Tema: Kenneth Branagh

"El horror, el horror..."

Parece un remix chusco de esos que aparecían en algunas ediciones de bandas sonoras noventeras...

Si no fuera porque aparece su nombre, uno deduciría que el tema pudiera pertenecer a algún bodriete de actioner (directo a dvd) de Seagal, antes que a una gran producción de la Paramount.

Aunque harto probable en estos días, me puedo imaginar a algún aficionado que comprara el compacto sólo por el nombre del compositor y tras escuchar un par de temas, tratase de devolverlo aduciendo un error en la edición.

Saludos.

Iniciado por MIK

"El horror, el horror..."

Parece un remix chusco de esos que aparecían en algunas ediciones de bandas sonoras noventeras...

Si no fuera porque aparece su nombre, uno deduciría que el tema pudiera pertenecer a algún bodriete de actioner (directo a dvd) de Seagal, antes que a una gran producción de la Paramount.

Aunque harto probable en estos días, me puedo imaginar a algún aficionado que comprara el compacto sólo por el nombre del compositor y tras escuchar un par de temas, tratase de devolverlo aduciendo un error en la edición.

Saludos.

. Si el mismo dice que no está agusto con la electrónica y se siente incómodo usando sintes, trastos, y demás, porque sencillamente no está en su lenguaje o formación musical, pues habrá que hacerle caso.

Recuerdo en una entrevista relativamente reciente, que en un momento determinado dijo que ahora, a veces, le obligaban a usar máquinas..., así, con tono despectivo. El entrevistador se le queda mirando y le responde que lo dice cómo si fuera algo malo, dispositivos del averno . Doyle se echa a reír y dice que si, que el no necesita más que papel pautado y lápiz, que por otro lado es cómo se ha compuesto toda la vida.


Por cierto MIK, una reflexión que quería compartir contigo, y es sobre el tema de la versatilidad cómo atributo positivo o negativo.


Doyle, al margen de sea un dinosaurio/artesano -dependiendo de a quien preguntes-, que escribe a mano con papel y piano, que tiene una formación muy superior al 99% de compositores que trabajan para cine, un estilo elegante, lírico y clásico... a parte de todo eso, en realidad, no es precisamente versátil.


Aunque participo en los 90 en películas de diversos géneros, si uno se fija , se apaño para musicalizarlas atendiendo a la evolución emocional de los personajes y el impacto dramático ; en todas, su clasicismo British, su romanticismo luctuoso, las orquestaciones elaboradas, el uso tan particular del piano, los metales y sus adagios de cuerdas tuvieron cabida; los tres recurso favoritos y recurrentemente empleados por el escocés, llegando al punto de sustentar una partitura casi entera en los registros más agudos de las sección de cuerda, cómo fue Carlito´s Way, película en la que el músico no solo no rebajó su clasicismo sino que lo acentuó.


Cuando se le saca de ahí, o se le fuerza a hacer algo completamente fuera de su lenguaje musical -sonido más moderno, electrónica- fracasa estrepitosamente. Y no porque la electrónica sea el demonio -hay grandes partituras electrónicas- sino porque Doyle no sabe. Ha tenido que aprender, por la fuerza, a usar cachivaches a sus 60 años, ya muy tarde, y se nota que no le gusta nada y es torpe en su manejo, muy tosco y ramplón.


¿Ahora bien, entonces, porque se dice que Doyle es uno de los mejores compositores en activo en el cine, y uno de los mayores talentos de los últimos 30 o 40 años?

Primero, lo comentábamos ayer, su suntuoso estilo British, no es algo que se deje oír en el cine USA ni mucho menos todos los días, pero no es por eso, es que dentro de su estilo es el mejor. Consiguió aplicar a la industria del cine un clasicismo más propio de los maestros clásicos de finales del XIX y primera mitad del XX, y lo hizo espectacularmente . Simplemente eso, que, cómo músico, aunque no sea versátil, es muy bueno. Un gran compositor y narrador cinematográfico.


