I grew up attending the Scottish Highland Games up in the Pacific Northwestern region of rural Washington State. Every summer, my friends and I happily wandered the fields watching folk dancers spin and kilted men compete in the caber toss, all to the incessant drone of hundreds of pipers and drummers marching. The spirit of the Highland Games spoke to the Scottish blood in my veins.
Scottish folk music became an integral component of my upbringing, and I brought this passion to the scoring of Outlander, showrunner Ronald D. Moore’s worldwide hit series based on Diana Gabaldon’s iconic novels. Claire, Jamie, and all the other unforgettable characters, along with their bagpipe-and-vocal infused score, have been an integral part of my life for the last dozen years. The series will soon come to a close, with the end of its eighth and final season. Thankfully, I was thrilled to join its epic new spin-off prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
This new show tells the dual stories of four protagonists, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, Jamie’s parents, and Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp, Claire’s parents. Set predominantly in Scotland in the early years of the eighteenth century, the narrative allowed me to return to my musical roots of Outlander’s early seasons.
Writing music for Blood of my Blood felt like coming home. I reassembled the same band of folk musicians who have been a part of the original series from its inception, including Eric Rigler on bagpipes and pennywhistles, Paul Cartwright on fiddle, Bruce Carver on bodhrán frame drum, and Malachai Komanoff Bandy on viola da gamba. In addition to their artistry, I am grateful to have had the resources from the production studio to once again record a live orchestra every episode to bring romantic melodies and rich symphonic colors to the score.
MAIN TITLE THEME
Most Outlander fans would not argue that the most significant music I created for the show was my adaptation of the traditional Scottish folk ballad, “The Skye Boat Song.” Used for the series’ main title sequence, the track featured an intimate performance by my wife Raya Yarbrough, who recorded it when she was eight months pregnant with our first child. (Every time I hear it, I am reminded Raya was straining to project those notes while our daughter Sonatine pressed against her diaphragm!)
The song has since been re-recorded and re-interpreted every subsequent season, generated tens of millions of spins on streaming platforms, and brought down the house when performed live in my Themes and Variations Tour this year, and its lyrics have even been tattooed on fans’ bodies! “Skye Boat” cast a huge shadow over my career. Trying to write a main title theme for Blood of My Blood that could live alongside it was a daunting challenge.
In my early discussions with showrunners Maril Davis and Matthew B. Roberts, we were drawn to the idea of generating an instrumental theme song for this new show. What better way to avoid comparisons to “Skye Boat” than to not have any vocals at all? My earliest drafts focused on thundering snare drums and bombastic Great Highland pipes. However, we quickly realized that these ideas were too far removed from Outlander, failing to capture the romance of our show. It was missing something—we needed a vocal.
By the time we scrapped the instrumental theme song idea, I was already collaborating with Julie Fowlis on the score. Julie is one of my favorite Scottish singers and songwriters, having became a prominent fixture on the Celtic music scene over the last twenty years. Whether singing in English or Scottish Gaelic, her voice soars with a haunting, yet inviting tone. Every time I hear her sing, I feel immediately whisked away to the misty hills of the highlands. Julie was the ideal partner to bring in for the main title theme song.
I was grateful to Julie for diving into our collaboration with enthusiasm and passion. I reworked my instrumental theme song concept into an arrangement that created space for a vocal, translating what was once a bagpipe melody to fit her impressive vocal range.
Julie and I crafted a heartfelt lyric, set in both Scottish Gaelic and English, evoking imagery and themes from the story.
Blood of my Blood – For My Love That’s Lost
Music by Bear McCreary
Lyrics by Julie Fowlis and Bear McCreary
Long the way, o’er the bridge I crossed
For my love, for my love that’s lost
By the brae, in the verdant moss
Where I watch, where I wait, for my love that’s lost
Hì a bho, hoireann eile ò
Hì a bho, fair a leo fair a lè
Hì a bho, hoireann eile ò
‘S tu mo rùn, ‘s tu mo ghràdh
agus m’ eudail ò
Though Julie and I never met in person, we collaborated closely. “This this was a really positive experience,” Julie recalled recently. “The pandemic reinforced for me the idea that musicians can indeed be creative and artistically responsive, even when working remotely and across oceans. I enjoyed the challenge of the titles sequence in particular – one of my favourite things in music is collaboration, the exchange of ideas and expression, and developing new musical ideas with another musician. Writing for TV, to a very particular brief, can sometimes feel like solving a musical puzzle. I love it!”
Julie’s ethereal vocal imbued my music with beauty, angst, longing romance, and cultural identity. Combined with the searingly intense bagpipe, fiddle and drum parts I had written for my talented cadre of musicians, the track finally sprang to life! After months of experimentation, suddenly, the main title theme for Blood of my Blood felt fully formed, amplifying the series’ clashes of highland clans, sweeping love stories, and epic historical scope. With any luck, “For My Love That’s Lost” may yet earn a place alongside “The Skye Boat Song” in the hearts of Outlander fans.
