Very interesting article to say the least, & yes highly informative! Thank you Elliot for posting it!mazz wrote:I feel and see that there is greater and greater demand for at least some live instrument in a composition, particularly for orchestral music. That alone will "thin the herd" a bit because there's bunches and bunches of composers out there that have never even experienced a real orchestra or real flute or whatever. It's not enough to be able to compose for samples, it's about translating those concepts out so that a live musician can play those parts. That communication requires training and knowledge.
I find the above quote by Mazz very interesting. Mazz you are of course, echoing the author of the article when he says:
Whether as a result of the educational system for filmmakers, new filmmaking/editing technology,
better sample libraries, lower budgets, a new generation of directors brought up on electronic sounds,
or the simple fact of huge numbers of “composers” in the marketplace who can’t begin to write for live
instruments and instead rely completely on electronic sounds to create scores, many of today’s
filmmakers seem perfectly happy with synthetic, electronic scores.
Prior to getting involved with attempting to compose for production music, all I did was compose for real live musicians, professional, or otherwise! What I've found & have asserted on several occasions, as I've entered this 'game', is that one who is quite skilled as an engineer, really knows their gear & has a lot of it, will be seen as a really great or good composer, however the reverse, simply does not the exist! I have found the transition to composing with & for samples challenging to say the least, mainly because my engineering skills, & the gear I use still require immense work or improvement.
A marriage of these two idioms is certainly required these days, production & compositional skills, with the emphasis being on production skills however. I believe this to be a$$ backwards! We like to believe that it is always about the music, & yet clearly it is not!
It is interesting how people like Alex North, who scored Spartacus was a theatre composer prior to scoring for film. No electronics just pencil, pad & score. He was the first to step out, and be unique, implementing jazz or atonal elements into his scores. Art first!
John Williams' intent was to be a concert pianist (artist first)! That's how he got his gig as a studio pianist. He then stumbled into tv & film firstly as an arranger, then score composer ( more pencil, pad & score)!
These guys were artists first, the intent was the music, & the music only!
I suppose we are forced to undervalue ourselves as artists in order to survive the business aspects of music. I believe the above mentioned composer were all about the skill of composing, & nothing else! Pushing the envelope towards new idioms in film music, makes them artists in my opinion!
I believe we've forgotten this very important aspect of our collective music making! If we want to make it about the music & bring back honor to ourselves as composer's, we should always use live musicians firstly, & secondly we should return to who we are, which is artists!
Just a few on my humble thoughts!
Thanks again Elliot for posting!
Cheers,
Vincent!
