The power of music can connect and represent the words that cannot be spoken. Music unites people, nature, or even beliefs. Don’t you desire to reach people using the universal language – music? Film music is without a doubt about touching audience’s minds and evoke people in a certain way. It certainly isn’t around the music or the orchestra or the audience, however, it is the interconnection of all these elements that makes music alive. Being a film composer means that you will be the catalyst to trigger the crowd’s sensations.
Film composing requires an abundance of creativity and technicality; it is the composer’s job to understand the setting of the scenes in the movie, and translate the atmosphere through music by writing melodies and themes that complement to the film. One online journal called The Journal of Film Music explains how the musicological study of film evolved over time. The increase of original compositions precipitated from silent film accompaniment like Charlie Chaplin.
Alexis Luko, one of the authors in this journal, explores the horror genre and how the purpose of silence can at times be more effective in a scene. Although different approaches of music influences the audience’s response, nonetheless there should be an underlining theme for each genre of film. Most publications for writing composition usually inform on the subject of “classical” music, however classical music abstain to cover half of what you need for composing scores in movies.
Samuel Adler once mentioned, “Mastering the technique of orchestration leads one to a deeper understanding of the sensitivity with which the great masters of composition have handled the symphony orchestra and how each made this remarkable instrument serve his or her musical ideas in the clearest and most vivid ways. ” (Adler 3). Not until you master the art of understanding emotions will you be able to write orchestrations for film. One of the books that influenced film music composers was The Complete Guide to Film Scoring by Richard Davis published in 1999.
Davis explains how knowing your foundation crafts of music, adaptation of emotions, and awareness of your strengths and weaknesses in producing an exceptional composition can decrease the pressure in the filmmaking process (Davis 131). “The more you know about music, and the more different kinds of music you have analyzed extensively, the more tools you have at your disposal. Your musical vocabulary becomes larger and you can speak in many musical languages. ” (Davis 132). Although all books can increase anyone’s knowledge, the effort should come independently.
John Williams is one of the greatest influential composers in the industry, although his accomplishment as a film composer doesn’t compare to anyone, he is also a renowned conductor. Williams’ compositions from the movies Jaws, E. T. : The ExtraTerrestrial, Schindler’s List, as well as the Indiana Jones series, has won him multiple awards. In addition, he also worked on Star Wars and Harry Potter, two of which many teenagers kept an eye on for a long time, including myself.
His contributions in the film industry are exceptional, one of them was combining classical and contemporary music for the use of background sounds (Audissino 331). Many believed that Thomas Newman would replace John Williams considering the similarities of their awards, however, his achievements still couldn’t match Williams’ for he is younger and. Despite their difference in age, both composers have one element in common, they were both exposed to music as a kid. Nothing beats enhanced talent. Being exposed to music at a very young age, John Williams developed an interest towards music.
In spite of that without the help of his father, Johnny Williams, who is a jazz percussionist and his brother, Jerry, who is also a percussionist John wouldn’t be the John Williams we all know today. In his early age, he studied in North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later went to the University of California, Los Angeles, and concentrated deeply with his music with the Italian arranger Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He, then, met many people when we were working with Steven Spielberg on the recording of Star Wars (King B3).
Williams grew in the ambience of music, he certainly had a very fortunate start as a kid, although he has always been passionate about animated films, he hasn’t been fortunate with children-book-like films until The Adventures of Tintin in 2011. “… whether the characters were falling in love or having a knock-down-drag-out fight, was reflected in the music. ” (Davis 179) that was his goal to make his music create personality, however it wouldn’t have been possible without his family, instructors, instrumentalist, and his talent.
Understanding music ever since John Williams was a kid gave him all the advantages of being a musician. During his interview with Gustavo Dudamel he said, “I feel, that I was very fortunate as a kid for the influences that I had, and the opportunities that other people might not ever had. My father was a professional musician he worked in the CBS orchestra in NY City in 1930s and 40s, his friends were all musicians in the orchestra so I thought when you grew up you become a musician, that’s the only kind of adult that I knew. ” The fact that Williams knew what he was going to be when he grew up gave him an edge to other composers.