Alongside my other posts which focus a lot on the process of being a composer, it feels good to share music more simply for its own sake, particularly as this doesn't really come in the package of scoring independent films. It's a shame- all music needs some love! I've also put the score PDF in here for anyone to browse, as well as a very different version of the same idea two years earlier.
At the beginning of this year, I was writing some music for an independent film called “The Attachment”. This is one of those pieces. It comes at the beginning of the film as the story is introduced, through narration from one of the protagonists. Hopefully it creates a sense in your mind of the tone of the film, even without the picture and narration.
If you like the music it would be awesome if you would give it a like on Soundcloud, and follow me there. I promise plenty more musical goodness to come, and won't email you with special offers for cheap pharmaceuticals or schemes to make $3000 a week from home. Unless I figure one out of course. Combine that with my Twitter for a wider range of updates and talking points. The more people in the conversation, the more fun!
Since this is the opening scene of the film, I had to set up the tone quite succinctly. The director was always clear that he wanted to create a drama/thriller which felt “old-school”. In his view, this meant more storytelling and characters rather than cheap scares and jumps or shiny effects. For me, this translated musically into clear themes and melodies, and steering well clear of the heavily drone-based stuff in a lot of modern indie films which I personally hate. If you just want a constant drone throughout, you don't really need to bother with a composer.
Since it's a narrated scene and prefaces the main film, I wanted to give it some drive as if we're moving and building towards something. I put a fair amount of underlying movement in the orchestration so that it wouldn't feel too still.
Without this I think the scene may have dragged somewhat. The scene does have a steady pace so the melody works with that, favouring long, drawn out notes and letting the underlying instruments do the driving work in the background. There's a very clear change at 01:16 which doesn't make too much sense without the picture, but it does have a clear reason when viewed altogether.
Is it successful with the narration? Here's an audio file with the narration, background atmosphere and the music roughly copied together so that you can get an idea for yourself. Unfortunately the picture isn't available to be shown yet.
You can grab the score just above and see all the ins-and-outs; how the orchestration and harmony works, where I have made changes later on in the virtual “rehearsal” process, the timing notes I leave to myself, and how much detail I went into even though I was the only person seeing this particular score.
The score is a very important part of my process. A lot of people work straight into their audio software (programs such as Cubase, Logic, Protools...). I don't do that, because to me that's like walking into a rehearsal room with an entire orchestra and just sort of starting to piece things together. It's hard to see the logic of it, to form and adapt complex ideas or orchestrations, to redraft, or to draw influences and connections from other related pieces, just to name a few downsides. People think it saves time to work straight to audio- I think it's totally false economy.
Interestingly though here the score does differ in places from what is actually played. This is mostly relatively minor changes, similar to what could be tweaked in live rehearsal without really delving into the fabric of the piece. However, the ending is significantly different. I spent a lot of time getting the ending right as it was a difficult cut to work with, and though I don't remember exactly why it isn't there in the score it's most likely that I sketched it on paper as I do with everything, and then played it directly into my production software. The piece of paper has unfortunately since vanished...
Source material- a comparison
This film was actually the first project I ever secured as a composer over two years ago now, but the production took far longer in getting to the final stages than the director had expected. As this project took so long to get from my first thoughts to the delivery of a score, my writing changed dramatically in the meantime. When I was first brought onto the project, I wrote some source music in order to set a mood and inspire my compositions later. Listening back to the piece from which I took inspiration from this one, the difference is huge. It's amazing what happens in two years or so, and it's rare to be able to hear the progress of one thought realised so differently, albeit to convey a slightly different mood. Here they are side-by-side!
As always, talk to me! Thoughts, feelings, likes and dislikes, and what you had for breakfast are all valid topics. I'd also love for you to interact with me on the links below. Thanks for reading!
I'm too tired right now to give any sort of insightful and clever response. So let me just say: Thanks for the effort you obviously put into this blog. It was a great read that makes me want to compose right now :-)
This is great! can really image whole scenarios when i listened to it;
I would like to know in greater detail the length how much work time you spent on each individual stage and if there was any stage in which you felt the piece was not working, and if eventually so how did you remedy, how did you take another direction or restarted; or if it went smoothly; i' m thinking more specifically things like: landing the project and talking with all different people about its development - gathering forming molding creating ideas for themes, instruments to use and the creative process - Writing the score the timeframe and if you give yourself a particular timeframe for this passage - moving the project into audio software and finalizing it.
