Composer’s blog – large brushstrokes Monday, 13 April 2009

I decided at an early stage that I was going to compose for flute, viola and cello. Knowing that players from the SCO were going to perform my finished score was very reassuring – there is virtually nothing that these musicians cannot play!

I am a keyboard player, and after watching the film numerous times, it is usual for me to begin composing by improvising along to the pictures in ‘real time’ with a basic piano sound loaded. This improvisation is generally very rough, but it is very useful in allowing me to experiment and decide upon an overall ‘feel’, style and tempo that works best in particular section. I guess if I were a painter then this would be the initial large brushstrokes of the painting that help define the basic shape of objects and colour-world.

Once these strokes are in place I can then move on to work on the finer detail. In episode 3 this involved composing the material for each instrument to play, and notating it in a way that could be easily understood by the players in the recording session.