TV Documentary Music - Festivals

Festivals – Original Score by UK TV Composer Stuart Fox

Festivals (Gwyliau) is a three-part documentary series for Welsh broadcaster S4C, presented by adventurer Lowri Morgan. The series explores powerful life rituals around the world — from birth in China, to marriage in Morocco, and death in Mexico — through the lens of cultural celebration.

I composed the full original score for the series, treating it like any documentary soundtrack, but with an added mission: to respectfully nod towards local musical traditions without falling into cliché or full-blown cultural appropriation.

✍️ Scoring Approach

• China (Birth):
  For this episode, I bought and learned to play both the Bawu (a Chinese free-reed flute) and a Dizi (a transverse membrane flute). I also picked up an erhu — though I quickly discovered that without serious technique, it mostly sounded like “a bag of terrorised cats.” Instead, I found that my electric cello, gently processed, evoked a wonderfully ambiguous East Asian feel without being over-specific.
• Morocco (Marriage):
  To capture the spirit of Berber wedding traditions, I fitted a synthetic reed to my clarinet and practiced a looser embouchure to mimic the airy tone of a duduk. In searching for the right tonal colour, I also experimented with more unconventional techniques that felt rooted but not derivative. An acoustic bass guitar, struck with a stick, produced a deep, percussive resonance that gave certain scenes a grounded, earthy rhythm — an unexpected but welcome discovery.
• Mexico (Death):
  Naturally, I reached for guitars — layered nylon and steel string — to bring warmth and rhythm to the Day of the Dead material. I wanted to use real trumpets, but ultimately went with well-programmed modeled samples. Still, much of the Mexico score, and indeed the entire series, features live recordings, not just a virtual orchestra with one real track on top.

This was a rare opportunity to create something with real texture — recording unusual instruments, learning techniques from other traditions, and building a score that complemented the stories rather than imitating the culture. One of my most hands-on and rewarding documentary soundtracks to date.