Dear Mr Arnold,

Thank you and congratulations for your amazing work. I am referring mainly to the soundtracks from Sherlock; I’ve been a fan of your music since Series 1. Your compositions enhance the show to be what it is now. I’m not quite familiar with the process of film scoring, but I have some questions regarding the soundtracks from Sherlock Series 3 and 4. I don’t expect you to reply with answers, but for these questions to reach you at all is enough for me at this point. Hope you hear me out, at least. 1. Three out of four characters that Sian Brooke plays in series 4 share a motif (Lady in the bus in The Six Thatchers, Therapist in The Lying Detective, and Eurus in The Final Problem). I like to call it the “Eurus” leitmotif, because The Final Problem is laden with it. I am very curious as to why Lady in Red does not have this motif in the music, though all other characters played by "Eurus" has it. Instead, the "Eurus" motif is played during Culverton's "No Charges" video in The Lying Detective (in the track called "No Charges"), when there is no Eurus on screen and no one is explicitly implying of her input. If I am incorrect about this, I would love to be informed. 2. Some of the moments are not included in the official soundtrack list of S4. One of such occasions is in The Lying Detective, when Mycroft is talking to John on the phone while tracking Sherlock’s move. When Mycroft brings up the possibility that he has another sibling besides Sherlock, he hangs up the phone with John, and Lady Smallwood questions him about Sherrinford. This is the moment we hear the same motif from Magnussen in Series 3 (His Last Vow). In your track “Magnussen,” we hear this motif as Magnussen accesses his “memory archive,” or Appledore, which turns out to be physically nonexistent. I am wondering why this musical motif was used right at the moment that Mycroft talks about Sherrinford, and why this moment was not included in the official soundtrack. 3. I’ve also realised that the primary theme of “Redbeard” from His Last Vow is a transposition of the primary theme of “East Wind” from the same episode. I wonder what the connection is between these two. Same goes for a later snippet of “Redbeard” when Sherlock, still in surgery after getting shot, is climbing up the stairs in his Mind Palace as his pulse returns. This musical moment comes back both in “Too Heavy” and “Anyone” from The Lying Detective, and I’m wondering if that’s intentional. These are only a few select questions from a big pile, but I’ll try to keep it together. Again, I’m not demanding an answer from you, but I simply want to let you know that these are some questions that I have had since the show has aired, as a fan of your music and the show, and as a musicologist. Thank you very much for your time if you had reached thus far. Looking forward to hearing more of your work. Sincerely,

Sara Hong.

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