Composer Dominik Scherrer (www.dominikscherrer.com) once again partnered with director Aisling Walsh, collaborating on the soundtrack for PBS Masterpiece’s Miss Austen. The series details the profound bond between Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, blending both biographical truth and fictional exploration. The lush period score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, keeping in alignment with Masterpiece’s vision for authenticity and elegance.
Miss Austen is based on Gill Hornby’s best-selling novel and stars Rose Leslie, Patsy Ferran and Synnøve Karlsen. The four-part series premiered on PBS Masterpiece on May 4th. Here, Scherrer shares details about his work.
Dominik, how did you get involved in the project? Was it your relationship with the director?
"I had worked with Miss Austen’s director, Aisling Walsh, on a couple of films before, on An Inspector Calls, and Elizabeth is Missing. I jumped at the opportunity to work with her again. She always wants to lead straight to the heart of the story, and the score is one of her tools to achieve that. I was lucky enough to come on board before they started shooting, so I had the opportunity to develop themes based purely on the script. My early sketches could then also be used as temp music during the shoot. The score would then evolve gradually during the edit.”
What were the musical needs for Miss Austen?
“This story has a mystery element and an emotional core. The mystery is that Cassandra Austen burned half the letters she exchanged with her sister, the celebrated author Jane Austen. We need to find out why, and the score has to gently build up on the mystery. The emotional heart of Miss Austen is the relationship between the two sisters, with its many facets: the tragic moments, the sisterly love and also tension. But of course, in this story, the mystery and the emotion are intrinsically connected.”
Tell us about the recording process and the gear you use.
“The string quartets, the solos, and the harp we recorded at my studio with Schoeps microphones, through DAV Decca Broadhurst Gardens preamps, and Merging Technologies Horus converters, recording into Pro Tools Ultimate. The string ensembles were engineered by Tony Wood at Abbey Road Studio 2, the famous Beatles studio, using Schoeps and Neumann microphones, through Neve 1081R remote preamps and a Neve 88RS desk, through Prism converters into Pro Tools.”
Can you describe a few of the tracks?
“The first track on the soundtrack album, ‘Cassandra Austen,’ is a compilation of the opening scene, where Cassandra’s theme is stated, her journey to Isabella’s, and then the scene where she is desperately looking for the letters. This cue is leaning more towards the mystery, but also incorporates the sisters’ theme, which will then take on many transformations throughout the series.
“The last track, which is also the last cue in the series, ‘Farewell, Sister,’ takes up the same theme again, but this time in a more emotional way. Now we know much more about the relationship between Cassandra and Jane. The piece opens with a simple statement of sisterly love, with piano, classical guitar and solo cello, and gradually expands into a lush epic finale. The theme, that we know by now well enough, now also incorporates the theme of Cassie’s love for Tom, her first big and unforgotten love. In fact, it is now revealed that those themes were always very closely related.”