Otros compositores cómo Marianelli y Korzeniowski, sufren de lo mismo, su marcado clasicismo y su tendencia a no variar su estilo les lleva a que participen en pocas películas, o que cuando lo hagan, a veces le rechacen partituras (Marianelli y Pan, sustituido por John Powell), o su nombre no acabe de saltar a las grandes ligas en el panorama USA actual, -Korzeniowski, quién trabaja mucho en su tierra natal, Polonia-


No todos pueden ser Desplat, Thomas Newman o James Newton Howard, auténticos camaleones, que, más allá de su formación clásica, han cultivado un eclecticismo estilístico y un gusto por la experimentación que les ha permitido abordar toda clase de proyectos.


Tu que opinas; ¿se ha de ser versatil a la fuerza? ¿Te cansas cuando un compositor tiene un estilo muy marcado y no sale de el?. Ya me dices.

Iniciado por MIK

"El horror, el horror..."

Parece un remix chusco de esos que aparecían en algunas ediciones de bandas sonoras noventeras...

Si no fuera porque aparece su nombre, uno deduciría que el tema pudiera pertenecer a algún bodriete de actioner (directo a dvd) de Seagal, antes que a una gran producción de la Paramount.

Aunque harto probable en estos días, me puedo imaginar a algún aficionado que comprara el compacto sólo por el nombre del compositor y tras escuchar un par de temas, tratase de devolverlo aduciendo un error en la edición.

Saludos.

Te vuelvo a citar, porque ya que estamos (y se que te gustan estas cosas, así te distraigo ), permíteme profundizar en el curioso caso de la banda sonora de Jack Ryan, donde la personalidad múltiple hace acto de presencia.

Aunque el tema que te he puesto, para ser justos, es con diferencia el peor del disco, la mayoría de lo que te he comentado se rige por los parámetros de lo que Doyle dijo que en Paramount habían tenido a bien llamar electronic dance music. Eso fue lo que le pidieron, a el y a Branagh. Música sintética y escurridiza, sobre una base orquestal ramplona y repetitiva (no hacía falta la LSO para esto).

No obstante, resulta HARTO sospechoso que haya un tema concreto del disco que no solo no se rige por estos parámetros, sino que carece de electrónica alguna y, para colmo, suena al Doyle clásico por los cuatro costados, por orquestación e instrumentación -incluido el interludio marca de la casa con la frase principal del tema repetida sobre adagio de cuerdas-. Ese tema es el dedicado al villano de la función, Cheverin, interpretado estupendamente por su amigo Branagh, y simboliza el patriotismo y el sentido del deber que este siente por su país, Rusia.

El tema introduce al personaje en su primera escena en la película, creando un momento audiovisual bastante potente, pero desgradaciamente, aparece cercenado, deteniéndose antes de llegar a su tramo central -si, el adagio de cuerdas-. Por suerte, el compositor se vengó en el album, incluyendo su versión completa de concierto.



Por favor, escucha, escucha y compara:





Qué, esto si, ¿verdad?. ¿A que esto es otra cosa?. Incluso tú, que llevas relativamente poco escuchado de la filmografía del compositor, identificarías esto sin dudar cómo de Patrick Doyle, ¿me equivoco?.

Ahora bien, plot thickens. ¿Por que digo esto?. Porque lo cierto es que hay OTRO tema que brilla con luz propia, que no es otro que el principal, el del sentido del deber y el honor de Ryan , que no aparece en la forma primigenia ideada por el compositor sino hasta el final, justo antes de los créditos... y de nuevo, cortado y mutilado por el montaje final (solo suenan sus primeros segundos). Branagh ha confesado que lo hicieron porque "querían que primara la electronica, y consideraban que lo otro hubiese estado fuera de lugar, en el tono general de la cinta". De nuevo, el compositor, incluye en el disco la versión de concierto, con una coda final muy buena.


De nuevo, escucha:



¿Cómo te quedas?

