I have to admit when I first started watching the mini-series, The Pillars of the Earth, I nearly abandoned it after the aggressive, choppy editing of the first two episodes nearly prompted me to alter my viewing destination. After surviving the dizzy spells, the series smoothed itself out and went on to intrigue me with its tale of politics, religion, and interesting characters caught between shades of gray. One major factor toward the success of this series is Trevor Morris, who is a veteran of The Tudors on Showtime and a generally excellent composer overall (he makes the small screen appear much larger through his music).
Trevor's music for Pillars is at once dramatic and uplifting, capturing the essence of the characters' lives in an impacting way. The choice of instruments along with the choral voices add another layer of intrigue to the work and further embed the viewer/listener into author Ken Follett's world. There's an overall feeling of confidence to be taken from the score as it journeys from one installment to the next, often bridging several years within the span of the story in a capable way.
The recording is also quite exquisite. The beauty of the orchestra is captured with a sound quality that rivals any heard from a recent recording: Clean, sharp, and with appealing tones. It's when I hear music and sound quality come together like this that the term "priceless" comes to mind. We are indeed lucky to live in an age when music can sound so good (though I know a lot of hard work goes into this to make it so).
As mightily impressed as I am with Trevor's work here, there is one area where this score could have surged further over the top with; Leitmotif. In a epic drama such as this, the characters are almost demanding their own themes but this is the one area that Morris does not capitalize in fully enough. The palette of sound remained consistent but there was very little in the way of connective themes that progressed throughout the story. I'm not sure why today's composers are asked to stay away from this approach, but it could have served a series like Pillars quite well and might have catapulted it to even greater heights. For instance, the opening and end credits are stellar, thematically, and I would have enjoyed hearing more of these statements appear throughout the series in perhaps more of an obvious manner. Sadly, the stirring end credit cue itself seems to have been left off of the soundtrack (apart from a bonus demo track that is similar).
Nitpicking aside, this is a rich, sweeping effort from Trevor and the soundtrack will offer you a great return on your investment. There are 39 tracks to enjoy and a slice historical times to absorb. Where else can you get that for under 10 bucks?
