20 - The King's Demons

Composer: Jonathan Gibbs (with lute compositions in Part One by Peter Howell)
Director: Tony Virgo

What's the score?
There's a tangled story behind this score, but the DVD production subtitles are there to talk us through it. Peter Howell was initially assigned to work on The King's Demons, and he began by writing the pieces to be played on set - or rather, to be recorded beforehand by lutenist Jakob Lindberg, and then mimed to by the actors. These included the music played in the opening scene of Part One by a minstrel (actually Lindberg himself - he isn't exactly credited for his cameo, but he does get a crew credit alongside Fight Arranger John Waller), and the King's song performed by the false King John.
Howell then had to back out of scoring The King's Demons in order to focus on other commitments, and the assignment was handed on to BBC Radiophonic Workshop newcomer Jonathan Gibbs. Gibbs thus ended up composing all the incidental music for the story, but he did take some inspiration from Howell's song, and Lindberg was brought back into the studio to provide some more lute sounds. A drummer, Tim Barry, was also called in to perform on the soundtrack - this time next year the Radiophonic Workshop will have a synthesizer that can do snare drum rolls, but at this point they have to employ a session musician.

Musical notes

• As noted, the lute music that opens Part One is not part of the incidental music (and thus not included in the isolated score on the DVD). The first incidental cue in the story plays over the start of the joust scene, and comes across as an ostentatious piece of scene-setting. Synthesized recorders, shawms and horns are added to the lute and drums - look how gosh-darned medieval we are, the music seems to say. In fact the feel of the composition is more Renaissance than 13th century, and the snare drum is anachronistic, but there's an air of heritage park historical re-enactment about the story, so it's not as out of place as it might be. And given the later revelation of the King and his champion as fakes, we might even argue that this subtle wrongness in the music is entirely appropriate.
• The King's song is also not part of the incidental score, having been played during the filming of the banquet scene in Part One, with the false King John singing and "playing" along. (Perhaps I should have put "singing" in inverted commas as well...) Gibbs doesn't make use of the lute composition that opened Part One in his score, but he does use the King's song as a motif in the immediate next cue as Sir Gilles threatens Sir Geoffrey Lacy. There's also a tinny high-pitched reprise at the moment that Kamelion is revealed in Part Two (one for the dogs and small children there).
• The use of synthesizers notwithstanding, Gibbs stays in character until the end of Part One, when the revelation of the Master thoroughly breaks the medieval atmosphere. All-out electronic sounds and weird oscillations burst free in this cue. The scenes in Part Two that feature Kamelion in his robotic form also feature some notably "alien" musical cues, in contrast with the conventional melodies that precede them.
• The downbeat cue that plays as the Master reappears in the castle dungeon in Part Two sounds mysteriously like part of the Oompa-Loompa song from the Gene Wilder film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Vox pop
A promising DW debut for Jonathan Gibbs. The story allows him to play with historical and futuristic musical forms side by side, and he proves to be comfortable with both. A solid and pleasant score to round off the season.

Availability

• The BBC DVD release includes the full isolated score as an audio option.
• Doctor Who - The Music II included a suite of music from this story.