The Planets - Completed!

Well, I'm happy to tell you all that after a long week in the mix studio The Planets suite is now due for an early release it'll now be in all good online stores from January 1st 2014!

My company AFX started this project in February 2013 and ten long months later it has finally come to fruition and what a result! I'm more than happy with the quality of the recording (recorded at 5.6 MHz) most recordings max out at a sample rate of 196 KHz we went above and beyond by recording at 5.6 MHz that's Megahertz not Kilohertz just to clarify ;0)

So, that means a lot more frequencies were able to be captured which translates as a sparkling more exciting recording for you all to enjoy!

This major work which clocks in at 50 minutes has taken precedence over most of the other things in my life so apologies to you all for my driven and single minded nature over the past year - but hey that is the nature of what I do!

My next major project is the score for director Antony Lane's 'Invasion of the Not Quite Dead' which we are both very excited about I'm looking forward to hanging out with Antony next year and I'm sure there will be a lot of fun to be had ... And probably a few tears (of joy of course).

I will be blogging a lot more from now on ... Thank you everybody involved in The Planets for your patience and understanding during the last year, you rock!

Best,

David.

Film Scoring Secrets #3

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Greetings, here is a long overdue update to my film scoring secrets series, please check the blogs from January and February 2013 for the previous installments.


In film scoring secrets #2 we looked at the embryonic stages of the process which involved sitting down with a director or music supervisor and deciding on the 'time in' and 'time out' points for the music cues. This is often called a spotting session. However, I think that most people in the industry are really interested in the gritty, technical aspect of the scoring process and that's what I'll be touching on today.

The Process

So, we are happy with the in and out points of our cues but what happens now? What do composers do when they are left alone to create that magical music for a movie?

As you have probably guessed, practically everything to do with post production (music comes under this category too) is now computer based, the director will leave a digital copy of the film with me (usually a Quick Time movie) and this will be my official reference copy. There are two major pieces of professional software that composers use to write their scores, one is 'Sibelius' and the other platform is called 'Finale' there has been a debate raging for the last ten years as to which is the better of the two. Personally I don't see a lot of difference between them and, as a composer you tend to specialize in one or the other simply because you were exposed to that platform first.

I use Sibelius and have been since around 2004 prior to that I pretty much worked solely by hand using traditional manuscript paper and a pencil. Sibelius is just a virtual version of that traditional method. So now I can have the film in a digital format I can import that into Sibelius and have it appear in a window on my desktop > see illustration below:

Sibelius

Here we have a our film within the Sibelius software and now we can start composing our music to the picture. There are various ways to lock the picture to our software so that when we scan through our score we can see the picture moving in perfect sync with it.

"composers typically take their cue from the scene, it's always the film that demands what it wants musically"

The Ideas

Now we have the picture locked to our virtual manuscript I think the most burning question I'm asked is always 'where do the musical ideas come from?' We hear the word 'inspiration' overused and abused within the arts and the most cliched question is always 'where do you find your inspiration?' ...

I know I'm not alone in this but I don't really subscribe to the notion of inspiration! I mean there are four hundred years of musical heritage to draw from, there are more manuscripts, symphonies and film scores in existence than I'll ever, ever have time to read and, as they say, 'good artists borrow, but great artists steal'.

We are now well into the twenty first Century and to me 'inspiration' sounds like something you would have needed in the 1960s - whilst recovering from a drug habit. It's the equivalent of me asking an accountant where he gets his inspiration from so that he can achieve a decent level of accountancy. No, and to quote horror writer Stephen King 'inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just go to work'.

The Ideas #2

Here is a good analogy:

If you like blues music then you'd expect it to follow a familiar pattern (technically the chords known as I, IV and V) if we replaced chords I, IV and V with a random selection of unrelated notes then it wouldn't be blues anymore. The same thing happens in scoring albeit on a much larger scale, there are certain recognized methods of orchestration that evoke certain feelings - everything that could be done musically has already been done! Trying to be 'original' just leads to a lot of tail chasing and non-productivity. No, it's much more productive to hone your craft and to do the recognized but do it more sympathetically than the competition. And, bear in mind, because composers typically take their cue from the scene, it's always the film that demands what it wants musically.

