When “Downton Abbey” fans hear that familiar strings-and-piano theme, a Pavlovian response ensues: Get to the television immediately, because you don’t want to miss a minute of th…
” fans hear that familiar strings-and-piano theme, a Pavlovian response ensues: Get to the television immediately, because you don’t want to miss a minute of the addictive Crawley family melodrama to follow.” movie reaching theaters on Friday, fans can’t wait for their fix of Lady Mary and Lady Edith, Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes, Daisy and Mrs. Patmore. But what can they expect from the music?, who scored all 52 episodes over six seasons and won two Emmys in the process.
Before he started on the movie, Lunn — who has been away from the “Downton” scene for nearly four years, working on series like “Grantchester” and “The Last Kingdom” — watched all six seasons again. “We had a bigger budget, more time to experiment a bit and more time to record it,” by comparison with the usual rush of a TV series, he says.
Although the storyline revolves around the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Downton in 1927, most of the new music doesn’t involve the royals. “It’s more to do with all the other characters around them, and the way that they have to deal with the visit,” Lunn explains. Tom Branson gets much of the new material because of the mysterious character who follows him around, and a new romantic interest that appears midway through the story.
Most challenging for the composer were the scenes involving the miffed Downton staff who discover that their dinner-making and -serving skills are unwanted by the snooty staff of the royals, and the rivalry that develops. “Most of the comic music is in a minor key,” Lunn points out, “almost Kurt Weill-ish, so you can take it seriously. But because of the way the instrumentation is done, you can’t really take it that seriously.
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