One difficulty in appreciating the music for Jane Eyre, however, is that no comprehensive release of the film's score has ever been possible. Listeners have been forced for many decades to make peace with Williams' album arrangements, which are mostly the only source that has survived. As such, with a significant amount of music from the film itself not available outside of context for so long, only the composer's standard rearrangements and additions for the commensurate LP record of the era could drive a review of the music. But Williams did take care with that presentation to offer a representation of the score's five themes and various instrumental concentrations. He utilized 60 players in the English orchestra, with brass applied sparingly and electric and regular harpsichord added for the genre. The piano is a vital component of the score because of its performances by Jane on screen. Woodwinds and strings are the heart of the tale, with bassoon playing an important role for moments of intrigue and fear. Fascinatingly, Williams did experiment with some synthetic manipulation in the work, using an echoing harp-like effect as the score's representation of eeriness. During the attack sequence in "Thwarted Wedding," echoplexed strings invade the soundscape, but most of this tool's use is confined to background ambient contributions to plucked or keyboarded performances. These techniques do sound a bit odd outside of context, but given the creepiness of what seems like a ghost story for part of the plot, the use is appropriate, even if such use continues to haunt Rochester all the way through the "Reunion" cue. Of the five themes in Jane Eyre, three are recurring throughout but only one dominates overall. The main love theme of the score is clearly the winning and memorable identity, integrated directly as source music, heard performed twice by Jane on piano in the film. There is no small irony that the composer named his love theme from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones "Across the Stars," because the irony is not lost that the 2002 theme carries great resemblance in style to the love theme of Jane Eyre, and one of the 1970 score's most notable performances of it comes in a cue titled "Across the Moors." The construction of this older love theme is typical to Williams' broader, later method of conveying an A phrase of a theme twice before launching into a B phrase and then repeating that trio multiple times.

The main love theme from Jane Eyre occupies all of the album-only arrangement of "The Love Theme From Jane Eyre." A clear preview of "Across the Stars" opens the first ten seconds of this performance with lovely romantic sway. The main A phrase debuts on piano and harpsichord at 0:11 and repeats twice as it intensifies. The more hopeful B section of the theme follows at 0:56 on woodwinds. Both excellent melodies, the A phrase returns with ensemble size at 1:22, again repeating with additional layers, and the B phrase picks up at 2:00 on rambling piano and is a highlight of the piece. Williams returns to the A phrase again on more restrained strings and piano to close out that suite. The love theme rescues listeners from the Thornfield material at 1:27 into "Overture (Main Title)" and follows the full suite's A and B phrase presentation of the theme with a magnificent crescendo. Williams arranged the idea for recorder, acoustic guitar, and viola in "Meeting," and the guitar especially shines in this album-targeted rendition. The theme laments with heightened romantic tragedy at 0:20 into "Across the Moors" but vitally returns on flowing piano at 2:27 into "Reunion (End Title)" as Jane professes her love, building to a crescendo for the end credits. In the film itself, this idea is accessed more frequently by Williams, especially in the latter half of the work. On the flipside is the second most important theme, that for the oddities of Thornfield. Mysterious, repeated ascending phrases are followed by an elegantly descending resolution, and this material very strongly previews Williams' first two Harry Potter scores. It debuts at 0:24 into "Overture (Main Title)" and is developed with strings in agony for the longest and most aggressive performance of the theme. In that cue, the idea reasserts its melodrama and slight darkness at 2:26, highlighted by Williams' standard bassoon lines for menace. The Thornfield theme opens "Grace Poole and Mason's Arrival" with a decent dose of mystery, a clear precursor for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and explodes for a few full renditions from the ensemble at 2:25 with much torment. The theme eerily meanders through the middle of "Thwarted Wedding" for the backstory revelation as well. Stylistically related to this material is Williams' minor theme for the abusive Lowood school early in the narrative. Halfway through the sickly childlike but demented "Lowood" is slight waltz that additionally foreshadows suspense from the Harry Potter scores.

The third recurring theme in Jane Eyre is rather underdeveloped and unmemorable, but it still represents the sadness of Rochester with dignity. This wandering identity shares some of the descending phrasing with the love theme and opens "Overture (Main Title)" on harpsichord. It's adapted into a spirited scherzo in "To Thornfield," a piece not in the film but one that Williams dearly loved. On album, this theme doesn't have any impact on the middle of the presentation whatsoever until providing critical solace at the opening of "Reunion (End Title)" on solo flute and harp, expanding upon the idea's secondary phrasing. The only other theme in Jane Eyre is revealed late in the narrative because it represents the character of St. John, who helps Jane recover after fleeing Thornfield and somewhat coldly proposes marriage to her. A bassoon introduces this theme at the outset of "Restoration," a track that serves as an expanded album presentation of the idea. This arrangement rotates between this theme's A and B phrases at great length, offering more grandiose, religious tonalities with the exuberant B phrase's respites. The love and Rochester theme interruptions of this material in the film itself were not included in this piece. With the actual narrative of the score for Jane Eyre largely absent from any album, it's challenging to consider the score as anything other than a series of fascinating and at times very engaging thematic expressions that don't always fit together. Even today, it's not clear what compositions Williams wrote before spotting versus those intended for the album. The source cue "Festivity at Thornfield" was likely recorded for the record, though the "More Festivity" track later discovered and released actually does appear in the movie. The album presentation was released on CD by Silva Screen in 1988 and 1999 and then by La-La Land Records in 2012. Only in 2023 did a minimally expanded offering emerge; Quartet Records released (with Heidi) the same tracks with four additions, one being a short source piece and three alternate takes discovered on superior tapes closer to the masters with higher quality sound. The three alternates indeed sound really good, the cymbal at the start of "The Love Theme From Jane Eyre" a notable addition. Even on this product, though, there exist artifacts on the previously released tracks; woodwinds and piano in the first suite track are sometimes distorted, and the same occurs at the peak of "Grace Poole and Mason's Arrival." Like Heidi, the romanticism of Jane Eyre remains popular with older Williams collectors, though casual listeners may be best served seeking a more recent concert arrangement in better sound quality.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download