The use of music was a key component in the fictional Buffyverse established by the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Many actors of both series are professional singers/musicians, including Anthony Head, James Marsters, Amber Benson, Andy Hallett and Christian Kane.
Themes
Buffy theme The "Buffy theme" is the music played alongside the opening credits of the show. The theme itself has no lyrics; it begins with several notes played by an organ, a signifier for horror in movie culture from the 1930s onwards, followed by upbeat rock music. The theme was played by the pop punk band Nerf Herder. In an interview the band explained how they came to produce the theme:
"[The Buffy production staff] had hired some famous theme song composer to come up with a theme and they didn't like the one he came up with so they were kind of on a low budget, and asked local bands to come up with theme song ideas." In the DVD commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth", Whedon explained that part of his decision to select Nerf Herder's theme was that Alyson Hannigan had made him listen to the band's music. Nerf Herder later recorded a second version of the theme which was used for the opening titles from season 3 on. In 1999, Nerf Herder lead singer Parry Gripp gave the background on the writing of the melody. The original melody was written before Whedon contacted the band asking them to submit a demo for a theme tune, and was not written specifically for the show:
"We did the theme song before the show was on the air. It was a song that had already been written, but we really didn't know where to take it. I had some ideas - it was originally going to have some kind of science fiction theme, which is weird, because we don't do songs like that. I remember having the title of 'Outer Space Rock' or something like that; that was a working thing".
Angel theme Darling Violetta is an alternative rock group that had performed two songs, "Cure" and "Blue Sun" in the Buffy episode "Faith, Hope & Trick." They cowrote the song with songwriter Holly Knight. The following year, Angel invited bands to submit demos for the theme music to the show. They asked bands to use "dark superhero ideas" and "Cello-rock". Darling Violetta and Knight watched key Angel-related episodes of Buffy such as "Passion", "Becoming, Part One" and "Becoming, Part Two" for inspiration. Eventually Whedon accepted their interpretation of an Angel theme as the most suitable for the show. The theme has a slower tempo than the Buffy theme, and heavier use of acoustic instruments such as cello and violin. In 2005, Holly Knight and the band composed an extended version of the Angel theme called "The Sanctuary Extended Remix", which featured on the soundtrack of the series Live Fast - Die Never. Joss Whedon and Alexis Denisof sing their own lyrics to the theme song in the DVD commentary to the episode "Spin the Bottle".
Score Many people have worked on the scoring of Buffy and Angel. Some of the main composers were:
Walter Murphy Walter Murphy was the main composer on the first season of Buffy.
Christophe Beck Christophe Beck was the main composer on Buffy during seasons 2-4. He composed two more episodes after that: "The Gift" and "Once More, with Feeling" (which was a contractual obligation, having signed on before he left the series). An album dedicated to his compositions for the show, entitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Score, was released on September 9, 2008 by Rounder Records. In early February 2018, La La Land Records released a limited edition 4CD set of scoring from the show including many of the suites from the two promotional score CDs as well as some new cues, and scoring by other composers and Carter Burwell's score to the film. Beck's music for the show includes:
"Close Your Eyes" plays during "Becoming". This song incorporates the "Buffy/Angel Love Theme" that is used significantly throughout seasons 2 and 3, and appears on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album. "Remembering Jenny" plays after the death of Jenny Calendar ("Passion"). This song also features backing vocals from Anthony Head, who played Rupert Giles on the show. "Slayer's Elegy" plays during the final assault of "The Wish". "Loneliness of Six" plays at the end of "Lovers Walk" as various heartbroken characters walk off in different directions. "Sacrifice" plays when Buffy sacrifices herself for her sister and for the world ("The Gift"). This appears on the soundtrack for "Once More, With Feeling" along with Beck's suites from "Restless" and "Hush". "I'm Game" plays at the end of the penultimate episode of Angel ("Power Play") as the group decides to launch a suicidal final assault against the Circle of the Black Thorn. "I'm Game" was the theme used throughout the series whenever there was a need for "heroic music", and debuted in the first episode ("City Of"), when Angel resolves to fight evil in Los Angeles.
Thomas Wanker Thomas Wanker was the main composer for the majority of the 5th and 6th seasons of Buffy. His work tended to be subtle, and was described by one reviewer as "unassuming mysterious underscore". In "Shadow" and "Into the Woods", some of his tragic melodies are used in musical montages shown as Buffy and Dawn cope with their mother's illness, and Riley's feelings of alienation from Buffy.
Robert J. Kral Robert J. Kral was the main composer for the series Angel, writing the music for 112 episodes for seasons 1 through 5. Initially hired by Christophe Beck for Season 1 with shared credit, Kral was employed by 20th Century Fox directly for Seasons 2 through 5. Kral worked for Beck on initial episodes, with Kral then writing most of the episodes for season one. Kral employed Zoran Boris and Douglas Romayne to write additional music for the final two seasons. The soundtrack Live Fast, Die Never mostly consists of his scores from throughout Angel. Fans were asked to nominate their favorite tracks and the resulting poll determined the bulk of the soundtrack released by Rounder, EMI and 20th Century Fox Television. Music scenes and themes composed by Kral for Angel include:
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