The Sound of Bridgerton and the musical journey of Kate and Anthony
Welcome back to all those reading! It’s been over two years since I wrote any Music Notes analyses and reviews here on the jungle of Tumblr. While I have started a Soundtrack podcast (World of Soundtracks) and taught a few classes and lectures on soundtracks, particularly for Jane Austen adaptations, it is fun to come back to where it all started.
This will primarily focus on what makes the musical world of Bridgerton unique as well as taking us through all 8 episodes of Kathony’s journey. They have a fantastic theme which is used beautifully throughout and I was already geeking out about it before I received a request to write about it.
The initial sound is similar to other Regency dramas: strings, piano, harp, with a few wind instruments such as the clarinet and oboe. Yet, the primary focus is the string ensemble in a way that is unusual from the other drams set in that time period. It sits front and center, telling the story instead of being backdrop to the piano or other instruments. Kris Becker and his orchestration team really know how to use strings in all their facilities, harkening to great string pieces such as Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, and especially Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 4 Noveletten for Strings and Percussion. They can make the music playful, dramatic, romantic, and know how to use the range of all the instruments.
In many ways, the sound was created out of necessity. Since the first season was recorded during lockdown, they had 8-9 players record numerous parts. Many props not only to the musicians but to the music editors who made it sound like a full string orchestra instead of going the chamber music route. In a similar way to Coleridge-Taylor’s piece with strings and percussion which my orchestra recorded during lockdown, using mostly strings and percussion gives the drama an unique sound. The other unique aspect of course is the choice to use both string arrangements of pop songs or to start to emulate that style in the second series. Using the talented Vitamin String Quartet (and other groups in the second season) who have already been arranging pop and rock covers for over a decade or two was a way to set it apart from other period dramas musically and connect to the audience who would know the songs being covered and what the words are saying for that moment.
