Doctor Who - New New Music...

Below is some information and explanation about the music and especially the motifs composed and used by Murray Gold in the New Series of Doctor Who. Information is categorized and presented... as I hear it.


Short-term special news!

July 27, updated November 24 - There was a "Doctor Who" BBC proms concert on Sunday, July 27. Murray Gold's music for Doctor Who featured, along with some works by Turnage (also at the event), Copland, Holst, Prokofiev, and Wagner. And Cybermen and Ood and Judoon and Daleks, naturally! Highlights from the prom will be broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC One (with a simulcast on BBC HD).

Murray Gold's music was honored this spring with a nomination for a BAFTA Craft award in the category of "Original Television Music;" it was his 4th nomination for the prestigious UK award, but the first for his Doctor Who music.


Music to buy!

Updated November 24 - The Series 4 Doctor Who soundtrack is now released, available to download on iTunes or directly (or as a physical CD with sleeve notes) from Silva Screen.

The Torchwood soundtrack is available to download on iTunes or direct from Silva Screen. The physical CD will be released on September 22nd.

The Series 3 Doctor Who CD soundtrack was released on November 5, 2007 - and is available direct from Silva Screen or from your favorite CD retail sources or from iTunes (as enhanced "iTunes Plus" selections).

The first CD soundtrack for Series 1 and 2 was released in December 2006, and is also available from Silva Screen or from your favorite CD retail sources, or from iTunes.


Music in Words

There's a good fly-on-the-wall report "Two Days With The Doctor - Recording & Mixing Doctor Who" about what happens as the source music gets made and rough-mixed, by Michael Beek of MusicFromTheMovies.com. This is fresh news from May 2008, but otherwise it is like the very good DWM uncut articles by David Darlington "Lust for Life" and "Gold Bars."

My Series 3 article "The New Gold Standard" was published in Whotopia's Spring Special issue, March 2008.

The June 2007 issue of Sound On Sound has an extensive interview with Murray Gold which is now free-access.

I put together a (long!) essay about the Series One and InterSeries 2005 music; "Gold-en Music: the New Series of Doctor Who" (circa January 2006) is hosted at UNITNews.


Music in Notation and Audio

I give some brief, skeletal examples of a few key melodies, on my Notes page. I mean a few notes of sheet music (charts)--and no audio.

You can also get to those examples by clicking on the links in the tables below.

You can hear another fan's audio arrangements or "re-creations" of some pieces at the Doctor Who MIDI archive. The more recent pieces (often under different names, at least for material not yet officially named on soundtracks) are on the archive's Volume Two site, and also on his YouTube playlist Doctor Who Music Recreations.


Music in Tables

From now on, the most recent series will be presented here (below), and others will link via the index above.

It's probably obvious below that "●" notes a premiere motif and "○" is for one heard before. (For non-original-composition usages such as "Jingle Bells," I'm using "◉" and "◎" in the same way.)

It is always a slow process to cross-reference the motif names with the CDs' track titles. (Where my working titles diverge noticeably from the official track names, I include mine after a slash, in italics). A work in progress...

There is the additional complication for the Series 4 soundtrack, that (even more so than in the Series 3 soundtrack) there are recognizably related cues across multiple tracks (and soundtracks). If I feel that the arrangement was particularly different (especially if it had a new melody layer) or that there was significant new material--I give it a new cue listing. This year I will not be making new categories for A Noble Girl About Town (it will remain "Donna's Theme (I)") or UNIT Rocks (it will still be "UNIT"). On the other hand, the Silence in the Library episode cues on the soundtrack are mostly distinct from each other and will be listed as such on this page.

(Special kudos to DWF members springyrice, Ryoga Hibiki, Jar of Clay, and others for helping sleuth cues in the soundtrack's longer suites!)


