Streamed Shakespeare‘s production of Henry IV went all out and boldly took Zoom theatre where it had never gone before: to space! There were lavish 3D-animated backgrounds for the actors, a vast array of spaceships, a huge battle sequence, pre-produced video between the live scenes... And, of course, a brilliant cast of players bringing this epic story of power and rebellion to life, each in their living room in front of a Zoom session. Beating a global pandemic has never been so much fun.
The soundtrack to the twin plays, in turn, had to be as big as possible, and of course there are expectations for this kind of thing ever since a certain Mr. John Williams wrote quite possibly the most famous orchestral score in movie history. Being reduced to my home studio and without access to a real orchestra, I used digital libraries with some additional recordings. For this suite, I elaborated and rearranged my favourite themes from the two plays.

1 Main Title - Roll the opening credits! Including Prince Hal's Theme.

2 Hotspur's Theme - Henry "Hotspur" Percy: rebel warrior, headstrong, capable and impatient.

3 Sir John Falstaff's Heist - Falstaff, along with the Prince and a few criminal elements, goes to rob travellers in the middle of the night (read: valuable space freighters in the middle of, well, space), but is double-crossed and flies immediately. His theme reflects both sides of the character: He's bumbling and pompous, but also self-aware, witty and by no means stupid.

4 The Boar's Head Jig - The Boars Head on Eastcheap was an actual tavern in Shakespeare‘s day, and he let Falstaff, the Prince and their friends squander their heist‘s proceedings there. Of course, one of the constants of history is that there will always be such wretched hives of scum, villainy and alcoholic beverages - then, now, and in all futures worth imagining.

5 Lady Percy – Hotspur‘s wife tries to get him to at least tell her where he's riding off to, in one of the most amazing dialogues in all of Shakespeare, laden with dark premonitions, playfulness, sorrow and love.

6 March and Fugue of Falstaff's Recruits - When forced to go to war, Falstaff presses a rag-tag band of invalids and prisoners as his soldiers. Needless to say, things do not go gloriously.

7 The Conspirators - The enemies of the king are numerous and varied. The first sections of this music depict the Archbishop of York conspiring against Henry, the last part is Glendower's Theme, the Welsh magician and folk hero (whom Shakespeare depicted as all words and no action).

8 Dafydd Y Garreg Wen and Wales Interlude - Lady Mortimer, daughter of Glendower, sings this traditional Welsh song in a meeting of the rebels. Well, Shakespeare didn't bother specifying, he just put "Welsh song", but luckily Rhiannon Rees, our Lady Mortimer and a native Welsh-speaker herself, knew this beautiful melody. It is followed here by the music introducing Wales in the play.

9 Battle Over Shrewsbury - It's the climactic battle of Part 1! With plenty of space dogfights, laser beams, explosions and duels. As Falstaff put it: There's honour for you.

10 The Ascension of Henry V - An important plotline of Part 2 concerns Prince Hal regaining his father‘s trust as Henry IV feels his death approaching. This music was written for their final reconciliation, developing Hal‘s theme into a stately march as he is crowned King Henry V.