The Duke of Burgundy

The Duke of Burgundy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2014 film of the same name directed by Peter Strickland. Featuring the original music composed by the alternative pop duo Cat's Eyes, in their maiden film scoring debut, the album was released by RAF Records and Caroline Music Distribution on 16 February 2015, four days before the film's release. The music received critical acclaim and has been assessed as one of the best film scores of 2015. Development The band members Faris Badwan and Rachel Zeffira, received the script for The Duke of Burgundy and wrote music for individual characters and themes. Once filming began, Peter Strickland sent references of the music he demanded, where he curated selections of classical compositions, giallo music, Mozart requiem, John Barry's James Bond Theme amongst others; the first selection was "I Knew It Was Over" from the band's self-titled debut studio album. Peter Strickland wanted the music to have humour, as well as "mournful, elegiac tone but not depressing" like Joy Division's album, and also provides an "autumnal feel, like things are coming to an end and going into hibernation" citing William Lawes' composition. In some cases, the edit was set to temp music intending them to emulate the same atmosphere with these pieces. They cited an example of the Mozart requiem being used as a temp music for the film and discussed on the type he wanted to replace it. Hence, Zeffira came up writing and arranging a full choral requiem, that evening before the deadline. While Zeffira wanted piano themes for the characters, Badwan wanted melancholic themes through oboe, harpsichord and flute; He further referred to the soundtracks of John Barry and Hungarian lullabies for the musical textures. Badwan admitted it as a "quite humorous film" as "there are a lot of little jokes. Creatively, the number one thing we appreciate is sensitivity, whether that's in editing, making music or painting or whatever. You really pick up on it when people are attuned to emotions, and how to convey emotion." The music wanted to act like an undercurrent, citing Brokeback Mountain (2005) where the score was minimalistic to become a part of the landscape.Both of them had different taste in the sonic palette, while the former wanted electronic music, the latter went for acoustic to bring "the human feeling".