BBC viewers blast Nico Muhly’s score
mainThe BBC is facing a wave of complaints about its new costume drama Howard’s End, with viewers saying the dialogue is made inaudible by a high level of background music.
The series has been scored by Nico Muhly, whose opera Marnie opens this week in London.
Sample complaints:
Given up on #HowardsEnd – couldn’t stand the most intrusive and dominating music
— Keith Bothwell (@KeithBothwell) November 12, 2017
#HowardsEnd what is up with the audio? Can’t hear the speech, but the background music etc. is too loud. Keep having to adjust the volume…😡
— Colin Shekleton (@ColinSheks) November 12, 2017
‘The sound was awful you couldn’t really hear the dialogue clearly because of the jarring background music.’
More here.
Sounds like the BBC sound mixers’ problem, not Nico’s
What you mean is ‘BBC viewers blast poor audio levels’.
Of course he should. But your very correct header does not really clickbait make, does it?
Read the article and some of the tweets. It is by no means just the sound level that people find intrusive.
I read it, thanks, but we know that Norman has a bias against this composer, so shouldn’t take his reporting as anything resembling impartiality. It’s clear the levels were the major problem, most of the complainants would not have bothered writing about the music if it weren’t for that problem.
A bias against Nico Muhly? On the contrary, I am a huge admirer. See what I wrote about his opera, Two Boys.
I didn’t even notice there was a soundtrack!
As the article says, the recent SS-GB on TV was incomprehensible because of the poorly mixed sound. There was even a spoof in Private Eye mag of it.
Some people are allergic to background music. I have seen criticisms of its use on Planet Earth II – but why change a winning formula? Having said this, I haven’t watched Howard’s End.
The use of music in documentaries (nature or otherwise) has become excessive. It’s a relentless barrage of noise. Producers have become terrified of even the slightest hiatus, the briefest moment of stillness.
David Attenborough’s Life on Earth from 1979 had a stunningly beautiful soundtrack by Edward Williams, but it was used sparingly and judiciously and was all the more effective for it.
The “music” on the wonderful Planet 2 is dreadful plus to add insult to injury they have a chorus. Every time a fish appears a woman howls!!!
Who are these people who infest every programme even the news.
Since way back in the days of black and white films obtrusive music has been a feature. Check out some old Pathé Pictorial newsreels.
It seems that programme producers assume that we are like little toddlers in terms of attention span and are incapable of watching without something to keep us interested. Either the music is unnecessary as in Blue Planet, but at least played on recognisable instruments for the most part, or we get the dreaded synthesiser score.
I have a simple solution. Mute the sound and switch on the sub-titles. Peace reigns.
a. I shouldn’t have to mute it and read.
b. I want to listen to David Attenborough’s voice.
That’s a perfectly good point. I tend to agree but I’m still torn between Mr Attenborough’s dulcet tones and the complete irritation of the soundtrack.
There have been several attempts at publicity which might stir up public debate but it always seems to fall on deaf ears. (Sorry!)
Memorably around 10 years ago there was a brief, experimental option with some documentatries on TV. You could press the yellow button on the remote and the music disappeared, leaving the spoken commentary. It was wonderful but didn’t catch on. Anyone know what happened?
I miss many potentially interesting documentaries on BBC 4 becuae of racket. Since when is repeating six notes up to 30 music? Yes I know I’m obsessed/
Bill a yellow button? Yes please.
This TV sound disease abounds here in the US, as well. In many TV drama series, music (mostly synthesized) never stops, drowning out dialogue and raising blood pressure. Even with a Bose system where speech can be enhanced by emphasizing its frequency range, I’ve had to stop watching series I’d like to have continued to see.
Needless to say, rather than blame the beloved BBC for an obvious error of sound mixing and processing, our fearless blogger chooses to direct his anger at the American [gasp!] composer who has dared not only to score this show, but to write an opera for ENO