Los dos únicos momentos que Doyle logró zafarse de lo impuesto (tema principal y tema del villano), fueron mutilados en la película. Lo que nos lleva a pensar, ¿escribió el escocés una partitura muy distinta originalmente, y tuvo que re-escribirla casi toda a riesgo de ser despedido, cómo sucedió en Rise of the Planet of the Apes?. Algo puede intuirse, porque es muy extraño que haya dos temas que no peguen ni con cola con el resto del score y donde se ve que su personalidad y buen hacer siguen intactos. No sé, ya me dices.

Pues de villano le sale muy bien.

De las memorias de Lawrence Ashmore, orquestador de Patrick Doyle desde su debut Enrique V (1989) , hasta Cómo Gusteis (2006). Su primer trabajo en la industria del cine fue orquestando La Caída del Imperio Romano, de Dimitri Tiomkin, en 1964.

Falleció en 2013.



Sobre Doyle y Henry V:

A wet night in Charing Cross road I presented myself at the stage door of the Phoenix theatre and asked the doorman for Pat Doyle’s dressing room. I had already seen the show, “As You Like It”, and so had had my first encounter with Kenneth Branagh and The Renaissance Theatre Company. Pat Doyle, who hails from Glasgow had a small part but also sang some songs during the play accompanying himself on an autoharp. His role in the company was mainly to supply original music, so this play was a good opportunity for him to display his talent.

(...)



This introduction had been made by our mutual friend, Brian Gascoigne, a pianist, arranger and computer wizard who had a small studio within the larger CTS Studio in Wembley. Brian had been making some demonstration tapes for Pat who was preparing them to present to the production company that was about to make “Henry V”, Kenneth Branagh’s first movie as director. Not surprisingly, given his position with the company, Pat had asked his boss if he could be considered as composer for the picture, but had not yet been offered the job. Brian Gascoigne had declined the job of orchestrating for Pat and had recommended me (thanks, Brian!)

(...)


For the next week or two we started together on some ideas for the score, some of which Ken liked and some he didn’t. During this time we were together every day at Brian’s studio and I had a chance to get to know him a bit. From a Scottish catholic, working class family, he was the seventh son of a seventh son, which is supposed to mark you out for distinction in the world of affairs. He had studied at the Royal Scottish Academy, after which he had worked in Scotland as an actor/musician until joining The Renaissance Theatre Company.

Eventually Pat was chosen as composer and began to realise the size of the job he had taken on. It would be a score for full orchestra lasting about 75 minutes, which Ken had decided even though filming had not yet started. This is a great help to any composer, who usually doesn’t get called in until shooting has finished, because Pat now had some three months to spend writing the score which, bearing in mind the fact that this was his first movie he was going to need.

Another advantage for him was the fact that he himself was in the picture, playing a small part, but crucially, experiencing the movie as it grew during filming, something no composer normally gets. And another lucky fact was that most of the Production Staff were also doing something for the first time and thus had no preconceived ideas about what was possible.

This was an absolute boon for the creative people as, traditionally, the producers (that is the budget-watchers, money-men and accountants), can seriously limit creative freedom by forcing budgetary controls over everything. All this was mostly absent. Steven Evans, the producer, who was securing the financing of the picture, had all the usual headaches associated with finding the money, but he didn’t let that disturb the people who were making the picture. And David Parfitt, another producer, was also a Renaissance man, and thus an ally.

Filming took place at Shepperton Studios, its woods and its grounds, while the Battle of Agincourt was shot in a field opposite, beside the giant reservoir next door whose high bank had to be carefully screened from any camera shot.

I went down several times to watch filming and one night watched the sacking of Harfleur by fire and the “once more unto the breach, dear friends” speech, with fire engines and fire fighters everywhere as we put the town to the torch. Terribly exciting for me as I love fireworks. By the time filming had finished Pat had already mapped out some of the main themes. The main theme progresses through the score from the dark minor form of the original version in the main title, to its triumphal major key apotheosis of the hymn “Non Nobis Domine” which closes the Battle Scene. Rather satisfying that.