There are also two distinct schools of thought when it comes to scoring and the first (the initial interpretation of what a film score should do) is now lovingly called 'Mickey Mousing'. Although it's origins can be found in opera, this technique takes it's name from the Mickey Mouse cartoons and the way the orchestra would ape the on-screen action ... if Mickey was sad there would be a solo violin playing, if there was a fight the percussionists would bang dustbin lids together - you get the idea. Later on Tom and Jerry took this literal kind of scoring to a whole new level and, in The Simpsons, Itchy and Scratchy took it to even more maddening heights! The second school of thought is to do the opposite and play against the action, although both are still acceptable scoring techniques today it's how and when we use them that makes all the difference.

The Scene

So here is my imaginary scene Cue #13:

Cue #13 (each separate piece of music in a film is traditionally called a cue) it's a slow dialogue driven scene that takes place in a church. OK, so let's look at our two schools of thought, it's in a church so maybe we can use liturgical music? So that would be 'Mickey Mousing' but remember there's nothing wrong with that, or we could play against expectations and underpin the dialogue itself with a non-liturgical score. Or maybe no score is required because the music is a diagetic sound, like a church organ being played during the scene.

As you can see our need for inspiration diminishes as the scene itself presents us with many more musical choices than we could ever use! I know you are hungry to know more ... how can inspiration not be necessary? And where does the music ultimately come from?

I'll let you into those secrets next time!

Peace!

David.   

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Why The Planets?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Well its been an amazingly busy year for me this year, so please let me share the task that has been getting me up early for the last nine months.

Why The Planets?

As you may know if you follow me on Twitter, in 2012 I decided the time was right to arrange the entire Planets suite by Gustav Holst ... What was the thinking behind this and why did I decide to dedicate an entire year of my life to these seven pieces? 

Click image for larger view.

So why did I decide to take on this monstrous, awesome work? From the strident opening of Mars to the haunting, choral ending of Neptune, Holst's seminal work has been a huge influence on composers. From classical works to film scoring you can hear Holst's unmistakable orchestral colors on countless pieces composed in the last one hundred years. However, above all other areas his influence has especially dominated the area of film scoring - just listen to any John Williams piece and you'll hear Holst at work.

Where do you start?

So where did I start? Well, to arrange these seven pieces so they work in a modern film score context I first had to track down a copy of the two hundred page manuscript.  My intention was to find a copy as close to Holst's original hand written copy as I could and I ended up sourcing a version from 1921.

Of course, how music is written and the language used in the text sections (often German but mostly Italian) is constantly changing but luckily for me this was predominantly in Italian which, after English is the language I'm most comfortable with.

The complete score of all seven movements comes in at around 1500 bars. To arrange the work correctly, every note of every bar has to be arranged on the staves individually for every instrument in the orchestra. I estimate it takes around ten minutes to arrange one bar on paper, so to simply lift the score from the original 1921 manuscript and arrange it in a modern, readable format took me around 250 hours!

If I look at the files on my mac I can see that I completed the first movement Venus (I didn't arrange them in order) sometime in March 2013 which means I probably put the very first note down sometime in late February. Hmm I have arranged and recorded some intimidating pieces in my time (Verdi's Requiem springs to mind) but sitting here and and putting down the very first note of a 1500 bar score is something else I can tell you! I'm due to place on the manuscript the very final note of the entire Planets score this week - it's now October. 

I also had to discipline myself to start working at 6:30 am for three solid months just to get through the toughest sections of this 1921 manuscript. There has been a lot of hair pulling a lot of coffee drinking and the odd call to Dean Haydn Jones my back up arranger to discuss the finer points of the Euphonium and open key writing, but at last I'm happy to say it's ALMOST complete. The final recordings will take place at Shepperton Film Studios in December 2013.

Will the recording be for sale? 

The CD will be in all good stores from FEBRUARY 2014! - You can buy either a physical CD or an Mp3 download copy.

