Thanks to Collider for bringing this aural peek into what will be the score of Doctor Strange to my attention. This track comes to us by way of an ‘audio only’ YouTube video and is titled, ‘The Master of the Mystic,’ noting that it appears in the end credits. Marvel has brought Oscar Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino into its cinematic scoring fold, possibly hoping to add more ambient touches to the overall mood of the film.
The piece itself holds a kind of meandering, other-worldly choice of instruments, ranging from sitar and electric guitar to the bright, light chop of the harpsichord. The blend of the arrangement works well, and though I thought the intro was a little lackluster, the rest of the actual piece is really great stuff. Can’t wait to hear the rest of what’s to come, put to some incredible visuals.
While I typically love the action in Marvel films on the big screen, and the themes on their small screen Netflix offerings, sometimes I struggle to find the cohesion in the task of the composers they’ve recruited and the overall blend of the sequences. The music can get lost in the background of explosions, sound effects, and even in mixing. A lot of factors make for an outstanding score. I’m incredibly optimistic in the potential backdrop this latest composer will bring, given his extensive career in what I would consider mood-driven, esoteric composition.
Giacchino, who’s also providing the score for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has composed for television series such as Lost, Fringe, and Alias, to only name a few, and for more recent films, Star Trek Beyond, and Jurassic World. I know that at a certain point during ‘Lost’s’ run, I had to take a break from the series because the score and the story together kept making me consistently cry. ‘Fringe’s’ music had me constantly on edge. But that’s the kind of effect I want music to have (either television or film) on me, without being drowned into the background by the action. Since Giacchino scored Star Trek: Into Darkness, which also starred Benedict Cumberbatch, it’ll be fun to hear whether there are any throwbacks to that broader sense of orchestral size that the big screen tends to encourage composers to take.
Alternate World 