Classical Music in "Inspector Morse" and "Rumpole of the Bailey"
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Please check out David Bishop, The Complete Inspector Morse, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd., 2002, which is a comprehensive book on Inspector Morse, including the results of my music-mystery detecting.
David Bishop, The Complete Inspector Morse, 2nd rev. ed. Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd., 2006, which is a comprehensive book on Inspector Morse, including the results of my music-mystery detecting.
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Whereas John Mortimer, a lover of classical music, including opera, created Horace Rumpole, depicted by Leo McKern, who does not share his musical tastes, Colin Dexter, author of the "Inspector Morse" books, created a detective who is a dedicated listener to "real music."
Inspector Morse's taste in music is fairly traditional but wide-ranging, with the music dramas of Richard Wagner being particular favorites, as they are of his creator, Dexter. When the videos were made, starring John Thaw as Morse and Kevin Whately as Lewis, Barrington Pheloung incorporated many pieces of classical music, especially those by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. However, most of these pieces are not identified in the credits at the end.
After careful listening by musical experts and ourselves to the videos, reading reference books, searching through web sites, and asking people connected with the "Inspector Morse" series, we have managed to identify all but one piece, which is cited below. The other mystery pieces originally listed on this site are now identified, with credit being given to those who have assisted me in my endeavours.
We found the five CDs of the Music from Inspector Morse, composed and/or arranged by Barrington Pheloung, to be most enjoyable and helpful in our research.
Would anyone who can furnish me with the name of the piece and composer (or at least a clue or two) please email me at the addresse cited below. If you are able to identify this piece, please let us know if you would grant permission to post on this page your name, along with your message, and any response to it. In any case, we will post any positive identification of the piece and interesting comments or clues, either with the contributor's name, if allowed, or anonymously.
If anyone wishes to ask a question about a piece that is used, please feel free to do so. We should be glad to share our knowledge as we have already done with our friends and members of the Inspector Morse Society and the Arts and Entertainment Message Board.
If anyone wants to let us link this page to another and vice versa, please email me with the particulars and permission.
helen.roulston@murraystate.edu
Series I
"The Dead of Jericho" Video copyrighted 1987. First shown in Great Britain January 6, 1987. First shown on Mystery! February 4, 11, 1988. Based on the book by the same name.
1. Identified by Mr. Peter O'Malley, a music expert who works at "Fish Fine Music" on George Street in Sydney, Australia, who passed along this information to Mr. Andrew Macbeth, a Morse enthusiast also living in Sydney, Australia. Morse is in his office, listening to the last part of either the first or third section of the second, Andante, movement of Mozart’s Symphony in D major, number 35, K 385 ("Haffner") (1782), as Lewis comes in about the case with evidence. Morse tells Lewis that they will all go off to Canal Reach later on. As they are leaving, Lewis goes back and turns off the music.
"Service of All the Dead" Video copyrighted 1987. First shown in Great Britain January 20, 1987. First shown on Mystery! March 3, 10, 1988. Based on the book by same name.
2. After Morse tells the minister he wants to talk about the minister's brother, the minister goes back into the church, then disappears, which Lewis notes. While the first part of a much later musical version (in the musical idiom similar to that of the Romantic minimalists) of the Requiem Agnus Dei is being sung by a mixture of male and female voices, Ruth and Morse talk, as the minister jumps off the church roof and dies. The same Requiem Agnus Dei briefly continues as Morse and Lewis climb up the stairs to the roof of the church. Lewis admires the view, saying he can practically see Scotland, while Morse reveals he is afraid of heights. Nevertheless, Lewis leans over and excitedly calls Morse to come and look. The reluctant Morse does so, leans over the edge, sees a dead body (Paul Morris, the organist), and faints. The next part of the same Agnus Dei vocal music is playing as Brenda Josephs is seen dead in a boat. Morse and Lewis crawl down into the crypt (while the end of the same Requiem Agnus Dei is heard). Lewis sees something--the son of Paul Morris, with his blond hair peeking out from the coke, as the conclusion to the same Agnus Dei is heard. The word "dona," which means "give," is sung over and over like a chant.
REQUIEM ANGUS DEI
Agnus Dei,--------------------------------Lamb of God,
qui tollis peccata mundi,-----------------------------------------------who taketh away the sins of the world,
dona eis requiem,---------------------------Grant them rest,
requiem sempiternam.----------------------rest everlasting.
"The Settling of the Sun" Video copyrighted 1988. First shown in Great Britain March 15, 1988. First shown on Mystery! May 3, 10, 1990. Based on characters created by Dexter.
3. Identified by me. Near the end, Morse is in church with Mrs. Warbut, talking about the Japanese crucifixion of Dr. Robson during World War II. Jehan-Ariste Alain’s "De Jules LeMaitre,” L'integrale de l'oeuvre d'orgue, volume 2, number 19 (1935), is playing while they discuss her hatred of the Japanese and how her fear of them had made her barren. French composer and organist Jehan-Ariste Alain (1911 - 1940), brother of the famous organist Marie-Claire Alain, was tragically killed in action during World War II on June 20, 1940. While defending Saumur, the twenty-nine-year-old cavalryman Alain fell, struck by a bullet in his heart, leaving behind a wife and three children
Series IV
"The Infernal Serpent" Video copyrighted 1990. First shown in Great Britain January 3, 1990. First shown on Mystery! May 16, 25, 1991. Based on characters created by Dexter.
4. Identified by Mr. Richard Allen of East Grimsted, Sussex. “Le Jardin suspendu” [“The Suspended Garden”] for Organ, AWV 63, written in 1934 by French composer and organist Jehan-Ariste Alain. Near the end, Mrs. Copley Barnes plays a soft organ piece before she tries to commit suicide, by jumping from the loft.
According to Mr. Allen, he first heard this rarely played work, now one of his favorites, about thirty years ago when he used to attend lunchtime organ recitals in various churches in the City of London.
The title of the piece is especially apt because it connects with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, in this case the child molester, Copley-Barnes, who had wrecked such havoc in his own household. Blanche’s playing of this piece right before she attempts suicide, reveals her own torment over her having allowed the abuse to go on all those years. After having discovered that the murder of Sir Julian Dear was the gardener, who had been trying to kill Copley-Barnes for having molested his daughter, Morse quotes a passage to Lewis from John Milton’s Paradise Lost about the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
"Deceived by Flight" Video copyrighted 1989. First shown in Great Britain January 18, 1989. First shown on Mystery! June 1, June 8, 1991. Based on an idea by Dexter.
5. Identified by Carlton-ITV Duty Officer. In the second part, Morse and Lewis are in Morse's home listening to Robert Schumann's Quartet for Strings in A major, opus 41, number 3, iii, Adagio Molto (1842) as they discuss phone calls and Lewis' cricket playing before Morse leaves a message on Kate's answering machine.
Series XII
"The Wench Is Dead" Video copyrighted 1999. First shown on Mystery! April 1, 8, 1999. Based on the book by the same name.
6. Identified by me. About half way through, Morse and Kershaw discuss the case in Morse's house, as Franz Joseph Haydn's Quartet for Strings, number 53 in G major, opus 64, number 4, Tost, iii, Adagio Cantabile Sostenuto (1790) is playing in the background.
