Ever since its first airing in 2016, Netflix’s The Crown has been a point of discussion for people all over the world, from actress Claire Foy’s widely appraised (yet contentious) portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II to Helena Bonham Carter’s award-winning depiction of Princess Margaret. And to top it all off, the budding actress Emma Corrin made a fairly controversial characterization of Princess Diana! However, regardless of The Crown’s hotly debated representations of the Royal Family, it can be established without a doubt that the original soundtrack, although featuring different composers across seasons, has never failed to astound its audience.
One such piece is “Voices” from Season 4 of The Crown, released in 2020 and written by British composer Martin Phipps. “Voices” is one of those compositions that cannot only be described by words, but also has to be audibly relished by one to experience its unabridged magnificence and deep meaning. As I now begin to analyze this unparalleled composition in full detail, I suggest that you listen to the song in advance to truly understand what I will explain.
Although not explicitly stated, the song is understood to be Princess Diana’s theme, as it plays whenever she is in a state of emotional distress. The song starts off with a chorus of, quite unsurprisingly, voices, a motif that repeats until the very end of the song. However, after each line, there is a haunting echo which, in my opinion, symbolizes Diana yearning for help and locked in loneliness, but unable to reach out because of the cold and impassive Royal Family surrounding her. There are also minute threads of music that play simultaneously with the voices or in between them. The first of which is a tune sounding like a mixture of voice and organ put together, giving off an ominous but angelic feeling that continues for the rest of the song. Right after, the drums starts to play, gradually intensifying as the climax of the song nears. This crescendo emphasizes the storm building inside Diana, which boils to a complete breakdown as she endures the immense pain and pressure that the Royal Family inflicts upon her. She knows she cannot show a single glimpse of her inner reality, and must perpetuate the image of her “fairytale” life to the outside world.
Once the climax hits, the once stable chorus of voices that has been recurrent since the start of the song now turns into a colossal wave of heartache, despair, and madness as Diana, thrust into the jaws of the Royal Family at the naïve age of eighteen, struggles to cope with all the mental strain and suffering put onto her from such a young age, eventually resulting in a gruesome eating disorder: bulimia. One instance of the song’s use occurs when a newly engaged Diana experiences extreme loneliness in Buckingham Palace when her future husband, Prince Charles, doesn’t answer a single one of her calls while away on a six-week long trip to Australia. Diana begins to practice ballet after she hears the news that Charles has had a unique bracelet specially made for Camilla Parker-Bowles, his supposedly “ex”-girlfriend, with both of their initials carved on it.
Upon finding out, an enraged Diana immediately calls the queen to call off the wedding, only to be “fobbed off” by the queen’s secretary. Not knowing what else to do, Diana continues to practice ballet as a way to cool herself off. Not so long after she begins to dance, the climax of “Voices” starts to play in the background as her ballet transforms into a hysterical cry for help, screaming with agony but no one to come lift her up to escape from the mental torture she is forced to bear.
After the climax, a prolonged melody of strings is played until the very end, depicting the rest of Diana’s life, from being innocent “Shy Di” to the subtle yet fierce “People’s Princess.” Her impact lives on after her tragic and untimely passing in 1997 which leaves the entire world in tears and shock. The song ends with the chorus of haunting voices again, leaving behind a sense of something unfinished, something waiting to be uncovered from the hidden, and something that lives on and will never stop doing so until eternity.
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