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Showing posts from September, 2016

2015 Sundance Composer/Director Roundtable: Where Ideas Come From

BMI’s Music & Film: The Creative Process event took place on Tuesday, January 27 at the Sundance Filmmaker Lodge. This informative conversation, which is a cornerstone event at the Festival, was moderated by BMI Vice President of Film/TV Relations Doreen Ringer-Ross and explored the role of music in film. Focusing on the relationship between composer and director, panelists discussed what goes into creating a successful film score , the ingredients of an effective composer/director relationship, the Sundance Film Festival experience and other exciting topics. http://www.bmi.com About BMI Celebrating 75 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in more than 8.5 million musical works created and owned by more than 650,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The

Trent Reznor, Danny Elfman and Top Composers Reveal Insecurities and Dis...

Film composers love to talk about insomnia. Prior to The Hollywood Reporter roundtable with five of the industry's most sought-after film scorers, the group -- Marco Beltrami , Danny Elfman , John Powell , Trent Reznor and Hans Zimmer , chatted at length about their preferred sleep aids . Most favor Ambien , but at least one opted for a method that might or might not be entirely legal. The discussion that followed touched on the technical, like less-than-ideal sound mixes, and the personal, including the admission that their lives are so hectic, they rarely get time to relax with family and listen to music for pleasure. Throughout the discussion, the music creators appeared to relish the opportunity to actually talk shop ; after all, the composer's life is largely an isolated one, and the chance to trade war stories with other composers is rare. Want to write music? Want to teach your students how to write music? AVAILABLE NOW: https://www.createspace.com/61249

'Star Wars' composer John Williams in vintage 1980 Video - Film Composer

23-Minute behind-the-scenes with composer John Williams at creating the score of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back . The video is from 1980 and also features George Lucas , Gary Kurtz and director Irvin Kerchner. Fantastic footage from an amazing artist and the unique moments of creating of one of the best film scores ever conducted. Want to write music? Want to teach your students how to write music? AVAILABLE NOW: https://www.createspace.com/6124929 EXCLUSIVE CREATESPACE DISCOUNT CODE! “Excellent ideas for young composers, and brilliant ways to get unstuck if you’re a mature composer.” – 5 STAR Customer Review

LISTENING TO LADIES PODCST SHOWCASES LIBERTARIA: THE VIRTUAL OPERA

LISTENING TO LADIES PODCST SHOWCASES LIBERTARIA: THE VIRTUAL OPERA Tuesday Sept 27th The Listening to Ladies podcast , which focuses on women composers and classical music , will be showcasing Libertaria: The Virtual Opera this Tuesday on their podcast.  http://listeningtoladies.com/ ABOUT LISTENING TO LADIES Begun in June 2015 as a  Facebook page  featuring works by composers who are women, Listening to Ladies has expanded to both a  concert series  and a  podcast , which will be released once per week beginning September 26, 2016. MORE ABOUT THE LISTENING TO LADIES PATREON CAMPAIGN PATREON PAGE:  https://www.patreon.com/listeningtoladies On Monday, September 26th, 2016, Listening to Ladies will begin releasing the first season of the LtL podcast, one episode per week. What is the podcast about? Each episode focuses on  one composer who is a woman , weaving together  an  interview  with   clips of her music . The banner picture above shows some -

The Marvel Symphonic Universe Amazing Youtube Video on Film Composers

Here's a second, supplementary video we made:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEfQ_... And a new Twitter account about temp music we made:  https://twitter.com/SoundsLikeTemp Watch Dan Golding's great response video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXsH... Off the top of your head, could you sing the theme from Star Wars ? How about James Bond ? Or Harry Potter ? But here’s the kicker: can you sing any theme from a Marvel film? Despite 13 films and 10 billion dollars at the box office, the Marvel Cinematic Universe lacks a distinctive musical identity or approach. So let’s try to answer the question: what is missing from Marvel music? This video was made by Brian Satterwhite:  https://twitter.com/bmsatter Taylor Ramos:  https://twitter.com/glassesattached Tony Zhou:  https://twitter.com/tonyszhou For educational purposes only. You can donate to support the channel at Patreon:  http://www.patreon.com/everyframeapai... Interviews filmed in Vancouver,

Composer Tips - What are Program Notes in Classical Music?

Composer Tips - What are Program Notes in Classical Music?  I have had a couple of questions regarding program notes. Here are a few helpful hints and examples: Program notes can describe what is happening musically in a work (Ex. "The trumpet in Movement 1 conveys a militaristic feeling of war.") Program notes can explain the composer's intention (Ex. " Stravinsky wished to convey the rites of passage through primal rhythm.") Program notes can quote nonmusical references, like a poem or biblical text. (Ex. Movement 1 symbolizes, "And let there be light.") Program notes can give lyrics. (Ex. "I look in the mirror, and who do I see? Hollowed eyes, looking back at me.") Program notes can give historical information. (Ex. "Originally composed in honor of Napoleon , Beethoven's Symphony #3 eventually came to recognize any hero, and not just Bonaparte." Program notes for 20th century concerts can be more experimental. (

Using Moviestorm for Multimedia Classical Composition

For the past decade and a half I have explored using multimedia in classical composition . While my first forty or so works were entirely acoustic classical compositions, I found that my percussionist love for timbre and sound melded well with my very nerdy love of technology causing me to veer body and soul into the world of electronic music and media.  While I would love to write a traditional symphony someday, I find that my journey has let me to almost always consider possible visual elements in my work. This has taken mainly the form of animation that plays during live performance. For example, in the Creation Oratorio below, which won a New Genre Prize from the IAWM , the women's choir and percussion ensemble played live with a tape and original animation that projected imagery symbolic of both creation and procreation, the beauty of life on earth and life in the womb. These images were created in a program called Bryce, which was best known for the graphics in Zork , a l