Composer’s blog – how to carry the music on Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Alexis had set up certain themes and timbres (textures) in episode 1 and it would have been foolish for me to ignore this completely. I’m a strong believer that any score for picture should be ‘organic’ in nature. It should stem from a chord, motif or timbre and expand whilst acknowledging its origins.

Example 1: Developing the themes from Episode 1 into something new by taking ‘fragments’ from the original material.

I drew some textural inspiration from Alexis’s use of staccato strings in episode 1 as well as taking some melodic inspiration in the form of his trumpet theme (see Example 1). I also know Michael’s work well (the composer for the next episode) so was confident that he’d enjoy taking elements from what I’d written and then developing it in his own style for the next part of Aileen’s journey.