At that time Pat was using the old method for writing. He would sketch out the music in “short score”, that is, in a three line piano part with instrumental indications and timings. But even that early on in the process, he had decided we should use click tracks to ensure exact synchronisation between the music and the film.

This means printing an audible “click” that one listens to while playing the music to ensure the exact tempo is maintained. If it is properly used it is not so rigid as it might sound, and Pat used irregular bar lengths to break up any sense of monotony. Nowadays, most composers use this method and employ a music editor who takes care of the technical side and prints the outline scores with timings and “hit points”, moments where music must coincide in some emphatic way with the picture. Of course it all takes a bit of getting used to and progress was slow at first, but we soon picked up speed.

Another feature of work with Pat was his freedom from convention. This meant that many of my opinions about the suitability of what he suggested would be called into question and I would find myself going down a completely different musical path. Although we had some clashes over this at the beginning, I found this rather refreshing. On the other hand, he would let me have my way with unusual combinations of instruments so that eventually we wound up with “an interesting and unusual score”. (Here I’m quoting the conductor – see below.)

One of Pat’s characteristics is his love of singing and choirs, so when it came to the climax and King Henry calls for hymns of praise to be sung, it was an opportunity for him to come up with something so simple yet so effective as “Non Nobis Domine”, which forms the high spot of the score. It was recorded at CTS studios, at that time one of the best studios anywhere for recording movies. A few weeks before, one of Ken Branagh’s staff was discussing the picture with a friend who revealed that she knew Simon Rattle and that he loved movies. “Would he be interested in recording ‘Henry’?” she was asked. Simon was asked and said he would be delighted to record Pat’s score and he would bring the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra down to London to do it. Wow! Could any composer ask for more?

On the first day of recording Pat and I and the rest of the music staff arrived early. The studio staff were already there as was the director and all the production staff. The atmosphere was “First Night”, excited but suppressed . We spoke for some minutes until, standing in the door, there was Simon Rattle who shook hands and started to chat to both Ken and Pat who introduced me.


(...)

So to the recording sessions. We started recording the music in the order in which it appears in the movie after the title music. A black screen is suddenly illuminated by a lighter’s flame. It falls on the face of the chorus, played by Derek Jacobi as he speaks these famous lines, “Oh for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest Heaven of invention.” As he moves, “a Kingdom for a stage…”, lighting begins to reveal a film studio. At this point the strings begin a quiet progression of chords in D minor.

This was the first time Pat had heard a note of his score and it overwhelmed him. “Oh! It sounds wonderful”, he shouted out in the silent control room, “I’ve got to tell them!”. To everybody’s surprise he jumped up, leapt down the stairs and burst into the studio where the orchestra were still playing the cue with all eyes on the conductor and their backs to the door through which this excited composer had just burst. Those eyes spun round to see a loony standing in the doorway shouting, “It sounds GREAT!” . Most of the orchestra had not met Pat and didn’t know him from Adam, so it was up to Simon Rattle to calm the situation quickly and introduce him, “Ladies and gentlemen…Mr Patrick Doyle, the composer”. This eased the situation and there was some applause. However inexcusable it might seem, there is only one time in your life you hear your own music for the first time and it is the most wonderful moment too, unique and unforgettable.


(...)

It’s so funny to think that all that industry, so common only a few years ago, has now utterly changed because the advent of computers and modern software have made the old style music copyist completely redundant. This important skill has been totally bypassed by “Sibelius’’, an ingenious music writing computer software that will produce music as perfect as a printer and perform all vital functions connected with the production of printed scores and orchestral parts.

And all in a few years. Composers who write for films and television have also had their lives and working methods changed by computers. It would be very difficult to compose for these media nowadays without using a computer, indeed there is now a new official profession of “electronic composer” that has come into being. Pat is one such composer who has changed his work method, as I described earlier, and “gone electronic”. But here I have to speak for myself when I say these changes have not always been for the better.