*******************

Final thoughts.

It has been a hell of a journey - to the Planets and back lol, but I have learned so much from this experience. Each piece of music is a microcosm of other worldly motifs and a myriad of fragmented ideas that all blend and mesh so damn wonderfully. I will be very proud to follow in the footsteps of all those great composers who have already mined Holst for these sonic wonders. 

Watch out world I now have a new string to my bow and it's the lowest, baddest B string you could ever, ever imagine! 

Peace to you all !

David.  

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2014 CD releases.

AFX Industrial (film scores)

 

 

 

 

Hi, firstly sorry I haven't blogged for a while, I have an absolutely massive CD release coming out next year and all of my waking hours have been taken up with it ...

 

In other news I'm really happy to announce that the awesome Indywood Films have commissioned me to score their brand new film called 'Invasion of the Not Quite Dead' this is due for a 2014 release and I will be sketching score ideas in the following months.

 

Also, in 2014 along with the other CD (Holst - The Planets) Affex Records will be releasing the 'Invasion of the Not Quite Dead' score for all of you film music lovers out there!

 

I really do promise to blog a lot more about the process of scoring in 2014! 

 

- David.   

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Which was more important during the medieval period, sacred music or secular?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Today I'll be looking some of the origins of music notation and also finding out if the medieval populace preferred sacred or secular music.

Secular profanity in a sacred age.

What did they really sing about in the Middle Ages?  Exactly what made these people tick?  If I start with a short song outline, a pastorela, it may help define the mindset of these early 12^th century ancestors of ours:

A knight riding through the green hills comes across a lovely shepherdess; he courteously proposes an indecent act.

This is typical 12^th century style.  Morality at this time led stories to an often non-platonic conclusion. While the slight possibility of a knight failing to seduce the shepherdess added enough suspense to satisfy audiences again and again. That the pastorela was a highly popular format is in no doubt, as it clearly and consciously reflected a pastoral lifestyle led by all during the medieval period.

What exactly is medieval?  Formed from the Latin words medium aevum 'the middle age'.  Medieval as a word was first used towards the end of the 1700's to describe the period between the 11^th century and Renaissance or 're-birth' around the 15^th century.  Let's look at some of the religious elements and see whether sacred or secular music held more relevance among the populace of the time. 

Traditions, Troubadours & Trovères.

One of the earliest figures in liturgical church history was Gregory the great (540 - 604).  Gregory had a profound impact on the music of his time, though not as a composer.  Eventually becoming Pope (c. 590), he was intent on standardizing sacred music to fit with current Roman liturgy. 

Around 596, sending forty Benedictine monks to England carrying liturgical books, he was to forever shape early music, the Gregorian chant was born.  Three hundred years later Gregorian chant had reached its highest peak in Europe. The chant, a doxology sung as a simple monophonic line, used a notation system called 'neumes', which were a series of squiggles, symbols and lines.  Eventually this so called  'neumatic' notation appeared written on staff-less pages, above the sacred text.

Shuttling forward to 1100, we find another exponent of liturgical writing, in Hildegard of Bingen.  Hildegard (1098 - 1179), a nun and an artist, who, legend tells us, received her music direct from the deity, also had a profound influence on medieval music and notation.  By Hildegard's time notation had progressed further still, now using the more familiar looking square note heads, on a series of parallel lines.  Still, sacred music was very much an elitist entity, practiced by the wealthy and literate. The commoner's experience of the sacred was an altogether different one.  Outside the sacred realm they would have encountered the 'Troubadours' and 'Trovères', traveling minstrels in a musically secular society. 

The 1100s were brutal times in many ways.  With a life span of around 30 years, most Europeans lived under the feudal system and were known as 'vassals'.  As a vassal one would work the land, protected from attack by knights, through whom a tax was paid to a lord.  Lords then looked after their knights splendidly, on the understanding that each knight shall lay down his life to protect both lord and vassal.  This seemingly noble existence lead to the rise of chivalry, the epitome of medieval knighthood and the subject matter of many songs.

