Exclusive: The frigid music of Harry and Meghan
NewsEarly-music specialist Joel Cohen was watching the latest Netflix episode of the Royal exiles in California, when soething about the background music pricked his memory. Joel writes:
Harry and Meghan and Hans and Henry – and The Crown’s Cold Music
Episode Four of the Harry and Meghan series on Netflix has some appropriately grim and growly soundtrack music as the prince and his American wife come into contact with the strains and strictures of Buckingham Palace practice and protocol. The sounds hear in the background are aptly sinister as the schism grows between the young couple and the Palace. But hmm, something in there sounds familiar….where have I heard such relentless, repeated chords, and such an ominous bass line, before?
Well, you indeed heard something very similar to those foreboding musical passages before, and possibly many times before. The soundtrack of Harry and Meghan references the theme music before each episode of The Crown.
We understand that Netflix went an extra mile to separate its Crown megaseries from the Harry and Meghan documentary. Many news sources reported that Netflix delayed the latter show by several months, so as not to bump into/overlap with the former. And according to at least one online source (livemint.com) Prince Harry was utterly dismissive of the earlier production: “The Duke of Sussex claims that it is complete fantasy and that his only wish is that [The Crown] comes to end before it gets to him. He assured [his interlocutor] that it was undoubtedly fiction.”
Why then, the unacknowledged musical evocation, for a show presented as truthful, from an earlier series characterized as fiction? Via these similar musical motifs, the two productions are clearly and openly linked. It certainly makes for some emotional cohension, and perhaps for good marketing as well. But is it entirely cricket? Should erstwhile life so brazenly evoke semi-fiction? And will some royalties be changing hands?
Perhaps, in the end, it’s all a tribute to England’s greatest baroque musician, Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The composer for The Crown (Hans Zimmer, according to my online source) cribbed the pitches from a magnificent scena in Purcell’s semi-opera, King Arthur. In that passage (Christopher Purves – Cold Genius Aria “What power art thou” – King Arthur – Henry Purcell – YouTube) , the Cold Genius, trapped in ice, sings of his rigid, frozen status, to the chords heard at the Netflix series’ opening. Then the concept was cribbed again, for this newer series. Listening once again to that astonishing Purcell music, one is reminded of the Latin proverb Ars longa, vita brevis. The royals’ contemporary quarrels appear to be of such little import compared to the enduring genius of the seventeenth century master.
(c) 2022 Joel Cohen
Mr Cohen,
Wonderful last sentence, yours.
Grazie.
Grazie, Micaela.
Oh who cares what these mediocre individuals do? They are a whining, spoiled, removed-from-reality, vile couple. He has half a brain and she is a devious manipulatrix par excellence.
I look forward to the soundtrack selected for when they have their titles and what-not withdrawn by the Palace.
He, at least had the guts and bravery to volunteer for two tours in Afghanistan. That takes far more than half a brain, MMgrath! And his family then stripped him of his military titles. He has a lot to complain about.
Yes, his work in Afghanistan was absolutely commendable and he had the national behind him, and his zest for life, a freshness to help modernise the Royal Family, particularly given he’d always be ‘the spare prince’ and need to find a role in life. But then they both seem to want their cake and eat. Either you function as working royals, amounting to supporting the Queen and Philip at the time, or you don’t. But then go off, shut up, and live your private life in America that you chose. Nobody sacked you! Their titles should now be removed, and his book, simply shaming the Royal Family including his dad, the now King, thrown into the furnace. Personally as a Brit, I’m now sick of it all, even as a natural royalist. Who wants what Ireland has – a president every six months for X number of years?
And now Harry wants an apology from his dad to both of them for Charles treating them as a non-working members of the Royal Family! Strange, thought they left? No one sacked them!
Could we please have at least one Harry Markle free zone?
But the article has a musical subject, it’s the first on the site I have ever seen about Harry and Meghan, and no one has to start reading past the headline.
Nothing original in what Cohen is saying.
Since 2017 people have written about Purcell as the source of Zimmer’s music for The Crown. And writers have cited plenty of other pop culture scores before and after Zimmer that were similarly inspired by Purcell’s King Arthur music.
So whoever scored the music for Harry and Meghan, their inspiration does not necessarily trace to Zimmer, but must be traced to Purcell.
Cohen’s logic is deeply flawed, any connection of Harry and Meghan to The Crown is by way of both their common “cribbing” of Purcell, not by way of the former “evoking” the latter.
But I do endorse Cohen’s sentiment that the Windsors will not outlast Purcell nor surpass him in relevance.
I think the H&M music derives from overall mood of the Zimmer theme, rather than from Purcell. The texture and climate evoke The Crown but do not, as far as I could determine, actually use the Purcell chord progressions.
No, not these again. Not here. Please.
Not anywhere. For two people who supposedly hate intrusion the intrude a lot into my life without being asked if I mind. They hate the press, yet the use them. They want privacy yet are constantly going public. And we still have Ginger’s book to come! “Spare” – God, I’m choking back the vomit. The story should read: after their fairy-tale wedding paid for by the taxes of a hardworking population, Duke Ginger Nuts Sussex ran off with the new Duchess Meeghan to California to raise their kids. The world continued as if they never existed and the remaining working Royals calmly continued in their public duties, supporting His Majesty the King and the Queen Consort. The End. Yeah, like hell, this is a plot that will keep bleeding tiny, insignificant details for as long as they or anyone around them has breath in their bodies. Pray, bring on a dignified silence!
I noticed the music right away and it’s similarity to The Crown. Thought it strange…
Wagner docet….