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Stories   >   Bear McCreary's 'The Woman of Balnain' from 'Outlander' makes COLLIDER: 7 soundtracks that make fantasy a reality

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Bear McCreary's 'The Woman of Balnain' from 'Outlander' makes COLLIDER: 7 soundtracks that make fantasy a reality

Posted: January 12, 2022

In 2020 Sony Music released; OUTLANDER: SEASON 5 (ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK) with music by EMMY® and BAFTA award-winning composer BEAR MCCREARY.  The album features music written by McCreary for the fifth season of the critically acclaimed Starz series.

Of the soundtrack, composer BEAR MCCREARY says, "From the bagpipes of Scotland, the baroque harpsichords of Paris, the blistering Afro-Cuban percussion of Jamaica, to the twangy banjos of the Appalachian Mountains, my score for Outlander has continuously evolved to keep up with Claire and Jamie as they traverse both time and space. For the series' fifth season, I was presented with a new kind of challenge. For the first time, the geography and century would remain consistent with the previous season.  As a result, there was no longer a need to introduce new instruments and styles. Inspired by the drama, it was time to dig deeper into the music that had already been established."

In Season 5 of Outlander, Jamie Fraser must fight to protect those he loves, as well as the home he has established alongside his wife, Claire Fraser, their family, and the settlers of Fraser's Ridge.  This new mantle of responsibility sees him pitted against his godfather, Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser, a leader of North Carolina's Regulator Rebellion.  Claire Fraser is determined to keep her family safe by any means necessary, whatever the consequences… while Brianna Fraser and Roger MacKenzie struggle to find their respective places in this brave new world.

The "Outlander" television series, executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, Matthew B. Roberts, Toni Graphia, Andy Harries and Jim Kohlberg, is inspired by Diana Gabaldon's Outlander book series that has sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide, with all the books having graced the New York Times best-sellers list. The "Outlander" television series has become a worldwide success with audiences, spanning the genres of history, science fiction, romance and adventure in one amazing tale.

"Outlander" is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Left Bank Pictures and Story Mining & Supply Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.

COLLIDER's EMMA AYARS writes…..The soundtrack of Outlander is in a class of its own, with an exceptional score and songs written and performed in Scottish Gaelic. The score is composed by Bear McCreary, an Emmy award-winning composer best known for his work on Battlestar Galactica and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Outlander takes place across different times and worlds, requiring a dynamic soundtrack to properly convey each new twist and turn. Season 3, which takes place in the American colonies, features fifes and drums, a necessary feature of the revolutionary army at its inception: meanwhile, Season 1 would be incomplete without the sweeping drum and bagpipe number, “Charge of the Highland Cattle." The score manages to be epic while also capturing the intimate love story at its center in its more emotional tunes.

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