Aquatic Suite. The Power Of Music

Hi Folks,

Last week I finished what has been to date the most challenging piece from the “HD2O - The Keys” soundtrack. I thought it might be interesting to share my experience. Video segment “14B” was over ten minutes long. It is a tall order to come up ten minutes worth of original music that will compliment and enhance the raw video. Fortunately for me, Paul Dymon provided a good solid foundation. Gorgeous imagery, several “featured performers” and some very interesting motion cues. Together these elements provided a fertile environment for me to “dive in”.

The first step was to import the video into my production software (Steinberg Cubase SX 3). For my virtual instruments I use Steinberg Hypersonic 2 (discontinued), Steinberg Halion 3, IK Multimedia’s Philharmonik and Sampletank 2. While playing the video I marked all visual cuts and dissolves in the time line. This gave me a basic idea where the natural breaks in the action lay and determined the overall structure. From there I was able to get a rough idea how I wanted to pace the music.

Pacing is probably one of the most important components to any composition. Like the tides of our planet’s oceans, music should have an ebb and flow. It has to go somewhere and have climaxes and lulls. With my basic framework laid out I was then ready to actually begin the creative process. The fun part!! The only thing I really knew I wanted to do from the outset was to bring an orchestral quality to the piece. Not only did I feel that the grandeur of an orchestra complimented the vastness of the ocean, I also liked the fact that the orchestra’s many instruments gave me more sounds to use.

So there I sat. Alone in my studio with a “blank canvass’ in front of me. I remember thinking to myself: “How the hell are you going to come up with over ten minutes of music?” The first thing I did was to start noodling around on the piano while looking at the video. At this point I didn’t even know what instruments I wanted to use. I just wanted to find a cool melody or chord pattern that I could then develop into a theme while emotionally supporting what was on the screen. I try to take an improvisational approach to the composition process. It’s not very scientific, mostly trial and error. I usually end up stumbling onto something that catches my ear and go from there. I call this phenomenon “the happy accident“. It is one of the most rewarding things about what I do. It is not dissimilar to human reproduction (I know there have been a few happy acidents there!). I start with one note, then two, then four etc. Next thing you know I have a “musical zygote”. Add more notes, rhythm, chords & instrumentation and the zygote becomes an embryo… You get the picture. Of course when it’s all finished I feel like it is one of my children!

Once I had the basic initial theme I added the rest of the rhythm section. I have an extremely wide range of taste when it comes to the music I like but I grew up on great rock and roll and R&B in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Also jazz and classical. My parents made sure to expose me to as many different musical genres as posible. It has all influenced me as a composer but I tend to lean towards more groove oriented stuff. That is why most of the time I’ll start with a basic rhythm section which is drums, bass and some sort of piano/organ. Depending on what I’m after I’ll either program the music or perform it live (bass, guitars & trombones). Due to the scope of this project I programmed everything. Knowing that I was going to be headed towards the orchestral style I also introduced violins and celli after eight bars. As the project developed I ended up also featuring English horn, oboe, flute clarinet, bassoon and French horn! It really doesn’t take much to get an idea going. What I have learned about the creative process, at least for me, is to let it happen on it’s own momentum and just to give it the occaisional nudge in the right direction. The main guiding forces at work in this case were the scene changes and the aforementioned “cast of characters”.

The cast of characters in order of appearance were; “Chops” the shark, “Jam” the jellyfish, “Spiny” the lobster, “Blue Fish Grouper” with The humongous overbite (If you were a kid in the 60’s you might remember the movie “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. That was this little fella to a tee) and “The Heart Attack Kid” a curious Barracuda. I knew I wanted each of them to have their own theme like in Prokofiev’s “Peter & The Wolf”. I like to work in a linear fashion. I put myself in a mental place where I’m more of a conduit for the music. Once I have a basic idea I just let it happen (Jazz musicians do this too. I have tried, unsuccessfully most of the time, to get to that place playing jazz. I’m much better at it as a composer.). When I see I’m getting close to the next scene change I’ll decide whether or not to create a climax (based on the imagery) or start a segue to the next theme or section.

So it went, day after day, week after week. There were the frequent phone calls to Paul so he could listen to what I had done to that point and to get some positive feedback and/or criticism. At that point in the process he only could hear the music as it was not yet linked to the video. I would play it to him over the phone and call out things like “and here’s where the fish are swaying back and forth to the surf” or “here’s where the jellyfish appears”. There were several times when I wrote myself into a corner. I had to scrap a couple of minutes worth of material and go back to the drawing board because it just wasn’t working the way we wanted. I also had to put this clip on hold for a week so I could score the music for “Caring Is Sharing“, a 5 minute clip we will be submitting to a few film festivals. Finally at 1:33am on May 1st the linear display of my production software indicated 1 minute and 24 seconds to go! I knew that I wanted to recapitulate the Jellyfish theme because it provided a natural ending. A few drags and drops, a cut here, a paste there and it was finished. I rendered the final mix (AIFF 16 bit 48hz stereo) and uploaded it to the FTP site. I am very pleased and proud of how this came out.

I must return to the lonely confines of my studio now. Only 17 minutes left to score

Tags: music, soundtrack