Previously the director would have been satisfied with a conference with his composer in which he would be played themes on a piano, which he could approve, while the fine detail of each music cue could be left to the composer to write in his own way. That state of affairs has been changed by computers. Now the director can ask for, and get, an electronic “mock up” of the final score to approve or disapprove. This is called a “demo”, which the director can take away with him as a music file and play to himself or even add to his picture to see how I suits him.


For the director, this may seem to be fine. But for the composer, his creative freedom is now compromised. He is effectively chained to that version of his music. If he decides on a better version, he has to persuade the director that the new version is better, and probably has to produce a new “demo” to support his argument.

This has given the director even more control over his composer than he already had. I don’t have to tell you that this state of affairs is not always popular with composers!

Sobre Frankenstein:


When Ken Branagh decided to film “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, Pat saw an opportunity to write an epic sized score. I have already mentioned in connection with “Arachnophobia” how horror films lend themselves to music, and what horror story beats Frankenstein? Before we got to the music, the music staff, including the composer, were to appear in a ballroom scene from the movie where we play the band. During makeup, one of the makeup chiefs took a look at my beard and declared it too modern. “It will have to come off.”I was outraged. “I’ve had my beard since I came out of the army and no one is going to separate me from it.”

This caused a bit of an impasse until Pat came to my rescue, “But Ken, who’s playing Dr Frankenstein, is wearing his own beard “ he said. It was true, and I thought, my beard was safe. But these backroom people have ways of getting even. “Okay, he can keep his modern beard but we shall have to stick a period beard over it.” This was a mild form of torture when it came to taking the false beard off. It took over an hour to detach it and I was picking stray whiskers out of my face for weeks.

Then I had to wear a wig and 18th century costume and stand on a staircase with one leg on a higher step than the other, in tight fitting shoes with heels. I am in shot for a while but the only bit you see of me is the bottom of my double bass. Such vanity, just to be in a movie.


The nature of the film enabled us to assemble an unusually large orchestra which filled the hall at Lyndhurst Studio and I claim you can really hear it if you have the recording. I used six horns and added a euphonium and brought the bass tuba across from its usual seat beside the trombones. This made a huge choir of eight horns which sound wonderfully heavy, rich and elemental. Over in the depleted trombone section I added a cimbasso, a double bass trombone that has no slide but uses keywork like an enormous brass bass clarinet. So, eight horns and four trombones. Now we added six trumpets and, in one cue, an A flat oboe and six flutes.

Y finalmente:

After Harry Potter I only made one more film with Pat. I finished my association with him as I had started, with a Ken Branagh film “As You Like It”, a charming, Japanese inflected piece. This had been the very play that The Renaissance Theatre Group had been doing, back in the 90s when we met, so it seemed the right moment to call it a day. The film business is supposed to be a young man’s business, and I was 78. I must be the child in me that kept me in this exciting, crazy field so long… It certainly wasn’t just for the money!

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

De las memorias de Lawrence Ashmore, orquestador de Patrick Doyle desde su debut Enrique V (1989) , hasta Cómo Gusteis (2006). Su primer trabajo en la industria del cine fue orquestando La Caída del Imperio Romano, de Dimitri Tiomkin, en 1964.

Falleció en 2013.



Sobre Doyle y Henry V:


(...)


For the next week or two we started together on some ideas for the score, some of which Ken liked and some he didn’t. During this time we were together every day at Brian’s studio and I had a chance to get to know him a bit. From a Scottish catholic, working class family, he was the seventh son of a seventh son, which is supposed to mark you out for distinction in the world of affairs. He had studied at the Royal Scottish Academy, after which he had worked in Scotland as an actor/musician until joining The Renaissance Theatre Company.

No sabía que Doyle era el séptimo hijo de un séptimo hijo. ¿de hay su magia?