THE ELLEN AND BRIAN THEME
From the jump, I knew Blood of My Blood would require two memorable love themes, each of which must rival the memorability and appeal of the Jamie and Claire Theme that I composed for Outlander. This was no small task.
As the future parents of Jamie Fraser, I wanted to infuse the musical theme for Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser with Scottish colors. I began by writing a melody that would be equally effective emanating from bagpipes, pennywhistle, or fiddle.
Julie recently told me that Irish and Scottish instruments “evoke such an emotional response when played well. They can move you to feel such joy and equally open up deep sadness within. The pipes in both Scotland and Ireland belong to a family of instruments with common ancestors and history. I view the pipes like the Gaelic language and music Ireland and Scotland share. They are like sisters: individual identities but with a shared lineage.”
While the theme most frequently occurs instrumentally, I was thrilled to collaborate again with Julie who contributed her unique vocals for significant narrative moments. Tasked with helping us create an appropriate lyric for the tune, Julie suggested we adapt a passage from “An t-Earrach,” from the Scottish poet and scholar Ewen MacLachlan (Gaelic: Eòghann MacLachlainn, 1775–1822).
Scottish Gaelic:
Thàinig earrach oirnn mun cuairt,
Théid am fuachd fo fhuadach cian
Théid air imrich thar a’ chuain
Geamhradh buaireasach nan sian
English Translation:
Spring has come around us,
The cold will disappear under a distant cloud
They will migrate across the ocean
The tumultuous winter of the elements
Julie’s vocals, combined with the authentic text, helped cement this melody in my mind. I hope this melody helps the audience feel deep longing and visualize highland vistas.
THE JULIA AND HENRY THEME
For Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp, I needed a melody every bit as effective as Brian and Ellen’s, but one steeped in distinctly British musical traditions. I hoped to create the feeling they come from a more modern, less rural culture. I began their theme with an arpeggiated cello ostinato that would not feel out of place in a composition by Bach, performed masterfully by my friend and longtime musical collaborator Eric Byers, of the famed Calder Quartet.
For their melody, I focused on the solo clarinet. This instrument is a nod to the Frank Theme I composed for Outlander. Inspired by the woodwind writing of iconic English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Williams was an especially appropriate influence for Julia and Henry because he was at the peak of his writing during the Great War, the era in which their love story begins. The warm, gentle tones of the clarinet set it apart from the bright, Scottish accents of the pennywhistle or bagpipes.
My hope is that this theme belies a burning desire beneath a restrained, hesitant, gentle orchestration.
NEW AND RETURNING THEMES
These two character themes are the most significant to the narrative, woven throughout the score. However, other musical threads comprise the show’s musical tapestry.
The MacKenzie Theme underscores the conflict between Colum and Dougal. For this, I did not need to write a new theme. In fact, I originally composed a theme for these two characters more than a decade ago, when I scored Outlander’s second episode, “Castle Leoch.”
Originally orchestrated for Malachai Bandy’s austere and regal viola da gamba, this simple theme was always presented slowly and ominously, matching the deliberate performances of the two older men. Here, I injected more heat into the melody, asking Malachai to perform with more urgency befitting the tension between these two young men. I developed the melody into more expressive variations throughout the season, as their conflict here has even more screen time and nuance than it did in Outlander.
Another theme from the early days of Outlander made a return in Blood of my Blood. Lord Lovat appeared in the original show’s second season episode, “The Fox’s Lair.” There, I wrote a subtly menacing theme featuring scratchy fiddle double stops and hammered dulcimers. The notes of the melody are less important than its performance. I asked Paul Cartwright to move his bow slowly, with added pressure to give a bit of “scratch tone” to the performance. The resultant sound is brittle and rusty, matching the appearance of the older Lovat.
More than a decade later, with Lovat now a more youthful and developed character in Blood of My Blood, I used the opportunity to expand his theme into more memorable variations. I asked Paul to remove some of the brittle edge in the theme, to play it a bit more expressively, so the younger Lovat would feel stronger and more confident, ultimately more dangerous, than his older counterpart.
I also composed plenty of new material for supporting characters and narrative concepts. For example, the Grant Clan proves to be a formidable force in the story. I supported them with an energetic theme introduced with a bouncy dulcimer ostinato, in the first episode.
The Grant Theme makes a more developed appearance in the second episode, when I added to this groove a jaunty melody inspired by Scottish reels.
This piercing ostinato and deceptively upbeat fiddle solo herald the screen entrance of Laird Isaac Grant, played with fierce intensity by Scottish actor Brian McCardie. When I was growing up, the film Rob Roy was profoundly influential on me, a film in which McCardie made a heart-wrenchingly impression as the young Alasdair. Nearly three decades later, I recognized that same steely blue gaze in his eyes as Isaac confronts Henry. Alas, McCardie tragically passed away during the production of Blood of My Blood, limiting the number of episodes he would appear in. I was grateful that the showrunners chose to preserve his final work, and chose not to recast him. Though his scenes were few, I was honored to contribute a sense of gravitas and Scottish tradition to his performance.
