Listen & tracks

4 of 40 tracks have a preview · 20 works · 57:46

1 Deluge (Opening Credits) Cezary Skubiszewski 1:38
2 Beautiful Name Cezary Skubiszewski 3:29
3 Detailed Examination Cezary Skubiszewski 2:38
4 Wicklow Lament Cezary Skubiszewski 1:35
5 Love at War Cezary Skubiszewski 5:33
6 Marty Cezary Skubiszewski 1:58
7 Laudate Dominum Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 4:22
8 Dancing in the Pool Cezary Skubiszewski 2:31
9 The Battle Cezary Skubiszewski 2:35
10 I Don't Want To Be Married To You Cezary Skubiszewski 2:00
11 'Meditation' from Thaïs Jules Massenet 5:05
12 Intimacy Cezary Skubiszewski 2:06
13 The Angel Cezary Skubiszewski 1:31
14 Maggie in Scotland Cezary Skubiszewski 2:19
15 The Last Kiss Cezary Skubiszewski 1:11
16 Café Reggae Cezary Skubiszewski 3:11
17 Flirting Cezary Skubiszewski 2:13
18 'Music, Spread Thy Voice Around' from Solomon George Frideric Handel 3:44
19 Wicklow Lament (End Credits) Cezary Skubiszewski 4:36
20 Violins Are Burning (bonus track) Cezary Skubiszewski 3:31

Winner of Best Soundtrack at the 2003 Screen Music Awards.

Also nominated for the 2003 ARIA Awards (Best Soundtrack to a Television miniseries) and the 2003 AFI Awards (Open Craft Award in Television for Original Music).

After the Deluge is the soundtrack to the Network 10 mini-series featuring David Wenham, Hugo Weaving, Samuel Johnson, Aden Young, Rachel Griffiths and Ray Barrett. Skubiszewski – known for La Spagnola, Bootmen and Two Hands – scores it for full orchestra and choir. The music moves from haunting violin solos to 40s jazz, Irish airs and the original pop of the on-screen band built around one of the main characters.

The story weaves together four ordinary men at a critical moment in their family history. The patriarch, Cliff, has Alzheimer’s and has begun to live in his past. As his three estranged sons – Alex, Martin and Toby – reluctantly gather to find institutional care for him, Cliff wrestles with the demons of that past. Buried memories of the Second World War break into the mundane reality of his daily care.

Much of the drama is told from Cliff’s point of view, in a febrile world where only the audience can piece together his life and the extent of his sacrifice. Against that background run the modern-day stories of his sons, each struggling with the roles they have played as brothers, sons and men.

When the war of words quietens, it is music that offers respite from old resentments, and music that finally reconciles the brothers to the loss of a man they could never be good enough for. For that reason the score is unusually important and prominent across this four-hour drama – a rarity in music for television.

As with other Move soundtrack CDs, the release includes a comprehensive 16-page booklet: a full synopsis, notes on how each track relates to the visuals, production stills, and shots from the orchestral sessions in Melbourne.

In the artist’s words

I didn't want After the Deluge to be just like a normal rock 'n' roll sort of track, because you see that a lot and it just ends up like a bunch of backing tracks … So I had to create a very specific sound for the film and I think it's quite understated but definitely there.

— Cezary Skubiszewski

It is very unusual in the film-making process to start considering your composer prior to actually writing the script – but such was my experience with After the Deluge. Somewhere in my rattled head I knew, if I was to write a piece with a concert violinist at its heart, a piece where sublime music was the only real connection – then I needed someone pretty brilliant to drag me through it. I felt this especially given I know only three major chords on the guitar and can only play two of them.

There seemed to be only one real choice. Cezary’s music you notice. His music always moves you. Somewhere in his European background he has reached the essence of romanticism. Somewhere in his Polish upbringing, he has learned to temper this with a haunting melancholic sensibility. And somewhere in the man himself he has kept abreast of a thousand different contemporary trends which keep his scores alive and relevant.

I began stalking Cezary some years back before I’d written much more than a script outline. I followed the man into book shops, feigned interest in Polish history, and shouted him so many coffees he now threatens renal failure. And somehow I managed to convince him it was in his best interest to compose not only a sublime score but also lend his name to various appalling pop tunes, locate and record several major classical pieces, come up with a forties jazz theme and invent an ancient and much loved Irish Air.

In all he had to create some sixty different musical cues. That he has achieved this and so much more is not only a miracle but remains for me one of the most enjoyable creative collaborations of my career. I hope this CD conveys some of the pleasure of that experience.

— Andrew Knight

Reviews

Richly romantic … beautiful lyrical themes … meltingly lovely … a splendid soundtrack album. ★★★★½

— Jim Murphy, The Age - Green Guide

a standalone soundtrack that comes across as perfectly cohesive despite its multifaceted elements … Cezary Skubiszewski was inspired … his finest soundtrack … right up there with the best cinema soundtracks I've heard this year.

— Brad Green, Urban Cinefile

Artists

Cezary Skubiszewski

piano, organ

Cezary Skubiszewski is a Polish-born Australian screen composer whose film and television scores move freely between orchestra, jazz and popular styles, and have earned him major national awards.

George Frideric Handel

composer

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was a German-born Baroque composer who settled in London and became a naturalised British subject. He is celebrated for his operas, English oratorios, organ concertos and orchestral works.

Jules Massenet

composer

Jules Massenet wrote more than thirty operas and a lasting body of songs. On these discs his lyric gift appears in the hypnotic mélodies Être aimé and Amoureuse, and in the long-breathed Méditation from Thaïs for violin.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He wrote over 600 works, many of them pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music, and remains among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Daryl McKenzie

composer

Daryl McKenzie (born 1962) is an Australian musical director, composer, arranger and trombonist. He has led the Daryl McKenzie Jazz Orchestra since 1992 and is widely known for film and television orchestration.

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

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$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

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Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra · orchestra · all except tracks 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15–17 and 20
Daryl McKenzie · conductor · tracks 1–3, 5, 9, 13, 14 and 19
Brett Kelly · conductor · tracks 7, 11 and 18
David Ashton-Smith · choir director · tracks 7 and 18
Cathryn Ashton-Smith · soprano · track 7
Marcelle Nalette · violin · tracks 2, 11 and 14
Nigel MacLean · violin · tracks 1, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13 and 20
Rudolf Osadnik · violin · track 5
Shane O'Mara · guitar · tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, 15 and 16
Mario Lattuada · guitar · tracks 2 and 5
Claude Corranza · guitar · track 17
Charlie Rooke · guitar · track 20
John Barrett · indian flute · track 5
Peter O'Reily · cello · tracks 10 and 15
Vicky Philipson · oboe · tracks 2 and 19
Stephen Hadley · bass · tracks 3, 6, 8 and 16
Joe Creighton · bass guitar · track 20
Robert Clarke · percussion · tracks 1, 5, 9, 14 and 19
Jan Skubiszewski · percussion · tracks 1 and 6
Peter Luscombe · drums · track 16
John Watson · drums · track 20
Cezary Skubiszewski · piano, organ

Technical credits

Recording Engineer Robin Gray
Mixing Engineer Robin Gray
Mastering Engineer Ross Cockle
Venue Allan Eaton Studio
Thanks to Film Finance Corporation Australia
Film Victoria
Granada Productions
Optus Television