India Amaltaifio and Corey Millcreest in Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: The Story of Bridgerton.

Liam Daniel/Netflix

Bridgerton Composer Chris Bowers returns to spin-off drama series Queen Charlotte: The Story of Bridgerton, which delves into the story of Queen Charlotte’s life and rise to power. Bowers said the show was sonically much darker than its predecessor due to its exploration of mental illness and adaptability to dominance, and offered its own set of challenges when crafting the score.

“Even when I first read the script, one of the things that really struck me was how grounded it felt to me compared to my previous work. Bridgerton.We deal with Charlotte and this relationship so much that sonically it felt a little more serious and intimate. [with King George]says Bowers. hollywood reporter A royal couple loosely modeled after Queen Charlotte and George III of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in the mid-18th century.

The composer talked about the instruments he used, his preparation for this show, and if there were any scenes that were more difficult to compose than others.

Were there certain scenes or parts of the score that were more difficult to compose?

The opening, because that was the first cue I wrote, really just set the tone for how this show felt. Bridgerton. It took a few tries to find what really felt like the sound of the show. Often the first music in the show is the most difficult as it struggles to find the palette and sound. And that was the challenge there.Other than that, there’s a sequence where Charlotte finds George in the garden in the middle of the night and he talks to the stars…I think that’s it [cue]in terms of scope and length, and trying to find a way to fuse some themes with his new perception of what is going on in his psyche is perhaps one of the more difficult clues. bottom.

I also want to talk about the opening credits. It’s much shorter and faster-paced than . Bridgerton, and tonally different. What was the process behind this?

I tried several different iterations of Charlotte’s theme, and I tried an iteration of their love theme, so this was another challenge. Part of the challenge with the main credits was that many of the show’s scores have a dark vibe. Obviously there’s this love story, so there are moments of deep romance and all that, but there’s so much darkness in the score that the reuse of many of the cues in the main title score is what makes it so atmospheric. A little too dark and eerie for the show. It was important to find something that rhythmically had the energy we wanted in terms of tempo and pace, but at the same time connected to the theme.

Did that thought process translate into the rest of your score?

yeah, sure. For this, I started with the show’s score. I actually wrote the main title almost until the end. With the last episode almost finished before I actually wrote the main title, I was pretty much immersed in the weight and darkness of the show. However, a very specific palette was developed that helped bring it into the main title, even though it felt more tonally fresh. In a sense it was the other way around. It was like carrying something I discovered and developed during the show’s scoring process that actually influenced the main title.

was ready for Queen Charlotte Is the process different from the previous work?

Well, it was more about her and her story at the time, but I also did research about the music that had the feel I was looking for. I was really fascinated by her story and her relationship with King George, but I was also very fascinated, especially by her actual reality theory that she was of African descent. A lot of it I found really interesting to explore. However, after doing some more research on her and where she was from, I decided to use a fortepiano when Charlotte was young and a regular piano when Charlotte was younger. Bridgerton It’s the version of Queen Charlotte we know, but it just has a very specific sound that makes it feel a little more connected to her time.

[Music supervisor] Alexandra Patsavas and I also talked a lot about black and colored composers of the time, and she introduced me to a lot of the music written by Joseph Bologne, the Knights of Saint-Georges.And ironically, at the same time, I was asked to work on a film about him. [Chevalier, directed by Stephen Williams]So I did a lot of research on him and some music is inspired by him as well.We talked a lot about this imaginary idea that Charlotte would have known too. [this] A prolific black musician who produced music during this era.

In terms of Palette’s research, I wanted the sound, especially hers, to have a different type of modernity. Bridgerton not necessarily have. Bridgerton Feel yourself immersed in the sounds of French impressionist romantic music. I wanted a lot of this music to feel tinged with more contemporary and classical composers. We also delved a lot into contemporary composers such as John Adams, Steve Reich, Bela Bartok and even Jesse Montgomery and Gabriella Smith. It was really a new space to explore.

Which instruments did you feel were essential to maintaining consistency throughout the score?

I think the fortepiano was definitely the biggest thing for me, because it felt really special to the era and Charlotte. She certainly played the harpsichord, so she thought of the harpsichord, but the harpsichord has its own unique sound and I didn’t want to go that far.It felt like a fortepiano [worked] Because it is a bridge between the harpsichord and the piano. It has a structure very similar to a harpsichord. Then the cello is used a lot. Because the cello has a weight that allows for really emotional moments, but it also has a power that I feel the high strings don’t have as much. I really loved relying on the cello for many of the percussive pieces. And it became common to use the harp in love themes.

The interview was edited for length and clarity.

This article first appeared in the June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe to receive the magazine.