Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen

I was delighted to be asked to work on this unique documentary for BBC One, made as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022. With no interviews or talking heads, but instead featuring exclusive access to a real treasure trove of previously unseen film material from the Queen’s private collection, the film tells the story of Elizabeth from earliest childhood to her coronation, through her own eyes and in her own words.

Early on I was sent a selection of unedited video footage from the royal archive and was blown away with the power of the images. They showed a very different side of Elizabeth from the formal Queen we’ve come to know from 3pm speeches on Christmas day. The films were all silent of course, and they felt like a love-letter to a bygone era, to the 20th century, to a more innocent time.

I knew that the music would set the tone for the whole film, more so than in most documentaries since there were so few elements making up the film: the Queen’s voice, re-purposed as narration, the silent archive footage, the occasional piece of newsreel… and the score. So the most important thing was to strike the right mood. The film showed important historic figures and events, but it was also a very human and intimate portrait of an individual life. I wanted to the score to have a coherent sound, while it also had to navigate a real range of emotions; love, humour, nostalgia, tragedy, grandeur, intimacy and warmth.

I started writing pieces inspired by the footage, which is a way I often like to work, improvising at the piano along to unedited rushes. All of these first tracks ended up in the film, so the mood and many of the key themes were established that way. Later, as the film started to take shape, Simon Finch (director) and Mark Hammill (editor) sent me sections to write to, or else they would sometimes just describe what was happening in the film (if the sequence was not ready to share with me).

The budget and timescale of the project didn’t allow for a full orchestra record, but I made a virtue of necessity recording some wonderful soloists on violin, cello, French horn and trumpet. This created the warmth and intimacy I was looking for, and for the more expansive moments, we layered the players up and I was able to create a really big sound.

I am really happy with the music I wrote for Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen. Perhaps because the timescale was so constrained (I had very little time with a locked cut at the end of the edit) it feels very much like one piece of work throughout and I’m most proud of the score’s simultaneous coherence and variety. I had a lot of lovely messages after the broadcast commenting on the score, which is always gratifying and it was nice to get a rare name-check in The Times review (“Excellent work by the composer David Schweitzer”).

A few special thanks… I had invaluable assistance from a young composer called Gus Nicholson, who helped me out on this and other projects over the last few months. I called on the help of some fantastic musicians who played on the soundtrack: Nick Holland (cellos and bass), Flora Curzon (violins), Meredith Moore (horns) and Graeme Flowers (trumpet).

I’ve been very touched by how many people have contacted me via email or social media to express their enjoyment of the music for this film… thank you so much for the kind words.  I’m talking to the BBC about releasing a soundtrack and this is in progress, but in the meantime you can listen to some of the pieces on this site. (* See below!)

UPDATE: Like many others I was so sad to learn of the Queen’s passing on 8th September 2022. Working on this film really made me feel a special connection to Elizabeth II.

UPDATE 2: Happy to report the soundtrack is now available on Spotify and all the other digital music services.

UPDATE 3(!!): Delighted to announce that this score has been nominated for ‘Best Television Soundtrack’ at the 2023 Ivor Novello Awards (result to be announced on 18th May).