{"id":17533,"date":"2022-07-13T17:25:27","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=168899"},"modified":"2022-07-13T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:54:08","slug":"who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Who wrote the music for \u2018The Undeclared War\u2019 \u2013 and what\u2019s the beautiful Russian song?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Michael Beek\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 13 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Set in a not-too-distant, indeed uncomfortably close, future The Undeclared War<\/em> looks at the dangers of cyber warfare as operatives at the UK\u2019s GCHQ battle an anonymous threat to the country\u2019s IT infrastructure. With key systems compromised, the country is all but brought to its knees, until a smart young intern finds something in the hackers\u2019 code that saves the day. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the beginning, as she becomes embroiled in a dangerous game with players at the highest levels of power. Is it a game? Or is it war?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Writer\/director Peter Kosminsky perhaps had his work cut out to make cyber code-breaking interesting to watch, but he does so with some nifty visual devices \u2013 namely going inside young Saara\u2019s head as she follows clues and unlocks doors. He\u2019s also helped by fantastic casting (including newcomer Hannah Khalique Brown as Saara, and heavyweights Simon Pegg, Adrian Lester and Mark Rylance) and a very good original score by Debbie Wiseman.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul><li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/listen\/podcast\/music-to-my-ears-composer-debbie-wiseman\/"\">Music to my Ears: Composer Debbie Wiseman<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/to-olivia-our-guide-to-debbie-wisemans-score-to-the-new-roald-dahl-biopic\/"\">To Olivia: our guide to Debbie Wiseman\u2019s score to the new Roald Dahl biopic<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/interview-debbie-wiseman\/"\">An interview with Debbie Wiseman<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><p>Wiseman and Kosminsky have enjoyed a long collaboration, which has included the brilliant <em>Wolf Hall<\/em>, <em>The Promise<\/em>, <em>The State<\/em> and <em>Warriors<\/em> and they always create engrossing drama for the viewer and the listener.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Arrival\" in=\"\" vitez=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i2Jdw8oZomA?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>For <em>The Undeclared War<\/em> Debbie Wiseman assembled her own puzzle of a score. Her music features a 30-strong National Symphony Orchestra and Wiseman herself on piano, plus she uses accents of unusual synthetic sounds here and there. It\u2019s a heady mix which beautifully underscores the serious and rather sterile world of GCHQ and the unravelling emotional drama. Wiseman\u2019s piano plays a big part in that emotion, but the composer also brings in another element to the show\u2019s score which makes it really stand out\u2026 a Russian folk song.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Under\" a=\"\" willow=\"\" russian=\"\" folk=\"\" song=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iKa6ooXY5BQ?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h2>What\u2019s the song that features in <em>The Undeclared War?<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Here and there, and increasingly so throughout the series, you\u2019ll hear the Russian folk song \u2018Under a Willow\u2019, which was adapted and arranged by the composer for the score. Peter Kosminsky selected the tune, which in its original form is deeply haunting with a heart of fire. Wiseman worked with London-based singers Evelyn Bates and Violet Verigo to bring the tune to life, and it gives <em>The Undeclared War<\/em> something of a brooding, beautiful and amibiguous energy. The singers also provide wordless vocal accompaniment to other sections of the score, which otherwise features strings, percussion and harp.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Undeclared War is on Channel 4 on Thursday nights at 9pm, or you can watch the whole series on 4OD.<\/em><\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul><li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/best-television-theme-tunes\/"\">The best TV theme tunes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-film-score-and-film-soundtrack\/"\">What is the difference between a film score and film soundtrack?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><p>\u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michael Beek Published: Wednesday, 13 July 2022 at 12:00 am Set in a not-too-distant, indeed uncomfortably close, future The Undeclared War looks at the dangers of cyber warfare as operatives at the UK\u2019s GCHQ battle an anonymous threat to the country\u2019s IT infrastructure. With key systems compromised, the country is all but brought to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17534,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song.jpg",2000,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song-300x90.jpg",300,90,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song-768x230.jpg",768,230,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song-1024x307.jpg",800,240,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song-1536x461.jpg",1536,461,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-music-for-the-undeclared-war-and-whats-the-beautiful-russian-song.jpg",2000,600,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Beek Published: Wednesday, 13 July 2022 at 12:00 am Set in a not-too-distant, indeed uncomfortably close, future The Undeclared War looks at the dangers of cyber warfare as operatives at the UK\u2019s GCHQ battle an anonymous threat to the country\u2019s IT infrastructure. With key systems compromised, the country is all but brought to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}