Anyone who listens to a lot of film music knows there are many sub-genres... types of scores with their own character and rules.
Because filmmakers so often turn to Jane Austen for subject matter, there's even a sort of Jane Austen category of score, featuring scores of classical elegance, dark undercurrents and rustic backgrounds.
Dario Marianelli's score for Pride and Prejudice is solidly in that tradition.
Marianelli is an Italian composer who works mostly in Great Britain. He has been scoring films since 1994, and before Pride and Prejudice, many may have heard his work on the Terry Gilliam fantasy The Brothers Grimm.
Most "Austen scores" have three elements: A taste of the English countryside, music of classical elegance and a dramatic sequence. Marianelli touches on all three.
The composer says he had the sound of Beethoven's early piano sonatas in his ear when he came to write some of the character scenes for the movie. The result? A sound that combines a somewhat modern piano tune with a chamber orchestra in a classical context.
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