Month: October 2023

I’ve been thinking about cliches and wanted to explore them. I wanted to explore as the piece that I created for Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body, 2001) is cliched, but I’d argue, to good effect.

For example:

In “An introduction to writing music for television”, Krug (2019) lists a set of “Palettes” that help composers create feelings. These are a collection of: Melody, Accompaniment, and Rhythmic elements, that combine. They are cliches, but used to get to a score that works. For Figure 1, you can hear that in my piece that I’ve stuck to it. While writing I didn’t use Krug’s work. I chose instrumentation for what sounded right to me. They happen to be close.

Let’s separate the three sections Krug describes and how they apply to my score.

Melody: We use a different instrument for the melody line. Here I’ve moved away from Krug’s suggestion using the B Flat clarinet. Later when I use the melody for Dawn, I use a violin. The clarinet sounded more plaintive than I could get with a violin.

Accompaniment: I’ve stuck with Krug’s suggestion. I used the piano as a full spectrum instrument, and as I wanted to create a point in time where it was solo.

Rhythm: What I have written remains true to Krug’s suggestion. There is no complicated rhythm in the score. Though the idea of using a synth pad with violins and piano for tragedy would be very dependent on the timbre of the synth pad, not something that I would usually do.

All three add up to a score that does hit the “Emotional Drama/Tearjerker/Tender/Tragedy” theme, even though I move away from his suggestion for the melody.

References

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001) The WB Television Network, 27 February.

Kruk, M. (2019) ‘Chapter One: Creating a Palette’, in An introduction to writing music for television: The Art and Technique of TV music writing with contributions from Emmy Award winning composers. London, UK: Fundamental Changes, pp. 7–17. 

I choose “The Body” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body, 2001). As this is a long clip, I chose to do from the start to where Dawn sneaks in to see Joyce. I wanted to highlight the humanity and fragility in the scene.

[22033027-TimShepherd-BuffyScoreClip-v1 (sketch).mov OneDrive Link to Buffy Sketch]

I decided to score as if it had been scored by Thomas Wanker, who was the Buffy composer from 2000–2002 (IMDb, 2023). He used specific techniques in other episodes including solo violins playing high notes to create tension, and cellos for mark changes in feeling or scene. I’ve used both and the effect feels right for the visuals.

I did this in a minor key. I kept the pace slow, starting with sparse instrumentation. Strings, and a piano with a lot of reverb to invoke a reflective feel. I added a leitmotif with a B-Flat clarinet playing variations. The theme is played by a flute when Dawn walks towards Joyce. I striped back the instrumentation until just the piano is playing, this is to higher the feeling of isolation in the scene.

At the start of the leitmotif the B-Flat clarinet uses a staccato before swapping to a legato. I did this as this suited the timbre of the instrument and the feeling I was evoking. At the beginning of the piece there is a single note played on the violin. Played as legato, it didn’t have the impact that I was looking for, so I swapped to tremolo, the timbre of the instrument fits the emotional tone.

When the vampire wakes up, I use Linear Chromaticism to build even more tension before the scene cuts.

One other thing I wanted to highlight is that there are two main tempos used with a gradual shift between the two parts (Figure 1):

Overall, I’m very happy with how this turned out and believe that this is a good homage to Thomas Wanker. 

References

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001) The WB Television Network, 27 February.

IMDb (2023) Thomas Wanker. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0911173/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr17 (Accessed: 23 October 2023).

For this post I wanted to concentrate on articulation, dynamics, and tempo. And, how important it was to the overall feeling generated. As the underscore that I was creating for the Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004) clip was an orchestral piece, I needed to create something more realistic. 

I added staccato to the initial melody line for both the piccolo and the trumpets (Figure 1), until the last note, where I switched the articulation to legato so that the last note would be held.

For me the use of staccato at the beginning created a bouncier melody that I felt fitted better than using all legato. 

Strings in Logic have a lot of articulations. These really breathe life into the score. From pizzicato just before Calcifer speaks, to whole note trills to build up a sense of tension at the end. 

When Sophie crashes into castle, I used tremolo rather than trills as this sounded better. I also slowed down the tempo as we get to the crash (Figure 2). While it felt counterintuitive to slow down the score, it heightened the tension in the scene. 

I used quite a lot of articulations across all the instruments. When combined with changes in tempo and dynamics you get a sense of realism. To get this a step closer to sounding realistic I’d probably record a real strings and horns to layer over the track. 

The idea of generating a realistic orchestral performance is twofold. One, I want my work to sound as good as it can. Real players will add nuance to a performance that sampled instruments lack. Two, and this happens more with modelled instruments, is that without articulations, the computer-generated performance can sound sterile and flat. 

References

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [Feature film]. Tokyo, Japan: Studio Ghibli.Lehman, F. (2018) 

Kruk, M. (2019) ‘Chapter Eight: Articulations are a must’, in An introduction to writing music for television: The Art and Technique of TV music writing with contributions from Emmy Award winning composers. London, UK: Fundamental Changes, pp. 92–93. 

I chose “Howl’s Moving Castle” (Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004). It had dialog, which would be a challenge, and I thought it would be interesting to do an orchestral piece.

Two sections that stood out to me. When Sophie was about to crash into the castle, and when everyone is sleeping. I spotted these in Logic to set the tempo of the piece. Spotting is the process of breaking the piece up into different emotional states.

I chose to create a leitmotif for the main characters. I did this for contrast between when the main characters are interacting and when we have a different emotional cue.

For the crash, I wanted it to sound hopeful at the beginning, and then create a sense of impending doom as she realises that she cannot land. Using Pantriadic Chromaticism (Lehman, 2018) and shortening note lengths as we begin to crash, I created drama by moving outside of the diatonic. This resolves into a variation of the diatonic theme to let the audience know that no one was hurt. 

There were a few challenges while I was working. One was working with the tempo changes created when spotting. It became an issue as I created a few too many points. This created periods of pronounced changes in the tempo. To make these tempo changes less obvious, I wrote in a way that a single instrument could play over the end of one tempo and into another to make them less obvious. 

I found Pantriadic Chromaticism has helped me to break the structures that I have relied upon and concentrate on the feeling that I’m trying to elicit. By not relying so much on what key I’m in and the chords in that scale, I can concentrate on the emotional tone that I’m after. 

References:

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [Feature film]. Tokyo, Japan: Studio Ghibli.Lehman, F. (2018)

Lehman, F. (2018) ‘Pantriadic Chromaticism’, in Hollywood harmony: Musical wonder and the sound of Cinema. New York, NY, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 66–69.