For Henry’s intense scenes on the battlefield in the second episode, “S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss),” I integrated modern cinematic colors, notably analog and digital synthesizers, to create an alien cloud of dissonant musical drones and pulses. Obviously, these instruments are not appropriate for the time period, but they helped these scenes stand apart from the rest of the score. I have always employed a subtle presence of synthesizer ambiences in Outlander, usually reserved for moments of terror or psychological despair. Bringing these colors to the forefront for the audience as they are transported to the muddy trenches of the Great War helped ground the war scenes in their own narrative reality.
SUN RISING ON THE FLAGSTONE
Blood of My Blood provided opportunities to craft memorable cues that did not need any later thematic significance. In these scenes, I preferred to let an individual moment have its own unique musical identity, to craft a unique piece of music to make a strong impression.
The series opens on such a moment, when the audiences witnesses funeral rites being prepared for Red Jacob MacKenzie, accompanied by the haunting vocals of Julie Fowlis. She performs an original lyric for a tune we co-wrote together, “Sun Rising on the Flagstone.”
Sun Rising on the Flagstone
Music by Bear McCreary
Lyrics by Julie Fowlis
Scottish Gaelic:
Grian ’s I ’g èirigh air an leacainn
’S gathan a’ briseadh tro na spèuran
Ach hat hu ghaoil a-neisd nad shìneadh
’S truagh nach cluinn thu rithist a chaoidh i
Hì a bhò, hòrò eile
Hog a bhò, hì rì iù
Hì a bhò, hòrò eile
’S truagh nach cluinn thu rithist a chaoidh i
English Translation:
The sun rising on the flagstone
And the rays of lights bursting through the skies
But you, my love, are now stretched out
Sadly, you won’t ever again hear her song
The montage creates a striking tone that pulls audiences into the world of Blood of My Blood. This original material is not as yet a thematically significant passage, but perhaps one day in the future, I will have the chance to return and develop it further. Until then, I am quite fond of it as a singular musical experience.
A NEW ERA OF OUTLANDER
I am thrilled to say that my original score for Outlander: Blood of my Blood is available on all streaming platforms. I am curious to see what tracks resonate the most with fans. What are your favorites?
This score would not have been possible without the dedicated support from my team at Sparks & Shadows. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my score manager Brian Claeys, who also contributed additional music alongside Bailey Gordon, Omer Ben-Zvi, Alex Cote, and Etienne Monsaingeon. The score was mixed beautifully by Ryan Sanchez, with engineering support from Ben Sedano, and music editorial provided by Michael Baber. I’d like to thank my tireless assistant Marisa Gunzenhauser, our scoring coordinator Reed Trachy, album coordinators Liam McIntyre and Gabrielle Fastman, our album mastering engineer Reuben Cohen, tech assistants Pierre-André Rigoll, Dayna Ambrosio, Peter Kohrman, and Jude Shih. Shout out to our music consultants Edward Trybek, Henri Wilkinson, and Jonathan Beard and our orchestrators Benjamin Hoff, Jamie Thierman, and Sean Barrett, as well as our copyist Andrew Harris and assistant copyist Matthew Carlton.
Thank you to the talented musicians and singers who brought this score to life, including Paul Cartwright, Bruce Carver, Eric Byers, Eric Rigler, and Malachai Bandy, as well as our conductors Péter Illényi, Zoltán Pad, Ábel Tompa, and Dániel Erik Fülöp,and our orchestra contractor Balint Sapszon.
I am grateful to showrunners Maril Davis, Matthew B. Roberts, and all the writers, producers, cast, and crew for crafting this inspiring narrative. Special thanks are also due to Elicia Bessette, and Tony Scudellari at Sony, as well as everyone at Starz, especially Karen Bailey. The score could not have been completed without help from my reps Laura Engel, Richard Kraft, Jonathan Clark. The soundtrack album was possible thanks to contributions from my manager and executive album producer Joe Augustine, and Jaime Cyr at Sony Pictures Music Group. I especially must thank Ronald D. Moore for inviting me into the world of Outlander, and the visionary Diana Gabaldon, for dreaming up these unforgettable characters and this vibrant universe to begin with.
As the end of the original Outlander approached, I feared that I might never again write a score that would allow me to indulge in my passion for Scottish music, with sweeping romantic melodies, Gaelic vocals, jaunty fiddles, and of course, bagpipes. Instead, to my delight, my Outlander experience extends with Blood of My Blood, and will continue into the future with the show’s newly announced second season.
“Outlander has become such a phenomenon,” Julie Fowlis observed. “And I was excited to be a part of this prequel story.” I couldn’t agree more. I am grateful to all the fans out there for joining us, and I look forward to the next steps in our Outlander journey.
-Bear