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

Eventually Pat was chosen as composer and began to realise the size of the job he had taken on. It would be a score for full orchestra lasting about 75 minutes, which Ken had decided even though filming had not yet started. This is a great help to any composer, who usually doesn’t get called in until shooting has finished, because Pat now had some three months to spend writing the score which, bearing in mind the fact that this was his first movie he was going to need.

Another advantage for him was the fact that he himself was in the picture, playing a small part, but crucially, experiencing the movie as it grew during filming, something no composer normally gets. And another lucky fact was that most of the Production Staff were also doing something for the first time and thus had no preconceived ideas about what was possible.

Se ve que Doyle tuvo la suerte de poder construir el score con calma y desde los primesos estados del proyecyo. Y admeás, eso, que estuvo también por allí en el rodaje y participando en el film. Supongo que esta manera de trabajar permite una mayor identificación co nel film y un nivel mayor de empatía que croe que se reflejó en la composiciones. Per otambién es verdad que esta manera de trabajar no es la más común.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

This was an absolute boon for the creative people as, traditionally, the producers (that is the budget-watchers, money-men and accountants), can seriously limit creative freedom by forcing budgetary controls over everything. All this was mostly absent. Steven Evans, the producer, who was securing the financing of the picture, had all the usual headaches associated with finding the money, but he didn’t let that disturb the people who were making the picture. And David Parfitt, another producer, was also a Renaissance man, and thus an ally.

Interesante que defina a los productores como hombres renacentismas, es decir mecesas. Apoyan financieramente el proyecto y dejan hacer a la parte artística. Buena manera de actura en esto de las películas, creo yo. De todas formas, veo que el presupuesto tampoco fue muy elevado diría que incluso para la época (9 millones de $) y en solamente en USA ya recaudó más de esa cantidad (supongo que el espaldarazo que recibió la cinta en los Oscar ayudó a esta situación).

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

At that time Pat was using the old method for writing. He would sketch out the music in “short score”, that is, in a three line piano part with instrumental indications and timings. But even that early on in the process, he had decided we should use click tracks to ensure exact synchronisation between the music and the film.

This means printing an audible “click” that one listens to while playing the music to ensure the exact tempo is maintained. If it is properly used it is not so rigid as it might sound, and Pat used irregular bar lengths to break up any sense of monotony. Nowadays, most composers use this method and employ a music editor who takes care of the technical side and prints the outline scores with timings and “hit points”, moments where music must coincide in some emphatic way with the picture. Of course it all takes a bit of getting used to and progress was slow at first, but we soon picked up speed.

Interesante este tema de los clicks para indican momentos de la imagne donde la música debe incidir. Por extensión estamos ante el tema de fundir la música con la imagen y de conseguir que ambas cases. Casi siempre la música se termina amolnando a lo filmado aunqeu a veces es la música la que marca el montaje final. Aquí parece que se dió un mezlca de ambos casos al irse, entiendo, componiendo casi a la par que filmando.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

One of Pat’s characteristics is his love of singing and choirs, so when it came to the climax and King Henry calls for hymns of praise to be sung, it was an opportunity for him to come up with something so simple yet so effective as “Non Nobis Domine”, which forms the high spot of the score. It was recorded at CTS studios, at that time one of the best studios anywhere for recording movies. A few weeks before, one of Ken Branagh’s staff was discussing the picture with a friend who revealed that she knew Simon Rattle and that he loved movies. “Would he be interested in recording ‘Henry’?” she was asked. Simon was asked and said he would be delighted to record Pat’s score and he would bring the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra down to London to do it. Wow! Could any composer ask for more?

