{"id":80159,"date":"2020-07-19T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-19T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=80159"},"modified":"2020-07-17T08:27:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T12:27:15","slug":"vale-decem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/07\/vale-decem.html","title":{"rendered":"Vale Decem, Keep Your Faith: Choral Music of Doctor Who"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As I\u2019ve been writing about the Doctor Who episode\u00a0The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos<\/em> I\u2019ve been paying close attention to elements that casual viewers might miss, at least at a conscious level. The lighting (or lack thereof) in the episode seems particularly striking to me. The music is as well, even when considered within the context of a season\u2019s worth of distinctive music provided by composer Segun Akinola, whose approach to composition is very different from the melodic-symphonic character of many recent seasons, and yet very different at the same time from the ambient electronic music that characterized the show early in its history. The season finale is not the only episode the music for which features human voices that season, but it is the only one to feature voices singing chorally in four parts. The liner notes<\/a> are available online. The composer writes, \u201cThe conclusion of the series, a moving story\u00a0of faith, doubt, loss and hope offered the\u00a0chance to return to the sound of The Woman\u00a0Who Fell to Earth, whilst also encompassing\u00a0many of the musical journeys we\u2019ve been on\u00a0up to this point.\u201d The singing enters<\/a> as Delph begins his creative work. It won\u2019t be the last time.<\/p>\n

\"\"The show\u2019s music has been interesting and extremely creative throughout its history, from its theme in its original form to the most recent episodes. Choral singing of a traditional hymn appeared famously in the episode Gridlock. What I hadn\u2019t really paid attention to before now were the lyrics for the piece with the title Vale Decem (\u201cFarewell Ten\u201d) with Latin choral singing bidding the Tenth Doctor goodbye. It is in essence sung to the Doctor by the Ood. The music, I have no doubt, made a powerful impression on anyone watching the episode. It is the lyrics that I ignored. The lyrics alas are plundered from other works by a lyricist who wasn\u2019t proficient in Latin and took bits that were useful from other pieces, not always producing a result that is grammatical. There is an analysis (and proposed grammatically correct alternative!) provided by Dr. Penelope Goodman of the University of Leeds on her blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For those who are interested in digging into it musically, there are arrangements of it on Musescore<\/a>. You can listen to it here:<\/p>\n