In 2010, John Murphy, composer of memorable film scores such as 28 Days Later, Kick-Ass, and Sunshine, stepped away from the film music world for an 8-year hiatus. The British film composer is a self-taught multi-instrumental musician who began in the 1980s, working notably with The Lotus Eaters, Thomas Lang, and Claudia Brücken. He then went on to collaborate numerous times with directors such as: Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie, Michael Mann, Matthew Vaughn, and Stephen Frears. John Murphy returned to the world of scoring to picture with Andrew Davies' non-musical adaptation of LES MISERABLES.

Screenwriter, Andrew Davies, would bring the Victor Hugo masterpiece to television in a six-part adaptation, premiering on BBC in 2018 and then on PBS in the USA on April 18, 2019.

Dominic West stars as fugitive Jean Valjean, with David Oyelowo as his pursuer Inspector Javert and Lily Collins as the luckless single mother Fantine. Love, death, and the struggle for social justice in early 19th-century France feature in this beautifully faithful retelling of one of the world’s most beloved stories.

In this episode of the Annotator, John Murphy shares how this adaptation of the book, not being a musical immediately affected the tone of his score. He vividly describes how he chose to approach several key themes and character moments from the series, how he he played cello for the very first time on this score, and how his composing process for this project made him feel like organizer and minimalist extraordinaire Marie Kondo.

ANNOTATED TRACKS / SEGMENTS

02:34- Tension

05:11 - Les Miserables

06:26 - Fantine's Descent

08:06 - Relentless

09:48 - The Morning After

11:34 - Javert on the Bridge

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack was released digitally May 3, 2019 by Lakeshare Records and can be purchased from Amazon.com and iTunes and streamed on Spotify and Apple Music.

MORE ABOUT THE COMPOSER

You can find out more about and hear more music by John Murphy at his official site http://www.johnmurphyofficial.com/ or follow him on Twitter @john__murphy

ABOUT THE ANNOTATOR

Produced by Christopher Coleman(@ccoleman) and you can Find more episodes at THEANNOTATOR.NET or you can subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher Radio or wherever you find quality podcasts.

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