Marvel Explores a Rich Musical Universe With Scores for ‘Loki,’ ‘Moon Knight’ and ‘What If…?’
variety.comJon Burlingame editorAs the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded into television, its musical reach has also grown, embracing diversity both in terms of its composers and the music they make.English composer Natalie Holt (pictured above) brought unexpected sonorities to “Loki”; Cairo-based Hesham Nazih added specific Egyptian sounds to “Moon Knight”; and American composer Laura Karpman employed a traditional orchestra and choir on the animated “What If…?”“Loki is sort of a likable baddie,” says Holt, “a grand, Machiavellian, Shakespearean character, so I wanted some kind of gravitas, classical weight, to his theme.”Yet, in last summer’s six-part series, the Norse god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) is also playing with time, which suggested more unusual sounds: the wailing of a theremin and its equally eerie French cousin, the ondes Martenot. “I’d been listening to [Lithuanian theremin virtuoso] Clara Rockmore and [BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer] Delia Derbyshire,” Holt explains. “The sound of the theremin has stayed with me and I’ve always wanted to use it somewhere.
I just experimented and the character of it really seemed to suit the score.”She added an electronically manipulated tick-tock sound for the Time Variance Authority and a pair of Norwegian folk instruments (Hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa) for the mysterious Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) and her link to Loki’s mother Frigga.
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