David Lynch’s television classic Twin Peaks is returning, so it’s a great time to take a look at the score and the synths and sounds behind it.
In this set of videos, Reverb.com’s Justin DeLay takes a look at the music of Twin Peaks, looking at the composition and synthesizer arrangement of Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks Main Theme.
Along the way, he talks about some of the synths used in the soundtrack, including the Yamaha DX-7, the Roland D-50 and the MKS-70.
In the second part, DeLay takes a look at the synths of Laura Palmer’s Theme:
Composer Angelo Badalamenti is returning for the new Twin Peaks season. Here’s a new NPR interview with Badalamenti about his work on the series:
Here’s Badalamenti, explaining the process of working with Lynch to create the music for Twin Peaks:
DeLay has put together a Live Pack of sounds inspired by Twin Peaks, which is available via Reverb.com.
Priceless.
The third vid with Badalamenti in it was astonishing stuff. Just beautiful and inspiring.
A dumb show that went south a few episodes into it.
Awesome critique TimS. Looking forward to your next post.
You seem to have quite a expansive knowledge of David Lynch productions.
Wow. Angelo Badalamenti is very talented, and David Lynch is brilliant.
As someone who binge watched the series (I was 7 when it came on TV), the soundtrack was one of my least favorite aspects.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good stuff. I just think that in the era of binge watch, It sounds dated that they rely so much on the recurring “Laura’s theme” motif.
I’m sure it was awesome hearing that theme only once a week in 1991. But spend an entire Saturday afternoon binge watching 6 episodes of the series and you’ll be sick of it, too.
Hopefully they build on the motif, but add a little more variety for the new season.
And hopefully I’m not crucified for sharing my opinion.
I won’t crucify you for your opinion. But I will call you out for not paying attention, because the score is *supposed* to repeat- it’s part of the soap opera motif of the show. It is like complaining about the dialogue mix in Fire Walk With Me- you’re missing the artistic intent.
I will also say that this show wasn’t made for millennial style “binge watching” and is amazing if you sit, relax, actually pay attention to, and think about, what you’re watching.
Did you actually watch the new show, and LISTEN? The 1st new episode alone is a masterclass in scoring (music that serves the image, not show off music to serve a composers ego) and sound design. Sometimes simple works- if you’re actually paying attention!
I haven’t seen the new episodes yet because I want to rewatch the old ones and also wait until they’re all available so I can binge watch.
But I read in one of the reviews that Laura’s theme only played once in the first 4 hours.
If you binge watch / Wikipedia watch twin peaks, you are not really going to “get it”. Why do you think Lynch is releasing them week by week? Duh
Angelo I would Walk With you
Watched the new episodes last night and was blown away. The world of Twin Peaks captures my imagination unlike an other TV show, and the soundtrack is a big part of that. So glad to see Badalamenti working with Lynch again.
Not so much a comment on the score but on the sound design for the show – ive been truly loving it. it takes me back to the days of “real” industrial music a la Throbbing Gristle, test dept., etc., Stuff that has a real sense of foreboding and dread. Watched episode 3 of the new season last night, the segment with the Purple room, the sound design in that segment had my hair standing on end. Loved every minute of it.
To echo what some others said, I recently discovered and binge-watched this show (the first two seasons) and although I found the soundtrack excellent (especially considering the times), it’s obvious it wasn’t done with binge-watching in mind (the concept pretty much didn’t exist back then). It seems that they were rotating the same four short tracks and using them on everything, and it gets old –really– fast. I also found myself with the word, “Diane…” stuck in my head for a few days. So, is it safe to assume that Diane is just a fictional assistant that never really got to hear those tapes? 😉