Murray Gold: The Pandorica Suite (version 1.5 - from Doctor Who - arrangement for 2 pianos)

The original Pandorica Suite arrangement was recorded with a few bent ribs and strained muscles. This piece by Gold is one of my favorites, and I was never quite happy with the effort.

So, I recorded new performance parts and added quite a few additional voices and pianistic effects to the arrangement as well as rethinking the dynamics, while keeping some "OK" parts from the original, and here is the video result of that - featuring a better flow - and, just as importantly, more bash boom wallop.

An arrangement for two pianos of the epic "Pandorica Suite", comprising music from the series 5 two part finale - as composed by Murray Gold and orchestrated by Ben Foster. This was played exclusively at the 2010 Doctor Who Proms by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The accompanying video was edited by me specifically for this piece, but all credit should go to Richard Senior - Doctor Who's ingenious trailer editor - who did the original video for the Proms performance on which this is *very* closely based (even frame accurate a lot of the time).

The original edit with the orchestral version, before I retimed it to the piano version can be found here - for comparison, and because I love the orchestral sound along with those images:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPndFvTMrQU

It's slightly longer, because the piano version of the part at 3:59 is slightly faster - works better on piano that way. The rest of the piece is just about the same tempo.

Anyway, the music...

This is probably the most complex piece of music by Murray Gold that I've arranged for piano. Lots of rhythmic and harmonic challenges, a plethora of orchestral techniques, and the end result for piano turns out quite virtuosic a lot of the time. But it's also extremely varied, with a lot of brilliant slower parts, especially in the second half of the piece. It includes material from a *lot* of themes, including:

"Who Else Is Coming?",
"This is Where It Gets Complicated",
"The Same Sonic",
"The Patient Centurion",
"The Perfect Prison"

... and a particularly lively version of "I Am the Doctor", which means another new arrangement of that theme in this piece. :-)

All of those (but not the suite itself) in their full orchestral glory, as performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, are available on the Series 5 soundtrack, released by Silva Screen Records on CD and for digital download:

UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/doctor-who-series-5-soundtrack/id398687561
US: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/doctor-who-series-5/id416206947

The soundtrack can also be ordered directly from Silva Screen, worldwide:
http://silvascreenmusic.greedbag.com/buy/doctor-who-series-4/

All footage is obviously owned by the BBC. Buy the DVD/Blu-ray boxset if you don't have it already:

DVD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Complete-Lenticular-Sleeve/dp/B003XIIW2O/
Blu-ray: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Complete-Lenticular-Blu-ray/dp/B003XIIW2Y/

Sheet music available. See "About Me" in my channel for the link.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Murray Gold
• Doctor Who
• Ben Foster
• Benedict Foster
• piano
• Pandorica Suite
• theme
• series 5
• music
• score
• soundtrack
• arrangement
• cover
• BBC
• The Same Sonic
• Who Else Is Coming
• The Patient Centurion
• I Am the Doctor
• The Big Bang
• The Pandorica Opens

[LilSquonker]

but how?

[TheOtherKaneda]

@LilSquonker - ripped the episodes from Blu-ray (including bits from earlier episodes for the "time goes backwards" part at the end), imported them into Premiere Pro, pieced them together - trying to stick with what Richard Senior originally created for the Proms performance. Then adjusted them slightly to fit with the piano recording (which was recorded and edited to a metronome track, but still takes some liberties here and there).

[LilSquonker]

where do u get the clips from?

[TheOtherKaneda]

@LilSquonker - the episodes. ;-)

[ConscienciaEterea]

Question: did you write the score by ear or is it available somewhere? Either way, fantastic work, it really highlights Gold's talent to writing pretty memorable pieces. And it also highlights your own talents, it's pretty a pretty complex, all-over-the-place suite.

I give this 5 "Fantastic!"s out of 5.

[TheOtherKaneda]

@ConscienciaEterea - thanks :-) And yeah, it's written by ear. The link to the sheet music is on my channel (under "About Me").

[Alistair3900]

@TheOtherKaneda as well as create a brilliant version of my favourite piece of doctor who music, you have managed to tell the entire story of the pandorica without using a single word. Great job.

[MrKris2448]

I love this! ts like many different great tunes all mixed together and it sounds wonderful!

[neoslink1]

THIS. IS. EXELLENT!

[strwberryfields4]

wonderful! i feel like i'm watching a silent movie.

[EGevilgenius]

WOW

[PhosAlu]

You're brilliant!