Musicians are magnificent dreamers by nature. It's where the music comes from. We all fall in love with the resonance and beauty of sound, the possibility of taking ourselves and our listeners on a journey away from the physical reality that we occupy, or maybe the potential of an outlet for our inner most desires or frustrations, to be able to voice that which words alone cannot express, whether it is a single note, a simple phrase or complete silence, music has the possibility to change lives.
Part of this expression, this soul searching and outpouring is performance and part is composition: the act of putting pen to paper or more recently, keyboard to silicon to record these deep messages from within so that they can be played over and over, to carry others on the journey of our intention.
Composing music for film and TV has created a relatively new (in the history of music) genre, one which supports and carries the message of the directors vision, to enhance the story telling, add drama, excitement, fear or joy or perhaps to remind the audience of a moment or a deep characteristic trait that is repeated throughout in the form of a melody or sound that enhances the scenes ability to tell it’s story.
The twentieth century gave us records and then tapes and eventually digital distribution which has allowed listeners to take these soundtracks into their everyday lives: to train to the soundtrack for Rocky, drive to the theme for Top Gear, dance to the music of La La Land and more recently sing along to songs that were already hits before they were used to tell the story of their writers such as Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocket Man.
And today we have the quiet superstar soundtrack composers whose music is known to so many and yet whose names are not: John Williams (probably the best known), Bernard Hermann (possibly the godfather of soundtrack composers), Lalo Schifrin the Argentinian composer (hugely celebrated in his home country) who wrote the theme tune for Mission Impossible and shaped the sound of TV and film throughout the second half of the twentieth century, David Arnold who took over the James Bond baton from the incredible John Barry (let’s not forget Monty Norman who composed the immortal Bond theme) before handing it to Hans Zimmer (yes there have been others in-between who deserve note but this is a short article!).
There are numerous great soundtrack composers and to many, their work is the new classical music, the background to their lives and more important than pop. It takes them back to the feel of the film and helps them to navigate through life.
And the musicians who dream this into reality enjoy a return from their work, even those who write for adverts or social media. They have taken the steps to create an income stream separate from performance or selling records and streaming. If you have the ability to turn picture to music, to work with visual creators to help tell their stories, to understand that the music isn’t always the star, then maybe it’s something you could consider as well? Get in touch and let’s see if we can work together.
HPM