@narnian78 To be fair, not all of the Walden film score sounds "modern" — obviously the music from the opening scenes, set during the Blitz, is not at all medieval-sounding, but a lot of the rest of it is, during the scenes that take place within Narnia.

I have an eternal soft spot for the BBC series' soundtrack, particularly the opening and closing theme ("Aslan's Theme"), mainly because it instantly sends me back to being a 7-year-old hearing it on TV for the first time and thinking "Oh wow... this music just IS Narnia!!" (The, er, lack of convincing realism and the bore obvious cheapness of the production itself — even by 1980s standards — were somewhat less enchanting, but as I've said before, it was the only live-action screen version of Narnia we had then and it was so faithful to the books that I was perfectly willing to forgive it its trespasses, even when I couldn't stop laughing. )

But as for what Greta Gerwig's production should do... I really don't know. I agree a medieval vibe is good for Narnia, but hopefully whoever does the composing will still manage to make it sound unique and atmospheric and not just like generic fantasy film music sampled off the internet. One of my all-time favourite film scores is Howard Shore's music for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I reckon was awesome all the way through; Narnia is a different fantasy world with a different atmosphere, so I wouldn't want the music to sound like a LOTR imitation, but something of that sheer quality and evocativeness would be brilliant. 

Posted by: @courtenay

@narnian78 To be fair, not all of the Walden film score sounds "modern" — obviously the music from the opening scenes, set during the Blitz, is not at all medieval-sounding, but a lot of the rest of it is, during the scenes that take place within Narnia. 

I would have to agree, the Walden film score does not all sound "modern", actually, I am somewhat curious as to what does sound "modern" about it apart from perhaps some of the songs on the credits?  I think the parts of the Walden soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams which take place within Narnia are very suited to Narnia, although I like you, @courtenay have a soft spot for the BBC soundtrack.  Your sentiments echo my feelings on the soundtrack including Howard Shore's LotR soundtrack comments.  I do hope the soundtrack has no resemblance to the cartoon LWW though, but otherwise I hope that it is done tastefully and taps into both the magical and the medieval feel of Narnia.

I was just thinking, too — since Netflix apparently intends to film the whole series of seven books, it would be good if they not only have the same composer throughout the series, but hopefully whoever it is will write a really appropriate and memorable theme tune that gets used at least at the start of each individual film. Not necessarily an identical version of it each time, but just so that there's a definite signature tune that we all come to associate with this adaptation of Narnia. (I'm thinking of those film franchises that have an absolutely iconic theme tune that everyone recognises at once, even if they're not fans of that series — like, of course, the themes from Star Wars or Indiana Jones, both composed by John Williams.)

About the use of modern-style pop songs over the closing credits, I seem to recall the Walden LWW did that and it was yet another thing I really didn't like about that movie. I'd rather have something like what the LOTR films did, again — for example, Enya singing "May It Be" over the closing credits of The Fellowship of the Ring. That made use of a well-known singer, but one whose style is a bit "different" and very appropriate for a fantasy epic. I'm sure there are other performers out there who would be good for a closing song for each Narnia film.

Posted by: @pete

I would have to agree, the Walden film score does not all sound "modern", actually, I am somewhat curious as to what does sound "modern" about it apart from perhaps some of the songs on the credits? 

I think something similar to classical music would work if it would be like a symphony. Folk music might be okay if it was played on antique instruments. It would be best if the music would sound like a fairy tale or something to accompany Shakespeare’s plays. Perhaps something similar to Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet would create a magical fairy tale atmosphere. Probably either the Renaissance or medieval style music would work since it would be appropriate for royalty such as kings and queens. That would make the films or series as appealing as the books.  🙂

I do think that the new Narnia films should have some medieval vibe to it as well as magical to it: strings, harps, even an angelic chorus. I don't think you can do like epic music with big male vocals, drums, and trumpets, since it wouldn't be fitting for Narnia. I mean, that could work for The Horse And His Boy and The Last Battle, but it's probably best to keep it a medieval vibe with a hint of magic for the most part.