Agatha Christie's Marple
(Digital)

Quartet Records, in collaboration with MovieScore Media, releases the premiere CD edition of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer.

Exclusive CD edition of the ITV hit series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by renowned composer of Britain's internationally acclaimed television scene Dominik Scherrer (The Missing, Ripper Street, Requiem) now available.

Composer Dominik Scherrer created the series 'pastoral crime' music including its widely known theme tune.

Quartet Records, in collaboration with MovieScore Media, releases the premiere CD edition of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer.
With 23 episodes aired over 6 seasons between 2004 and 2013, this iteration was the most extensive presentation of classic Marple stories, featuring Geraldine McEwan in the first three seasons with Julia McKenzie taking over in season four.
Ever since the first series was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2005, it has been a consistently great hit with a dedicated fan base.

When Agatha Christie’s Marple started with the first season in 2004, it was one of the biggest shows in town and the producers, Agatha Christie’s grandson amongst them, cast their net wide in search for a composer. 'At that time my composer portfolio was not mainstream drama series, but art house films. Still, I was a fan of Agatha Christie, and also adored the slightly camp 1960s Miss Marple movies starring Margaret Rutherford with their bouncy scores by the great Ron Goodwin. Along with dozens of other composers, I pitched my music by scoring a couple of scenes. After whittling us down to a second round, they chose me, and I had to immediately get on with the daunting task to score these two hour films', states British-Swiss award-winning composer Dominik Scherrer.

'We treated each episode as a standalone film. Each was based on a separate Agatha Christie book, had its own set of characters, apart from Miss Marple herself. Each had its own director, cinematographer and visual style. Each score was composed specifically for that film and had its own, unique themes, and recognisable sound and was structured like a feature film.'

“I better write this down”, I thought. Weeks before I was hired for “Agatha Christie’s Marple”, the producers sent me a rough cut of the first episode. While watching it, I unconsciously started playing along with the piano. Or maybe just noodling. But then, I looked down at the keys and thought: “Better write this down, this tune may come in useful later.” I duly wrote the little tune down, and put the sheet music away. Weeks later I was hired to compose the series, and I dug out the page again. It had a slight tango feel that went well with the grand hotel setting of “The Body in the Library”, the first film in the series. Indeed it became the Marple theme tune.
Anyone familiar with Agatha Christie’s crime fiction will know that those stories are complex. There is a primary murder plus a good handful of collateral murders, normally cover-ups, then there are around a dozen prime suspects. The score has to heighten emotion, drama and suspense, but equally importantly, has to guide the audience through Christie’s complex web of narrative strands, frequently taking place in different time periods.
These epic narratives take place in a world of opposites. The villages are England’s most quaint and beautiful, the churches’ congregation are pious, tea is perfectly brewed and served on time, yet behind all this lurks anger, envy, psychosis leading to violence and serial murder. Every glass of sherry may contain cyanide, every silk scarf may become a murder weapon. The score sits between English pastoral idyll, with influences from Vaughan Williams or Jane Marple’s favourite composer GF Handel opposite an altogether more sinister universe:
“I had to look for instrumentation that worked for both the pastoral and the evil, and settled for an ensemble dominated by woodwinds and strings,” says Dominik Scherrer about the music. “The shimmering muted strings and melodic woodwinds of Vaughan Williams were an inspiration. We had London’s top musicians performing soaring violin and cello solos. Utilizing the extreme ranges of instruments, hitting the lowest open strings on the cellos and basses hard, haunting bassoon solos, and screechy high violins at the top of their range could produce truly frightening textures, only to be followed by a beautifully played, plaintive cor anglais solo.'

About Dominik Scherrer:
Dominik Scherrer has created award-winning music for some of the finest film and television dramas in recent years. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for the critically-acclaimed series The Missing, and recently won his second Ivor Novello Award for his score on Netflix’s Requiem, which he co-composed with Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes.

Dominik first won the prestigious British Ivor Novello Award and received a Royal Television Society (RTS) nomination for his riveting score on Ripper Street. He earned two additional Ivor Novello nominations for Amazon’s The Collection and the British crime series Agatha Christie’s Marple.

Dominik recently reunited with the Williams brothers to score Amazon’s thriller series The Widow, starring Kate Beckinsale. He also scored the landmark dramas An Inspector Calls and Monroe.

