My one regret is that I didn't watch the TV series, and now I am keenly awaiting
the first repeat, for if Aristocrats is half-as-good as the soundtrack
album suggests it might be, then it is a television masterpiece.
Aristocrats was a 1999 BBC drama serial based on the story of the
Irish Lennox family in and around 1770. What happens I can not tell you,
though both from the titles and the music romantic intrigue would appear
to be high on the list of priorities. What I can tell you is that, as an
album, Mark Thomas' score is absolutely gorgeous, with melodies that set
a whole new standard in the hauntingly beautiful stakes. In the time I have
been reviewing film and television scores no disc that I have received has
given me so much pleasure: indeed, Aristocrats has too often been
occupying my CD player when I should have been listening to something else.
The music is a modern interpretation of the baroque - consider the way
Vaughn-Williams transformed English folksong, then imagine a similar approach
applied to the music of Handel and Vivaldi. The result is an exquisite hybrid
with a wonderful flow of melancholy pseudo-baroque melody, suffused with
a 20th century English classical warmth of string writing and
delicate orchestration. Crafted with filigree attention to detail and
considerable thematic diversity, there is here the quality that Philippe
Sardé brought to Tess, that indeed many French composers have
sought to apply to matters of the heart. There are vigorous up-beat passages
('Fireworks'), a lively dance ('Masks'), while 'Lord Kildare's Courtship
of Lady Emily' offers playful variation on the central themes and 'The King's
Party and Family Reconciliation' has a driving urgency which recurs in various
sections. However, it is the timeless beauty of the main themes in various
more sombre treatments which form the heart of the album. It seems rapidly
to be becoming something of a cliché (see Earth: Final Conflict
which I've also reviewed on FMOTW this month) but no one recently has made
better use of the wordless female voice than Mark Thomas does here. The composer
takes the voice of Méav and treats it as a solo lead instrument to
utterly captivating effect.
If Ennio Morricone's music for The Mission and Once Upon in a Time
in America count among your favourite scores, if John Williams in English
pastoral mode for Jane Eyre and Angela's Ashes meet with your
approval, make it a priority at least to hear Aristocrats. The best
soundtracks don't always come from the most famous names - Mark Thomas has
written over 100 scores, yet remains virtually unknown outside the film and
television industry - and after much consideration I will go as far as to
state that after 25 years Aristocrats has replaced Williams' Jane
Eyre as my all-time-favourite television score. If I had seen the series
last year I would almost certainly have voted for this 'score of the year'.
Now someone, give Mark Thomas a major feature film to score.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
orchestrated and conducted by the composer, performed by the Irish Film Orchestra
with vocals by Méav
