As in the first season of the Netflix original series “The Crown,” Season Two uses classical music at key moments to heighten the drama, while also deftly mixing in 1950s pop songs and the original score by Rupert Gregson-Williams and Lorne Balfe.
Some quintessentially royal musical staples are back. Handel’s coronation anthem Zadok the Priest, returns, having appeared in Season One during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. This time it’s played as Elizabeth, some 10 years older, is getting a haircut that Prince Philip later criticizes as matronly. She goes on to make a speech at a Jaguar factory, and comes under attack by an outspoken journalist for being tone-deaf and out of touch with the public. Handel’s ceremonial refrains of “God Save the Queen” seem to reinforce her old-fashioned sensibilities.
Episode Seven, “Matrimonium,” stands as the most music-rich chapter of Season Two, not only for its use of songs by Ronnie Hilton, the Puppini Sisters and the Solitaires, but also for its modern classical scores. The third movement of Gorecki’s Third Symphony, (the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”) is curiously played as Margaret’s beau, Tony Armstrong-Jones, conducts one of his risqué photo shoots. We hear the classic 1991 recording by David Zinman, Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta.
Moments later, we see Tony revving up his motorcycle, waiting for Margaret, to the strains of Max Richter’s Recomposed, a minimalist deconstruction of “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The score plays (with no dialogue) over a long scene of the two cruising about the central London streets before arriving at his loft. This modern update on a familiar classic features violinist Daniel Hope.
Later, as Elizabeth goes into labor, and her doctors administer a light general anesthetic, we hear the celestial Laudate Dominum from Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore (Solemn vespers of the confessor). The Queen’s labor is juxtaposed with shots of Philip playing what appears to be a vigorous game of racquetball.
The episode concludes with Margaret and Tony on the way to their wedding, set to the ethereal and vaguely chilly strains of Zbigniew Preisner’s Dies Irae. The movement is taken from Preisner’s Requiem for my Friend, a work dedicated to film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, with whom the Polish composer often worked. The Dies Irae is a potent, cinematic choice, one that has been previously tapped in films including Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” and Paolo Sorrrentino’s “The Great Beauty.” Here it ratchets up the tension as Margaret and Philip are seen emerging from their separate vehicles, a priest is heard (but not seen) conducting the ceremony, and finally, there’s an overhead shot of Westminster Abbey against a menacing sky.
Mozart returns in two other episodes in season two of “The Crown.” The first movement of the String Quartet No. 5 in D is featured as part of a montage in which Philip appears bored, sings “Happy Birthday” to dogs, and is fitted for his costume. And in Episode Nine, the Requiem makes a return.
After Philip’s sister is killed in an airplane crash, he attends her funeral in Darmstadt. Swastiskas flutter from every window, Nazi salutes are given and mean dogs bark as the funeral cortege advances down the narrow street. The music is entirely non-diegetic but it could just as well have been heard on the streets of the German town. We hear the choral Lacrimosa, one of the darkest moments in the Dies Irae sequence. Careful “Crown” watchers may recall “Act of God” (Season 1, Episode 4), when the Lacrimosa from the Requiem was heard as a deadly smog enveloped London, again portraying people in dire situations beyond their immediate control.
What is your favorite musical moment in the series? Please leave a comment below. (Also see this Season One recap and this Season Three recap).
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20 responses to “The Crown and Classical Music: Season Two Recap”
20 minutes into the Beryl episode there is a piece of music which also appeared in a computer game called Little King Story. I don’t suppose you know what it is?
Hi Stephen – Thanks for your message. There are bits of the Rupert Gregson-Williams score featured during the duel scene and also during the dinner scene. Ella Fitzgerald’s “Angel Eyes” is then heard when Margaret goes back to her room and has a meltdown over the situation with her fiancé. Those are the two main cues I caught but there may be others in that part of the episode.
Thanks Brian. The bit in the dinner speech reminds me of this. https://soundcloud.com/trevor_kiley-baylor-edu/little-kings-story-1
I could not hear that bit in the original score. I don’t suppose you know it?
Do you know what the classical music is that is playing during winston’s portrait storyline, particularly strong when the camera is outside Chartwell. A male bass voice.
It’s by Purcell, from his opera “King Arthur”. The aria is called “What power art thou, who from below”, sometimes known as “The Cold Song” or “The Cold Genius’s song” after the character who sings it. I don’t know what recording they used but there are many!
S2E8 as the queen is being shown dresses, the music sounds like cha cha or bossa nova possibly and I’ve heard the same sounding song in the Mad Man series. Any particular artist playing those pieces?
I believe this is the tune: “Wheels Cha Cha” by Joe Loss and his Orchestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKxk-h6C7X4
What is the music that plays during the ending credits of season two episode ‘Beryl’?
Hi Pepper – I haven’t watched this episode in some time but I believe that was the Vivaldi Four Seasons remix (“Recomposed”) by Max Richter.
[…] the Four Seasons, Deep Purple, the Who and David Bowie, among others. As in the first season and second season, music is often tied to on-screen sources, as when the young and independent Princess Anne blasts […]
Season One, Episode 8 was striking. It’s what led me here. I am very curious, what is being played and who is playing it?
Hi Marcus – I haven’t watched Season One in a long time either, but it might be part of the show’s original soundtrack by Rupert Gregson-Williams. There’s a lot of his music in those early episodes.
What is the song played in the end title, season 2 episode 9, ‘Paterfamilias,’
children’s choir, chant?
I haven’t watched that episode in a long time, though I do know that the Lacrimosa from the Mozart Requiem appears during the funeral scene. Perhaps that would be it?
I have been researching this and Bring Him Home is the music playing during those credits, however there is a choir chanting over the music and it’s my belief that’s what we’re all looking for. The combination of the two is what made it so hauntingly magnificent.
What is the song at the end of episode 9 season two? When Charles is looking at the window end the credits begin. It’s a boys choire, and it’s not the Lacrimosa from the Mozart Requiem, because it’s played at the same episode when young Prince Phillip attends his sister funeral.
I’ve been reading everywhere people asking this same question apparently with no answer yet. The song gave me chills while listening and I’d love to finally find out the name. Thank you
[…] relationship (in previous posts I’ve looked at the use of classical music in seasons one, two and […]
I think you are being diplomatic to say the use of Gorecki’s 3rd symphony for that particular scene is “curious”. I’d go so far as to say is bizarre or even in poor taste.
Excellent blog post. Thank you!
Fair point – Thanks!
Der Brian,
Do you happen to know what orchestra plays Lacrimona from Mozart’s Requiem during the funeral scene?
I cannot find any reference to it.
Thank you
Andreas