I was just watching this very interesting clip of Hans Zimmer tonight, and a few thoughts struck me.
Y’know, I’ve always told myself that I would love to be either a film score composer or a Broadway musical composer…but on second thoughts I think I would prefer being the Broadway musical composer.
You see, the problem with being a film score composer is that your music hardly ever takes centrestage.
Your music serves to heighten the drama, or bring out the fullness of the movie, so to speak.
Very few movie themes are truly memorable (and most of the memorable ones belong to John Williams).
And even if the movie theme is memorable, it’s probably only a few minutes out of 100mins++ of film score music in the movie that you can really remember.
That’s the problem I have with film scoring.
Another thing is: Someone raised a very good point in the comments to the clip above.
He wondered how much of the final product is actually the work of the composer (i.e. Hans Zimmer), and how much is actually the good work of the arrangers and orchestrators?
Theoretically a film score composer could just submit a melodic line (although I don’t believe they do just that), and a good orchestrator can make a mediocre melodic line sound amazing.
Yup, I believe it’s possible.
(Not to take anything away from Hans Zimmer. I believe he’s a brilliant composer.)
So what gives?
That’s the issue I have with film scoring.
Somehow film score composers occasionally give me the impression that they “churn” out music rather than write inspired songs (which they obviously don’t…cos film scoring is not about writing “songs” per se).
However, for a Broadway musical song…if you’ve come with a good melody, then nobody can take it away from you.
A good melody is a good melody.
Nobody can take that away from you.
That’s something I’ve always believed in: You may not be the best guitarist/pianist/singer in the world, and you may not have thousands of dollars worth of scoring equipment…but if you can come up with a golden melody, then nobody can take that away from you.
I think film composers are functional, wherease music composers goes beyond and melt into everything. What do I want to say with this… you can be a mood creator by watching the scene and writing according to what you see and there, stop. Or you can be a composer who’s not only a mood creator, but a fully dedicated life inspiring lifestream musician. That’s the difference between a Hans Zimmer, who makes the movie useless without the music, and a lot of “functional” mood writers, clichéd dogmatic orchestrators which follow the same known path to enlight or dark a scene (sad = minor chord, good = major chord, 2nds = diavolic, etc).
You like the “glam” eh? :P
Anyway looking it in another way, if you get the recognition, then your music will sound more “inspired” than “functional”? But then, how do u get the recognition first?
I really don’t like “glam”; i’m criticizing it, in fact. I support Zimmer because he IS a good musician, maybe I missed my point up there. I know, because I saw many films with a lot of music in it, that there are some film composers that will only stay where it’s safe for them to be. This is what I call “funcitonal”, the same old boring formula.
Zimmer goes beyond, also Williams.
I don’t thing recognition has something to do with this, if you are original with what you do in music and innovative, there you go.
Nic: erm…the “glam” part was more for Jeremy.
Anyway, I understand what you’re trying to say. I was trying to say there’s some cycle in this. They get the recognition for their artistic capabilities (I’m not saying the “glam” factor here). So the “functional” kind don’t stand out as they stay in their “safe” zone.
PS: I notice you’re using Nobuo Uematsu’s pic?
Oh sorry ! :D
Indeed Nobuo, one of the best composers I’ve ever heard since Debussy and Dvorak. Mind blowing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eSrBMsIw3s)
Ah, Final Fantasy. 1 of the best gaming music I’ve heard (although I must confess I don’t know many).