An occasional blog by a jobbing composer, reflecting on both completed and ongoing projects.
Some happy news as the year draws to a close!
For some months I have been working with a lyricist, setting his words to music. The first of these compositions is a choral work for a Military Wives choir. The work has been selected by one such choir for their 2020 concerts.
There are two main problems in film composition today:
People know what they like and it has already been written, but they would like something that sounds similar without infringing copyright
People want something completely new and forget that a composition doesn’t gain the imprint of association until it has been used with a film!
Between these two, composition can become an exercise in making clever forgeries. If there is no audible association between what someone knows they like and your piece, then there needs to be a clue in the title to help the client understand what “kind” of piece it is straight away. In either case, we borrow the approval of existing music by hanging onto the coat-tails of what is already known and approved.
In my free time I sometimes compose such loving pastiches and here are three:
This film is scored for full orchestra. The full score is available to view here. It was composed for a competition entry and can now be published as it was unsuccessful. Contrary to the general etiquette of these things, I was disappointed not to reach the final. It’s no small task to compose for symphony orchestra and have the score performance ready. I will be interested to hear the 5 finalists’ works, even as I was surprised to hear the original score given to the film on release.
After several months of working on projects for other people, it has been a lovely change to write some original music of my own.
My brother’s film company were hired to make a trailer for the local am-dram production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Due to its amateur status, a temp track could be used for their short-term promotion. But the performances, locations, costumes and filming were so good that a responsive score was desirable. Earlier this month I submitted my entry to the Zurich Film Festival Scoring Competition. I am still in the habit of writing for symphony orchestra and so I have written a lavish and racing soundtrack for the trailer. Film to follow!
This week I completed another audio realisation for the Cecilia Chorus of New York. The new composition is by the Balliett brothers and receives its premiere in Carnegie Hall in May 2019. For more information about the concert, please visit their site: http://ceciliachorusny.org/#/brahms-elgar-brothers-balliett/
Audio realisation is a time-consuming process because you not only replicate the sheet music on the computer, but must then interpret the piece as a performance within the limits of sampled instruments. This means paying meticulous attention to changes in dynamics and tempi, as shown by the automation below.
This work had 5 movements. Each movement had at least Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Sometimes the parts were divided. For each section of the choir, I produce each movement with their own voice featured, one version with and another without metronome. I also produce full SATB reference tracks, with no voice featured. This project was special because there was a solo voice as well. So I produced some SATB versions without the soloist included, so that the choir could learn their role more thoroughly. There were 52 tracks in total for the Balliett brother’s compositions.
Last night I attended the first Chester PRS meeting, in the company of my non-PRS composing brother, Joe. It was clarifying in some matters. It is always good to know more than you need regarding the business side. It would have been helpful if the panel discussion hadn’t focussed exclusively on songs, assuming that everyone was a live performer. The gentleman behind me scores for children’s TV and the lady behind me places music in Hollywood trailers!
Last year I was commissioned to provide underscore for B7 Media’s production of Eleanor Aquitaine, a one-woman show with the acclaimed actress Eileen Page.
As part of the show, Eileen performs a song of her own improvised composition. Away from the visual aspect of a stage performance, the song needed some musical accompaniment to work on audio. It was challenging because the song was already recorded and could not be changed. In this video I show how this worked in practice. The full CD is available here:
50 tracks, available to hear, download and licence. Enjoy!
It has been a pleasure to work once again with the Cecilia Chorus of New York in preparation for their March concert. They are performing three complex works and commissioned me to prepare audio versions of the pieces, with each choir section’s part picked out for practice purposes.
Samples from the three works are below.
I wish the choir every success in learning such complex works!
I’m pleased to announce the release of the soundtrack “Rhuddlan Castle: Gateway to Wales”.
