Plaudits have deservedly been heaped upon Mark Rylance as ‘Master Secretary’ (and on Damian Lewis as his terrifyingly changeable boss), but rather fewer column-inches have been devoted to Debbie Wiseman’s haunted and haunting score, which has played such a crucial role in bringing the inner workings of Cromwell’s complex mind to life. The day after Episode Four was broadcast, I sat down with Debbie to discuss how she went about finding the delicate balance between past and present for the soundtrack, the challenges of continuing the saga without Mantel's guiding hand, and the inspiration which she drew from Rylance's infinitely subtle characterisation of the already inscrutable protagonist...
It’s been almost a decade since the first series of Wolf Hall - was it a challenge to get back into the groove after such a long break, and did you carry over any musical material into The Mirror and the Light?
It was wonderful to dive back into the Tudor world with all its intrigue and plotting and subterfuge. Returning after a ten-year gap was thrilling and challenging, because it follows straight on from Series One: we pick up the story on the morning after Anne Boleyn’s execution. Our director Peter Kosminsky was very keen that there would be some musical continuity, particularly of the themes for Cromwell, Henry and Anne (who haunts The Mirror and the Light) which I’d written for Series One.
He also wanted to retain the same sound-world and orchestration, which was quite small and intimate. I scored it for just twelve instruments: a string quintet plus cor anglais, and some Tudor instruments like harpsichord and recorder. In the first series there was a theorbo and a lute, and in the second I used quite a lot of mandolin, mandola and harp, and that was it! It’s not a big lush orchestral sound, and that was key to Peter’s vision: he wanted it to sound quite raw, rough and ready, so that it felt completely in keeping with how he shot and filmed it.
There are some new musical ideas, perhaps the most distinctive being the ‘Dorothea’ theme [depicting Cromwell’s feelings around his late master Cardinal Wolsey’s illegitimate daughter] which is sung by the brilliant soprano Grace Davidson. You hear it a lot in Episodes 1 and 2 (around her confrontation with Cromwell), and it will feature quite heavily in the final episode...A lot of the music comes from Cromwell’s inner turmoil, and Peter felt that the haunting quality of that theme worked for what’s going on in his mind.
I actually wrote it before Peter had done any of the filming – he knew that he wanted a vocal theme for Dorothea, and we worked hard on getting that right for him. That’s quite an unusual way to work: normally you sit down and write the score once everything’s been filmed, but Peter likes to start early. I did a lot of the work over two or three months before he’d even started filming.
The ‘Dorothea’ motif is quite different from Cromwell’s theme in Series One, which was quite energetic and deliberate: Cromwell was in his element and it was all about his rise to power, whereas in Series Two the tide’s turning against him and it’s all about his fall from grace. It ended up being a much darker sound-world throughout, and there isn’t that much opportunity for anything energetic or joyful – it’s all going very much the wrong way for him…
How hands-on was Peter in the recording-studio?
He was very involved, because creating the right sound is just as important as the themes themselves. For instance, in Episode 4 ['Jenneke'] we introduced a new theme on the viola which marks a real psychological turning-point for Cromwell; our wonderful viola-player Philip Dukes has a very lyrical, expansive natural sound, but Peter wanted something more muted and internal. We spent an hour before the session just discussing how to achieve the right effect, and in the end Philip played it sul tasto - Peter was absolutely thrilled, because it didn’t draw the ear too much and that was exactly what he wanted for that scene.
Did you draw inspiration from any specific composers or works from the sixteenth century?
Not really, because the whole purpose of the score was for it to sound contemporary, albeit with some Tudor inflections. Hilary Mantel always said that our past is their present - you see that in the style of her writing - so you want the characters to be living in the here-and-now. We’re not looking at it through some sort of stained-glass window where it’s all very distant. One of the first things Peter said to me is that he didn’t want it to sound like Greensleeves – he wasn’t interested in Tudor pastiche. It wouldn’t have felt right to use modern instruments and throw in a saxophone or bass guitar, but the harmonic language itself is relatively modern.