On September 23 2015 03:14 BisuDagger wrote: Are any of these downloadable? I won't distribute them. :D
Not at the moment, but which would you like? I can organise it
On September 24 2015 03:37 pebble444 wrote: This is great! can really image whole scenarios when i listened to it;
I would like to know in greater detail the length how much work time you spent on each individual stage and if there was any stage in which you felt the piece was not working, and if eventually so how did you remedy, how did you take another direction or restarted; or if it went smoothly; i' m thinking more specifically things like: landing the project and talking with all different people about its development - gathering forming molding creating ideas for themes, instruments to use and the creative process - Writing the score the timeframe and if you give yourself a particular timeframe for this passage - moving the project into audio software and finalizing it.
Thank you! That's a lot of questions :D I'll write you a proper reply when I'm less tired- just got back from a fairly long day at EGX.
My faith in the ability of modern composers to produce beautiful music just shot up after listening to a few of your pieces. Thank you very much for giving us the pleasure of listening to them.
I can't seem to find the track with narration - the link is not working and I can't find it from your soundcloud page. Still, it sounded quite nice on its own, so I enjoyed listening to it. Thanks again for sharing it with us.
nice stuff I'm interested in writings about how you come up with ideas for movies, of course in a more detailed way, and definitely with a sample clip if possible.
Takes more work but it's more engaging material
On September 25 2015 15:53 feanaro wrote: My faith in the ability of modern composers to produce beautiful music just shot up after listening to a few of your pieces. Thank you very much for giving us the pleasure of listening to them.
I can't seem to find the track with narration - the link is not working and I can't find it from your soundcloud page. Still, it sounded quite nice on its own, so I enjoyed listening to it. Thanks again for sharing it with us.
to be fair there was never a problem about the quality of our modern composers:
And of course the one and only modern Beethoven, making all kinds of innovations.
I love HZ as much as the next music nerd, but saying it's as innovative as Beethoven is cringe-worth hyperbole. While I love his soundtracks and get swept along in his emotional manipulation, I daresay the only thing he's ever innovated is making sure every studio bass trombone player keeps their contra-bass trombone or cimbasso in their trunks with licks like this:
Though he's been using it for years to great effect:
I do however like his soundtracks for the elegant little themes he uses as leitmotifs and (sometimes) develops throughout the course of the movie. This major/minor one from Interstellar stuck with me for weeks after seeing the movie because of how he used thematically:
He also is one of the most tasteful employers of post-processing effects amongst the popular big names.
On September 30 2015 01:37 Kronen wrote: I love HZ as much as the next music nerd, but saying it's as innovative as Beethoven is cringe-worth hyperbole. While I love his soundtracks and get swept along in his emotional manipulation, I daresay the only thing he's ever innovated is making sure every studio bass trombone player keeps their contra-bass trombone or cimbasso in their trunks with licks like this:
I do however like his soundtracks for the elegant little themes he uses as leitmotifs and (sometimes) develops throughout the course of the movie. This major/minor one from Interstellar stuck with me for weeks after seeing the movie because of how he used thematically:
He also is one of the most tasteful employers of post-processing effects amongst the popular big names.
I know you're very highly educated and respect your views. I mentioned modern Beethoven for that exact reason you posted that video. I'm not equating him with Beethoven because we are a few hundred years too late in the development of music.
I mentioned modern Beethoven because Hans Zimmer makes something new and suddenly it's the standard.
Hans make blaring brass , everyone make blaring brass. Hans make battle waltz, everyone make battle waltz (gladiator) Hans use female wail (lisa gerrad/enya) in battles, everyone use female wails (LOTR used the exact same Enya)
He also did other unheard of stuff like - the joker "1 note" theme, - the orchestration/texture (organs) in interstellar (since by then he was probably sick of blaring bass BAAAAA BAAAA), - inception (slowing down and speeding up the original track). The orchestration and texture was something new too.
