FILM COMPOSITION 10 Class Course Schedule
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This course offers you a detailed examination of the process and techniques of film composition. The emphasis is on contemporary scoring approaches with cues from John Williams, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, Hans Zimmer and others. Various genres will be examined including suspense, family, sci-fi, and epic cues.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this course:
The student will have an in-depth knowledge of contemporary scoring techniques and styles.
The student will be able to analyze film cues and detect large scale textural patterns.
The student will have a much deeper understanding of how to develop their material.
 
Text:
Norman Ludwin, Composition- Anthology Volume Three
Recommended:
Norman Ludwin, Composition - Developing Variation
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1. Introduction to the course
Anthology Volume Three overview
Textures
Outlines
Williams- ET Halloween
 
2. Modes
Whole tone scales
Augmented and diminished scales
Octatonic scales
Exercise One
 
3: Solo Piano - Modern Minimalism
Instrumentation
Solo Piano
After an absence in the 1970s and 1990s, the use of piano as a featured instrument in film scoring came strongly back in the 1990s, although the piano as employed by composers like Thomas Newman was a very different instrument from the one made iconic by the likes of Michel Legrand. In the early 2000s, the new piano sound continued to evolve in the hands of Mychael Nyman and Carter Burwell.
Your assignment is to compose a cue for solo piano in the “neoromantic” minimalistic style that is current today. Your piece should be evocative and moving without being showy or virtuosic. It should be a piece that you can perform even if you are not a skilled pianist. Put Rachmaninoff on the shelf and put on your best Nordic Noir hat.
References: Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson
 
 
4: Strings - Depicting Character
Instrumentation / Score Order:
Piano, Violin, Cello
Some of the most indelible portraits of character and character psychology in film music have been painted with strings. From Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s The Revenant and Mica Levi’s Under the Skin, the string section in all sizes and configurations is the most adept at following the curves and contours of character and emotional states like grief,
longing, agitation, revery, and nostalgia.
In this assignment, the solo violin and cello will become “characters” in the drama of your cue, with the piano as accompaniment and rhythmic motor. We should be able to hear them “talking to each other” (i.e., in counterpoint) and should be able to identify their distinctive qualities.
References: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mica Levi, Bernhard Herrmann
 
5: Winds - Depicting Period or Place
Instrumentation Score Order:
Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Cor Anglais
Bb Clarinet
Bass Clarinet
Bassoon
Horn in F
When a composer wishes to create a sense of place, as Delius did in In A Summer Garden or as in the orchestrations of Debussy’s La Mer, or as Elmer Bernstein did in To Kill A Mockingbird, they often cues the woodwinds, for no other instruments can speak quite as lightly, whether whispering in our ears like the sound of a rural stream or imitating birdsong or the voices of children at play. Woodwinds can place us in Medieval Britain, 19th century America, or contemporary North Africa. With the addition of the horn, with its power to elevate and inspire, we can make any setting feel immediate. Describing a particular historical period, like depicting a scene, calls for instrumental color, and the woodwinds are perhaps the most colorful section.
In this assignment you will put your wind ensemble front and center. Choose the solo woodwind most expressive of your chosen setting (e.g., oboe or English horn for pastoral; clarinet for something more urban and ‘civilized’), and then arrange the other instruments around it, working out from the center. Concentrate on solo lines and use the other instruments for expressive counter lines and the horn for “wallpaper” and occasional solo lines.
References: Debussy, Delius, E. Bernstein, Sense and Sensibility, The Piano
 
6: Brass - Creating Suspense
Instrumentation / Score Order:
3 Bb Trumpets
4 Horns in F
3 Tenor Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
The brass section can, of course, take on many roles. It can be heroic, elegiac, deeply nostalgic or relentlessly aggressive. But in cinema, the brass is probably associated most strongly with the genres of film noir and thriller, and with the creation of nail-biting suspense and tension. In this assignment, you’ll employ your brass as Jerry Goldsmith or Ennio Morricone did.
Use tightly packed clusters, extended harmonies, and soft dynamics with or without mutes, as these are their greatest attributes. Because they are driven by breath, they can swell like no other section. Think of the wonderful fp < f brass effects in Don Davis’s score for The Matrix; you can’t do that with strings or woodwinds.       
References: LA Confidential, The Untouchables, The Matrix
 