It was a difficult mix, because the music in Wolf Hall operates on two levels. The score itself has its own purpose and hopefully feels quite contemporary, but when you see the musicians playing at feasts and masques it’s absolutely of the period: they’re playing the right style of music and the right instruments for the time.
Claire van Kampen [Mark Rylance’s wife] was our Tudor historical music advisor, and part of her role was to assist Peter in making sure that everything you see on screen is accurate: when you see poor Mark Smeaton with his lute or the trumpeters playing at Anne’s coronation, the instruments and the way they hold them is 100% authentic. Peter’s an absolute stickler for detail: he made his name in drama documentaries, so that mindset of making sure that things are happening correctly has translated incredibly well into Wolf Hall in terms of the lighting, costuming, the musicians…everything.
Did any particular places or works of art spark ideas for the score?
I think everybody was drawn to the Holbein paintings – the whole show looks and feels like one! There’s a lot of beauty in every frame; it’s very dark and shot by candlelight, because that’s what would’ve been used at the time. And the series doesn’t rush; the pace of it is very reflective, which is quite at odds with a lot of other TV programmes at the moment. That overall tempo allows Mark Rylance’s extraordinary performance the space it needs to develop.
We were also very mindful not to oversentimentalise anything. Peter insisted that we must always be careful to allow the audience to make up their own minds, rather than letting the music push them too hard one way or the other in this power-struggle between Cromwell and Henry.
Did you have any direct contact with the late Dame Hilary Mantel?
Only after I’d composed the score - we met at the screening of the very first episode. Hilary was sitting right in front of me with Peter directly behind me, and I remember him being incredibly nervous about her reaction. This project was a huge responsibility: the novel had won the Booker Prize and gone on to be a huge success in the theatre, so there was a lot of pressure on all of us involved in creating the TV adaptation not to muck it up!
When the episode finished, Hilary didn’t turn around – she just gave Peter a thumbs-up, and he was visibly relieved! That seal of approval was so valuable, and it’s terribly sad that she died just before we filmed Series Two. Everybody was distraught, but it was especially devastating for Peter: she’d supported him so much over email as he worked through the script and devised these six episodes, but losing that personal contact was so sad.
Which scenes were especially challenging to score?
Any screen score is challenging from start to finish. Aside from finding the right tone, you need to ensure that you’re writing what the director wants and that you’re working as part of a team – in this case Peter and our editor David Blackmore, with whom I collaborated closely. But I would have to single out Cromwell's execution-scene in the final episode: it’s a very long sequence (although not quite as long as Anne’s execution at the end of Series One), and there were so many different approaches we might have taken. Sometimes you have to work through two or three ideas before settling on something that feels right…but I won’t reveal any details before Sunday’s broadcast!
Was the music around Cromwell written with Mark Rylance’s characterisation in mind?
Definitely. The actor’s and director’s vision is always key when you’re writing music for the screen, but even more so with Cromwell because you’re following his every move – he’s in every single scene, so you can’t not be influenced by that. Mark is incredibly expressive but doesn’t go in for a lot of big gestures: sometimes just a look or a raised eyebrow from him would spark a musical idea in me. Another actor might have given a very different performance, which would in turn trigger a different vision from the director. Everything has a knock-on effect: locations, camerawork, lighting, costumes, performances all feed into one another for a project like this.
Ultimately, it’s what’s delivered on screen that provides the biggest inspiration to you as a composer. I’d immersed myself in the novels and in Peter’s scripts, jotting down ideas as I went, but your real work starts when you see the ‘finished’ product. You have to go with what’s in front of you, and hopefully you get excited and inspired by it all - which is exactly what happened with Wolf Hall.
Is anything happening to mark the release of the soundtrack?
We’re doing a gig on 13th December at Rough Trade Records East in Brick Lane. I’ll be conducting a live performance of the score with The Locrian Ensemble, followed by a Q&A and signing - and if you come in Tudor attire, you get a free CD from Series One!
The Locrian Ensemble Of London, Debbie Wiseman
Available Format: CD