I could come up with a better list if I spend more time researching. If it still makes you cringe because Beethoven cannot be equated let's just agree that Hans is our contemporary musical behemoth
On September 24 2015 03:37 pebble444 wrote: This is great! can really image whole scenarios when i listened to it;
I would like to know in greater detail the length how much work time you spent on each individual stage and if there was any stage in which you felt the piece was not working, and if eventually so how did you remedy, how did you take another direction or restarted; or if it went smoothly; i' m thinking more specifically things like: landing the project and talking with all different people about its development - gathering forming molding creating ideas for themes, instruments to use and the creative process - Writing the score the timeframe and if you give yourself a particular timeframe for this passage - moving the project into audio software and finalizing it.
Ok, I'm back!
For this piece, the composing was actually pretty smooth in that I didn't hit any significant blocks through most of the writing. I can't remember exactly how long it took since it was quite a few months ago, but I would say this was probably a week's (5-6 days) work through the whole process. That's hashing out the basic ideas, then writing the form in a simple sketch, a more detailed sketch orchestration still on paper, then fully orchestrated in Sibelius with the main focus points from the sketches put in first and the rest then filled in. Finally, over to Cubase.
If you're curious, the basic ideas and first sketch bits usually look something like this, quick and dirty. The picture is just my composition exercise from yesterday, since I can't find the original bit of paper...
For this project though I spend a couple of days setting up a big detailed orchestral template, so that cut down on the actual final programming and production time in Cubase.
There were just a couple of difficulties once I had programmed it. Firstly, it was a bit too busy and dense to begin with so I had to make changes to the harp line. Instead of a constant line, in the final version it's actually playing much less. The strings moving constantly is fine because they can blend softly together nicely, whereas a rhythmic plucked sound like a harp can feel too driving and active.
The ending also caused me hassle, because there's a very distinct change in the scene which the director wanted highlighting in a certain way. I eventually realised that it wouldn't work as he thought, and went in a different direction with what you hear now. You can hear that difference compared with the little note which I made for myself on the PDF score.
The choice of instruments came about in a number of different ways. It's orchestral because that was the approach which the director was originally looking for, and I thought it would work particularly since he wanted to steer clear of "horror" sounding music. For the piece individually, I am a sucker for woodwinds and I thought flutes would be great for capturing that light, slightly unsettling atmosphere with the two-note motif. They're also great for accents like that since I find the characters of each woodwind instrument so amazingly individual, and they can speak out so well on top of the strings especially on soft passages.
Harp I liked for it's ethereal quality when it on its own or blended into the orchestra, but also to give it some movement and clearer rhythm, along with those deep and lovely double bass plucks.
Some of the orchestration inspiration also came from the 2nd movement of Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, which I had recently heard played in London and was absolutely blown away by. The orchestration of the movement's main theme which I've linked below has definite similarities, combining movement and detail with softness. Particularly the way the Double Basses hold beats on pizz and the violins interlock to create the amazing backdrop, along with longer notes to help it flow. So I was (unashamedly) influenced by that.
It's all a judgement call though, some things are totally deliberate and for-purpose, and others you just think would be good, or you just like them, so you do them! You have to figure out for yourself whether they work in the context and can say what you want to say. Orchestration and instrumentation are up there alongside melody and chords in terms of their impact on a piece, and the freedom which they offer if you explore bravely.
I think Hans is a curious example now. His influence on the musical zeitgeist is quite skewed at this point, because he's become a massive name in scoring. Whatever he does now is going to be referenced and emulated disproportionately in other scores simply because he scores so many blockbusters, and people want a blockbuster sound. The blockbuster sound therefore will probably end up sounding something like whatever he's doing! That's not necessarily because the music is very good, and though I do really like some of his scores such as that of Interstellar, I get tired of his harmonic language pretty easily. Again though, I think he really suffers there from being so copied. The Hans Fatigue is definitely real!
Also, I've never been able to get into Beethoven, despite really trying!!
I could come up with a better list if I spend more time researching. If it still makes you cringe because Beethoven cannot be equated let's just agree that Hans is our contemporary musical behemoth
Sorry for getting all hot-and-bothered. I will agree that Hans is our contemporary film-score composing behemoth. There still is a great deal of interesting stuff going in classical composition. A good gateway composer to check out would be Corigliano if you liked his Red Violin Soundtrack then checking out the spinoff Violin Concerto is worthwhile.