7: Strings - Scoring Under Dialogue
Instrumentation / Score Order:
5 1st Violins
4 2nd Violins
3 Violas
3 Celli
2 Basses
It’s very rare these days to hear the sort of elaborately worked out underscoring of dialogue that was common in the era of the 1940s through the 1970s, complete with pauses, songs, tempo changes, and even modulations, but it’s just as rare to see an intense dialogue scene with no music. Mostly, composers try to lay low and maintain the mood.
If it’s done well, however underscore can lend meaning and great emotional impact to dialogue. No matter what approach you use, the trick is to first sketch out your main theme and significant character leitmotifs, just as you did for Depicting Character. Then when you sit down to score the scene you will have your ‘ingredients’ and can subtly interpolate fragments of the theme or leitmotifs under the dialogue.
References: Penny Dreadful, Harry Potter, The Phantom Thread
 
8: Brass – Heroism and High Drama
Instrumentation / Score Order:
4 Bb Trumpets
6 Horns in F
3 Tenor Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
For this assignment, unlike some of the others and unlike much of contemporary film music, you will need to create a theme with a strong horizontal line. Four bars are sufficient (think of John Williams’ Superman theme). Themes like this are most often thoroughly tonal, opening on the tonic and closing the four bars on some version of the dominant, often with a suspended fourth that resolves, thus setting up the repeat. Once you’ve stated your theme, you can then proceed to develop it in a ‘B’ section before returning to the main A theme.
References: Superman, Jupiter
 
9: Mixed Ensemble – Emotional Extremes
Instrumentation / Score Order:
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
2 Horns in F
Bb trumpet
Trombone
Tuba
Harp
Piano
Percussion (two players)
Timpani (4 drums)
10 1st violins
8 2nd violins
6 violas
5 celli
3 basses
In creating characters for a motion picture screenplay, screenwriters give a great deal of attention to what is called the character’s ‘backstory.’ The backstory includes everything that has happened to the character before we meet them on the screen: childhood, romantic history, trauma, heartbreak, and triumph. Think about the Bruce Wayne character in the Batman films and his backstory is what makes him more than a comic book character. In this assignment you will use music to describe a leading character in a short narrative film who is experiencing a psychological or emotional extreme. The film source may be of any genre: drama, thriller, horror, romance, or comedy, but you may find it easiest to establish character in drama.
For examples of rich characters, think in terms of contrast: the reluctant hero, the introvert with the wild inner life, the beautiful model who feels ugly inside, the priest with a dark secret, the child who must carry an adult’s load, the superstar with stage fright, etc.
References: Batman, Gorecki Symphony No. 3 , Bathroom Dance from The Joker
 
10: 52-piece orchestra – Scoring a Scene
Instrumentation / Score Order:
2 Flutes
(1 doubles Piccolo)
2 Oboes
(1 doubles English Horn)
2 Bb Clarinets
2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F
3 Bb Trumpets  
2 Tenor Trombones
Bass Trombone
Timpani (4 drums)
Percussion (two players)
Harp
12 1st Violins
12 2nd Violins
10 Violas
8 Celli
5 basses
The very first thing that usually happens after a composer is engaged to score a picture is a private session with the filmmaker devoted to a careful viewing of the project and a discussion about what music can add to it, and how. If the composer is smart and perceptive, they will at some point ask to stop the video and say something like, “Okay, help me understand how to read this scene. It is sending out a lot of messages. Tell me which message you want me to help you send.” This question—how to read the dramatic intent of a scene accurately—can apply to any genre of film: romantic comedy (is she into that guy or not?), a mystery thriller (does he know that she’s the killer?), science-fiction/fantasy (are we on earth or another planet?), or even comedy (does he know that everyone is laughing at him?).
This assignment is to use the whole orchestra to establish the narrative of a scene and be original and creative in your musical voice.
References: Spiderman Far from Home; The Shape of Water; Oppenheimer