Doylre usa muchos los coros y aquí tenemos su primer grna tema coral. Todo un momento donde música e imagen se funden al cantar los personajes ese Non Nobis Domine que, Branagh rueda de la mejor de las maneras, empezando con el propio Doyle en el plano y siguiendo éste, ya en movimiento lateral a un Brannagh cargando con un jovencito Christian Bale:

Spoiler:

Respecto a Simon Rattle, indicar que la edición del disco presenta su nombre mucho mas destacada que el de un primerizo Doyle.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

So to the recording sessions. We started recording the music in the order in which it appears in the movie after the title music. A black screen is suddenly illuminated by a lighter’s flame. It falls on the face of the chorus, played by Derek Jacobi as he speaks these famous lines, “Oh for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest Heaven of invention.” As he moves, “a Kingdom for a stage…”, lighting begins to reveal a film studio. At this point the strings begin a quiet progression of chords in D minor.

This was the first time Pat had heard a note of his score and it overwhelmed him. “Oh! It sounds wonderful”, he shouted out in the silent control room, “I’ve got to tell them!”. To everybody’s surprise he jumped up, leapt down the stairs and burst into the studio where the orchestra were still playing the cue with all eyes on the conductor and their backs to the door through which this excited composer had just burst. Those eyes spun round to see a loony standing in the doorway shouting, “It sounds GREAT!” . Most of the orchestra had not met Pat and didn’t know him from Adam, so it was up to Simon Rattle to calm the situation quickly and introduce him, “Ladies and gentlemen…Mr Patrick Doyle, the composer”. This eased the situation and there was some applause. However inexcusable it might seem, there is only one time in your life you hear your own music for the first time and it is the most wonderful moment too, unique and unforgettable.

Bonita anécdota, ver a Doyle entusiasmado al oír que lo que habia compuesto sonaba tan maravillosamente, y por tanto interrumpiendo la grabación. reso les pasa a todos William Goldman contaba algo parecido en sus memorias sobre la princesa prometida, cuando grito en medio de una escena a la princesa para que se resguarda antes de ser atacada, sin percatarse de que todo era un rodaje.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

It’s so funny to think that all that industry, so common only a few years ago, has now utterly changed because the advent of computers and modern software have made the old style music copyist completely redundant. This important skill has been totally bypassed by “Sibelius’’, an ingenious music writing computer software that will produce music as perfect as a printer and perform all vital functions connected with the production of printed scores and orchestral parts.

And all in a few years. Composers who write for films and television have also had their lives and working methods changed by computers. It would be very difficult to compose for these media nowadays without using a computer, indeed there is now a new official profession of “electronic composer” that has come into being. Pat is one such composer who has changed his work method, as I described earlier, and “gone electronic”. But here I have to speak for myself when I say these changes have not always been for the better.

Previously the director would have been satisfied with a conference with his composer in which he would be played themes on a piano, which he could approve, while the fine detail of each music cue could be left to the composer to write in his own way. That state of affairs has been changed by computers. Now the director can ask for, and get, an electronic “mock up” of the final score to approve or disapprove. This is called a “demo”, which the director can take away with him as a music file and play to himself or even add to his picture to see how I suits him.


For the director, this may seem to be fine. But for the composer, his creative freedom is now compromised. He is effectively chained to that version of his music. If he decides on a better version, he has to persuade the director that the new version is better, and probably has to produce a new “demo” to support his argument.

This has given the director even more control over his composer than he already had. I don’t have to tell you that this state of affairs is not always popular with composers!


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Interesante reflexión sobre la manera actual de trabajar, se ha pasado de eso, dle esbozo a piano a la maqueta a una demo sitetizada. Supongo que esta manera de actuar tiene ventajas, pero también los inconvenientes indicdos. Yo croe que se tiene a la homogeneización sonora a que todo suene muy parecido entre sí o muy parecedo al temp track que se ha usado en un primer montaje. Y claro, estos parecidos musicales pueden hasta provocar que al final esa música provisional sea definitiva y termine sonando muy igual a la base de donde se ha tomado. Hay está el caso de Titus y 300. Pero es que sin legar a esos extremos, creo que esto provoca cierta presión ante los compositores para que adecuen su estilo a lo que esta de moda y, ahora hay prima el estilo mediaventures. Pero bueno que por ahí queda Doyle y muchos otros que parece que siguen trabajando un estilo digamos, propio.