On September 30 2015 20:44 ImbaTosS wrote:
Also, I've never been able to get into Beethoven, despite really trying!!
Noooooooo!!! I have to admit that it is easier to get into Beethoven being an instrumentalist because his work is so much fun to play and so supremely well-orchestrated. But as his work established so much about our musical language it's hard to appreciate just how mind-blowing it was/is. Sometimes after prepping for the occasional Mozart/Haydn Symphony/Concerto week and having that harmonic language in my ear, I come back to the Big Number 3 and am perpetually blown away:
This YouTube presentation is particularly good for demonstrating the difference between classical music and the average popular music of the day. It's much easier to hear the inner voices, contrary motion and orchestrational depth when there's an easily decipherable visual representation.
I could come up with a better list if I spend more time researching. If it still makes you cringe because Beethoven cannot be equated let's just agree that Hans is our contemporary musical behemoth
Sorry for getting all hot-and-bothered. I will agree that Hans is our contemporary film-score composing behemoth. There still is a great deal of interesting stuff going in classical composition. A good gateway composer to check out would be Corigliano if you liked his Red Violin Soundtrack then checking out the spinoff Violin Concerto is worthwhile.
Also, I've never been able to get into Beethoven, despite really trying!!
Noooooooo!!! I have to admit that it is easier to get into Beethoven being an instrumentalist because his work is so much fun to play and so supremely well-orchestrated. But as his work established so much about our musical language it's hard to appreciate just how mind-blowing it was/is. Sometimes after prepping for the occasional Mozart/Haydn Symphony/Concerto week and having that harmonic language in my ear, I come back to the Big Number 3 and am perpetually blown away:
This YouTube presentation is particularly good for demonstrating the difference between classical music and the average popular music of the day. It's much easier to hear the inner voices, contrary motion and orchestrational depth when there's an easily decipherable visual representation.
Alright Those youtube videos are really good. I've watched many of his videos before and apparently it takes him many many hours to produce them. The visualisations do help me pick out the details very well. Too bad my theory isn't good enough to truly appreciate it.
I'm sorry but to me the contempory classical piece sounded like a distant person's imitation of gypsy music It sounded too artsy and devoid of gypsyness imo. Maybe there are film cues and it sounds good in context, that should be the case. Though I know I am biased towards honest soulful music (as opposed to artsy fancy high brow music) and I love gypsy music and I even admire the musical part of their culture. I wish mine was more like that.
Modernised and fused and from a different gypsy tradition but still worth a listen. Jaw dropping technical abilities. + Show Spoiler +
On September 30 2015 20:44 ImbaTosS wrote:
Also, I've never been able to get into Beethoven, despite really trying!!
I am surprised... Beethoven is one of my favourites, but I might be biased because I've watched so many of Bernstein's documentaries/lectures on his work
While we are talking about different composers, i feel like this is heavily underrated and presents in itself many different archetypes that are used in orchestral scores. the 2 movement you posted seems like Holst used it in Jupiter for inspiration as well.
Here is also a pianist i really love listening too. We should never forget how important "executers" are too
On October 02 2015 15:38 pebble444 wrote: Great to read the part 2;
While we are talking about different composers, i feel like this is heavily underrated and presents in itself many different archetypes that are used in orchestral scores. the 2 movement you posted seems like Holst used it in Jupiter for inspiration as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVsszW7Nds
On October 02 2015 15:38 pebble444 wrote: Great to read the part 2;
While we are talking about different composers, i feel like this is heavily underrated and presents in itself many different archetypes that are used in orchestral scores. the 2 movement you posted seems like Holst used it in Jupiter for inspiration as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVsszW7Nds
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qVWBUfj.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pd5PPPe.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FcMpwkI.jpg)
It sounded too artsy and devoid of gypsyness imo. Maybe there are film cues and it sounds good in context, that should be the case. Though I know I am biased towards honest soulful music (as opposed to artsy fancy high brow music) and I love gypsy music and I even admire the musical part of their culture. I wish mine was more like that.
