March 30, 2012

  • Review: Sherlock (Arnold/Price)

     

     

    Sherlock ***

     

    DAVID ARNOLD/MICHAELPRICE

    Silva Screen Records 1377

    19 tracks – 57:38

    Also available as adigital download.

     

    There certainly have been a number of shows from the BBCfinding their way to American television of late.  The latest is an “update” of Sir Arthur ConanDoyle’s classic detective Sherlock Holmes. In Sherlock, the iconic Holmesand Watson are solving crimes in 21st century London with Watsonbeing a young veteran of the Afghan war. The series appeared the year following the Robert Downey, Jr. and JudeLaw film which featured a score by Hans Zimmer. The series features a scores by David Arnold and Michael Price.  In addition to his own projects, Price hasserved as an arranger for several Arnold film projects most recently receivingand “additional music” credit for Paul.The music for the episode, “A Study in Pink,” was nominated for a BAFTA thisyear.  As the series makes its way toAmerican television and DVD Silva will be releasing music on separate discs forboth series one and two this year.

     

    As they have done so well in other BBC TV Seriespresentations, Silva has placed a variety of tracks taken from throughoutSeries One onto this disc.  The “OpeningTitles” are rather brief with little to get excited about.  “The Game is On” features some orchestrationwhich seems to give a slight nod to the Zimmer score and this tends tocontinue.  The primary thematic ideacertainly is different from Zimmer’s but is scored somewhat similarly (“Pink)”.  There is some ambient design and electronics (“SecurityCameras”) added into the sound picture in the score as well similar to many ofthe BBC sci-fi series.  The music withthe primary theme material tends to be among the more interesting.  “Pursuit” plugs this theme in with someadditional sound that at times sounds like an Arnold/Zimmer hybrid cue with alittle Murray Gold thrown in for good measure. The music can achieve a great deal of intensity as happens in “Targets”which feels more like a real horror score cue. “Number Systems” has some interesting electric guitar and electroniceffects that certainly help place the narrative in the present day quite well.  The warm thematic material provides just theright amount of continuity throughout this presentation as the music shifts andchanges to emphasize tension and lighter moments in the storylines. 

      

    The music for Sherlockis certainly well-done and may serve as a nice companion to the recent featurefilm scores at least musically.