How ‘Queen Charlotte’ Musical Minds Alex Patsavas and Kris Bowers Leaned Into Black Artists for the Spin-Off Soundtrack
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Like “Bridgerton,” “Queen Charlotte features orchestral covers of modern music, but an original composition by Kris Bowers kicks off the soundtrack during Charlotte and George’s wedding in the first episode.
Bowers co-wrote “A Feeling I’ve Never Been” with Tayla Parx based on the work of Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Creole composer who was one of the first men of color to become known for his compositions, and who also happened to be an excellent fencer (and the subject of the 2022 film “Chevalier.”)
“We looked at a few pieces that inspired us and then came up with this seed of an idea that we then built into this larger piece, and so because we approached it with much more of a songwriting way rather than score, that’s why it belongs with some of those other [soundtrack] songs, but it was part of a larger idea that Alex had to really lean on Black artists of that time period that maybe Charlotte and [her court were] also aware of.”
Bowers created main five character themes for India Amarteifio’s Charlotte (beginning in the scene where she spies on her brother arranging her wedding), George, the couple together, Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) and Brimsley (Sam Clemmett) and Reynolds (Freddie Dennis). He even distinguished between India’s Charlotte and Golda Rosheuvel’s Charlotte who we first met in “Bridgerton” with a forte piano for the young queen and a traditional one for the older version.
“The first thing I responded to was in reading the script, seeing how intimate the story was and how much we were focusing on this story between Charlotte and George and really focusing on Charlotte’s perspective. The first instinct for me was to make the score much more intimate as well so less instrumentation, a closer sound with the recording process, so all of the instruments feel like they’re a bit closer to us than the ‘Bridgerton’ sound,” he said. “And also wanting to figure out a distinction between moments where we’re with young Charlotte and the queen that we know from ‘Bridgerton.’ When we do go into the present-day ‘Bridgerton’ space, the orchestra goes back to that larger sound. That’s the biggest distinction between the two.”
Taking place mostly in the Georgian Era — with a few flash forwards to Regency Era Charlotte and George — Netflix music supervisor Alex Patsavas and Bowers, who has scored all “Bridgerton” universe shows — sampled over 30 source cues from classical composers like Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, George Frideric Handel and six tracks from Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
“It seemed important that we imbued the episodes with the flavor of music of the time,” Patsavas added. “The makeup of the source combination of Chevalier de Saint-Georges of Haydn, Mozart, Handel and orchestral versions of Dolly Parton’s song that Whitney Houston made famous, Beyoncé, Alicia, really speak to Charlotte and reflect specifically on her character and her life.”
Marking the 20th anniversary since its release, “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys features during Lady Danbury’s ball in an orchestral cover of 70+ instruments, all played by women of color. The recorded version of the song was used in playback during the filming of that scene. Beyoncé also features not once, not twice, but three times, including a rendition of “Halo” inspired lyrically by Phyllis Wheatley. Patsavas landed the cover of SZA’s “Nobody Gets Me” by Caleb Chan and Brian Chan last.
“It was important to honor sort of our Bridgerton sonic template but also to make sure that Queen Charlotte was given her own sound. We talked about how we might define that sound, and it seemed very natural to start to think about looking into songs written, performed [and] made famous by iconic women of color,” Patsavas told TheWrap.
Bowers appreciated that Shonda Rhimes approached King George as a human rather than the mad king. Bowers mirrored the music to match each character’s headspace.
“It’s really representing these internal worlds to these characters. That’s the thing I loved about the show so much is how much is going on underneath the surface for both Charlotte and George and especially with George, we’ve known him in history is like the Mad King, but I think Shonda’s approach to it in terms of like the awareness of mental health and the writing of it makes us feel so empathetic with him and in his head in terms of like, how we feel about the portrayal of this experience,” Bowers said. “Musically, I wanted to make sure that that was also the case, just about George’s episodes, in particular, for example, that the music is very much from his perspective, there’s like this whole thing that’s happening in these elements that make it feel a little on edge and kind of like, falling apart essentially.”
“Similarly with Charlotte, she’s putting on this really strong face, but of course, we can wonder and think about how much she’s holding underneath this experience and holding space for this relationship and this responsibility at the same time,” Bowers added. “Whatever she might still feel of her younger self and her own emotions in this process, I [wanted to be] aware of the internal worlds and try to represent that as much as possible with the score.”
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Here Are All the Songs in ‘Queen Charlotte’
