Canadian composer Trevor Morris garnered a reputation—and a 2007 Emmy—for his scores to such sprawling historical TV dramas as The Tudors and The Borgias. (“More by accident than design,” notes Morris.) He also says that the first season of The Vikings “was a tough score to ‘crack the code’ for. It never quite clicked the way I wanted it to. In Season Two, I felt I made the music I always wanted to make for Vikings, which was visceral and 90% non-orchestral. I found a soloist, Einar Selvik [of the musical/spiritual collective Wardruna], who lives in Norway. A true Viking who became my secret weapon. I used more ethnic instruments of the Norse area. The blend finally clicked for me.” Morris still leans heavily on electronica, noting that he isn't a musicologist, "and I don’t think it would do service to the show to be so ‘correct’ with the instrumentation. I use [historical music] as more of a loose inspiration. The art and culture all inform my choices, but then I free-associate and try to make something that’s never been heard before.”