    

The carriers of these ennobling but often satirical secular songs were known as troubadours, originating from western France, one of the first was William IX of Aquitaine (1071-1127).  So what did they sing about?  Mainly, troubadour songs consisted of the chanson or l'amour courtois (courtly love).   Courtly love sang of unattainable love, often between a knight and a noble woman.  He, never sated, yearns for the object of his desire.  In fact this idea dominated secular music for a century or two, echoes of which can still be found in popular music today.  

Just like today, even the writers of music were often not the performers, this job fell to the jongleurs (or jugglers).  Jongleurs were of a lower social class, jacks-of-all-trades who helped in the dissemination of chansons, thus enabling them to reach a wider audience.  At the other end of the scale from these troubadours we find the trovères, who came from the slightly richer northern French provinces.  Often trovères were aristocratic and wealthy, with the ability to write songs down; jongleurs merely provided a link between the two.  Over five thousand poems are known to exist from these combined genres, although only a third have surviving melodies.

Were profane songs or those based on a sacred text more in vogue?  Secular music of the time undoubtedly exploited the inexhaustible subject of unrequited love.  Another early narrative form, known as chansons de toile (picture songs), often wrote of the dissatisfaction of a woman due to the absence of her lover, or indeed the presence of her husband.  However, aristocratic trovères wrote about many secular subjects, such as the legends of King Arthur and other myths. 

Many songs were simply profane rants, often attacking a person's physical attributes.  Songs known as sirventes were also of major importance.   Now accepted as 'songs of service' for the lord to whom a troubadour or trovère may serve, sirventes often painted a vivid picture of the moral code, life style and manners of the time.

Which became more important?  Was sacred music too far removed from general involvement, because of the elite nature of its setting and patronage?  Possibly, education during the 12^th century only ever became accessible through the church, as they had access to books, and employed learned ministers.  Church scholars were certainly able to write music down, unlike the many traveling artists of the time, who relied on aural tradition to pass music on.  Widespread printing did not become available until William Caxton introduced the first English text printing press in 1477.  Books were unavailable, leaving most of the general population illiterate, while their experience of Christian doctrine at that time was almost purely pictorial, where illustrations from the bible existed on woodcuts only.  Alas, accusations of idolatry were abundant 'Not to worship the picture but to worship from the story depicted what should be worshipped.' 

Sacred music, especially during Christian liturgy, also touched on subjects many vassals would have found hard to embrace in the absence of literacy.  The Planctus Marie for instance, conveys Mary's involvement in the suffering of Christ in a dramatic form.   An idea far removed from the common themes of love and lust most people of this era were accustomed to.  Even access to musical instruments had its limits. 

During the early medieval period, we find the use of musical instruments in church was often frowned upon.  Indeed even today many orthodox Jewish churches have introduced the organ only relatively recently, and some still rely on voices alone.  Apart from the organ, the only other instruments widely admitted to church use were small bells or cymbala.  Instruments themselves also held an idiomatic significance, the Lute and Harp were considered the noblest of instruments.  Trumpets had the honour of accompanying a king's arrival or an army's presence.  While the vielle, played by many jongleurs, became linked with beggars and low life characters. 

Dancing was an almost daily ritual during the 12^th century, many poetic dance songs known as balada or dansa, were written for the sole purpose of dance.  Often the subject matter would be joyous, the rites of spring or the simple enjoyment of life and love.  Carefree banality was always at the forefront of these frivolous tunes, and it was rare for sacred sentiment to be expressed at a dance, although reflective moments were sometimes found within the jollity.    

Idolatry and Illiteracy.

To answer the question, 'which was more important during the medieval period, sacred music or secular'?  We also need to ask, 'to whom was it more important'?  A thing only has value if the perceiver values it, after all.  For the large medieval majority their illiterate haze prevented almost anything more than a superficial understanding of the Christ story.  Illiteracy inadvertently led them to idolatry, and, in an attempt to make sense of the religious doctrine they were constantly bombarded with, they sought a release, which became unintentionally secular in nature. 