Series Four

  Series Four episodes
PiC FoP PotO SS PS tDD U&tW SitL FotD M TL SE JE
action motifs urban battles ○       ○                
scaffold cable ●                        
All the Strange, Strange Creatures   ○             ○   ○ ○ ○
world changers   ●   ○ ○                
stone attacker   ●                      
fireballs   ○                      
alarm     ●                    
UNIT       ○ ○                
Sontar-Ha!       ● ○                
shipboard pursuit         ○                
Hath clash           ●              
A Pressing Need to Save the World II /
Library Danger		               ● ○        
A Pressing Need to Save the World IV /
core rescue		                 ●     ○ ○
vamps reproductive actions ●       ○           ○    
Corridors and Fire Escapes / way out ● ○       ○           ○ ○
market hunt   ●                      
The Sybilline Sisterhood IV / Pyrovile   ●                      
cuffed     ●                    
technology attack         ●                
atmosphere         ●             ○  
state of emergency         ●                
war marches           ●              
prison break           ●              
Wasp Attack             ●            
Wasp Chase             ●            
poison             ●            
nightmare               ●          
swarm                 ●        
Greatest Story Never Told II (saved)                 ●        
Midnight II / horror exit                 ● ○      
on your back                     ●    
alt-verse UNIT                     ●    
Torchwood                     ○    
A Pressing Need to Save the World I /
spaceships		                       ●  
Indigo                       ●  
Hanging on the Tablaphone /
calling the Doctor		                       ● ○
Dalek escape                         ●
resistance                         ●
emotive motifs After the Chase ○                        
space of creation ○   ○                    
Life Among the Distant Stars I /
children's futures		 ● ○                 ○   ○
Doomsday ○   ○                 ○  
Doctor's Theme ○               ○   ○ ○ ○
Life Among the Distant Stars II /
journey resumed		 ●                       ○
aftermath   ●     ○       ○        
Songs of Captivity and Freedom I (captivity)     ●                    
Songs of Captivity and Freedom II (freedom)     ●                   ○
Martha's Theme       ○ ○ ○              
space threat         ○                
healing Hath           ●              
Peck's sacrifice           ●              
Source (I)           ●              
Source II / Jenny's death           ●              
Unicorn and the Wasp III / Agatha's mystery             ●            
Unicorn and the Wasp I / murder             ●            
nursery             ●            
firestone             ●            
colonel's secret             ●            
Girl with No Name I / CAL's Library               ● ○        
Greatest Story Never Told I / River Song               ● ○ ○   ○  
Silence in the Library / storybook's end               ● ○        
Rueful Fate of Donna Noble /
Donna's destiny		               ●     ○ ○ ○
trapped                     ○    
old enemies                       ○  
Rose's Theme                       ○ ○
Children of Time                         ●
Dream of a Normal Death                         ○
dramatic motifs Doctor Forever ○ ○   ○ ○ ○ ○           ○
fated city   ●                      
Lucius Petrus Dexterus   ●                      
Sybilline Sisterhood I / Cult of War   ●     ○                
Sybilline Sisterhood II / choice of destiny   ●                      
Sontaran plots       ● ○                
Messaline in turmoil           ●              
This is Gallifrey           ○              
Daughter of Gallifrey           ●              
Voyage of the Damned Suite VII / sky ship           ○              
traffic           ○              
Song of Song II (access denied)               ○          
Doctor's Theme II / River's Run                 ●     ○  
Dalek attack                       ● ○
Harriet Jones                       ○  
Rose in Peril / rescue                       ○ ○
Dark and Endless Dalek Night I / Crucible                         ●
Dalek opera                         ○
Hologram                         ○
Evolution of the Daleks                         ○
Rose Defeats the Daleks                         ○
humor motifs Donna's Theme (I) ○ ○ ○ ○ ○     ○     ○   ○
taxi toons ○                        
geek lab       ●                  
Unicorn and the Wasp II / detectives             ●            
book attack               ●          
miscellany Adipose ad jingle ●                        
industrial espionage ●                        
villainous plots ○ ○                      
maqam   ●                      
Caecilius   ●                      
Evelina   ●                      
vapors   ●                      
Noble prophecy   ●                      
messenger   ●                      
Sybilline Sisterhood III / sisterhood of stone   ●                      
new prophecy   ●                      
Ood ad     ●                    
slavery     ●                    
Rattigan Academy       ●                  
Jo Nakashima       ●                  
ATMOS       ●                  
Rattigan       ● ○                
family consequences       ●                  
solutions         ●                
Martha's memories         ●                
ship's technologies         ○                
Doctor's Daughter I (arrival)           ●              
Doctor's Daughter II (progeneration)           ●              
colony dating           ●              
heroine           ●         ○    
Twenties party             ●            
Agatha Christie             ●            
Vespiform             ●            
Girl With No Name II (scanning)               ●          
shadows               ●          
Vashta Nerada               ● ○        
All in the Mind / Lee MacAvoy                 ●        
muzak                   ●      
blues water                   ●      
Didi's moon                   ●      
Sky split                   ●      
Midnight lecture                   ●      
Midnight I / panic cycles                   ●      
gone                   ●     ○
Chinatown                     ●    
Turn Left I / fortunes                     ●    
stars out                     ●    
creature exposure                     ●    
Oriental wind                     ●    
Davros                       ● ○
Mr. Smith's fanfare *                       ◉  
Seeking the Doctor                       ○  
Osterhagen                       ● ○
Song for Ten                         ○
time lock                         ●
Germany                         ●
reality bomb                         ●
reunited                         ●
Caan's prophecy                         ●
Impossible Planet II / futures                         ○

Recordings in Series Four episodes:

Live performances in Series Four episodes:

* - "Mr. Smith's fanfare" was probably composed for the Sarah Jane Adventures by Sam and Dan Watts (though Murray Gold composed that show's theme).


Inter-Series episodes 2007 (Updated November 24, 2008)

  Inter-Series 2007
CiN VotD
action motifs fireballs   ●
shipboard pursuit   ●
vamps Clockwork TARDIS ○  
emotive motifs Martha's Theme ○  
Voyage of the Damned Suite IV / Astrid's Theme   ●
a different planet   ●
Van Hoffs romance   ●
Bannakaffalatta secret   ●
Voyage of the Damned Suite VI / flying   ●
Voyage of the Damned Suite XI (Goodbye, Mr. Copper)   ●
dramatic motifs What?! ○  
Voyage of the Damned Suite I (rescue plan)   ●
Doctor Forever ○ ○
Voyage of the Damned Suite IX / Stowaway (tune)   ●
Voyage of the Damned Suite III / wheels battle   ●
Voyage of the Damned Suite VII / sky ship   ●
humor motifs cricket and celery ●  
red 6-7   ●
Hope and Glory   ◉
God Save the Queen   ◉
miscellany synth flashbacks ●  
Jingle Bells   ◎
ship's bridge   ●
Max Capricorn ad   ●
Van Hoff introductions   ●
ship's technologies   ●
villainous plots   ●
Voyage of the Damned Suite VIII / ship rescue waltz   ●

Live performances in the InterSeries 2007 episodes:

As in the previous Christmas specials, the characters do not hear the brief references to "Hope and Glory" or "God Save the Queen;" it is only for the viewers.

On the other hand, the "Max Capricorn advertisement" is heard by the characters as a recording--but it is composed within the show and not as a real-life "track" brought into the show's world. And "Jingle Bells" is probably heard on the ship, either as a recording or an off-camera live performance (the specifics are unclear from the scene).



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Copyright © 2008 L. Robin C. LaPasha.

Updated as of 11/24/2008. Comments and responses to Robin LaPasha