Orchestration

When I was a youngen, or relatively youngish, I played in a youth orchestra, an experience that I learned a lot from as a composer.

I would sit in the 2nd violin section — a place in the orchestra I actually really enjoyed since you’re a little more in the center of the orchestra where you can hear what each section around you is playing, plus I found that you can kind of tell a lot about a composers orchestration creativity by what he does with the 2nds.

I became a lot more aware of orchestration styles throughout different eras and composers. When playing something by Mozart or the classical era, for example, the orchestration tends to be a lot more straightforward. Look at a Mozart quartet for example, often the 1st violin plays lots of melodies while the 2nd violin and viola play accompanying 8th notes. I’m not critiquing or saying one way of orchestrating is better than the other, I’m just mentioning the differences.

But then…Dvorak’s 9th Symphony was put on the stands and I fell in love. Sitting there and seeing what’s on my stand, while the violins to the right are playing something else, to the left the violas and cellos each get their own treatment to make them feel special, not to mention what all the woodwinds, brass and percussion are doing. I’d studied and listened to scores of intricate orchestration plenty before then but for some reason sitting there in the middle of the orchestra and playing the part while hearing it all around me was an experience in a whole new dimension.

There were other pieces that we played which I appreciated for their orchestration such as some Bernstein.

In film scoring you see the same, and again, it’s not a case of one style of orchestration is better than the other. It depends on what one is trying to create and what a scene or film works best with. The Star Wars score has incredibly intricate orchestration whereas some other great scores might purposely have very minimal orchestration to acheive a more transparent sound.

Just some food for thought, as obvious as it might be.

Playing Instruments As A Composer

I started learning the violin when I was 9 years old and still play every now and then these days. I’m not a great violinist, and when recording a score, I will 98.5% of the time bring in any of the ridiculously talented violinists the LA music scene has to offer.

Knowing how to play is, however, very beneficial as a composer since it gives me a much deeper understanding of violin techniques, including extended techniques, fingering, bowing/slurs, positions, how close to the bridge or fingerboard I want a passage played, mutes, articulations, and an endless list of other factors that go into string writing, which one can best understand by playing the instrument. It’s, of course, great to study orchestration texts, but I’ve found that studying and playing an instrument gives much more depth in understanding.

Sitting down to a sample library that lets you choose legato, pizz, staccato, spiccato, harmonics, etc. and then press a key is great, but it’s detached from the reality and real potential of an instrument. It confines you to what the sample library includes while also making any passage seemingly possible, which might not actually be possible with a real musician (such as difficult string crossings, double stops that are impractical, etc.).

Since then, I’ve added other instruments to my tool belt, including the flute which I’ve been studying for the past 3-4 years. Writing for woodwinds seemed simple enough, I read Korsakov’s orchestration book as well as some others. Once I learned to play the flute, it completely changed my understanding of wind writing. Similarly to what playing the violin did to my string writing: it made me realize how impractical certain passages are, or which trills are or aren’t possible or which alternate fingers help or sound better in certain situations, while also exposing me to aspects of the flute that I didn’t really understand well before, for example woodwind harmonics, pitch bends that are or aren’t possible, etc.

Aside from those, I’ve played bits of other instruments here and there on my own scores: guitar, piano, percussion, etc. Again, there are so many incredible musicians in this town that put a universe of quality into a single note beyond what I can, but writing for instruments with the first-hand perspective of someone who plays the instrument I think makes a world of difference.

Temp Music

Okay, temp music can be a composer’s worst nightmare, but it can also be great if treated right. It took me a while to see that side of temp music.

The aspect of temp music that’s not great is when a piece of temp music sits in an edit for too long, and the directors, producers, and editor become attached to it to the point of not quite being able to hear anything else over that particular scene. That can lead to making music revisions that become closer, closer, and closer to the temp until it’s practically the same chord progression, same instrumentation, same tempo, very similar melody, and you still get notes like, “at :48 the in the temp, the melody goes up, and yours goes to a different note there.” At that point, just license the temp if possible. I’ve even heard stories (and it’s happened to me) where a composer gets their own music from another film as temp, and even though it’s their own piece that they know exactly how to create, it becomes a struggle where one needs to keep getting closer and closer to the temp, throwing out all originality.

In those cases, I think temp can be counter-productive. Every film should have its own sonic treatment and score unique to it. Not to reinvent the wheel every time, of course, but it should be a score for that specific project.

On the other hand, when a director brings music references to the table that are creative, something that I might not have considered, I love it. I end up studying as much as I can about that piece and the composer’s style of music as well as sometimes going deeper by trying to find what references or inspiration that composer might have been drawing on, which can give me more of an insight into how to create something that achieves what the temp/reference does but in a unique way.

So now when temp or references are brought up, it’s not a negative subject necessarily, but just depends upon the role and treatment of them.

The Varying Focus of Different Elements in Film Scores

Thinking about scores throughout the history of film scoring, you can observe the shift in styles and, with that, the change in focus concerning what is the key emphasis within a certain style.

In earlier film scores, let’s say from the 1960s, composers like Bernard Herrmann emphasized melody as well as orchestration. For example, repeating motifs associated with specific characters or aspects of a movie.

John Williams' scores are also heavily focused on melody and orchestration. He is probably the one composer where almost anyone can hum or whistle a melody from one of his scores (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jaws, ET, Indiana Jones, etc.).

Now, try to hum or whistle a Hans Zimmer tune. His music often has a lot more to do with evolving ostinatos, steadily growing tension through repeated notes, and stacking lots of musicians to create less conventional and modern uses of the orchestra.

Philip Glass, on the other hand, has a lot to do with varying arpeggiations and the choice of harmonic progressions.

Mica Levi’s “Under The Skin,” on the other hand, at least in my mind, is a strong and incredible score but for different reasons. It’s the crafting of unusual tones by warping things, like recording, slowing sounds down, those eerie sliding pitches in the synths and strings, etc.

Just some food for thought. Of course, it’s very general. There are endless other factors and aspects to the above-mentioned composers’ scores. Thinking about these factors and how they affect the films is interesting to consider when approaching films that I score.