The real opposite of the sacred is the profane.  The profane steps further outside the secular in an almost mockingly irreverent fashion.  We see many troubadour songs dealing with the profanity of their time and, in nearly all cases from a firmly secular viewpoint.  Parallels can be drawn with today, we have the trained elite, for whom often the boundaries of music and worship become blurred.  This is normal.  Also normal is the 'common' industry, a musical free for all, in which secularism, or more precisely non-theistic and profane lyricism is acceptable.  The larger of the two groups is of course the latter, but does this make the music more important?  Even now we could argue that sacred and secular music is as equally important and unimportant today, as it was in 1170.

Mass appeal gives an item weight but does it really impart importance? Well, yes.  To all those who held secular medieval music dear, who survived on the money it gave them, who found it the very centre of their world.  It was beyond important.  I do of course believe sacred music has, in many ways, led to all the wonderfully erudite compositions we know and love today. For the people of the 12^th century though, secular music appears to have enriched their lives in an immeasurably important way.

- David.

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Why do movies like Prometheus license classical pieces?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Why do movies like Prometheus license classical pieces?






If you have seen Prometheus you may have noticed that Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 was used during the introductory scene for the slightly sinister droid David, in a similar manner Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was used in the first Alien film. However, the one that really started the trend was Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra which famously opens Kubrick's 2001 ... but why?

Ridley Scott is considered to be among the greatest, he's up there with Kubrick yet both of these directors at key points, even pivotal moments chose to use famous classical works in their movies.

If we break it down even further we can see that the directors who license classical music appear to be more successful than the ones who don't. And to answer my initial question ... but why? Well it's simple, to be even more successful! To have a wider appeal and also to create that always important connection with the audience.

But classical works are perceived as high brow aren't they?

True, for many outside of the genre, classical works are often perceived as inaccessible especially with their strange numbers like: 'Op. 28 No. 15'. But film also has its share of strange numbers like: 'h.264 1080p & 24fps'.

Luckily, for film makers the perception that classical music is 'high brow' works to your advantage as you can enhance your film and unsettle the audience in ways that cannot be described.  Added to that, great classical works will never tie your film to a particular moment in musical history (think 80s snare drum here) giving your film a timeless quality. Are you brave enough to use a classical work? It's a sure sign of a mature film maker and your peers will sit there in awe wondering how you came up with such a great idea!


- David.

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Free Stuff

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Why getting your score for free may not be the best solution!






If you are a creative person like me, then you'll have probably done all sorts of stuff without the expectation of payment.  Like being in a band with your buddies.  Making an experimental film for fun or even inventing some life changing gadget just for the hell of it.  We've all been involved with projects that never quite got off the ground.  There's something great about working on creative projects that have no time constraints or budget concerns, and a lot of us wouldn't be where we are without that experience.

Making The Break

In the end though just making the break from an amateur to a professional can often mean leaving some of those ideals behind.  If you are reading this then you may be a professional film-maker and ready to move on to the next level.  It's a hard fact, but eventually this will mean that you have to consider paying for the music on your film ...

A lot of people will offer to give you some music for free. On the face of it, that sounds great who
doesn't like getting something for free?

But there are downsides to free music ...  

1. Payment - If you don't offer pay and they don't expect payment, this already puts any professional
relationship on shaky ground. If someone is doing something for free, it's unlikely that it'll be their full-time job - your film will have to come  second to the things that pay their rent! 

2. Contract - No contract means no commitment. This can be fatal as it means the composer can walk away from your film any time they like, taking you right back to square one. At some point you will have a deadline to meet, maybe for a festival or a screening. Why wait until the deadline and pay more for 'library music' that won't really enhance your film? You'll spend less by budgeting for an original score right at the start of your project.

3. Bust-ups - No matter how reliable your composer may seem, with no contract and no financial commitment to tie them in any disagreement could mean that you are left with no music. Working with a professional composer will reduce the likelihood of freindship-ending rows.

So when you work with a professional composing team there will be no question that you'll get what you want, when you want it, for the price you want to pay.


- David.

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