Fernando Velázquez on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

As we approach 250 years since Jane Austen's birth, Antonia Quirke speaks to composers who've scored original music for Austen adaptations about their musical choices and also about the music Austen encountered. For the last episode in the series, Antonia is joined by Fernando Velázquez who composed the soundtrack for the 2016 movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's a film which roughly follows the plot of Austen's novel about the Bennet sisters, with a heavy dash of post-apocalyptic and zombie fiction thrown in. Fernando and Antonia discuss the range of music in the movie's score - from minuets, to swashbuckling zombie battles, to climactic romantic scenes. Fernando reveals how he borrowed motifs from classical composers, how he hid clues in the score, and how important it was for him that his musicians played in the right style. He explains why he conducted the Basque National Orchestra when capturing the soundtrack and reflects with Antonia on why the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy have endured and are appreciated by audiences in Spain.

With short extracts from:
Fernando Velázquez, An Illustrated History of England 1700-1800, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Varese Sarabande
Fernando Velázquez, Menuet Des Mortes Vivants, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Verese Sarabande
Fernando Velázquez, Zombies Are Fed / Attack / Showdown, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Verese Sarabande
Fernando Velázquez, After The Explosion, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Verese Sarabande

Presented by Antonia Quirke
Produced by Camellia Sinclair
Mixed by Ilse Lademann