This Summer saw Mary's Dowry Productions complete St. Francis de Sales: The Devout Life film after 15 months of delays. Having completed the music score for this film after much duress because of a failed motherboard and processor, I now have a new setup which I have also taken the additional step to update so all my software is the latest. I can also try my hand at PLAY - which uses Storm Drums, Gypsy and Voices of Passion, all of which I have avoided using because of using too much memory in the computer.
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| PLAY software |
As you can see each program is quite big so I have not used them for a few years for fear of my music PC crashing whilst I am writing. With the new setup and faster computer I believe I can draw upon them now.
St. Frideswide of Oxford
Rather than moving straight on to "St. Alban Roe" production which we filmed for back in 2018, we decided that we needed a fresh infusion of something completely new. A poppy field had opened up nearby us and we heard about it so set out to find it. It was beautiful! It went right up over the hills into the distance and you could see it from miles away.
I had wanted to incorporate a poppy field for years in our films but the only one was near Brighton with no parking access.
So we set off to Sompting Village and spent a few hours filming the poppies and meadows for scenery shots. The next day we decided to go back with a costume and get everything we needed for a brand new film on St. Frideswide. We had delayed this production for about 6 years after being given a little prayer card of this saint and finding she was the patron of Oxford.
I was excited about this film as it was and English saint. Musicwise this gives me an opportunity to use old English instruments. We really pushed ourselves to complete this production from beginning to end so as to have something completely new this summer and it wasn't long before I was handed the video to begin the music score.
I actually began this score with a bit of trepidation as it was the first score on my new PC setup. I did not know what I intended to do but I set up a new template and literally hit record to improvise. I decided that I would try to use instruments I had not used before and loaded in a nice harmonica. I used the soundscape Goddess of Love and led with Xiao flute which I really like. After the first sequence led by Xiao flute I led with tenor viola da gamba, one of my favourites, and doubled this with a very high pitched flute. Once I had written and recorded the lead instruments I looked for something to add a sparkle to the opening titles and found a nice mallet patch which worked very lovely. Here are the opening titles to give a sense of the mood of this film.
Throughout the film I added in French Horns for segments which cover much of the historical context and I used pizzicato strings gaining in tempo as the prince pursues St. Frideswide to make her his wife, it very much reminded me of our film on St. Etheldreda when she was pursued in a similar way. All in all the music took me about 3 days to complete and was not as easy as I thought. There is a lot going on in this film, lots of different moods and history.
There is a segment at the end exploring the history of St. Frideswide's shrine after her death including the destruction during the reign of King Henry VIII. It was shocking how her bones were deliberately mixed with those of an ex-nun and remain so to this day. I had fun writing quite menacing music during this segment.
The film ties up nicely with devotion to St. Frideswide today so I was able to end on a high note and then return to my opening titles for the end credits. One thing I did do throughout this production was glissando harp. St. Frideswide was famous for plying her harp and we filmed her doing this so at points in the score I emphasize this. This is the first time I had used the glissando harp patch from Celtic Instruments.
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| St. Frideswide played her harp so I emphasized glissando harp in the score. |
I did not use many SFX in this particular film score but there are some horses galloping when the saint is pursued and battle sounds over some battle pictures which is always so effective. I found that my new PC setup, although incredibly advanced, still spiked and crashed so I have come to the conclusion the problem is the software itself. Cubase may need a bit of tweaking so I am going to explore ways to save CPU for when I go to write the next music score. It feels a lot more solid though and I have been assured that I can't lose anything so long as I keep saving my projects which I do obsessively. St. Frideswide of Oxford is now available on DVD worldwide through our online shop.
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| Saint Frideswide of Oxford DVD |
Please head on over a grab a copy and support the work of Mary's Dowry Productions.
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