RTS Award-winning soundtrack to Queer As Folk, Murray Gold has been the composer of choice when it comes to scoring the most innovative programmes on television. He provided the music to The Second Coming (starring Christopher Ecclestone), Servants, the BBC series of the multi-award winning Clocking Off and Channel Four’s controversial new drama series Shameless.
The seventh season of Doctor Who was dished out in two helping with a large portion in the fall of 2012, a Christmas episode that year and then a final eight episodes in the spring of 2013. It was good to split it that way because we had a very dramatic changing of companions from the Amy/Rory duo to Clara.
It was not only a season of dramatic highs and lows but of grand thematic episodes. This was the season that gave us Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy, The Angels in Manhattan, The Bells of Saint John, and The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS. The episodes weren’t just monster of the week, they were massive undertakings that all had very unique feelings and thematic music to go with them.
Listening to the Doctor Who: Series 7 Soundtrack after having watched all the episodes I can clearly hear when the episode changes because of these dramatic twists in the story, and that is just a testament to how creative Murray Gold is as a composer. Because while both imposing, dinosaurs and a specific Manhattan angel sound completely different. And even in the dramatic differences there are melodic themes that remain the same.
While technically outside of series 7, I only really noticed Clara’s theme and how comforting and light it is during the 50th anniversary episode. And when I heard it again while listening to the Series 7 music I really felt like it was completely separate from the rest of the music. Clara’s theme stands alone and unique and while echos of it happen in tracks like A Probe in the Snow, it’s completely identifiable when it is sampled in.
If you want the opposite of Clara’s theme, you only have to look to the tracks Amy and Rory Together, Together or Not At All The Song of Amy and Rory, or Good-bye Pond. Try and stay dry-eyed during those. Just try. Or be a robot.
Since the tracks are short and ordered episodically rather than thematically, it is a bit of a fast paced roller coaster ride. This would be great background music to work in the office or at home but you’ll want to have easy access to the display of whatever is playing it, because you’ll find yourself trying to guess the episode.
I give the Doctor Who: Series 7 Soundtrack, Five Out of Five Stars.
Doctor Who: Series 7 Soundtrack is available to order from Amazon now. Here’s the link:
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00E7NIM2E]
