There is a lot that one can write about the music composed especially for Doctor Who. But there is also a lot to be written about the already-existing music that the show has included at times. For instance, Anton Bruckner is a composer whose music I love. Yet somehow I was not consciously aware of the fact that part of his Symphony No.7 (which I can immediately recognize) is incorporated into Part 5 of “The Mind Robber,” an episode from the era of the Second Doctor, portrayed by Patrick Troughton. Have a listen to just after the 14 minute mark:
Music by Bela Bartok also featured in episodes featuring the Second Doctor. When I was hoping to lead a short term study abroad trip to Transylvania, I thought perhaps we could include his birthplace and other things about him in some way. He more than anyone else is known as Hungary’s national composer. And yet his birthplace is today located in Romania, in the region of Banat which is sometimes considered part of Transylvania and sometimes considered separately. Either way, the subject of creation of modern nation states and how they relate to past empires, regions, and emerging ethnic identities is a fascinating topic to explore in this region in particular, given the role that research by Bartok and Kodaly into different groups’ folk tunes played in that emerging national consciousness. Hopefully one day the Doctor will visit Transylvania in an episode. As a result of writing this, and double checking my memory that the Doctor never did so, I discovered that there is an audiobook that I need to listen to, Son of the Dragon. Dracula, of course, sort of appears in the classic episode The Chase.
Everything I do seems to be connected, even things that I never expected to be…
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