Equally accomplished in film scoring, Dominik’s credits include The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz for which Dominik won the Best Music Award at Spain’s Estapona Film Festival; Alice Through The Looking Glass starring Kate Beckinsale; Alina Marazzi’s Tutto Parla Di Te (All About You); and Scenes of a Sexual Nature starring Ewan McGregor and Hugh Bonneville. He scored Appetite starring Ute Lemper, and wrote the film’s title song which reached No. 2 on the UK classical charts.

Dominik also created, directed and composed the kinetic opera Hell for Leather, which premiered at Sundance and won 10 awards on the festival circuit.

In addition to scoring film and TV, he produces sound design and composes for fine art installations - most notably for artist Suki Chan - and creates performance music for theatre.

Dominik is a British-Swiss composer and works from his studio in London.

More info at: Official website Quartet Records

Quartet Records, in collaboration with MovieScore Media, releases the premiere CD edition of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer. With 23 episodes aired over 6 seasons between 2004 and 2013

Quartet Records, in collaboration with MovieScore Media, releases the premiere CD edition of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer.

With 23 episodes aired over 6 seasons between 2004 and 2013, this iteration was the most extensive presentation of classic Marple stories, featuring Geraldine McEwan in the first three seasons with Julia McKenzie taking over in season four.

Ever since the first series was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2005, it has been a consistently great hit with a dedicated fan base.

“I had to look for instrumentation that worked for both the pastoral and the evil, and settled for an ensemble dominated by woodwinds and strings,” says Dominik Scherrer about the music. “The shimmering muted strings and melodic woodwinds of Vaughan Williams were an inspiration.
We had London’s top musicians performing soaring violin and cello solos.
Utilizing the extreme ranges of instruments, hitting the lowest open strings on the cellos and basses hard, haunting bassoon solos, and screechy high violins at the top of their range could produce truly frightening textures, only to be followed by a beautifully played, plaintive cor anglais solo.'

Swiss-born composer Dominik Scherrer is a real veteran of the British television scene. His credits include the hospital drama Monroe (2012/2013), the sci-fi adventure series Primeval (2007–2009), and the crime series Ripper Street (2012)—for which he won the Best Television Soundtrack Award at the 2014 Ivor Novello Awards.
His more recent titles include The Missing and Requiem, for which he won another Ivor Novello Award for Best Television Soundtrack (shared with Natasha Khan).

More info at: Official website Quartet Records

MovieScore Media issues the digital soundtrack of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer. With 23 episodes aired in 6 seasons between 2004 and 2013, this iteration was the most extensive presentation of classic Marple stories, featuring Geraldine McEwan in the first three seasons with Julia McKenzie taking over in season four.

MovieScore Media issues the digital soundtrack of the hit ITV series Agatha Christie’s Marple with music by Dominik Scherrer. With 23 episodes aired in 6 seasons between 2004 and 2013, this iteration was the most extensive presentation of classic Marple stories, featuring Geraldine McEwan in the first three seasons with Julia McKenzie taking over in season four. Ever since the first series was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2005, it has been a consistently great hit with a dedicated fan base. The physical edition of the score by Quartet Records is released concurrently on CD.

“I had to look for instrumentation that worked for both, the pastoral as well as the evil, and settled for a woodwind and strings dominated ensemble,” says Dominik Scherrer about the music. “The shimmering muted strings and melodic woodwinds of Vaughan Williams were an inspiration. We had London’s top musicians performing soaring violin and cello solos. Utilising the extreme ranges of instruments, hitting the lowest open strings on the celli and basses hard, haunting bassoon solos, and screechy high violins at the top of their range could produce truly frightening textures, only to be followed by a beautifully played, plaintive cor anglais solo.”

Swiss-born composer Dominik Scherrer is a real veteran of the British television scene. His credits include hospital drama Monroe (2012-2013) and the sci-fi adventure series Primeval (2007-2009) and the crime series Ripper Street (2012) for which he won the Best Television Soundtrack Award for his work on the show at the 2014 Ivor Novello Awards. His more recent titles include the limited series The Missing (available from MovieScore Media) and Requiem, another Ivor Novello Award winner for Best Television Soundtrack (shared with composer Natasha Khan).

MMS20025 • DISCOVERY COLLECTION VOL. 20
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MARPLE (Music from the Television Series)
Release date (digital): November 13, 2020

More info at: Official website MovieScore Media