Saludos

¿Y lo que cuenta de Frankenstein?

Al margen de la anécdota de las barbas postizas, , y de que el compositor y parte del equipo técnico musical saliesen de extras, al principio de la película, en la secuencia del baile, donde por cierto suena el tema de amor de Elizabeth y Victor a modo de vals. Es interesante, por lo cuenta de la instrumentación, la cantidad tremebunda de viento metal que hay en ese score. Es una partitura de dimensiones colosales, y por la buena acústica del sitio donde se grabó, la verdad es que el disco suena impecablemente, y se pueden apreciar todos los matices en las orquestaciones y demás.

Estaba muy orgulloso de la producción de ese album en concreto, y la verdad es que suena de escándalo.

Sigo mañana

Saludos

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

Los dos únicos momentos que Doyle logró zafarse de lo impuesto (tema principal y tema del villano), fueron mutilados en la película. Lo que nos lleva a pensar, ¿escribió el escocés una partitura muy distinta originalmente, y tuvo que re-escribirla casi toda a riesgo de ser despedido, cómo sucedió en Rise of the Planet of the Apes?. Algo puede intuirse, porque es muy extraño que haya dos temas que no peguen ni con cola con el resto del score y donde se ve que su personalidad y buen hacer siguen intactos. No sé, ya me dices.

De este trabajo de Doyle sólo he escuchado su versión en la pleícula. no he escuchado la edición en disco. Acabo de escuchar esos dos temazos y sí, a Doyle le jorobaron (por decirlo finamente) el score porque esto suena al Doyle de toda la vida, el tema final serviría igual para entrar en el despacho oval o en Camelot (y bueno como decía Jackie para Larraín durante un corto período de tiempo casi fueron lo mismo)

Saludos

Iniciado por Tripley

De este trabajo de Doyle sólo he escuchado su versión en la pleícula. no he escuchado la edición en disco. Acabo de escuchar esos dos temazos y sí, a Doyle le jorobaron (por decirlo finamente) el score porque esto suena al Doyle de toda la vida, el tema final serviría igual para entrar en el despacho oval o en Camelot (y bueno como decía Jackie para Larraín durante un corto período de tiempo casi fueron lo mismo)

Saludos

MIK no me llegó a responder a esto (se conoce que marchó a quemarle las oficinas centrales a Paramount Pictures tras quedar en estado de shock por el contraste estilístico entre los temas), pero sospecho que piensa igual que tú.

Es que eso, se queda uno con la mosca detrás de la oreja porque son tan distintos al resto del score que diría que todo lo que escribió originalmente iba en esa primera línea, pero le obligaron a simplificarlo mucho -cómo le pasó a Marianelli con Pan-, sólo que a el si acabaron echándole. En fin...


Por cierto Tripley, ¿has leído el fragmento de las memorias del orquestador Lawrence Ashmore que he puesto más arriba?. La parte que habla de Doyle. Es interesante e instructivo, creo que puede gustarte si tienes maña con el inglés. A ver que te parece.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

Por cierto Tripley, ¿has leído el fragmento de las memorias del orquestador Lawrence Ashmore que he puesto más arriba?. La parte que habla de Doyle. Es interesante e instructivo, creo que puede gustarte si tienes maña con el inglés. A ver que te parece.

lo leo mañana (bueno, hoy, dentro de unas horas) que la vista no me da ya para leer en inglés

Saludos

Iniciado por Tripley

De este trabajo de Doyle sólo he escuchado su versión en la pleícula. no he escuchado la edición en disco. Acabo de escuchar esos dos temazos y sí, a Doyle le jorobaron (por decirlo finamente) el score porque esto suena al Doyle de toda la vida, el tema final serviría igual para entrar en el despacho oval o en Camelot (y bueno como decía Jackie para Larraín durante un corto período de tiempo casi fueron lo mismo)

Saludos

Jejejeje: