This will be my final blog post of 2015 - this year has been by far my most productive ever. I have learned more (mostly the hard way) than ever before but feel that there is still so much to learn that I am already looking forward to the next year! I hope for a very productive 2016 indeed, with many more projects to work on and to ultimately improve and becoming a better composer.
At this point I would like to point you in the direction of my youtube channel, which has a small compilation of my compositions from this year. For example:
Finally, I wish everyone a happy new year and many great things to come!
-PW
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Compositional process: 'Dreaming'
With 'Dreaming', I tried to evoke a dream-like quality for this track, not unlike something Thomas Newman would do. To achieve the effect, it was important to understand the 'ingredients' first: how to use the appropriate harmony, texture and tone colour.
1.) Harmony: The whole piece is build around harmony that 'hangs in the air'. In other words, I used fragmentary chords.
The first chord in bar 1 could be a C7, however the crucial 3rd is missing. Instead the 4th (F) and is part of the chord. To add to the confusion, the G falls to Eb, which would suggest Cm7. The next chord could be described as C6/9 but once again the describing interval (3rd) is missing, instead we have the 4th, 6th, 9th and 11th (4th). The next chord would probably be a Abadd2 over a C pedal. But once again, no 3rd (excluding the pedal C) but a 4th. The last chord of the phrase has the 3rd omitted as well.
The point is, that by leaving out the crucial interval in defining a chord (3rd) and using extensions instead, a somehow incomplete sounding chord is created that seems to be almost 'empty'. Also note that the left hand moves in clinically 5ths, providing the movement, whereas the right hand provides the emotion with extensions and suspensions.
2.) Texture: The overall texture is very light. I didn't want it to be too heavy and dense, otherwise I would have lost the 'floating' feel I was after. Piano, synths and strings is all that was needed.
3.) Tone colour: It was important to use a solo instrument for the main focus of the piece to create a feeling of loneliness but also to make the listening experience more direct. The piano was chosen because of the percussive nature of the instrument, being played two octaves higher than middle c, it creates almost a 'cold' and distant sound.
I used a synth pad underneath to bind things together. I tried using strings at first, however I felt that they would not communicate the 'etheral' feel as well as electronic sounds could.
The strings entering a bit later were chosen to get a bit of 'warmth' back into the piece.
Work flow:
My ideas usually come by just doodling/improvising at the piano. However, this piece was preconceived and I had to 'find' it on the instrument. This process involved a lot of trial and error but eventually I came up with a sketch:
Next up was creating an orchestral sketch, done in Sibelius (note the violins still providing the pad in the beginning):
The resulting audio mockup sounded like this:
After coming up with a basic orchestration, I imported the Sibelius midi into my sequencer and started creating the mockup proper. I like to keep things clear in Cubase, using colours and (especially important for me) tempo, time signature and marker tracks. As you can see, I didn't use a whole lot of tracks as I usually try to keep things as simple as possible.
Resulting mockup after mixing and tweaking:
Finally, mastering, where I only tried to 'pump up' the volume a bit to keep it competitive in terms of loudness.
Final piece:
I hope you found my way of working on this track interesting. Do feel free to provide feedback and comments!
-PW
1.) Harmony: The whole piece is build around harmony that 'hangs in the air'. In other words, I used fragmentary chords.
The first chord in bar 1 could be a C7, however the crucial 3rd is missing. Instead the 4th (F) and is part of the chord. To add to the confusion, the G falls to Eb, which would suggest Cm7. The next chord could be described as C6/9 but once again the describing interval (3rd) is missing, instead we have the 4th, 6th, 9th and 11th (4th). The next chord would probably be a Abadd2 over a C pedal. But once again, no 3rd (excluding the pedal C) but a 4th. The last chord of the phrase has the 3rd omitted as well.
The point is, that by leaving out the crucial interval in defining a chord (3rd) and using extensions instead, a somehow incomplete sounding chord is created that seems to be almost 'empty'. Also note that the left hand moves in clinically 5ths, providing the movement, whereas the right hand provides the emotion with extensions and suspensions.
2.) Texture: The overall texture is very light. I didn't want it to be too heavy and dense, otherwise I would have lost the 'floating' feel I was after. Piano, synths and strings is all that was needed.
3.) Tone colour: It was important to use a solo instrument for the main focus of the piece to create a feeling of loneliness but also to make the listening experience more direct. The piano was chosen because of the percussive nature of the instrument, being played two octaves higher than middle c, it creates almost a 'cold' and distant sound.
I used a synth pad underneath to bind things together. I tried using strings at first, however I felt that they would not communicate the 'etheral' feel as well as electronic sounds could.
The strings entering a bit later were chosen to get a bit of 'warmth' back into the piece.
Work flow:
My ideas usually come by just doodling/improvising at the piano. However, this piece was preconceived and I had to 'find' it on the instrument. This process involved a lot of trial and error but eventually I came up with a sketch:
 |
| early sketch |
Next up was creating an orchestral sketch, done in Sibelius (note the violins still providing the pad in the beginning):
 |
| Sibelius sketch |
The resulting audio mockup sounded like this:
After coming up with a basic orchestration, I imported the Sibelius midi into my sequencer and started creating the mockup proper. I like to keep things clear in Cubase, using colours and (especially important for me) tempo, time signature and marker tracks. As you can see, I didn't use a whole lot of tracks as I usually try to keep things as simple as possible.
 |
| Cubase project |
Resulting mockup after mixing and tweaking:
Finally, mastering, where I only tried to 'pump up' the volume a bit to keep it competitive in terms of loudness.
Final piece:
I hope you found my way of working on this track interesting. Do feel free to provide feedback and comments!
-PW
Sunday, 8 November 2015
Dario Marianelli 'Atonement' - short analysis
For this blog entry, I would like to share with you my brief analysis of Dario Marianelli's score for the 2007 film 'Atonement', for which he won the OSCAR for Best Original Soundtrack that year.
The score is quite remarkable in my opinion, not only because it has won the OSCAR or because it is wonderfully composed around, and an integral part of, the film but rather because of the efficiency of the musical material.
The score consists of 3 basic themes, which I will call BRIONY, ROBBIE AND CECILIA and WAR. There is only one music cue in the whole film that doesn't use any of the three themes (this being a short rendition of 'Claire de Lune' by Claude Debussy), as can be seen at the cue sheet I created:
Out of the three themes it is quite notable that BRIONY is used the most with making up more than 50% of the overall score. This is, however, not surprising as she is the lead character of the film and whose point of view we follow. ROBBIE AND CECILIA is essentially representing the love between these two characters, followed by WAR, which is depicting the hopelessness and horrors of the Second World War.
There are several characteristics of BRIONY (Fig. 1): the inventive use of a typewriter as a percussive instrument (appropriate as the character is a writer herself), also the cascading broken chords in the accompaniment (possibly to emphasise her youthful naivety) and finally, the melody itself. At this point I would like to redirect anyone reading this to Brian Morrell's fantastic analysis of said motive in his free online book: How Film and TV Music Communicate Vol.1 . The theme appears whenever Briony is seen on screen, pretty much like a classic leitmotif.
The melody of ROBBIE AND CECILIA (Fig.2) is often played by a solo instrument (clarinet, oboe, harmonica), possibly to signify their loneliness in being apart from each other. And indeed, the solo harmonica accompanies Robbie whenever we see him in the war, it is sometimes even played without any accompaniment at all. The only time we hear the theme fully fleshed out is when Robbie and Cecilia say goodbye to each in London, this is the only time both characters are on screen during the theme and therefore it is unsurprising, that it appears at its strongest orchestrally.
WAR (Fig. 3) is a chord progression that, in my opinion, manages to capture the horrors but also desperation of war. It is usually played during scenes of death and hopeless situations. It also appears at the end when the story of Robbie and Cecilia is revealed. Its B minor tonality and slow tempo contribute to the sad feeling as well as the orchestration for strings with solos for cello and violin.
These three themes are basically what the whole score consist of. I find it fascinating that a 2 hour film can be scored with as little as three contrasting musical ideas, given that they work and are also masterfully implemented. I hope that you found this entry informative, thank you for reading.
-PW
The score is quite remarkable in my opinion, not only because it has won the OSCAR or because it is wonderfully composed around, and an integral part of, the film but rather because of the efficiency of the musical material.
The score consists of 3 basic themes, which I will call BRIONY, ROBBIE AND CECILIA and WAR. There is only one music cue in the whole film that doesn't use any of the three themes (this being a short rendition of 'Claire de Lune' by Claude Debussy), as can be seen at the cue sheet I created:
Out of the three themes it is quite notable that BRIONY is used the most with making up more than 50% of the overall score. This is, however, not surprising as she is the lead character of the film and whose point of view we follow. ROBBIE AND CECILIA is essentially representing the love between these two characters, followed by WAR, which is depicting the hopelessness and horrors of the Second World War.
 |
| Fig. 1 BRIONY |
There are several characteristics of BRIONY (Fig. 1): the inventive use of a typewriter as a percussive instrument (appropriate as the character is a writer herself), also the cascading broken chords in the accompaniment (possibly to emphasise her youthful naivety) and finally, the melody itself. At this point I would like to redirect anyone reading this to Brian Morrell's fantastic analysis of said motive in his free online book: How Film and TV Music Communicate Vol.1 . The theme appears whenever Briony is seen on screen, pretty much like a classic leitmotif.
 |
| Fig.2, ROBBIE AND CECILIA |
The melody of ROBBIE AND CECILIA (Fig.2) is often played by a solo instrument (clarinet, oboe, harmonica), possibly to signify their loneliness in being apart from each other. And indeed, the solo harmonica accompanies Robbie whenever we see him in the war, it is sometimes even played without any accompaniment at all. The only time we hear the theme fully fleshed out is when Robbie and Cecilia say goodbye to each in London, this is the only time both characters are on screen during the theme and therefore it is unsurprising, that it appears at its strongest orchestrally.
 |
| Fig. 3 WAR |
WAR (Fig. 3) is a chord progression that, in my opinion, manages to capture the horrors but also desperation of war. It is usually played during scenes of death and hopeless situations. It also appears at the end when the story of Robbie and Cecilia is revealed. Its B minor tonality and slow tempo contribute to the sad feeling as well as the orchestration for strings with solos for cello and violin.
These three themes are basically what the whole score consist of. I find it fascinating that a 2 hour film can be scored with as little as three contrasting musical ideas, given that they work and are also masterfully implemented. I hope that you found this entry informative, thank you for reading.
-PW
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
The conventions and functions of the classical Hollywood score
I would like to share a short essay I have written about a year ago as part of my BA studies.
In this essay I tried to briefly outline the conventions and functions of film music in the 1930's Hollywood cinema.
I hope you enjoy!
-PW
In this essay I tried to briefly outline the conventions and functions of film music in the 1930's Hollywood cinema.
I hope you enjoy!
-PW
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